Recently I was fed a rather famous and eminent dish - Bagration soup according to the recipe from the book by Auguste Escoffier.
I will give a soup recipe for those who wish to try it at the end, but first I want to talk about its history.
With a colleague who cooked this soup, we had a little argument - he argued that the soup, like the salad, was created in honor of Peter Ivanovich Bagration, and named, while his exact recipe is given by Auguste Escoffier.
And in some Internet sources, the authors even write that this soup was served, and the Aglitsky club at a dinner given in honor of the hero of the Shengraben battle
This lunch is mentioned in literary sources (whoever at school did not pass the War and Peace side, the one undoubtedly remembers the scene described by Tolstoy), but whether my memory is cheating on me, or something - did not flicker there the names of the soup.
The writer S. P. Zhikharev described him as follows:
The table was laid with covers for 300, that is, for the entire number of available members of the club and 50 guests, the decoration is magnificent, there is nothing to say about the provisions: everything that is one could find the best and rarest of meats, fish, herbs, wines and fruits - everything was found and bought at a high price, and those items that, in the early season, the merchants did not have it for sale, they were delivered by rich owners from the Moscow region greenhouses free of charge: everyone vied with each other trying to do something of their zeal and participation in treats ".
But I never found the menu for this dinner, and I doubt very much that Bagration soup was present there.
Intrigues are added by the fact that the recipe was published by Auguste Escoffier in the book "Culinary Guide", and Escoffier was born in 1846, many years after the death of Prince Bagration.
The only connection that culinary historians trace between the Bagration soup and the Bagration themselves is the chef Marie Antoine Karem, who served with Princess Bagration. But, given that the princess was very far from her husband, the soup was named, rather, in honor of her, and not him.
There are other inconsistencies in the history of the dish.
In some places it is said that the soup in the version for men had rum in the composition, and in the ladies version - madeira. But Escoffier has nothing like this in the lineup. At Escoffier, this is a creamy, meaty, fatty soup, in which pasta is served as a side dish and grated cheese is served separately.
But there are other options as well.
Exclusively from veal (thanks to Escoffier's note, it can be considered original.
A pound of veal and veal bones (about 400 grams each), a third of a pound of carrots, and a third of a pound of leeks (over a hundred grams each), 4 lots of celery root (about 50 grams), 1 egg, Madeira or rum - 4 or 5 spool (about 60 ml), some hard cheese and pasta.
Cook the broth from the bones. Boil the veal and bones together with vegetables, remove the bones, and then knead the meat and rub through a sieve into the broth - to get a tender creamy mass. Set the pot with it on a steam bath, and stir in one egg yolk.
At the end, pour in Madeira, and when serving, add pasta to the soup.
And already a more modern version - with chicken (chicken meat was also cooked with vegetables, but separately from veal, it was ground, and then both types of puree were mixed and boiled).
And which of these options is correct is unclear ...