Mock Turtle soup
Cheaper than the "real thing" but just as complicated to prepare. Victorian era cookbooks typically offer several recipes for mock turtle soup. They substituted inexpensive/obtainable calf's heads. It was no accident Alice met the Mock Turtle. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Lewis Carroll]. Mock Turtle's "Beautiful Soup" song captured contemporary socio-economic issues using a popular culinary context. Brilliant. Commercial mock turtle soups surfaced in the USA in 1882. Imitation mock turtle (vegetarian alternative) surfaces 5 years later.
"Mock Turtle Soup.
Take a calve's head with the skin on and scald it in the following maner. Put it in some cold water, beat some rosin fine, and rub all over it; then put it in scalding weater, and keep turning it about till you find the hair will slip off; then take it out, and as quick asyou clean off all the hair, and wash it well after, put it into a pot and boil it half an hour; then take off all the skin close to thebone and cut the tongue out and peel it, take an break the bones to all pieces and put them into a soup-pot, with a shin of beef cut into pieceswith two gallons of water; when it boils skim it well, and put in some allspice, six onions, a carrot, two turnips, four leeks, six hjeads of cellery, washed well, and a bundle of sweet herbs; stew it gently for four hours, then strain it into a pan: in the mean time cut your skin into square pieces, about an inch long, put them into a soup-pot with the soup, chop twelve shallots fine, tie up a large bundle of basil, marjoram, winter savory andthyme, twelve cloves, six blades of mace, twelve corns of all-spice beat very fine, put all these in and stew it till tender; mix a bottle of Madeira wine with four large spoonfuls of flour very smooth and put in, but be sure to stir it well about; season it high with Vayennepepper and salt, take out the sweet herbs, and squeeze the liquor out between two plates in the soup, and stew it halfand hour; then put in two dozen of forcemeant balls and two dozen egg balls, and squeeze in two lemons; boil it up for two or threeminutes, then serve it in tureens."
---The New Art of Cookery According to the Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R. Campbell and B. Johnson:Philadelphia PA] 1792 (p. 25-26)
[1832]
"Calf's Head, or Mock Turtle.
(1) Parboil a calf's head, take off the skin and cut it in bits about an inch and a half square, cut the flesh parts in bits, take out the blackpart of the eyes, and cut the rest in rings, skin the tongue, and cut it in slices, add it all to three quarts of good stock, and season it with cayenne, two or three blades of mace, salt, the pepper of half a lemon, and half a pint of white wine, with about a dozenforcemeat balls; stew all this an hour and a half, rub down with a little cold water, two table-spoonfuls of flour, mix well amongst it half a pint of the soup, and then stir it into the pot; put in the juice of half a large lemon, and the hard-boiled yolks of eight eggs; let it simmer for tenminutes, and then put it all in the tureen."
---The Cook's Own Book, Mrs. N. M. K. Lee, facsimile 1832 edition [Arno Press:New York] 1972 (p. 202)
[NOTE: This book offers three Mock Turtle Soup recipes in all.]
[1840]
"Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup
This soup will require eight hours to prepare. Take a large calf's head, and having cleaned, washed, and soaked it, put it into a pot with a knuckle of veal, and the hock of a ham, or a few slices of bacon; but previously cut off and reserve enough of the veal to make two dozen small force-meat balls. Put the head and the other meat into as much water as will cover it very well, so that it may not be necessary to replenish it: this soup being always made very rich. Let it boil slowly four hours, skimming it carefully. As soon as no more scum rises, put in six potatoes, and three turnips, all sliced thin; with equal proportions of parsley, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, chopped fine; and pepper and salt to your taste.An hour before you send the meat to table, make about two dozen small force-meat balls of minced veal and beef-suet in equal quantities, seasoned with pepper and salt; sweet herbs, grated lemon-peel, and powdered nutmeg and mace. Add some beaten yolk of egg to make all these ingredients stick together. Flour the balls very well, and fry them in butter. Before you put them into the soup, take out the head, and the other meat. Cut the meat from the head in small pieces, and return it to the soup. When the soup is nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira. Have ready at least a dozen egg-balls made of the yolks of hard boiled eggs, grated or pounded in a mortar, and mixed with a little flour and sufficient raw yolk of egg to bind them. Make them up into the form and size of boy's marbles. Throw them into the soup at the last, and also squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Let it get another slow boil, and then put it into the tureen.We omit a receipt for real turtle soup, as when that very expensive, complicated, and difficult dish is prepared in a private family, it is advisable to hire a first-rate cook for the express purpose.an easy way is to get it ready made, in any quantity you please, from a turtle soup house."
---Directions for Cookery, Eliza Leslie
[1875]
Turtle Soup, Mock (another way).
Take a half a calf's head, a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound lf lean ham, two table-spoonfuls of minced paresley, a little mincedlemon thyme, a little sweet marjoram and basil, two onions, a few chopped mushrooms, two shallots, two table-spoonfuls of flour, one dozen anda half forcemeat balls about the size of a nutmeg, cayenne and salt to suit your taste, the juice on one lemon, a Sevilleorange, one dessert-spoonful of pounded sugar, and three quarts best stock."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Peter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875 (p. 1020)
[NOTE: This book offers eleven different Mock Turtle Soup recipes. Some are made with alternate heads: cow, pig and knuckle of veal. This suggests the recipe was extremly popular at the time of publication.]
[1913]
"Mock Turtle Soup
1 calf's head and 2 feet
2 veal cutlets
1 pt. browned flour
5 onions
1 lemon
A little savory, thyme and marjoram
5 eggs boiled hard
A few spices
2 wineglasses port or sherry.
One calf's head and two feet; boil in plenty of water until the bones draw out. Boil two veal cutlets in the same water untiltender for forecemeat balls. To the liquor then put brown flour, onions cut in thin slices and fired in butter with salt, pepper,and spices. Before skimming the soup put in savory, marjoram and thyme. Chop with the veal for balls a very little spice. Take the pieces of cheek whichboil off the head and cut in little squares and add to soup. Boil four or five eggs hard. Chop the whites and put yolks whole in thesoup. When you serve the soup put in wine to taste, port or sherry, say two wineglasses, and slices of lemon, or squeeze andstir the juice in."
