Convalescence Consommé ("Restaurant" in Its Original Sense: That Which Restores)
Restorative Chicken Broth with Vermicelli
RemedyReconstruction🧂 🍄facile3 h
A clear golden chicken consommé, long-simmered then clarified, served piping hot with a little fine vermicelli. Light, comforting, it "restores" strength — that is where the word "restaurant" comes from.
Why this dish? In Venice, Musset fell gravely ill with typhoid fever; George Sand watched over him for nights on end. Clarified chicken broth was THE 19th-century remedy for convalescents, spoon-fed to bedridden patients.
I knew fever in Venice, believe me, to the point of brushing the great journey. And do you know what held me here below? A hand that fed me, spoonful after spoonful, a broth hot and clear as amber. Make it long, over the tiniest flame, skim without cease; and for it to be limpid, clarify it with a beaten egg white that captures all impurities. A sick man does not forgive a cloudy broth — he drinks his hope in it.
Ingredients
- •Hen — one (broth base)
- •Pot vegetables (carrot, leek, onion) — a few (aroma)
- •Fine vermicelli — a handful (garnish)
- •Egg white — one (clarification)
- •Salt — moderate (seasoning)
How it was made : The word "restaurant" in the 18th century referred to a "restorative" broth sold to revive the weak, before naming the establishment itself. In the 19th century, clarified chicken consommé remained the staple food for convalescents.
Sources : Histoire du mot « restaurant » (bouillon restaurant, XVIIIe siècle) · Biographies de Musset : maladie à Venise (1834)