Making Julia Child’s cream of mushroom soup is easier than you may expect. With some mushrooms, chicken stock, careful cooking and a whole lot of butter, you can create the luxurious, comforting dish in about an hour.
People who are critical of Julia Child lose sight of the primary fact that she was, more than anything, a teacher of home cooks. Her recipes, which are filled with loads of tedious directions, teach French techniques plus a large dose of general cooking skills. Her recipe for cream of mushroom soup is a prime example of that methodology.
Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking commences with an excellent chapter dedicated to soups. She starts with potato soup followed by vichyssoise. Classic french onion soup shows up further in the chapter and, at the end, there’s a recipe for ultra-involved and complicated bouillabaisse. Somewhere in between you’ll find her recipe for potage velouté aux champignons a/k/a cream of mushroom soup.
That classic potage velouté aux champignons recipe is about as French as it gets with numerous methods of flavor extraction and eight, count ’em, eight tablespoons of butter plus heavy cream and egg yolks.
You’ll learn a lot when you make this recipe. You’ll learn how to make a classic, thickening white roux. Next, after you slice a lot of mushrooms, you’ll learn how to fully extract their flavor. You’ll also learn how to use butter and fat as an agent to carry that flavor to completion.
If you’re looking for a healthy dish to incorporate into your January diet, this is not your recipe. However, if you looking for a rich, refined starter to serve at a special dinner party, it’s a wonderful option. You don’t have to serve a lot of the creamy soup – just a little of the velouté will go a long way toward satisfying your hungry guests, especially on a chilly night.
Ingredients
Here’s the full list of ingredients required to make Julia Child’s cream of mushroom soup:
Ingredient quantities are detailed in the printable recipe card below.
It’s no secret this recipe requires a whole lot of butter – it’s the ingredient that brings decadent creaminess to cream of mushroom soup. If you have a problem with the butter quantity, our best recommendations are to either focus on portion control or make a different kind of soup.
Also, while you can purchase pre-made chicken stock or broth, we encourage you to make your own stock for this recipe. Doing so will make a huge difference in the final product.
How To Make Cream of Mushroom Soup
This is a soup recipe that’s completed in four phases. First, you make the roux. Next, you constuct and thicken the broth. Then you steam sauté the mushroom caps. Finally, you finish and serve the soup. That’s how Child designed the recipe. You can alternatively combine the roux and mushroom sauté steps into one step. We plan to try that method in the future but, for now, we’ve chosen to emulate the spirit of the classic recipe.
We followed Julia’s recipe to a tee when we first made the soup. However, on our second run, we forgot to strain the stems and aromatics, leaving them in the original soup. Guess what? The soup came out great and the stems were absolutely edible.
Okay, now that we’ve admitted our faux pas, it’s time to make the soup!
After you gather all of the ingredients, start the recipe by slowly sautéing the onions and three tablespoons of butter for about 10 minutes over a moderately low flame until the onions are softened. This step infuses onion flavor into the butter.
Pro Tip
Start heating the chicken stock while the onions are sautéing. You want it at a boil by the time you finish your roux.
Halfway through cooking the broth, steam sauté the mushroom caps in butter for about five minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and have given up a decent amount of their liquid.
Add the sautéed caps to the broth after you strain the broth of the stems, the onion and the aromatics. On our second recipe run through, this is where we skipped the straining step.
We were initally disappointed by the faux pas but noticed no material difference in the overall flavor or eating experience of the soup. (Our first try, when we followed all of the classic steps, created a soup with a slightly more refined, luxurious texture.) Another option is to liquify the soup with a blender but that’s not a Julia technique.
Once the mushrooms are added, simmer the entire soup for 10 minutes.
To finish the soup, carefully temper an egg yolk and cream mixture and lightly “poach’ the mixture in the hot soup liquid over the stove.
Julia’s recipe includes an option of serving this soup with sautéed “turned” mushrooms. Turning mushrooms is a secret skill that requires a method of knife turning that’s next level. The easier option is to garnish the soup with chopped parsley which is what we do. That being said, there’s plenty of refinement in a chopped parsley garnish atop ultra creamy soup.
Add another couple tablespoons of softened butter to finish the dish since that’s the way the French (and Julia Child) roll.
Is this an every day soup? Heck no. Instead, it’s a wonderful dish to start a dinner party with a bang. Your guests will be impressed and the creamy soup will warm them up from the inside out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Potage velouté aux champignons is French for cream of mushroom soup. Regardless of which name you use, it’s a rich starter that’s wonderful to serve at dinner parties during the autumn and winter seasons.
Cream of mushroom soup was likely first served in France centuries ago when great chefs of the royal court refined and pioneered the art of sauce cookery. The Campbell’s Company brought the soup to the masses when it introduced a canned version in 1934.
Bay Leaf, Butter, Chicken Stock, Egg Yolk, Flour, Heavy Cream, Lemon Juice, Mushrooms, Onion, Parsley, Pepper, Salt and Thyme
This soup’s richness makes it ideal to serve as a dinner party first course. It’s a lush dish that’s best served in small portions and slowly savored.
If you plan to serve the soup later, Julia recommends making the soup until the finishing step and then covering it with a spoonful of cream. Another option is to do the same thing but cover the soup with plastic wrap. When you reheat the soup, heat it for a couple minutes until it’s hot but not boiling (a bare simmer) and temper it with the egg yolk/cream mixture and, of course, the butter finish.
Making the Roux
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Cook the onions and butter over low to medium heat in a 3 to 4 quart saucepan until the onions are just softened. Do not let the onion brown. In the meantime, bring the stock to a boil.
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Once the onions are softened, evenly pour in the flour. Cook until the ingredients incorporate into a white roux – don’t let the mixture turn brown. Once the mixture is incorporated, add the chicken stock, the parsley sprigs, the mushroom stems, the bay leaf and the thyme. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Simmer the mixture, partially covered, for 20 minutes, skimming occasionally.
Mushroom Cap Steam Sauté
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Meanwhile. about hallway through the cooking of the broth, sauté the mushroom caps in 2 tablespoons of butter along with the lemon juice and salt. Keep the pan covered until the mushrooms are soft and have given up their liquid – about 5 minutes,
Cooking the Soup
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Once the mixture is cooked, strain the entire mixture, pressing the mushroom stems, and place the strained mixture back into the pot. Pour in the sautéed mushroom caps along with the mushroom cap cooking liquid. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Finishing the Soup
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Beat the egg yolks and heavy cream in a mixing bowl. Once incorporated, temper the mixture by pouring in the hot soup one spoon at a time until about six spoons are mixed in. Pour the rest of the yolk/cream mixture into the soup and cook just under a simmer for about 2 minutes until the entire yolk mixture is incorporated.
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Add in 1 to 3 tablespoons of softened butter to finish the soup. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve.
If you plan to serve the soup later, Julia recommends making the soup until the finishing step and then covering it with a spoonful of cream. Another option is to do the same thing but cover the soup with plastic wrap. When you reheat the soup, heat it for a couple minutes until it’s hot but not boiling (a bare simmer) and temper it with the egg yolk/cream mixture and, of course, the butter finish.
