Cream of Potato Soup - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Recipe Card)

Potatos are a large portion of the British diet.  Yet essentially they are a really boring vegetable, tasteless and a pain to prepare.  Why do we like them so much? Because they accompany most dishes without obliterating the flavour, they make are softly spoken and don't offend anyone.  Which makes me realise that when they become the main focus of a meal, you have to make sure you put plenty of zing in to it.

Luckily for us, there are lots of cool potato recipes that do just this.  In this recipe, onions and seasoning provide the backbone of the flavour.

Lobster Chowder - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Recipe Card)

There is a distinct lack of seafood recipes on this blog.  The main reason is that I don't really do seafood, and the idea of it makes me turn a little green.

But, I know that the hundreds (HAHAHA) of emails and comments that I get on this blog each week do request that I do a few more seafood related posts.  So here is one... and as we're on a theme of soups and chowders today, this one is quite apt.

Ham and Bean Supper Chowder - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Recipe Card)

The temperature has dropped here in Exeter.  And now is the perfect time to start looking at Soup and Chowder recipes for an instant hot savory fix.

Nettle Soup - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Recipe Cards)

For someone that writes about food, has a general preoccupation with culinary matters and mixes with those who have brilliant gastronomic taste, I have very crude food tastes.  And the idea of Nettle Soup doesn't really do anything for me, despite the majority of people who I have spoken to over the years who have said how nice it is.

I encourage you to give it a go.  If it is nice, tell me and it might encourage me even more to go and pick some and see what happens!  Nettles are a free and abundant plant, but be careful you pick from a spot that you know has not been treated with weed killer.

Bulgarian Peasants Daily Soup (1930s)

This recipe is taken from Recipes Rare from Everywhere, published in 1930 by Pauline Quirin Peto which I haven't really looked at properly.  It is available on Amazon and contains a whole load of weird and classic recipes.
It reminds me of the Peasants Revolt, cunningly I found a picture that depicted it, so here you go. Yeah, I know its an English thing, but you have to get in to the spirit!

So what do you need to tell that the Peasants are revolting? Boom boom.

Ingredients:
3 Pimentos
6 Tomatoes
4 Onions
2 Leeks
The hearts of 3 small cabbages
3 teacupfuls of haricot beansHerbs

The Haricot Beans need to have been cooked [boiled] the day before to the point of being nearly boiled enough but not quite.

1. Cut up all ingredients, not very fine (except the beans), add 3 or 4 spoonfuls of butter.  Let the mixture cook but not brown.

2. When the vegetables have begin to soften, pour 1 quart of any meat stock over them and let the mixture simmer for half an hour. Remove any scum.

3. Have a quantity of boiling water ready, just enough for six full plates of soup in a saucepan.

4. Stir in the mixture well and drop in the Haricot beans, 2 spoonfuls of tomato sauce and a teacupful of rice, already cooked.

5. Stir it up well and cook further for another quarter of an hour and serve hot with grated cheese.

Victorian Limpet Soup - (1867)

This recipe appears in the book 'The edible mollusks of Great Britain and Ireland, with recipes for cooking them' by MJ Lovell, published in 1867.  It is a free eBook that is available from Google Books, and freely downloadable from from Google Books if you have a mobile device.  This book covers what sort of shelled creatures you can get away with eating in the UK.

The quantities for this bizarre recipe are very much up to you.  But I would urge you to have a go, just make sure that you don't strip the landscape of Limpets, as that would be selfish and destructive.
Limpet Soup 

1. Wash them and free the shells from seaweed etc put them into a saucepan and parboil them. 

2. Take them out of the shells chop up some parsley and put it with a tablespoonful of oil or an ounce of lard or butter into a saucepan and fry until it becomes brown 

3. Add a pint of water and when boiling throw in the limpets with a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce some pepper and boil again for half an hour or if preferred stew them before putting them into the soup.

Peanut Butter Soup - 1960s

This evening I came across a set of recipe cards that my Aunt has had for, quite literally, years.  They are nearly all 1967 published and in mint condition.

I am, sadly, very very happy and intend to bring you some of the finest recipes from this massive collection which is going to take up half of my desk, as I have nowhere else to put it.

So the first recipe that I am going to bring from this monster box of goodies is Peanut Butter Soup, and it is filed in the 'Picnics' section.

The cooking time for this strange dish is 15 minutes, it should take 15 minutes to prepare and for this you'll need a frying pan and saucepan.  The recipe makes enough for four people.

1oz/25g butter
1oz/25g flour
half a pint / 275 ml milk
a bay leaf
2 - 3 oz / 50 - 75g peanut butter
1 pint/ generous half litre of chicken stock
OR water and stock cubes
Seasoning

To garnish: croutons.

1. Heat the butter in the pan, then stir in the flour and cook for several minutes, stirring well.
2. Remove from heat, stir in the milk then bring to the boil and cook until smooth and thick, again stirring to keep the sauce smooth. Add the bay leaf.
3.Put the peanut butter into a basin gradually blend in a little of the warm sauce, then return to the pan, adding the stock and seasoning.
4. Meanwhile prepare the croutons for this dice bread and fry in hot butter until crisp and golden brown.

To Carry: Pour the soup into a warmed vacuum flask.  Put the croutons into a screw topped jar, Take cups or soup bowls.

To Vary: Many other home made or canned soups are ideal for a picnic and by mixing various canned soups you have interesting flavours.

Mushroom Soup - 1930's

Don't eat these mushrooms, buy them from a shop.

Its cold outside, the perfect soup weather.  Mushrooms have an earthy savory flavour that is perfect in a soup, and added with onion and scattered with some lovely crispy croutons, you're on to a satisfying vintage recipe your grandmother would have loved, assuming she liked mushrooms.
We now have pre-made croutons available to us, so a quick fix is available.  But in my opinion you cannot beat home made croutons.

2 pints of white stock
1lb mushrooms
2 eggs
1 Spanish onion
1 dessertspoonful of flour
A little milk
A little cream
salt and pepper
Croutons of fried bread.

1. Wash the mushrooms and chop them up.   Chop up the onion finely then bring the stock to the boil.
2. Add the mushroom and onion then boil for half an hour.
3. Pass all through a tammy or a fine hair sieve.  Add a dessertspoonful of flour mixed into a smooth paste with a little milk and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Boil up again, and just before serving remove teh soup from the fire and add the yolks of two eggs beaten up in a little cream.  Do not let the soup boil after adding the eggs, just enough to thicken the soup.
Serve with croutons.