Potage Miss Betsy

Potage Miss Betsy (curried tomato-barley soup with buttered apple) teaches controlled variation. Its parent is Potage à l’Aurore (No. 715); Miss Betsy leaves that finished base intact and changes only its aromatic character and garnish. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that curry must season the potage without burying it, while the apple remains a distinct garnish rather than dissolving into sauce.

The original formula assumed Potage à l’Aurore (No. 715) already waiting, a saucier within reach, and a stockpot never off the fire. Your equivalent is one completed batch from its own entry and a single saucepan. The formula already makes roughly two quarts, a sensible home pot, so the proportions need no false downsizing. The extra hands and second stewpan are brigade scaffolding that can go; the carefully cooked barley base, measured curry, and apple cooked in real butter are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Keep the apple dice pale, butter-glossed, and just tender. Brown or collapse them and their sweetness takes over; hold their shape and they punctuate each spoonful against the tomato, barley, and restrained warmth of curry. That brief cooking in butter is the step that decides the dish.