| Type | Soup |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Rutabaga,chicken stock,roux,Gruyère cheese,sago,egg yolks,heavy cream,egg whites |
Jenny Lind's soup is a soup named for popular 19th-century singerJenny Lind.[1] She is supposed to have used this soup to soothe her chest and found it to be beneficial to her voice before performances.[1][2]
The dish is made from mashedrutabaga orsago,[1]chicken stock thickened with aroux,Gruyère cheese,sage,egg yolks,[1] andheavy cream,[1] and topped with beatenegg whites. (This topping, unfamiliar to many, is a common tradition inFrenchcuisine de famille, as it uses up the whites left over from using the yolks as a thickener).
The soup is mentioned inIsabella Beeton'sMrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861) which draws onEliza Acton'sModern Cookery for Private Families (1847); Acton based her description onMary Howitt, translator of Swedish writerFredrika Bremer.[3]
The soup was the hook for a joke in many British and Irish newspapers, including theWestern Daily Mercury, for more than sixty years: "“Why would Jenny Lind make good soup?" – "Because she's neitherAlboni (all bony) norGrisi (greasy)".[3]
Leopold Bloom, a character inJames Joyce'sUlysses, fantasizes about it while lunching in the Ormond Hotel: "Jenny Lind soup: stock, sage, raw eggs, half-pint of cream. For creamy dreamy."[3]
