“Cersei set a tasty table, that could not be denied. They started with a creamy chestnut soup, crusty hot bread, and greens dressed with apples and pine nuts.” (II: 565)
Modern Creamy Chestnut Soup
Our Thoughts:
Cersei knows her foods; this is a rich, creamy concoction of yummy goodness. The richness of the duck is balanced by the mildness of the lentils, while the chestnuts give it a slight sweet taste. The added elements- croutons, sauteed duck, cheese- provide a nice textural and flavorful counterpart to the thick bisque of the soup itself. Each bite tastes of luxury and the privilege that comes with being a Lannister of Casterly Rock.
The smoked duck is worth springing for, but we are now quite possibly addicted to it. Still, it makes for an absolutely mouthwatering soup that is the perfect cure for a cold, gloomy day.
Modern Chestnut Soup Recipe
It was disheartening to us that we were unable to find a recipe for Chestnut Soup with a medieval source. This may simply be one recipe that, if it indeed had medieval origins, does not have a surviving written account. However, we are consoled by the discovery of a wonderful, beautiful, delicious blog: http://lostpastremembered.blogspot.com/ Our recipe is heavily based on (pilfered from!) theirs!!
- ½ cup duck fat
- 2 T butter
- 4 slices bread, cut into croutons (around 3 cups)
- 1 smoked duck breast, skin removed, sliced thinly (around 7 oz)
- 1 shallot, peeled and sliced
- 2 oz soft cheese, cubed small (we used Drunken Goat cheese)
- chopped herbs for garnish (few sprigs parsley and thyme & chives)
For the Soup:
- 3 T armagnac
- 2 cups cooked peeled chestnuts
- ¼ c chopped onion
- 1 small celery rib (7 oz), peeled and cubed
- 1 carrot (7 oz), peeled and cubed
- 4 sprigs thyme
- 4 sprigs parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 3/4 c lentilles de Puy or French green lentils
- 8 c cold water
- 1 t salt
- 1/3 c heavy cream
Slice and soak the chestnuts in the Armagnac for a few hours.
Sauté the thinly sliced duck in the 2 T duck fat till crisp and reserve. Sauté the shallot, onion, celery root and carrot in the same duck fat (This starts to smell unbelievably good!).
Make a bundle of the herbs and toss into a large pot. Add the lentils, 1/3 of the smoked duck and the chestnuts, reserving the Armagnac. Add the water and salt and cook 20-25 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Strain the soup, reserving most of the cooking liquid, and remove the herbs and the duck. Puree the soup using the heavy cream and reserved cooking liquid as necessary. Start with a small amount of liquid so that the resulting soup is as creamy as possibly. You are aiming for a thick bisque sort of consistency, but one that can still be poured. The soup will thicken as it stands so keep the cooking liquid to add as needed.
Pour soup into bowl and sprinkle with croutons, soft cheese, chopped herbs, and the sauteed duck. Serve immediately.
I am so glad you liked the soup. And honestly, I was inspired by a description of a soup in Paris so it seems right that it you would find the same inspiration… it is insanely good… lovely stopping by your blog!
Hi – really enjoy your site & the comparison of old & new recipes – so, in case you decide to revisit medieval chestnut soup, here are a couple of recipes in french cookbooks (oddy, identified as english broth)…Enjoy.
the Viandier de Taillevent (1350) “Soutil brouet d’Angleterre” (Scully translation)
Grind together chestnuts that have been cooked and peeled, egg yolks cooked in wine, and a little pork liver, moisten this with a little warm water, and strain it; grind ginger, [cinnamon,] cloves, [long pepper, grains of paradise, galingale, spikenard,] and saffron for colour, and boil everything together. ( Another version uses chicken gizzards/liver instead of pork)
Le Menagier de Paris (Janet Hinson, trans.) 1393
Subtle Broth from England. Take cooked peeled sweet chestnuts, and as many or more hard-boiled egg yolks and pork liver: grind all together, mix with warm water, then put through a sieve; then grind ginger, cinnamon, clove, grain, long pepper, galingale and saffron to give it color and set to boil together.
Ooh! Brilliant! We’ll definitely try this new (old) recipe. Thanks so much!
