This recipe and the next are both from the collection of a ‘Clerk of the Kitchen to A noble Earl’ in the late eighteenth century. The original recipe used the word ‘manchet’, i.e. fine white bread, where we have become accustomed to the French word croûton.

Vegetable quantities are for four. The dish is even better, of course, with fresh asparagus and new peas, as in the original. Other vegetables can be used.