Potage Crécy (Creamy Carrot and Potato Soup)

Beautifully vibrant carrot and potato soup garnished with homemade croutons and chervil

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City/Region: Carpathia | United Kingdom | France

Time Period: 1903 | 1912

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While I don’t know if this is the exact soup that was served to the Titanic survivors once they were on board the Carpathia, the captain, Arthur Rostron, ordered for coffee, tea, and soup to be readied for the survivors. The menu from the last meal served aboard the Carpathia before it docked back in New York on April 18th lists Potage Crecy as one of the soups, so if this wasn’t the soup that was first served to survivors, it was at least in the Carpathia’s repertoire.

Dishes featured on the channel rarely make it into my rotation, but this is one of them. It’s simple, quick, and has such a wonderfully rich, buttery, creamy texture and flavor. I was really surprised at how developed the flavors were after such a short cook time, and while it’s carrot-forward, there’s a little of the potato and the butter and cream are so delicious. A high-quality butter can really make the difference in this. 

Smooth, rich, creamy. A perfect fall and winter soup.

“Stew the carrots in butter with onions as for Purée Crécy but replace the thickening of rice with 250g potatoes and moisten with 1 litre water; season with salt. When cooked pass through a fine sieve and adjust the consistency with 2 dl very fresh cream; pass through a fine strainer at the last moment and add 150g butter. This soup does not now require any further simmering or skimming. Garnish with chervil and small Croutons of bread fried in butter.”

— Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier, 1903

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Ingredients:

Potage

• 75 g plus 150 g butter*, separated
• 100 g sliced onion
• 600 g carrots, thinly sliced in rounds
• 1 sprig thyme
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 pinch sugar
• 1 L mineral water
• 250g russet potatoes peeled and chopped into about 1/2-inch cubes
• 200 ml heavy cream
• A few leaves of chervil, parsley, or cilantro, for garnish

Croutons

• A handful of about 1/2-inch cubes of French bread
• 1 to 2 tablespoons butter or better yet, clarified butter or ghee**, for frying

*The butter is a key ingredient in this recipe, so I highly recommend splurging on some high-quality butter. I used a fancy French salted butter.

**Butter will work fine, but clarified butter and ghee have higher smoke points.

Instructions:

1. For the soup: In a large pot over medium-low heat, melt the 75 g of butter. Throughout this recipe, you never want the heat to go above medium, and it’s best to keep it closer to low the whole time.
2. Once the butter is melted, add the onions, carrots, thyme, salt, and sugar. Stir so that everything gets coated with the butter. Let the butter slowly come to a sizzle. The goal here is to cook the vegetables without letting the onion get any color at all. When the butter is sizzling at the bottom of the pan, place the lid on the pot and cook for 5 minutes. Essentially, you’re just letting the carrots and onions steam.
3. After 5 minutes, add the mineral water and potatoes and stir. Let it slowly come up to a low simmer, just so you can see a little bubbling, then set the lid back on and cook for another 15 minutes, or until you can mash the potato easily with a fork.
4. Remove the thyme. To purée the soup, you can either push everything through a strainer, which is in the original recipe but is quite labor intensive, or you can go the modern route and use an immersion blender, which is what I did. Either way, once you have a smooth purée, pass it through a fine sieve to make it even smoother.
5. Return the puréed and sieved soup to a pot and add the cream and the 150 g of butter. Stir until the butter has completely melted, and slowly heat the soup to the desired serving temperature.
6. For the croutons: While the soup heats, melt the butter or ghee in a pan. Toss in the bread cubes and stir to coat them with the butter. Keep stirring as they toast up to a nice golden brown, this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Set them on a paper towel-lined plate to soak up any excess butter.
7. To serve: Once the soup is to the temperature that you like, ladle it into bowls. Top each bowl with some croutons and a few leaves of chervil, parsley, or cilantro, and serve it forth.

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