Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

• 8–20 whole cucumbers
• salt
• 2 whole mild onions
• ½ inch depth pale veal stock
• as needed additional veal stock
• as needed arrow-root, rice-flour, or tous les mois
• ½–1 pint cream
• to taste cayenne pepper
• 6–8 whole egg yolks
• 1 dessertspoonful chili vinegar
• 3 dessertspoonsful parsley

Instructions

1. Pare, split, and empty eight to twenty fine, well-grown cucumbers, selecting those with the fewest seeds.
2. Throw a little salt over the cucumbers and leave them for an hour to drain.
3. Prepare the mild onions, using the white part only, and slice them.
4. Put the drained cucumbers and onions into a deep stewpan or clean saucepan, and cover them nearly half an inch with pale but good veal stock.
5. Stew gently until perfectly tender, about three quarters of an hour to an hour and a quarter, throwing salt and cayenne sufficient to season over the cucumbers while they stew.
6. Work the whole mixture through a hair-sieve.
7. Add as much more stock as may be needed to make the quantity of soup required for table.
8. Stir in arrow-root, rice-flour, or tous les mois in the amount needed to bring the soup to a good consistence.
9. Add half to a whole pint of boiling cream and serve immediately. [Alternative: Mix the yolks of six or eight eggs with a dessertspoonful of chili vinegar; optionally strew three dessertspoonsful of minced parsley into the soup a couple of minutes before adding the egg mixture; stir in gently and do not allow to boil after the eggs are added.]