---The American Home Cook Book, Grace E. Denison [Barse & Hopkins:New York] 1913 (p. 20)
[1944]
"Mock Turtle Soup
2 cans condensed mock turtle soup, undiluted
1 1/2 c. cold water
1 beef bouillon cube
4 whole cloves
1/4 c. light cream (optional)
2 teasp. Worchetershire sauce
2 shelled hard-cooked eggs
4 or 5 tablesp. sherry
4 or 5 thin slices lemon
Whole cloves
Paprika
Combine first 4 ingredients, cover, and simmer for 10 min. Add cream and Worcestershire and reheat. Press hard-cooked eggs through a sieve and divide among the serving bowls, adding the sherry (1 or 2 tablesp. to a portion). Strain the soup over the eggand sherry stir, and float on it a slice of lemon garnished wtih a clove and a dash of paprika. Serves 4-5."
---Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely Revised Edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944(p. 147)
"Mulligatawny. This hot spicy soup first entered British cuisine at the end of the eighteenth century; it hadfound favour with employees of the East India Company on station in the subcontinent, and when theyreturned home they brought it with them--although the soup it has evolved into in British hands, heavilydependent on commercial curry powder, bears little resemblance to its aromatic South Indian original. Thename comes from Tamil milakutanni, a compound of milaku pepper' and tanni, water'. It standardlyincludes meat of meat stock, but Eliza Acton gives a vegetarian version made from marrows, cucumbers,and apples or tomatoes. In the early nineteenth century the word, or its abbreviation mull, was used inAnglo-Indian slang for members of the government service in Madras..."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 220)
"Mulligatawny soup is an ingenious adaptation necessitated by the British requirement for soup as aseparate course, a concept unknown to India...Hobson-Jobson explains the etymology: The corruptionof the Tamil milagu-tannir, "pepper-water"; showing the correctness of the popular belief which ascribesthe origin of this excellent article to Madras.' ..The simple concept of pepper water was greatly elaboratedin some recipes for mulligatawny (which might call for a score of ingredients) but the basic prescriptionwas always for some chicken or mutton, fried onion, curry powder, and stock or water."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 20)
"[Milligatawny] may be described as a co*ck-a-leekie without the leeks and the prunes, but with rice instead, and with spices, which are of the curry class."
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facimile 1877 edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968 (p. 306)
"Among the low-caste poor of southern India it was a common practice to add to their pepper water a tiny salt fish known as karavat, but naturally it neveroccurred to the predominatly vegetatrian Hindus of southern India to beef up the soup with meat stock and add small pieces of meat to the finished product. When the British came along and did just that, mulligatawny soup was born. The name of this most celebrated of Anglo-Indian dishesis a corruption of two Tamil words, milagu and tunni, meaning simply 'pepper water.' The dish evolved in the Madras Presidency. Itscomposition resembles a Madras curry and one some formal memus of British India we find the soup translated into French as potagede Madras. The residents of Madras were even nicknamed 'Mulls' after their famous creation. Mulligatawny became popular with army officers, who carried it in flasks on expeditions in the hills as fortification against the cold. At its simplest, milligatawny consists of little more thanmeat, onions, curry powder and stock or water...In the early nineteenth century retired East India Company merchants sparked off a fashion for mulligatawny back in England. Inevitably, the soup began to take on the stamp of the English kitchen: apple was substitutedfor mango juice of Indian recipes, and the freshly ground spice mixtures repaced by curry powder. Indeed, the recipe was originallydubbed 'curry soup', as the inimitable Dr Kitchiner indicates in The Cooks Oracle in 1817...A measure of its popularity was the appearance on the market, about the middle of the century, of tins of 'mulligatawny paste'--condiments to be mixed with meat stock, garlicand onions. All the great cookery writers of the period gave their own recipes: Eliza Acton, in her Modern Cookery for Private Families, included ameatless version with marrow, cucumber and apple while Mrs Beeton replaced the coconut with ground almonds. Alexis Soyer,the celebrated chef at the Reform Club, concocted a Frenchified version which bore very little relation to the original, incorporatinghame, thyme and apple, while Escoffier's was virtually unmanagable. In general, it is the Anglo-Indian variations which remain the mostinteresting. There also appeared on menus a clear mulligatawny, also known as consomme mulligatawny or, in the rather contrivedFrench of Victorian menus in India, as consomme a l'Indienne."
---The Raj at Table, David Burton [Faber and Faber:London] 1993, 1994 (p. 94-97)
"Mulligatawny. Literally, pepper water (milagu-thannir) in tamil; this was the rasam of south India, whichwas adopted with such modifications as the addition of meat stock as a soup by the colonial. A Britishprisoner of Hyder Ali in AD 1784 sang mournfully;"In vain our hard fate we repine,In vain our fortunes we rail;On Mullighy-tawny we dine,On Conjee, in Bangalore jail."In fact the colonials who lived in Madras were derisively referred to as Mulls..."
---A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K.T. Achaya [Oxford Unviversity Press:Delhi] 1998 (p. 166)
"Curry, or Mallaga-tawny Soup.--(No. 249)
Cut four pounds of breast of veal into pieces, about two inches by one; put the trimmings into a stew-pan with two quarts ofwater, with twelve corns of black pepper, and the same of allspice; when it boils, skim it clean, and let it boil an hour and a half, then strain it off; while it isboiling, fry of a nice brown in butter the bits of veal and four onions; when they are done, put the broth to them; put it on the fire; when it boils, skim it clean; let itsimmer half an hour; then mix two spoonfuls of curry, and the same of flour, with a little cold water and a tea-spoonful of salt; add these to the soup, and simmer it gently till the veal is quite tender, and it is ready; or bone a couple of fowls or rabbits, and stew then in the manner directed above fo the veal, and you may put in a bruised eschalot, and some mace and ginger, instead of blackpepper and allspice."
---The Cook's Oracle and House Keeper's Manual, William Kitchiner, facsimile 1830 edition [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] (p. 222-223)
[1832]
"Mulligatawny.
Boil slowly in two quarts of water one pound of split peas, half an ounce of butter, two onions sliced, a little salt, cayenne, and twoblads of mace. When the peas are tender, put in a large fowl, cut in joints and skinned, two quarts of boiling water, or stock, if the soup be required very rich; twnety imnutes before serving, add a large spoonful of curry-powder, and the same of groundrice." (p. 117)
"Mullagatawny (Soup).
(1) Put half a pound of fresh butter, with six large onions sliced, three cloves of garlic, some chopped parsley, and sweetmarjoram, into a stewpan, let it stew over a slow fire till of a light brown color; cut in small pices five pounds of leanbeef, and let that stw till the gravy be extracted, and then put in three quarts of boiing water, and half a pound of Scotchbarley, and let it simmer four hours very slowly; mix four tablesponfuls of curry-powder with cold water, and add it to the stock; take out the beef,and rub the barley thorugh a sieve, to thicken the soup. Cut a fowl in joints, skin it, and put it in a stewpan with the piece of butter, andlet it stew till quite tender; the stewpan must be kept closely covered; this to be added to the soup, the last thing, with a pint ofboiling milk and the juice of two lemons. Boiled rice must always be served with this soup.
