Black Turtle Bean Soup

Pick and wash clean, one quart black turtle beans, soak overnight in three quarts cold water, and put on to boil next morning in the soaking water. When it boils add three onions sliced, one carrot scraped and cut up, a stalk or so of celery, three sprigs of parsley, and one tomato, fresh or canned. Boil slowly four to five hours, until the beans are tender, filling up with cold water as that in the kettle wastes. When the beans are very soft, strain all through a fine collander, mashing through beans and vegetables, add a quart of very good soup stock, also a bay leaf, and boil up hard half a minute before serving. Put into each soup plate a slice of lemon, a slice of hard-boiled egg, and a tablespoonful of sherry wine before adding the soup.

From "Dishes and Beverages of the Old South", by Martha McCulloch-Williams, 1913

Soup Recipes: Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup

* 1 stewing hen, about 4-lbs.
* 4 qts. water
* 1 onion, chopped
* 10 ears corn
* ½ cup celery, chopped with leaves
* 2 hard-boiled eggs
* salt and pepper
* rivels

Put cut-up chicken and onion into the water and cook slowly until tender, add salt. Remove chicken, cut the meat into small (1-inch) pieces and return to broth, together with corn, which has been cut from the cob, celery and seasoning. Continue to simmer. Make rivels by combining 1 cup flour, a pinch of salt, 1 egg and a little milk. Mix well with fork or fingers to form small crumbs. Drop these into the soup, also the chopped, hard-boiled eggs. Boil for 15 minutes longer.

Vegetables Used in Soup-Making

In soup making, the housewife has also a large number of vegetables from which to select, for any vegetable that has a decided flavor may be used. Among those from which soups can be made successfully are cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, corn, onions, turnips, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, beans, peas, lentils, salsify, potatoes, spinach, celery, mushrooms, okra, and even sweet potatoes. These vegetables are used for two purposes: to provide flavoring and to form part of the soup itself as well as to furnish flavor. When they are used simply for flavoring, they are cooked until their flavor is obtained and then removed from the stock. When they are to form part of the soup, as well as to impart flavor, they are left in the soup in small pieces or made into a purée and eaten with the soup.

Attention, too, must be given to the condition of the vegetables that are used in soup. The fresh vegetables that are used should be in perfect condition. They should have no decayed places that might taint or discolor the soups, and they should be as crisp and solid as possible. If they are somewhat withered or faded, they can be freshened by allowing them to stand in cold water for a short time. When dried vegetables are to be used for soup making, they should first be soaked well in cold water and then, before being added to the stock, either partly cooked or entirely cooked and made into a purée.

From the "Woman's Institute Library of Cookery"

Dutch Country Bean Soup

* 1 lb. soup beans
* 1 ham bone
* ½ cup chopped onion
* 1 cup diced celery
* 1 can tomato sauce
* ½ cup diced potatoes
* 2 tsp. minced parsley
* salt and pepper

Soak beans in water overnight. Drain, add fresh water and cook slowly with the ham bone for 2 hours. Put in the onion, celery, potatoes, tomato sauce, parsley and the salt and pepper and simmer until vegetables are soft. Remove the ham bone, trim off any meat, cut it up and add to soup. Many Pennsylvania Dutch cooks cut up hard boiled eggs and add them to the soup.

Soup Recipes: Household Stock

3 qt. cold water
3 lb. meat (trimmings of fresh meat, bones, and tough pieces from roasts, steaks, etc.)
1 medium-sized onion
4 cloves
6 peppercorns
Herbs
Salt
Pepper

Pour the cold water over the meat and bones and put them on the fire to cook. When they come to a boil skim well. Then cover and simmer 4 to 6 hours. Add the onion, cloves, peppercorns, and herbs and cook for another hour. Add salt and pepper to taste. Strain and set aside to cool. Remove the fat.

Potato Soup II

2 lbs. of potatoes, 1/2 stick of celery or the outer stalks of a head of celery, saving the heart for table use; 1 large Spanish onion, 1 pint of milk, 1 oz. of butter, a heaped up tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, and pepper and salt to taste.

Peel, wash, and cut in pieces the potatoes, peel and chop roughly the onion, prepare and cut in small pieces the celery. Cook the vegetables in three pints of water until they are quite soft. Rub them through a sieve, return the fluid mixture to the saucepan; add the milk, butter, and seasoning, and boil the soup up again; if too thick add more water. Mix the parsley in the soup just before serving.

Soup Recipes: Homemade Stock

Six pounds of shin of beef, or six pounds of knuckle of veal; any bones, trimmings of poultry, or fresh meat; one-quarter pound of lean bacon or ham, two ounces of butter, two large onions, each stuck with cloves; one turnip, three carrots, one head of celery, two ounces of salt, one-half teaspoonful of whole pepper, one large blade of mace, one bunch of savory herbs except sage, four quarts and one-half-pint of cold water.

Cut up the meat and bacon, or ham, into pieces of about three inches square; break the bones into small pieces, rub the butter on the bottom of the stewpan; put in one-half a pint of water, the broken bones, then meat and all other ingredients. Cover the stewpan, and place it on a sharp fire, occasionally stirring its contents. When the bottom of the pan becomes covered with a pale, jelly-like substance, add the four quarts of cold water, and simmer very gently for five or six hours. As we have said before, do not let it boil quickly. When nearly cooked, throw in a tablespoonful of salt to assist the scum to rise. Remove every particle of scum whilst it is doing, and strain it through a fine hair sieve; when cool remove all grease. This stock will keep for many days in cold weather.