Julia Child's Aigo Bouido [Garlic Soup] from Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Today I’m going to make Julia Child’s Garlic Soup from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Mine is the 40th Anniversary Edition. They’re into the 50th now.
Julia says that
because the garlic is boiled, its after-effects are at a minimum, and its flavor becomes exquisite, aromatic, and almost indefinable. Along the Mediterranean an aigo bouido is considered to be very good indeed for the liver, blood circulation, general physical tone, and spiritual health. (40th Anniversary Edition p 46-47)
Well, I could use some tone and spiritual health, so let’s get going.
With the garlic, the actual first listed ingredient, I run into my first big question – yes, the garlic part of the garlic soup throws the first wrench. She says “one separated head or approx. 16 cloves of garlic.” So I haven’t counted a store bought head of garlic in a while, and I’m using homegrown. Store bought will be softneck, I’m using hardneck, looks like a Chesnock Red or Russian Red, but my row markers all washed out. And my cloves are ENORMOUS, like one head of garlic will be 5 cloves, and they’re all quite big. So I’m using 1-1/2 heads, it’s 9 cloves, and weighs 2.8 oz (before peeling). Or maybe 3 more making it two whole heads? Julia says “A head of garlic is not at all too much for 2 quarts of soup. For some addicts, it’s not even enough” (47) so maybe I should do 2 heads?
Biiig garlic.
Julia, how big was your garlic??
Ok, I’m doing 2 heads, 12 cloves, 3.7 oz. Am I gonna regret it? Probably, I regret most things. Have I ever regretted using too much garlic? Not to the best of my recollection, your honor.
I have to assume that the changes in quality, type, clove size, freshness of the garlic itself could have a huge impact on the flavor of this recipe. This is probably a great tester of garlic harvests and varieties, so if you’re growing your own garlic, or buying from your local growers or farmers markets, this could be a good first recipe to try to assess a new variety.
Julia wants me to drop the cloves into boiling water, boil for 30 seconds, drain, run under cold water, and peel.
Done.
Other ingredients have been gathered.
Added all of the following: water, salt, pepper, cloves, sage (mine is old, so I’m doubling what Julia says) bay leaf, parsley sprigs, first 3 T olive oil to a 3-quart saucepan (I’m using my big ole dutch oven, though Julia says use a 3-quart saucepan, but mine is ugly and non-stick, and the coating is failing, plus I think it will be prettier in the white enameled lining.)
Bring to a boil, and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.
By which time the gigantic cloves of garlic were still very much not soft, so I would say simmer until your garlic is cooked through, because you’re going to have to push it through a sieve, and you can’t do that if it is still crunchy, needs to be something where you can, like, smoosh it easily with a fork.
Taste, burn the fuck out of your tongue, wonder why you are this way, sulk, ice tongue. Keep simmering.
And here I had to let the soup sit in the pot for several hours because Luke’s saxophone repair tech called, and he had to go pick up his horn. But I think that’s ok because Julia said “when you are ready to serve…” you do the part where you beat the egg yolks and dribble in oil like you’re making mayo, which suggests that the soup can wait at this stage until it is ready to serve. So it did. But it also meant I could taste it for seasoning without burning my tongue, and make a cocktail that uses one of the egg whites I didn’t use.
Maybe I’ll do a Mr Boston Bartender’s Guide drink-along series. Tell me what you think in the comments. Oh wait, no one is reading this. Drink I shall.
The cocktail was a disappointment.
Ok, so the next step is to essentially make a mayonnaise in your serving bowl. Whip the egg yolks, then slowly add the remaining olive oil, just whip whip, dribble dribble, until you’ve added 3T (which was plenty). Then add a ladelfull of the soup into your fine mesh strainer over your tureen or serving bowl. You need to do the first ladelfull then whip it up a bit still to stabilize it. After that you you can add the rest of the soup, pushing it through the sieve, mashing up all that good garlic, and use a bowl scraper to get all the bits that have pushed through the sieve.
Served with the cheese and toasted baguette slices. Luke buttered ours, and added Maldon salt, which was a nice touch. Undersalting the soup a little, and letting the salt on the bread compensate was perfect.