(2) Make a strong stock of the bones of roasted beef, mutton, and fowl; while it is preparing, put into a stewpan, with six ounces of butter, three quarts of sliced turnip, two quarts of carrots, and eight large onions also sliced; let them stew upon thestove till tender; then add three quarts of the prepared sock, a large slice of the crumb of bread, and two table-spoonfuls of curry-powder; let them stew four or five hours; strain it thorugh a tammy cloth, with two wooden spoons, taking care that nobones be eft amongst the vegetables; if too thick to go through, add more stock. Then cut a fowl in pieces, fry it in a frying-panwith butter, and add it to the soup. after it has boiled a little, draw it to the side of the stove, and let it simmer, that the greasemay be taken off. A little good beef stock, in addition to that made of the bones will be an improvement. it is sometimes thickeined withwhite or ground rice, instead of bread, and ought to be made upon a stove."
---The Cook's Own Book: Being a Complete Culinary Encyclopedia, Mrs. N. K. M. Lee, facsimile 1832 edition [Arno Press:New York] 1972 (p. 206)
[1845]
"Mullagatawny Soup.
Slice, and fry gently in some good butter three or four large onions, and when they are of a fine equal amber-colour lift them out with a slice and put them into a deep stewpot, or large thick saucepan; throw a little more butter into the pan, and then brownlightly in it a young rabbit, or the prime joints of two, or a fowl cut down small, and floured. When the meat is sufficentlybrowned, lay it upon the onions, pour gradually to them a wquart of good boiling stock, and stew it gently from three quarters of an hour to an hour; then take it out, and pass the stock and onions thorugh a fine sieve or strainer. Add to them two pints and a half more of stock, pour the whole into a clean pan, and when it boils stir to it two tablespoonsful of currie-powder mixed with nearly as much of browned flour, anda little cold water or broth, put in the meat, and simmer it for twenty minutes or longer should it not be perfectly tender, add the juice of a small lemon just before it is dished, serve it very hot, and send boiled rice to table with it. Part of a pickled mango cut into strips aboutthe size of large straws, is sometimes served in this soup, after being stewed in it for a few minutes; a little of the picle itslef should be added withit. We have given here the sort of receipt commonly used in England for mullagatawny, but a much finer soup may be made by departing from it in somerespects. The onions, of which the proportion may be increased or diminished to the taste, after being fried slowly and withcare, that no part would be overdone, may be stewed for an hour in the first quart of stock with three or four ounces of gratedcocoa-nut, which will impart a rich mellow flavour to the whole. After all of this that can be rubbed through th sieve has been added to asmuch more stock as will be required for the soup, and the currie-po0wder and thickening have been boiled in it for twenty minutes, theflesh part of a calf's head,* prefious stewed almost tender, and cut as for mock turtle, with a sweetbread also parboiled or stewed in broth, and divided into inch-squares, will make and admirable mullagatawny, if simmered in the stock until they have take the flavour of the currie-seasoning. The flesh of a coupe of calve's feet, with a sweetbread or two, may, when more convenient, be substituted for the head.A large cupful of thick cream, first mixed and boiled with a teaspoonful of flour or arrow-root to prevent its circling, and stirredinto the soup before the lemon-juice, will enrich and improve it much.
Rabbit, `1 or the best joints of, 2, or fowl, 1; large onions, 4 to 6; stock, 1 quart; 3/4 to 1 hour; 1/2 pints more of stock; currie powder, 2 heaping tablespoonsful, with 2 of browned flour; meat and all simmered together 20 minutes or more; juice of lemon, 1 cmall;or part of pickled mango stewed in the soup 3 to 4 minutes." (p. 48-49)
"A Good Vegetable Mullagatawny.
Dissolve in a large stewpan or thick iron saucepan, four ounces of butter, and when it is on the point of browning, throw in four largemild onions sliced, thre pounds weight of young vegetable marrow cut in large dice and clared from the skin and seeds, four larbe or sixmoderate-sizced cucumbers, pared, split, and emptied likewise of their seeds, and from three to six large acid apples, according to the taste; shake the pan often,and stew these over a gentle fire until they are tolerably tender; then strew lightly over the mix well amongst them, three heaped tablespoonsful of mild currie powder, with nearly a third as much of salt, and let the vegetables stew form twenty to thirty minutes longer; then pour to them gradually sufficient boiling water (broth or stock if preferred) to just cover them, and when they are reduced almost to a pulp press the whole through a hair-sieve with a wooden spoon,and heat it in a clean stewpan, with as much additional liquid as will make two wquarts with that which was first added. Give any flavouring that may be needed, whether of salt, cayenne or acid and serve the soup extremely hot. Should any butter appear on the surface, let it be carefully skimmed off, or stir in a small dessertspoonful of arrow-root (smoothly mixedwith a little cold broth or water) to absorb it. Rice may be served with this soup, at pleasure, but as it is of the consistence of winter peas soup, it scarcely requires any addition. The currie powder may be altogether omitted for variety, and the whole converted into a plain vegetable potage; or it may be rendered one of high savour, by browning all the vegetables lightly, and adding them to rich brown stock. Tomatas, when in season, may be substituted for apples, after being divided, and freed from their seeds.
Butter, 4 oz; vegetable marrow, pared and scooped, 3 lbs.; large mild onions, 4; large cucumbers, 4; or middling-sized, 6; apples, or large tomatas, 3 to 6; 30 to 40 minutes. Mild currie-powder, 3 heaped tablespoonsful; salt, one small tablespoonful; 20 to 32 minutes. Water, broth, orgood stock, 2 quarts." (p. 50)---Modern Cookery of Private Families, Eliza Acton, facsimile 1845 edition with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ray [SouthoverPress:East Sussex] 1993
[1846]
"Muligatawny Soup
Take two chickens, cut them up small, as if for fricassee, flour them well, put them in a saucepan with four onions shred, a pieceof clarified fat, pepper, salt, and two table spoonsful of curry powder; let it simmer for an hour, then add three quarts of strong beef gravy, and let it continue simmering for another hour; before sent to the table the juice of a lemon should be stirred in it; some persons approve of a little rice being boiled with the stock, and a pinch of saffron is also sometimes added."
"English Muligatawny
Take a knuckle of veal, stew it till half done, then cut off the greatest part of the meat, and continue to stew down the bonein the stock, the meat must be cut into small pieces and fried with six onions thinly sliced, and a table spoonful of curry powder, a desert spoonful of cayenne pepper and salt, ad the stock and let the whole gently simmer for nearly an hour, flavouring it witha little Harvey's sauce and lemon pickle."
