Volume 12 , Issue 41

Home Comfort Cookbook - Soup Recipes

Last week we offered our readers some hints of "soups" and "Chowders" from the Wrought Iron Range, 1934 Home Comfort cookbook. Does anyone out there love a bit of "creole" (soup, that is) from time to time? The following recipe for "Creole Soup" came from our Home Comfort cookbook. This is how our ancestors were making creole soup in the 1930s. BUT . . . Wait! Where is the shrimp and other seafood that we might expect in creole today?

Creole Soup

Drop 1/4 cup washed rice in 3 cups boiling water and boil 30 minutes. Fry 1/2 cup chopped onion in 2 Tablespoons bacon grease until tender but not brown; add 2 cups tomato pulp, stew 10 minutes, and rub through strainer into rice and water; season with salt, sugar and paprika or chili to taste; add 1 chopped green pepper or a tablespoon finely chopped parsley if desired; serve with crackers.

Mexican Soup -- Here is a Mexican soup that has something that I have never tried with turnips in it.

Make a stock with a small soup-bone and some fat or from the water in which beef has boiled by adding trimmings or scraps of meat and poultry; to 2 quarts of stock, add 1 each, sliced, large onion, large tomato, small turnip, small carrot, and salt to taste. Simmer for 5 or 6 hours, frequently skimming; about 30 minutes before soup is done, stir thoroughly and add 1 tablespoon chili powder; strain through a sieve; serve.

Ox-Tail Soup -- For those who like a bit of strangeness to your Wintery soups, you might try the recipe below. Oxtail (occasionally spelled ox tail or ox-tail) is the culinary name for the tail of cattle. They sure made do with every little bit, didn't they?

Cleanse and cut 1 ox-tail into joints, put into stew kettle, cover with salted cold water, par-boil, strain off liquid or stock; have ready 1/2 cup finely chopped bacon or ham, and 2 each onions, carrots, small turnips and single stalks of celery, all finely sliced or chopped.

Now, dry each oxtail joint, roll them in flour, and put into a stew pan containing 4 tablespoons hot cooking fat; add bacon and chopped vegetables, and fry all together until brown. Add the strained oxtail stock, 12 whole peppers, 2 cloves, any herbs desired, and season with salt if necessary.

Bring whole to boiling point, skim well, cover with lid, and simmer for about 3-1/2 or 4 hours; strain, remove excess fat, return to kettle, add 1 tablespoon corn-starch beaten into a little milk or wine, stir and cook a few moments. Put in some of the smaller joints of oxtail; serve. Larger joints may be served in brown gravy as meat.

Did you know that the regulation of your oven-heat is one of the big secrets in both roasting and baking. The oven-door of the "Home Comfort" was readily adjustable by means of the "handle" to gradually and properly cool an over heated oven. In hot weather if you objected to the heat escaping into the room, the lowering of the oven-heat may be accomplished by placing a pan of water in the oven until its temperature is just right.

Next week we shall bring you some "Meats and Meat Specials dishes."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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