SC - Origins of this recipe?

[CBlackwill@aol.com]

Greetings all,

A friend of mine cooks the following soup which has been in her family for
"generations".  She is interested in finding out how old this recipe (or a
recipe similar to this) might be.  She is not trying to document this for
SCA feasts (although it has been served at such), she is simply interested
in how old it might be.

I thought if anyone could help her, it would be the gentles on this list.
The recipe is as follows.

Mel.

GREEK EGG AND LEMON SOUP
Oriel of the Gypsies

Each time 1 make this soup, 1 get requests for the recipe, so here it is -
finally. Like many Greek recipes it does not use exact measurements, so feel
free to change the quantities to suit your tastes. 1 make it in a 12 litre
stock pot and it is generally sufficient to serve a small bowl to between 50
and 80 people at a feast. The next paragraph gives some background
information about the soup, so if you're not interested in that, skip to the
'you will need' part.

The recipe is a traditional one and, 1 suspect, a peasant recipe but 1 don't
know if it is a period recipe. Greek peasants have a strong oral tradition
but little seems to have been written down, so if anyone is aware of period
documentation of any Greek recipes, 1 would be interested in it. This recipe
has been handed down in my (mundane) family, who come from a large island
off the coast of Athens called Evia. It is traditionally eaten (in my
mundane family at least) to break the lenten fast after midnight services on
Easter Saturday night, though 1 think it is great at any time. Note that
different areas of Greece have regional variations on 'base' recipes, so you
may have seen a slightly different version to my recipe.

To pronounce the Greek name, see the guide below but remember that Greek
only uses short vowel sounds and pronounces all letters (while English has
long and short vowels as well as silent letters). If 1 were to express the
Greek letters into English letters/sounds, I'd write'Avwolemono', which
would be pronounced as:
Av      - the 'ove' in love
WO      - the'wo' in won
le      - the 'le' in lemon (this syllable is stressed)
mono    - the'mono' in monopoly


You will need:
Two whole, medium to large chickens (Chicken pieces are OK but make sure
they still have bones, otherwise your stock will have less flavour).
1 to 2 bottles (250 mi) lemon juice (use 1 bottle to start with and add more
if you like the soup 'lemony'
4 to 6 cups of white rice (use 6 cups of rice for a thick soup or use 4 cups
for a 'runnier soup
8 to 12 eggs (The more eggs you use, the frothier the soup becomes)
Salt (this is the 'secret' of the recipe - if insufficient salt is used, the
soup will not taste as good)
Pepper (preferably freshly ground)
,,optional seasonings" - Garlic powder, Onion powder, ground Oregano leaves


Method..
Remove the chicken innards and rinse the chickens well. Put sufficient water
to cover the chickens in the pot and bring to the boil. While waiting for
the water to boil, rub a generous amount of salt - 1 use about a handful per
chicken - all over the chickens. Then sprinkle pepper (and the garlic, onion
and oregano if you're using them) over the chickens. When the water is
boiling, add the chickens and leave to cook on a reduced heat (this
generally takes about 1 - 2 hours).

When the chickens are cooked, put them on a platter to cool. Remove a large
mugful of stock from the pot and leave it to cool. Taste the stock and add
more seasoning if required and then put the rice in the stock to cook. While
waiting for the rice to cook, strip the meat from the chickens. When the
rice is cooked, reduce the heat to a simmer and return the meat to the soup.

As the rice is cooking, test how hot the mugful of stock is - when you can
dip your little finger in it for about 30 seconds without feeling
uncomfortably hot, it is ready. Once you can do this, separate the whites
from the yolks and, in a large bowl, beat the egg whites till they're stiff
(if you dip a spoon in the mixture and the egg white doesn't immediately
fall off the spoon, it is ready). Gently stir in the egg yolks, then the
mugful of stock (this is important as it means the egg mixture is less
likely to curdle when it is put in the soup) and then the lemon juice. Pour
this mixture into the soup - after the rice is cooked - and gently stir it
in (the heat must be on simmer, otherwise the eggs will curdle). After it's
warmed through, taste the soup and add more lemon if required (if it's too
'lemony', add a little more salt).

Serve immediately if you can - if not, the soup must be re-heated on a low
heat (to stop the eggs curdling) and stirred frequently. If you are
re-heating the soup the next day, you may need to add more lemon juice.
Water may also be added if the soup has become too thick.