---The Jewish Manual, edited by a Lady [Judith Montefiore], facsimle 1846 edition [NightinGale Books:New York] 1983 (p. 4-5)
[1849]
"Mullagatawny Soup
As Made in India.
Take a quarter of an ounce of China turmeric, the thrid of an ounce of cassia, thre drachms of black pepper, two drachams of cayenne pepper, and an ounce of coriander seeds. Thee must all be pounded fine in a mortar, and well mixed and sifted. They will bame a sufficientcurry powder for the following quantity of soup: Take two large fowls, or three pounds of lean of veal. Cut the flesh entirelyfrom the bones in small pieces, and put it into a stew-pan with two quarts of water. Let it boil slowly for half an hour, skimmingit well. Prepare four large onions, minced and fried in two ounces of butter. Add to them the curry powder, and moisten the whole with broth from the stew-pan, mixed with a little rice flour. When thoroughly mixed, stir the seasoning into the soup, and simmer it till it is assmooth and thick as cream, and till the chicken or veal is perfectly tender. Then stir into it the juice of a lemon; and five minutesafter take up the soup, with the meat in it, and serve it in the tureen. Send to table separately, boiled rice on a hot-water dish tokeep it warm The rice is to be put into the plates of soup by those who eat it. To boil rice for this soup in the East India fashion:--Pick and wash half a pound in warm water. Put it into a saucepan. Pour two quarts of boiling water over it, and cover the pan closely. Set it in a warm place by the fire, to cook gradually in the hot water. In an hour pour off all the water, and setting the pan on hot coals, stir up and toss the rice with a fork, so as to separate the grains, and to dry without hardening it. Donot use a spoon, as that will not loosen the grains sufficiently."
---Directions for Cookery in Its Various Branches, Miss [Eliza] Leslie [Carey & Hart:Philadelphia] 1849 (p. 29-30)
[1850]
"198. Mulligatawny Soup.
Cut up a knuckle of veal, which put into a stewpan, with a piece of butter, half a pound of lean ham, a carrot, a turnip, three onions, and six apples, add half a pint of water; set the stewpan over a sharp fire, moving the meat round occasionally, let remain until the bottom of the stewpan is covered with a brownish glaze, then add three tablespoonfuls of curry powder, one of curry paste, and half a pound of flour, stir well in, and fill the stewpan with a gallon of water; add a spoonful of salt, the half of one of sugar, when b0iling, place itat the corner of the fire, and let it simmer two hours and a half, skimming off all the fat as it rises, then pass it througha tammy into a tureen; trim some of the pieces of veal, and put it back in the stewpan to boil, and serve with plain boiled rice separate. Ox-tails or pieces of rabbits, chickens, &c., left from a previous dinner may be served in it instead of the veal. Theveal is exceedingly good to eat."
---The Modern Housewife or Menagere, Alexis Soyer, edited by an American Hosuekeeper [D. Appleton& Company:New York] 1850 (p. 85)
[1860]
"Mullagatawney Soup
Take four or five cloves of garlic, slice them very fine, and put them into a stewpan, with a quarter of a pound of butter. Taketwo chickens, or a rabbit, a fowl, some beef, or mutton, and cut them as for fricassee; season with a little white pepper; lay the meat upon to onions; cover the stewpan closely, and let it simmer for half an hour. Having prepared the following ingredients wellground or pounded in a mortar, add them with two quarts of clear gravy, and let it summer for half an hour, adding during the last fiveminutes, the juice of a lime with a little flour or arrowroot."
---Indian Domestic Cookery and Receipt Book, R. Riddell, facsimile 1860 edition, Madras India (p. 74)
[NOTE: This book offers three additional Mulligatawney soup recipes; two for fowl and one for pea-fowl.]
[1861]
"Mullagatawny Soup
Ingredients.--2 tablespoonfuls of curry powder, 6 onions, 1 clove of garlic, 1 oz. of pounded almonds, a little lemon-pickle, or mango-juice, to taste; 1 fowl or rabbit, 4 slices of lean bacon; 2 quarts of medium stock, or, if wanted very good, best stock.Mode.--Slice and fry the onions of a nice colour; line the stewpan with the bacon; cut up the rabbit or fowl into small joints, andslightly brown them; put in the fried onions, the garlic, and sotck, and simmer gently till the meat is tender; skim very carefully, and when the meat is done, rub the curry powder to a smooth batter; add it to thes oup with the almonds, which must be firstpounded with a little of the stock. Put in seasoning and lemon-pickle or mango-juice to taste, and serve boiled rice withit.
Time.--2 hours. Average cost, 1s. 6d. per quart, with [medium] stock.
Seasonable in winter.Sufficient for 8 persons.
Note.--This soup can also be made with breast of veal, or calf's head. Vegetable Mullagatawny is made with veal stock, by boiling and pulping chopped vegetable marrow, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes, and seasoning with curry powder and cayenne. Nice pieces of meat, goodcurry powder, and strong stock, are necessary to make this soup good."
---Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, Isabella Beeton, facsimile 1861 edition [Oxford University Press:Oxford], ]edited with an introduction and notes by Nicola Humble 2000 (p. 90)
[1875]
"Mulligatawny Soup.
This is soup of any kind flavoured with curry powder. It is highly stimulating, gives tone and vigor to the digestive organs, and isfrequently accetable in very hot or very cold climates. Nevertheless we do not recommend its frequent use, though it mayoccasionally be resorted to on festive occasions. When made in India, the curry powder is largely mixed with coriander, cassia,cayenne pepper, black and white pepper, curmeric [turmeric], garlic mixed with lemon-acid or sour apples, mangoes, tamarinds, or other acidulous fruit; but it is now needless to prepare and mix all these ingredients, as a large or small botttle of well-purposedcurries, to suit and palate, may be purchased at any oilman's store. If a clain curry or mullagatawny soup is preferred, mix the powder with equal quantity of browned flour and a little cold stock or broth, which may be put in with the meat of the soup hlaf an hour before serving. Soft meats, flow., &c., may be wholly stewed in this curry stock, though the finer sorts of curries will notadmit this, mangoes, tamarineds, &c., taking only a few minutes; but the exprienced cook will readily distinguish and determine on such additions. With a plain curry there should be a flavouring of lemon-acid just before serving. It is almost impossible to devineprecisely what should be the several ingredients of the more complex curries--the cook must study the likings of the guests--some do not like coriander-seed, others dislike garlic; cassis in some cases is disagreeable; though, when all those ingredients are carefully proportioned with just sufficient cayenne to stimulate, it should be found a most enjoyable soup. The housekeeper will readily understandthat any good stock soup may be converted into mullagatawny or curry soup, but as it usually occupies considerable space in every cookery-book, we add a few examples, pointing from the simple soup above mentioned to more expensive dishes." (p. 430)
"Indian Mullagatawny Soup.
