Cooks in the 1800s often made soup stock and used it for a base, adding various ingredients. Making homemade soup was a necessary skill because commercially prepared soups weren’t readily available until 1869.

That’s when Joseph Campbell and Abraham Anderson began a company to produce canned foods (including soups). This was certainly a convenience!

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

White stock is an especially nice broth having a delicate flavor, made from veal and fowl. If allowed to remain in a cool place, this stock will solidify, and then it may be used as the basis for a jellied meat dish, salad, or soup.

WHITE SOUP STOCK
Five pounds veal
One fowl, three or four pounds
Eight quarts cold water
Two medium-sized onions
Two tablespoons butter
Two stalks celery
One blade mace
Salt
Pepper
Cut the veal and fowl into pieces and add the cold water. Place on a slow fire, and let come gradually to the boiling point. Skim carefully and place where it will simmer gently for six hours. Slice the onions, brown slightly in the butter, and add to the stock with the celery and mace. Salt and pepper to suit taste. Cook one hour longer and then strain and cool. Remove the fat before using.

PLAIN WHITE SOUP
Into an enameled saucepan, put two ounces butter and as it melts, stir in two ounces flour. Add very gradually a breakfast cup of milk, and stir over a slow heat till quite smooth. Add three or four breakfast cups* of white stock, bring slowly to boil and serve.

*breakfast cup – one-half pint or 8 ounces.

VELVET SOUP
Prepare exactly as for Plain White Soup, but just before serving, beat up the yolks of two or three eggs. Add to them a very little cold milk or cream, and then a little of the soup. Pass through a strainer into a hot tureen, strain the rest of the soup, and mix thoroughly.

PARSNIP SOUP
Take one-half pound cooked parsnips or boil the same quantity in salted water till tender. Pass through a sieve and add to a quantity of Plain White Soup. Bring to a boil, and if the sweet taste is objected to, add the strained juice of half a lemon.

TURNIP SOUP
This is made in exactly the same way as Parsnip Soup, substituting young white turnips for the parsnips. Many people will prefer the flavor. A little finely chopped spring onion or chives and parsley would be an improvement to both soups. These—except the parsley—should be boiled separately and added just before serving.

PALESTINE SOUP
Pare and boil two pounds Jerusalem Artichokes in milk and water with a little salt till quite soft. Then pass through a sieve or potato masher, and add to the quantity required of Velvet Soup.

WESTMORELAND SOUP
Put in the soup pot some very plain stock, or water will do quite well. Add one pound lentils, one-half pound onions, a small carrot, a piece of turnip, and a stick or two of celery, all chopped small; also a teacupful of tomatoes. Boil slowly for two hours, pass through a sieve and return to the soup pot. Melt a dessert-spoonful of butter and stir slowly into it twice as much flour, adding gradually a gill* of milk. When quite smooth, add to the soup and stir till it boils.

This is a very good soup and might be preferred by some without straining the vegetables. The lentils might be boiled separately and put through a sieve before adding.

*gill –  four ounces liquid in the U.S. and five ounces in the U.K

CAULIFLOWER SOUP
Make by adding a nice young cauliflower, all green removed, cut in tiny sprigs, and boiled separately to the quantity required of Plain White Soup. The water in which the cauliflower is boiled should be added also.

WHITE HARICOT SOUP
Substitute haricot or butter beans for the cauliflower. These should be slowly cooked till tender and passed through a sieve or masher.

CELERY SOUP
For this, use a large well-blanched head of celery. Either chop small when cooked, or pass through a sieve before adding to White Soup.

ASPARAGUS SOUP
Take a bunch of tender asparagus and set aside the tops. Blanch the stalks in salted boiling water for a minute or two, drain, then simmer till tender in a little milk and water. Pulp through a sieve and add to White Soup when boiling. Cook the tops separately in salted boiling water. Drain and add to soup in the tureen. Tinned asparagus also makes very good soup. It requires little or no cooking, only to be made quite hot. Pulp the stalks and put in tops whole.

The foregoing are all varieties of White Soup and these could be extended indefinitely.

photo from Deposit Photos

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Do you have a favorite soup base you use for home-made soups? Please leave a comment below.

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