“…as for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.”

~Mr. Bingley, Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)

White soup was a favorite dish at balls. Expensive and complex to make, it quietly demonstrated the wealth and refinement of the ball’s host.

Of course, that assumes that everything went right, and it actually came out as expected. But anyone who has done a turn in the kitchen cooking for important guests knows the trials and tribulations of the process. Fancy dishes are most apt to get balky when the event they will be served at is important. Which is exactly why Margaret Dashwood has a low opinion of White Soup. Poor dear got a bowl full of poorly made stuff.

But what could have gone wrong? After all, the recipe originated in 17^th century France, so it was not like it was a new thing.

Let’s have a look at some recipes for White Soup and walk through the process to see if we can figure it out?

Recipes for White Soup

Here are three sample recipes for white soup, among many that were published. They all describe a creamy soup, based on a stock of veal, chicken or both. The soups were thickened with some combination of rice, ground almonds, stale bread, and egg yolks. Milk or cream was added at some point in the recipe, generally after the stock was boiled. Most recipes strained the soup to render it smooth, although Mrs. Rundell skips that step, it might have been a case of something so well understood, she did not write it down. Even though these recipes do not look long or involved, their apparent simplicity is deceptive.

Considering the Constraints

First, let’s consider some of the constraints of the kitchen. Available pot size, type of heat being used, and storage. Pot size, really? Yes, absolutely. Imagine you’re cooking for 30 people, that’s seven times a recipe for four. Seven times. What size pot does it take to make that? Let’s keep it simple and agree it takes a really big pot. If you don’t have a really big pot, that means you’re going to have to make the recipe several times, and store it until you have enough. Given the Austen quote above, it suggests that several batches of White Soup had to be made to get to the right amount. And you have to store it without refrigeration.

Yes, you did just hear me shudder.

And let’s consider the heat source. No matter whether this was cooked in pot hung over an open fireplace, or over a fire laid in a more stove-like configuration, cooking would be done over an open flame. Granted, those who know, say open flame is great for cooking, but usually they are talking about gas fed flames that are easily regulated. Cooking over an open fire is a whole ‘nother ball game. Not entirely unlike cooking on the backyard charcoal or wood fed grill. Bottom line, not a simple thing.

For white soup, controlling the heat would be really significant. The rice in the soup is apt to sink to the bottom of the pot and burn if kept too hot and/or not stirred enough. And this soup boils for four to five hours. That’s a long time to keep stirring to prevent things from scorching at the bottom of a pot.

Once the cream is added, the soup had to be kept warm, but not boiling, as Farley advised :“In the preparation of white soup, remember never to put in your cream till you take your soup off the fire, and the last thing you do, must be the dishing of your soups. ”

And if that was not complicated enough, let’s remember this is a creamy soup, not a stew, so the soup, depending on the recipe, would be strained through a fine sieve at least once, maybe twice, leaving a significant portion of solids behind, so what started out as a large pot of soup might only result in half that amount of strained liquids. If one’s sieve was not in perfect condition, or one got a little sloppy in the straining process, all of a sudden you have lumps in your smooth creamy soup.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. White soup required a skilled cook, in a well-equipped kitchen, and many expensive ingredients. And if everything did not go perfectly, you could have a scorched, gloopy mess on your hands—exactly what Margaret Dashwood disliked!

References

Farley, John. The London art of cookery and domestic housekeepers’ complete assistant… London: Scatcherd and Letterman. 1811. Accessed May 12, 2025. https://archive.org/details/londonartofcooke00farliala/londonartofcooke00farliala/page/162/mode/2up

Riley, Vanessa. Regency White Soup. Vanssa Riley. September 4, 2024. Accessed May, 12, 2025. https://vanessariley.com/blog/2024/09/04/4317/

Rundell, Mrs. A New System of Deomestic Cookery. Philadelphia: Carey and Hart. 1844

Putnam. Eizabeth Mrs. Putnam’s receipt book, and young housekeeper’s assistant. New York, Sheldon Company 1867. Accessed May 12, 2025. https://archive.org/details/mrsputnamsrecei00putngoog/page/n49/mode/2up