For this favourite Indian soup take a couple of chickens, a large fowl, a knuckle of veal, or a calf's head, with the trimmings, bones, and gristles of the breast of veal. Make a good strong stock; this must be carefully attended to. Cut the meat in pieces--mouthfuls--or the fouwl into small joints, and simmer gently in about half a gallon of water. Fry six midle-sized onions and a couple of cloves of garlic shredfine, in two ounces of butter. Pound and mix well together an ouince of coriander seed, a quarter of an ounce each of chives, turmeric, and cassia, two drachms of cayenne, and rather more of black pepper. Put these ingredients with two large spoonfuls of rice flour into a basin,mix them with some of the broth the meat has been boiled in, and strain to the rest. Simmer until the soup is aobut the thickness of cream. Beforetaking it off the fire add the juice of a lemon to flavour it. Some people use sour apples or other acids in mullagatawny, but the lemon-juice is preferable. Serve the meat in the soup and boiled rice separately; cut lwmons on a plate. Time, simmer from two to three hours. Probable cost, 2s. per quart. Sufficient for eight persons." (p. 326)
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875
[NOTE: This book also offers Mullagatawny Soup recipes for Calf's Head, Fowl, Household, Rabbit, and Vegetable.]
[1898]
Mulligatawny Soup.
Slice three onions and fry them without colouring in 1 unit of butter. Add one apple, cut into slices, and let it dissolve overa low fire. The mix in 1 unit of curry powder and flour, ad 40 of medium stock, and simmer for an hour. Pass through a sieve, and serve with any remainsof cold poultry cut into slices and warmed in the soup. Rice, and lemons in slices, to be handed with it."
---The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook, F. A. Steel and G. Gardiner, facsimile 4th edition published by William Heinemann, 1898 [Oxford University Press:Oxford] edited with an introduction and notes by Ralph Crane and Anna Johnston, 2010 (p. 237)
[NOTE: This recipe appears under the heading "Thickened Soups."]
[1909]
"Mulligatawny Soup.
Three quarts of stock, 1 rabbit, a chicken, 2 large onions, 1 large green apple, 2 tablespoonfuls curry powder, 1 cup of cream or goodmilk, 1 large tabelspoonful of butter, 1 tablespoonful flour, few drops of lemon juice, 1 teasp[oonful ginger, pepper, salt, and a good pinch ofcayenne pepper, boiled rice to serve with it. Disjoint the rabbit or chicken, and fry in a little of the butter; quickly add the apple, onions, curry powder, and stir over the fire aboutfive minutes with an iron spoon; add the stock, allow to simmer gently about one hour, remove meat from soup, take out bones, and cut the meat into neat pieces for serving in the soup. Rub the soup thorugh a sieve, return with a tablesppnful of butter to a saucepan. Mix in a tablespoonful of flour, then add thesoup that has been rubbed through. When boiling add the cream carefully off the fire, the sugar, salt to taste, pepper, cayenne pepper andlemon juice. Put the meat or chicken, or rabbing in the soup tureen, pour hot soup over, and serve nicely boiled rice with thissoup."
---The Schauer Cookery Book, Misses A. and M. Schauer [Edwards, Dunlop & Co. Ltd.:Brisbane] 1909 (p. 92)
[1936]
"Mulligatawny Soup
1 Onion. 1 1.2 oz, Butter.
1 large Cooking Apple.
1 tablespoofful Dessicated Cocoa-nut.
1 large tablespoonful Creme-de-riz.
1 small tablespoon Curry Powder.
1 teaspoonful Curry Paste.
1 tablespoonful Chutney.
1 1/2 pints Stock.
1 saltspoonful Salt.
Utensils--Knife, stewpan, basin, hair sieve, saucepan, wooden spoon, measuring spoons, pint measure.
Peel the onion and the apple, and chop them finely. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the chopped onion and apple, and fry untilthey are a golden brown. Mix the creme-de-riz, the curry powder, and curry paste with a little cold stock. Add these to the onion andapple, and cook together for another 10 minutes. The add the remainder of the stock, also the chutney, and desiccated cocoanut and thesalt. Bring to the boil, and continue boiling for 1/2 hour. Then rub it all through a fine hair sieve.Rinse out the saucepan, pour the soup back into it, and return to the fire until it boils. It is then ready to serve. Plainly boiledrice, dished on a hot plate lined with a lace paper d'oyley, and sprinkled with coralline pepper, can be handed with the soup."
---Cookery Illustrated and Household Management, Elizabeth Craig [Oldhams Press Limited:London] 1936 (p. 115)
[1956]
"Mulligatawny and Curry Soups
The curry soups vary considerably in the degree of spiciness, but they should not, for the normal palate, be over-peppery--certianlynot so pepper as a curry itself may be. Some of theme may be quite bland in seasoning, tasting of nuts and spices and agreeable to the mostsensitive palate. If you like cooking and like spices you will not be satisfiled with having just a tin of curry-pwoder and one ofpaste in your store-room, but you will have, as mentioned in the curry chapter, the individual spices which together make thegenerally accepted curry-powder; and you will certainly have desiccated nuts of some kind, preferably coco-nut and almonds. There are three distincttypes of mulligatawny; it can be in the form of
(a) consomme
(b) gravy broth
(c) thick soup
The base of the first is a good bouillon or stock, and the flavouring is imparted to it by the infusion in it by whole spices. The followingrecipe calls for beef bouillon, but Mulligatawny Maigre, which is not the real thing, may be made exactly the same way, usingvegetable stock.
Consomme Mulligatawny
3 pints well-flavoured beef bouillon (see page 119)
1/2 lb. minced gravy beef
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons good Madeira
Spices for infusing
1/2 oz. each of coriander and cardamon
1/4 oz. each of cumin seed and fenugreek
12 peppercorns
1 clove garlic
thinly peeled rind of 1 lemon
1 bay-leaf
seasoning
Garnish
3 oz. rice
1/4 oz. butter
a little turmeric
quarters of lemon
Bruise of pound lightly the spices and garlic, and put together with lemon rind and bay-leaf into a muslin bag tied tightly atthe neck so that they cannot escape. Put the bag into the bouillon; bring to boil and keep at simmering-point until the liquid iswell flavoured with spices. This takes from 40 minutes to an hour. Remove the bag; allow the bouillon to cool, and clarify in thefollowing manner. Put the minced beef into an enamel or tin-lined pan, add whites whipped to a froth and the bouillon. Whisk over moderate heat until it boils. Then stop whisking and allow the liquid to boil up. Draw aside and set on very low heat for half an hour. Strain carefully through a we cloth, season, add Madeira, and reheat without allowing soup to boil. Hard boiled rice, mixed with butter and coloured lightly with the addition of alittle turmeric, and also quarters of lemon."
