No. 78 — General Rules for Puréed Soups
English translation of original recipe No. 78 from Elena Molokhovets’ 1901 cookbook, with the historical preparation and exact source references.
1. Puréed soups generally use white stock made without onion or the basic soup roots, lest these mask the flavor of the main ingredient. The exception is stock for a meat purée: it may contain basic roots, but they should not be browned.
2. For six to eight people use 1¼–2½ Russian pounds of beef and half a pound of veal shank. If the purée itself is made from chicken or game, the amount of beef and veal can be reduced.
3. Do not color or clarify puréed soups with egg whites or minced-meat clarifying mixtures; only strain the liquid through a fine soup sieve or napkin.
4. Whatever ingredient is used for a purée, rub it through the sieve while hot.
5. Because a purée tends to separate from broth, bind the two together with one of the following: a spoonful of flour lightly fried with half a spoonful of butter; a French roll cooked until soft in the liquid; or a liaison of two egg yolks and half a glass of thick cream. To thicken purées made from watery vegetables, use pearl-barley or rice purée, called shlem in the source.