In France, in the Cevennes area, there was a middle-aged chestnut soup called BAJANAT. I couldn’t find much about it, but here is the recipe :
Serves 4
Prep : 20 min
Cooking : 1 hour
Ingredients for Chestnut Cevenol’s Bajanat :
– 250g dried and shelled chestnuts
– 125ml milk
– 100g prunes
– 100g dried apples or pears, sliced
– salt & white ground pepper
Soak the dried chestnuts a whole night and then simmer in a great volume of water, slightly salted, at low-heat for about 1 hour, or until chestnuts become really tender and begin to break up.
There must be almost no water left, so you can pour in milk, prunes and other dried fruits you previously had soaked too.
Let simmer 30 more minutes at very low heat. Wine can be substituted for milk.
Bajanat is served luke-warm.
I was thinking that perhaps the reason you couldn’t find a recipe was because chestnuts were the food of the poor. Which, given the current price of them is amusing. They’d make them into bread, and pottage, and I’m sure they made them into soup.
Just like how lobsters were once fed to black slaves because they were plentiful along the coasts and weren’t considered fit to eat…life’s ironies eh.
I’ve made this soup for my birthday’s guests and it was applauded by all without any reservations. five stars!
I’m going to make this for my hubby tomorrow night – we just pre-ordered the official cookbook too!
They were all out of duck fat at our local store (the only store in our whole area that sells things gourmet ingredients!) so I bought goose fat instead. I couldn’t get armagnac anywhere either, so I’m just going to use regular medium dry cooking sherry. I also couldn’t get smoked duck but got roasted duck breast instead – I’ll let you know how it goes using these substitutes!
So I made my chestnut soup on Sunday night…. mmmmmm!!!! It was so delicious! It’s just started getting really cold here, and it was the first soup I’ve made this season (hubby has a big pot of pea and ham on the stove right now!). Amazing!
A few things I did differently though, for anyone who is interested:
The recipe above doesn’t actually say what to do with the sauteed celery, carrot etc once you’ve made it! The wording sort of implies that you put the water and herbs and everything else in a separate pot… so I just added the water etc to the saute mix.
Because I couldn’t get my hands on smoked duck, I bought a pack of roasted duck breast from my local butcher (around 300g). I pulled off the skin and wiped off the excess fat (by this point it had solidified) and sliced it finely. Instead of frying it all, I only fried up 2/3 of it (for the garnish/topping) and put it aside (I also used a new pan instead of the same one I did the croutons in, as there was burnt crumbs left). I sauteed the carrot, celery, onion etc in the remaining goose fat (I added a little more as I needed it) and then I added the lentils, water, chestnuts and herbs and cooked. I think I actually cooked it for around 45 minutes before I was happy with the lentils being soft enough. By the way, I (purchased the chestnuts fresh/raw/whole and boiled/peeled them. To do this, you cut an X into one side of each chestnut (careful!) and then boiled them in a big pot of water for around 15 minutes. Then I took about 4-5 out at a time with a slotted spoon (you need to keep the rest in the how water because it’s harder to peel them once they’ve cooled) and peeled them. They do fall apart, so you don’t really need to slice them. Then I added the sherry (Armagnac was hard to come by, and if you get true Armagnac, it’s incredibly expensive! The man at my local bottle shop said if it’s for cooking purposes, any fortified wine will do, you won’t really taste the difference), then let it sit for most of the day.
Once the lentils were soft, I strained the soup as the recipe above says, BUT I only took out the herbs. I left the 1/3 of the sliced duck that I’d put in, and blended it up with everthing else, using a stick blender. I ended up using all the soup liquid and even then it was super thick! I also used a little more heavy (that’s ‘double’ for those outside the US) cream too. The cheese I used was a firm goat’s cheese. It was AMAZING!
I still have loads of chestnuts so will make it again soon!
Quick question – I’m thinking of making this for the upcoming premiere (along with a bunch of other stuff from your amazing site/book!), but is the soup made with celery stalks, or celery root?? I wasn’t quite clear on that from the recipe. Also, some of the people I’m having over are vegetarian, so we’ll see how this tastes sans smoked duck (although I’ll probably buy some to add on top for the meat eaters at the end)!
Stalk! I hope it’s a hit with your guests. :)
What can I use instead of duck and duck fat? Going for a vegetarian version……
I’ve got to try this. Looks delicious. Just found your blog here and it’s amazing! Great job.