---Constance Spry Cookery Book, Constance Spry & Rosemary Hume [J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd:London] 1956 (p. 109-110)
[NOTE: This book also offers two recipes for Thick Mulligatawny and one for Thin Mulligatawny or Gravy Broth.]
"Navy bean is the American name for the small white haricot bean, the bean used for baked beans. It presumably arose from the bean having formed an important element in the navy's shipboard diet."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 225)
"Navy bean. Also called 'pea bean' or 'beautiful bean.' The navy bean is one of several varieties of kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). The name comes from the fact that it has been a standard food of the United States Navy since at least 1856."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 216)
"Beans have...long been associated with navies, as the name navy bean suggests. They were probably the food the crew was forced to endure once the fresh food ran out. Once the beans themselves were gone that would have been the end, and the saying in French 'la find des haricots' meaning the absolute end of everything may derive from this recognition...It might seem off that beans would find a place where fuel would be a precious resource and cooking time would have to be kept to a minimum. But according to Pablo Perez-Mallaina, beans (chickpeas mostly at first) were a regular provision on Spanish ships crossing the Atlantic from the earliest voyages. The brisk stoves would be kept on the lower deck away from wind and set in sand to prevent anything from catching on fire. And with plenty of time, there was little problem with soaking the beans. A typical week's rations for a sailor on the US Navy in 1799 would include 7 pounds of bread in the form of hard tack, 2 pounds of pickled beef, 3 of pork, 1 of salt fish, and one and a half pints of peas or beans, plus potatoes, turnips and the daily half pint of rum. The term navy bean comes from the fact that since the mid-nineteenth century, they were issued regularly to US warships...For similar reasons, beans made an ideal army food."
---Beans: A History, Ken Albala [Berg:New York] 2007 (p. 169-170)
[NOTE: this is be BEST source for learning the history of beans; includes recipes. Ask your librarian to help you obtain a copy.]
About navy bean soup
Bean soups are ancient. American bean soups made with specifically with navy beans surface in the the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest print American reference we have for a recipe titled "navy bean soup" was published in the Dubuque Daily Herald [IA]. October 6. 1900 (p. 8): "It is easy to imagine these old weatherbeaten sailors strolling along the wharves of Albany relating their naval adventures. And how they fought with Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay...And how they swapped their navy bean soup for the luscious fruits of the Indies."
To make Peas Pottage. Take a quart of white peas, a piece of neckbeef, and four quarts of fair water; boil them till they are all to pieces, ands train them thro' a colander; then take a handful or two of spinach, a top or two of young colworts [cabbage], and a very small leek; shred the herbs a little, and put them into a frying pan or stew pan, with three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, but the butter must be very hot before you put in your herbs; let them fry a little while, then put in your liquor, and two or three anchovies, some salt and pepper to your taste, a sprig of mint rubb'd in small, and let it all boil together till you think it is thick enough; then have in readiness some forc'd meat, and make three or fourscore balls, about the bigness of large peas, fry them brown, and put them in the dish you serve it in, and fry some thin slices of bacon, put some in the dish, and some on the rim of the dish, with scalded spinach: fry some toasts after the balls are brown and hard, and break them into the dish; then pour your pottage over all, and serve to the table."
---The Compleat Housewife, Eliza Smith, facsimile 1753 London editon [T. J. Press:London] 1968 (p. 30-31)
[1792]
"Peas Soup
Get a quart of peas, boil them in two gtallons of water till they are tender; then have ready a piece of salt pork or bef, which has been lain in water the night before, putit into the pot, with two large onions peeled, a bundle of sweet herbs, cellery if you have it, half a quarter of an ounce of whole pepper; let it boil till the meat is enough,then take it up, and if the soup is not enough, let it boil till the soup is good; then strain it, set it on again to boil, and rub in a good deal of dry mint. Keep the meat hot. When the soup isready, put in the meat again for a few minutes, and let it boil; then serve it away. If you add a piece of the portable soup it will be very good."
---The New Art of Cookery According to the Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R Campbell, and B. Johnson:Philadelphia] 1792 (p. 426-427) [NOTE: this recipe appears in the chapted titled "Directions for Seafaring Men"]
[1863]
"Potage Puree with Dry Beans, Lentils, or Peas.--
Soak in lukewarm water a quart of dry beans, lentils, or peas, drain and ptu them in a crockery kettle, with two leeks, half a head of of celery, two middling sizedonions, one carrot, two cloves, salt, and pepper, half a pound of bacon, or four ounces of butter; cover entirely with cold broth, set on the fire and boil gently till the whole iswell cooked; then take from the fire, throw away the cloves, and put the bacon aside, mash the beans and seasonings, strain them, and put back in the kettle with the broth in which they havebeen cooked; in case there should not be enough to cover the whole, add a little to it, set again on the fire, stir, give one boil, pour on croutons and serve."
---What to Eat and How to Cook It, Pierre Blot [D. Appleton:New York] 1863 (p. 37)
[1877]
Bean Soup
[1903]
Senate Bean Soup (made with navy beans)
[1912]
"Navy Bean Soup.
Cook together a cup of beans and a slice of onion; add five cups of water and simmer until the bean may be put through a sieve. Season and serve with the addition of butter."
---"Vegetarian Dishes," Postville Review [IA], April 12, 1912 (p. 3)
[1933]
"Navy Bean Soup
One slice raw ham (about 1/2 pound), three-fourth cupful finely chopped onion, three quarts boiling water, one pound navy beans, one and one-half teaspoonfuls salt, pepper, bit of red pepper, bit of bay leaf, one tall can evaporated milk. Cut ham in small bits. Cook slowly in soup kettle to try out fat, then add onion and continue cooking five minutes. Add boiling water and the beans that have been soaked several hours and drained. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper and by leaf and boil gently three to four hours. Add milk just before serving. Yield, three and one-fourth quarts."
