SC - Easy period soups?
Bonne of Traquair
oftraquair at hotmail.com
Sat Sep 30 23:56:33 PDT 2000
>>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
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