The soup is smooth and lovely, a light buttery yellow, and what I ended up using was not too much garlic by any means. If you’re a fan, I would say go with two heads of garlic, or 3-4 oz, but mileage will vary depending on variety or type of garlic. I can see cutting the olive oil in the soup to 2T, esp considering you’re adding another 3 for serving, but 3 in the soup plus another 4 in the egg emulsion may be too much for some.
Toward that, and moving forward, Julia says of the cookbooks in her introduction to the 40th edition:
You will note this indulgence here, especially in sauces, where you can reduce them with cream or where you swirl in fresh butter a generous tablespoon at a time to render them smooth, shining and luscious. I have not changed any of these original proportions or directions, because this is the way the dishes were conceived. However, do use your own judgement as to how much or how little of the enrichments you care to use, since the amounts will not interfere with the basic recipe. In my case, for instance, I have been known to substitute a modest teaspoon for the generous tablespoon. (xv)
So I don’t know what mixing an extra Tablespoon into the “mayonnaise” mixture would have done, but it was not necessary for the soup to hold together. As you can see in the pic of the finished spoonful of soup at the very bottom, the droplets of fat are well dispersed and plentiful. I suspect that is an area in which one could skimp.
Plan for at least 2T of cheese per bowl, and a bit more could be offered. Is the cheese necessary at all? Probably not.
(Confirmed, heated up 2 days later gently in the microwave. The soup did not separate, and I served it with no cheese, just some crumbled stale ass leftover baguette, and it was still delicious.)
This is a lovely, bright luncheon soup, on a rainy day, or a delightful starter course. I can see adding potatoes or poached eggs to bulk it up and make it a more substantial meal. It’s a lot like the buttery broth you soak up from the bottom of a bowl of steamed mussels or clams.
Also, this soup was incredibly inexpensive and simple to make. This really felt like making something out of nothing. Getting it going on the stove took almost nothing, and the only real labor was whisking the egg emulsion in the end, so a bit of energy right before serving, and a very warming and satisfying reward.
Julia Child’s Aigo Bouido [Garlic Soup] from Mastering the Art of French Cooking
For 6-8 people (makes 2 quarts of soup)
Ingredients
1 separated head or about 16 cloves whole, unpeeled garlic (3-1/2 oz was not too much)
2 quarts water
2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
2 cloves
¼ tsp sage
½ bay leaf
4 parsley sprigs
3 Tb olive oil
3-4 Tb more olive oil (a candy squeeze bottle made this easier)
3 egg yolks
Rounds of hard-toasted French bread
1 cup of grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese
Equipment
3-quart saucepan, or bigger (my dutch oven was fine)
wire whip
soup tureen (or 2+ quart serving bowl if, like me, your tureen was too small)
fine-mesh strainer
strong-ass wooden spoon
bowl scraper
candy squeeze bottle for olive oil (optional)
Instructions
Blanch the unpeeled cloves of garlic in boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, run under cold water and peel.
Gather water, salt, pepper, cloves, peeled garlic, parsley, sage, bay leaf (just half a bay leaf now, don’t go crazy unless you’re driving (I see you, Jaime), and 3T olive oil, and simmer gently for 30 minutes — or until garlic is softened. (If your garlic cloves are GIGANTIC, like mine were, it may need more. I left mine on a gently simmer for 60 minute.) Taste, and correct seasoning as needed.
Beat the yolks in [your serving vessel] for a minute until they are thick and sticky. Drop by drop, beat in the olive oil as for making mayonnaise.
Just before serving, beat a ladlefull of hot soup (it’s soup now!!) into the egg mixture by droplets. Gradually strain in the rest, beating and pressing the juice out of the garlic.
Serve immediately, accompanied by the bread and the cheese. (It’ll be 2-2.5T of cheese per serving. We floated a couple slices of bread in each bowl, and served another 2 on the side. Worked quite well.)
Citation
Child, Julia, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 1961. 40th Anniversary ed., Knopf, 2009.