---"Requested Recipes," Marian Manners, Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1933 (p. A6)
[1935]
"Navy Bean Soup. Soak a pound of navy beans over night. Put on to boil Saturday morning with three quarts of water and one-fourth pound lean bacon, a small onion with two cloves stuck in it, one carrot cut in strips and one or two stalks celery cut small. Cook slowly until the beans are broken up and nearly dissolved then take out the bacon and put the rest through a sieve, forcing as much of the vegetable as possible. Thicken soup with two tablespoons butter and two tablespoons flour. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Strain again and after cooling keep in a cold place until wanted, then reheat, strain and serve with croutons and a little sweet cucumber pickles."
---"Bud's Little Girl Cooks," Chicago Defender, October 12, 1935 (p. 17)
[NOTE: If you know who "Bud" is please fill us in.]
[1944]
Navy Bean Soup
(Yield: Approx. 6 gallons. Portion: 1 cup (approx. 8 ounces)
Beans, Navy, dried: 3 1/4 quarts
Water, cold: to cover
Ham Stock: 5 gallons
Onions, chopped: 1 1/2 pints
Ham bones: 8
Cloves, whole: 1 teaspoon
Flour: 1 pint
Water, cold: 1 quart
Pepper: 2 teaspoons
Salt, if needed: 1/2 cup.
Pick over, wash and soak beans, in water to cover, 2 to 3 hours. Add ham stock, onions, bones and cloves. Heat to boiling temperature. Let simmer 2 to 3 hours. Remove bones. Blend together flour and water to a smooth paste. Stir into soup. Add pepper, and salt if needed. Reheat to boiling temperature."
---The Cook Book of the United States Navy, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, NAVSANDA Publication No. 7 [revised 1944] (p. 225)
[NOTE: recipe variation for "Bean Soup with Tomatoes" included.]
[1958] Navy bean soup, U.S. Navy
[1962]
"Bean soup is almost a staple with Navy cooks at sea or on shore bases. each Year bean shippers of Michigan sponsor a contest to find the best bean soup recipe in the Navy. First prize this year went to J.T. Ventura aboard the destroyer escort McGinty based in Portland, Ore....
"SS McGinty Navy Bean Soup
1 1/2 cup dried navy beans
5 1/2 cups water
4 oz. pork sausage, diced
3 tablespoons grated carrot
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 beef bouillon cube
1/2 cup canned tomato soup (undiluted)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant mashed potato
1 cup water
1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
Combine beans, 5 1/2 cups water, sausage, carrot, onion and bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer 2 hr. Let cool 1 hr., then drain, saving liquid. Grind or mash bean mixture and add to bean liquid with tomato soup, salt, pepper, potato granules mixed with 1 cup water and monosodium glutamate. Cook over low heat 30 min., stirring now and then. Makes 8 to 10 servings"
---"Prize Recipes: Navy Bean Soup Wins Landlubbers' Kudos," Los Angeles Times, January 11, 1962 (p. A7)
[1966]
"Navy Bean Soup
1 beef bone
1 1/2 qt. water
1/2 lb. white beans
1 cup diced ham
1 med. onion, diced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. monosodium glutamate.
Combine beef bone and water, bring to a boil and simmer 20 min. Add beans and simmer 1 hr. Add ham, onion, salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate and simmer 1 hr. longer, or until beans are tender. (Add a little more water if soup becomes too thick.) Makes 8 servings."
---"Chow Shapes Up for Men Who Ship Out," Rose Dosti, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1966 (p. G3)
The first recipes for Pocket soup (aka "veal glue," "portable soup," "quick soup," or "cake soup") appear in cookbooks shortlyafter the publication of Denys Papin's 1681 scholarly treatise on steam cooking A New Digester or Engine for Softening Bones.High-pressured steam cooking efficiently reduced meat products to concentrated gelatinous forms of various textures.Arguably, Veal Glue and Portable Soup are the progenitors of today's gravy starters. Pocket soup withstood additionalprocessing, rendering a hard substance similar to today's bouillon cube. The end results were lightweight, portable, easily reconsituted, nutritious, and filling. Not so very different from today's "add water" commercial food products.
Late 17th-early 18th century homes were not physics laboratories. Forward thinking cook book authors somehow found a way to achieve similar results with common household items. Early pocket soup recipes were time consuming and complicated, suggesting it was not commonly made at homne or found in family pantries. were famous for stocking mass quantities of commercial pocket soup to ensure their expedition crew would not starve. By the mid-nineteenth century, scientific advances (dehydration) and industrialization permittedthe mass production of several foods based on pocket soup. Meat biscuits, dessicated vegetableswere produced in factories and provided to Union Civil War soldiers. Knorr marketed driedsoups to the general public in the 1870s.
"With the vogue [late 17th century] for thin soup based on chicken or veal broth came a newinvention. Its earliest name was 'veal glue', and it was the forerunner of the bouillon cube. Strongveal stock was slowly stewed for many hours, strained and simmered again, allowed to set,scrapted free of sediment, and then gently cooked...It was a great deal of work for such a smalloutput. But veal glue, its name later changed to 'pocket' or 'portable' soup, continued in demandall through the eighteenth century. Jam or beef or sweet herbs were now often boiled with theveal, to give a tastier flavour."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 224)
"Portable soup
a product which achieved some prominence in 18th-century English cookery books, was aprecursor (and a relatively sophisticated and refined one) of 19th century Meat Extracts and20th-century stock cubes....Hannah Glasse (1747) gave two recipes, one lifted from an earlierwork...Both state that a piece of the 'Glew' the size of a walnut is enough for a pint of water. Thesecond recipe, listing the various dishes and ways in which it can be used, could be translatedwithout great difficulty into tips on use' to be printed on a modern stock cube or 'instant soup'packet. Portable soup in its original form survived, at least in recipe books, into the 19th century.How many travellers actually carried it around in their pockets or in little tin boxes, asrecommended, is a question which seems unlikely ever to receive a satisfactory answer."
---Oxford Compantion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 625)
How did they make pocket soup?
[1694]
"To Make Veal Glew
Take a Leg of Veal & when ye [the] fat is cut clean off, make a very strong broth of it & strain it thro a fine sieve that it maybe clear. When this is done ot ye broth into a bread flat stew pan that will hold it all, & set it on a high Chaffindish of Charkcoal,& stir it continually about that it may neither burn nor boyle ye whole time 'tis on ye fire, which must be about sevenhours. After you set it by in your pan for a day or two, then put it out & scrape off the settlement if any. Put ye clean jelly into a China Dish & into a China Dish & place it in a Stewpan of hot Water, placing it on a Chaffin of Charkcoal; then ye hot water in ye pan must be kept boyling, till by ye steam yejelly grow of a Glewish substance, which it will do in two or three yours.--Your may know when it is done enough by putting a Littleby to be cold, & if 'twill cut like a soft cheese it is as it could be.--Put it into little sweetmeat pots till it is quite cold; then you may take it out & wrap it in flanell & afterward in paper & it will keep many years.--A piece ye bigness of a Nutmeg will make halfa pint of broth. The whole Leg of Veal, unless very large, will not make on make a piece of Glew gibber than your hand. It ismade into broth by pouring hot Wate of it."
