SC - Easy period soups?

[Bonne of Traquair]

>>think
>>>  of a period soup recipe that is easy and inexpensive to make, and
>>>  would thus be a suitable replacement for a modern dehydrated chicken
>>>  soup?

>Le Menagier has a little section on "unprepared soup," but I don't
>think any of the ones he gives would work for the purpose. The first of the 
>Menagier ones, for example, is:
>
>"Have parsley and fry it in butter, then throw boiling water on it
>and make it boil: and add salt, and garnish as any soup."
>
>That isn't much work, but I doubt that hungry fighters would find it
>very satisfactory.


how about the pea soup recipe from Le Menegier that is given as the first 
recipe in Redon's "The Medieval Kitchen"? It is referred to as MP 159 for 
those who have other references. Redon's version uses

12 oz split peas
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 pinch saffron (optional)
1 cup or more leftover cooked chicken, veal or chicken livers
1 tablespoon good lard
(salt for salting to taste)


and the process (abbreviated):  soak the peas and cook them til crushable, 
salt to taste, drain.  Boil milk, add spices, remove from heat, combine with 
egg so that ht egg does not curdle.  Melt lard and saute meat, salt to 
taste.  Stir egg/milk into peas on low heat til soup is thickened and heated 
through. Serve over meat.

I beleive the entire thing could be converted to a recipe using dried or 
dehydrated ingredients, making an 'instant' version for use in a War Kitchen 
and eliminating the need for perishable food storage.  All of the above 
ingredients are available dried, the peas and dried milk from any grocery, 
the meat and egg can be gotten from a camping supply house. Rather than 
rehydrate and saute the meat, I'd just rehydrate along with the beans and 
cook in the soup.  If dehydrated eggs prove hard to come by, they can be 
skipped since Le Menegier also suggests simply crushing the peas. Powdered 
milk and the spices can be stirred in once the peas and meat are done. (The 
saffron doesn't effect the color and could possibly be a scribal error. I'll 
leave that to His Grace to decide.) Peas do not require a long presoak and 
are suitable for camp cooking with a bit of practice.  Even better, it might 
be possible to purchase a powder of pre-cooked peas. Or, a dedicated cook 
might even experiment with cooking the peas and creating a powder.  A really 
dedicated cook might try cooking all the ingredients except the meat and 
creating a powder'. On-site, the cooks would re-hydarate the meat, then add 
a measured amount of the soup powder.

Bonne

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.