№ 46Krējuma zupa

Sweet cream soup with cinnamon and lemon Serves 4 (small bowls) · 15 minutes · Adapted from the 1796 recipe; not yet tested.

The book gives ½ stops of cream and 1 egg, which converts to about 640 ml and 1. The sugar ("a piece") and the cinnamon ("a good piece") are unmeasured; those amounts are ours.

Ingredients

• 650 ml single cream (see Notes)
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick (about 8 cm)
• 1 egg
• To serve: 1 tbsp sugar mixed with ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is damp and fragrant. 2. Whisk the egg in a saucepan, then whisk in the cold cream, the lemon sugar and the cinnamon stick. 3. Heat gently, stirring all the time, until the soup is steaming, slightly thickened and just starting to bubble at the edges (about 85 °C). Take it off the heat; don't let it boil hard. 4. Remove the cinnamon stick, pour into small bowls or cups and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Serve warm.

Notes

• What the book says vs. what we added: the book stirs everything together in a bowl over the coals until the cream boils, then takes out the cinnamon and sprinkles on cinnamon sugar. Because the egg starts in the cold cream and heats up with it, it doesn't need warming separately. We stop just short of a full boil so the egg doesn't curdle. Cooking it in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, closer to the book's bowl over the coals, is gentler still.
• Lemon sugar: the book rubs a piece of loaf sugar on lemon peel so it soaks up the oil. Rubbing caster sugar with grated zest does the same.
• Cream: the book asks for "good cream", which we read as fresh (sweet) cream, not sour cream. Single cream comes close but curdles more easily if it boils; whipping cream makes a richer, more stable soup. It is rich either way, so serve small portions.