Blog

Peel and slice a quart bowl of potatoes with 2 or 3 onions, and boil tender; stir 3 tablespoons of flour into cold water, and add to the potatoes, with butter the size of an egg; pour in water sufficient for 4 quarts of soup, and season with pepper and salt to the taste. Add a pint of dry bread or biscuit, boil a few moments, and serve.

(You can find the original recipe in the facsimile copy reproduced in Tom Kelchner’s new book The Story of the 1881 Cumberland Valley Cook and General Recipe Book)

Are you supposed to add vegetables and they forgot that step? Were people so poor they couldn’t afford anything green? I mean, I guess technically onions and potatoes are vegetables but I’m not going to get my hopes up. I’m going to reduce this recipe because I just can’t see it looking good. 4 cups in a quart, so my new version is:

1 cup potatoes

half an onion

2 teaspoons flour

A quarter, uh, “egg” of butter?

1 quart of water

1/2 C of dry biscuit or bread

Oh, and I guess extra water in the first step to boil the potatoes and onions. I have red potatoes and red onions. You know what? I’m not even going to peel the potatoes, the peels are great. If I get pink soup, well, at least it’ll be fun.

This smells pretty good, and maybe it is basic but seems to taste fine.

Rating 1/5 stars. The breadcrumbs thickened this up and made it “creamy”, but the texture was gross. I don’t know if breadcrumbs was a mistake or if this was the intended texture. I think this would have gotten a higher rating without that last step.

Reviews – No one else was around to try this and I’m not sad for them. I pulled it out of the fridge next day and the onions were blue. I couldn’t do it. It went straight out to the chicks, they ate it all up. (Chickens will eat anything).

– Rachael Zuch of Zuch Design