---The Receipt Book of Mrs. Ann Blenowe, facsimile 1694, introduction by George Satinsbury, preferace by Leander W.Smith [Polyanthos:Cottonport LA] 1972 (p. 23)[1747]
"To make Pocket Soop.
Take a Leg of Veal, strip off all the Skin and Fat, then take all the muscular or fleshy Parts clean from the BOnes. Boil this Fleshin three or four Gallons of Water till it comes to a strong Jelly, and that the Meat is good for nothing. Be sure to keep the Pot close covered, and notdo too fast; take a little out in a Spoon now and then, and when you find it is a good rich Jelly, strain it through a Sieve into a clean earth Pan. When it is cold, take off all the Skim and Fat, strain it through a Sieve into a clean earthen Pan. When it is cold, take off all the Skim and Fat from the Top, then provide a large deep Stew-pan with Water boiling over a Stove, then take some deep China-cups, or well glazed EarthenWare, and fill theses Cups with the Jelly, which you must take clear from the Settling at the Bottom, and set them in the Stew-pan of Water. Take great Care none of the Water gets into the Cups; if it does, it will spoil it. Keep the Water boiling gently all the time, till the Jelly becomesthick as Glew; then take them out, and let thems tand to cool; then turn the Glew out into some new coarse Flannel, which draws out allthe Moisture; turn thenm in six or eight Hours on fresh Flannel, and so do until they are quite dry. Keep it in a dry warm Place,and in a little time it will be like a dry hard Piece of Glew, which you may carry in your Pocket, without getting any Harm. The best Way is to put it into little Tin boxes. When you use it, boil about a Pint of Water, and pour it on a Piece of Glew about as big as a small Walnut, stirring all the time till it is melted. Season with Salt to your Palate; and if you chuse anyHerbs, or Spice, boil them in the Water first, then pour the Water over the Glew.""To make Portable Soop.
Take two Legs of Beef, about fifty Pounds Weight, take off all the Skin and Fat as well as you can, then take all the Meat and Sinews clean from the Bones, which Meat put into a large Pot, and put to it eight or nine Gallons of soft Water; first make it boil, then put in twelve Anchovies, an Ounce of Mace, a Quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, an Ounce of whole Pepper black and white together, six large Onionspeeled, and cut int two, a little Bundle of Thyme, Sweet Marjoram, and Winter-savory, the dry hard Crust of a Two-penny Loaf, stir it alltogether, and cover it close, lay a Weight on the Cover to keep it close down, and let it boil softly for eight or nine Hours, then uncover it, and stir it together. Coer it close again, and let it boil till it is a very rich good Jelly, which you will know bytaking a little out now and then, and let it cool. When you find it is a thick Jelly, take it off and strain it through a coarseHair-bag, and press it hard; then strain it through a Hair-sieve int a large Earthen Pan, when it is quite cold, take off all the Skim andFat, and take the fine Jelly clear from the Settlings at Bottom, and put the Jelly into a large deep well-tinned Stew-pan. Set it over a Stove with a low Fire, keep stirring it often, take great Care it neither sticks to the Pan, or burns; and when you find the Jellyis very stiff and thick, as it will be in Lumps about the Pan, take it out, and put it into large deep China-Cups, or well-glazedEarthen Ware. Fill the Pan two Thirds full with Water, when the Water boils, set in your Cups, be sure no Water gets into the Cups, keep the Water boiling softly all the time, till you find the Jelly is like a stiff Glew; then take out the Cups, and when they are cool, thurn out the Glew into coarse new Flannel. Let it lay eight or nine Hours, keeping it in a dry warm Place, and turn it on fresh Flannel till it is quite dry, and thew Glewwil be quite hard; then put it into clean new Stone-pots, keep it close coloured [covered] from Dust and Dirt, and in a dry Place, whereno Damp can come to it. When you use it, pour boiling Water on it, and stir it all the time till it is melted. Season it with Salt to your Palate; a Piece as big as a large Walnut, will make a Pint of Water very rich; but as to that you are to make it as good as you please; if for Soop, fry a French Rile and lay in the Middle of the Dish, when the Glew is dissolved in the Water, give it aboil, and our it into a Dish; if you chuse it for Change, you may boil either Rice, Barley, or Vermicelli, Salary [celery]cut small, Truffles or Morels; but let them be very tenderly boiled in the Water before your stir in the Glew, and then give it a boil alltogether. You may, when you would have it very fine, add Force-meat Balls, co*ck's Combs, or a Palate boiled very tender, and cut into little Bits; but it will be very rich and good without any of these Ingredients. If for Gravy, pour the boiling Water on what Quantity you thinkproper; and when it is dissolved, add what Ingredients you please, as in other Sauces. This is only in the room of a rich goodGravy; or you may make your Sauce either weak or strong, by adding more or less."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition with introductory essays by JenniferStead and Pricilla Bain, glossary by Alan Davidson [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 67-68)[1792]
"Portable Soup
Take three legs of veal and one of beef, with ten pounds of lean ham, all cut very small, put a quarter of a pound of butter at thebottom of a large pot or cauldron, and the meat and ham in, with four ounces of anchovies, two ounces of mace, a bunch of celery, six carrots washed well, a large bunch of sweet herbs, a spoonful of whole pepper, and a hard crust of a penny loaf; sweat it over a slow fire till you find all the juices are drawn out of the meat, then cover it with boling water, and skim it well; let it boil gentlyfor four or five hours, then strain it off to settle, pour it into a pot, and boil it till it is a strong jelly, and as stiffas glue, season it with Cayan pepper and salt, then pour it into little tin moulds; let it stand till cold, then turn it out on plates, and dry it in the sun, or at a great distance before the fire, keep turning it often till it is quite dry; then put it in tin boxes, with a piece of writing paper between each cake; put them in a dry place for use. This is a very useful soup for travellers, orlarge families; for by putting one small cake into a pint of boiling water, and giving it a boil up, it will make a pint of good soup;or a little boiling water poured on a cake, will make a good gravy for a turkey or two fowls. It possesses one good quality, itnever loses any of its virtue by keeping."
---The New Art of Cookery According to Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotswood, R. Campbell and B. Johnson:Philadephia] 1792 (p. 52-53)
Related item? Dry soup mix.
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