204. French Cabbage Soup

The Modern Housewife · Soyer, Alexis · 1849

Source: The Modern Housewife
Status: success · extracted 12 days ago
Not a recipe: No

Ingredients (15)

a gallon of water ↝ Water, tap [Tap water]
two pounds of streaky pickled pork or bacon, whichever most convenient ↝ Pork, pickled pork hocks [Pork Products]
a couple of pounds of white cabbage, cut in strips (using every part but the stalk, and previously well washed) ↝ Cabbage, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
two large onions ↝ Onions, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a carrot ↝ Carrots, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a turnip ↝ Turnips, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a head of celery ↝ Celery, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a little black pepper ↝ Spices, pepper, black [Spices and Herbs]
brown sugar ↝ Sugars, brown [Sweets]
salt, if required ↝ Salt, table, iodized [Spices and Herbs]
about one pound of bread ↝ Bread, vegetable [Yeast breads]

optional additions

A few mealy potatoes ↝ Potatoes, raw, skin [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a quart of large green peas ↝ Peas, green, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
a pint of dry split peas ↝ Split peas, from dried, no added fat [Beans, peas, legumes]

maigre version

a quarter of a pound of butter ↝ Butter, stick, unsalted [Dairy and Egg Products]

Instructions (8)

Put a gallon of water into a saucepan, with two pounds of streaky pickled pork or bacon, whichever most convenient, to which add a couple of pounds of white cabbage, cut in strips (using every part but the stalk, and previously well washed), two large onions, a carrot, a turnip, and a head of celery.
Let the whole boil three or four hours, until the pork is tender, skimming off all the fat.
Season with a little black pepper, brown sugar, and salt, if required (which is not very frequently the case, the pork or bacon generally being sufficiently so).
Lay slices of bread in your tureen (about one pound), pour the soup over.
Keep the tureen covered ten minutes, until the bread is soaked, and it is ready to serve.
The pork or bacon may be either served separate or cut into small square pieces, and served in the soup.

Maigre version

Omit the pork or bacon, adding more vegetables of all kinds, and a quarter of a pound of butter.
Where they have nothing else but cabbage, they make it only of that.

Original Text

204. French Cabbage Soup.—This is a soup very much in vogue amongst the middle classes of the French people; it is very economical, and may satisfy a numerous family at a trifling expense. Put a gallon of water into a saucepan, with two pounds of streaky pickled pork or bacon, whichever most convenient, to which add a couple of pounds of white cabbage, cut in strips (using every part but the stalk, and previously well washed), two large onions, a carrot, a turnip, and a head of celery; let the whole boil three or four hours, until the pork is tender, skimming off all the fat, season with a little black pepper, brown sugar, and salt, if required (which is not very frequently the case, the pork or bacon generally being sufficiently so), lay slices of bread in your tureen (about one pound), pour the soup over; keep the tureen covered ten minutes, until the bread is soaked, and it is ready to serve. The pork or bacon may be either served separate or cut into small square pieces, and served in the soup. A few mealy potatoes are sometimes introduced, or a quart of large green peas, or a pint of dry split peas. You must observe that vegetables in France are much more used than in this country, as there are but few poor people there who do not possess a little garden, in which they grow their own.

It is also frequently made maigre by omitting the pork or bacon, adding more vegetables of all kinds, and a quarter of a pound of butter, and frequently where they have nothing else but cabbage, they make it only of that; now setting all national feeling aside respecting the poverty of their meals, I have known strong healthy men make a hearty meal of it, preferring it to meat, of which they scarcely ever partake.

Notes

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