About soup Why do they call it soup? Why do we "eat" rather than "drink" soup? Soup to nuts? Soup's on! stock, broth & bouillion dry soup mix

bisque borscht chowder cioppino cock-a-leekie consomme French onion soup gazpacho goulash gumbo Italian wedding soup Senate bean soup Vichyssoise

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Soup

Food historians tell us the history of soup is probably as old as the history of cooking. The act of combining various ingredients in a large pot to create a nutritious, filling, easily digested, simple to make/serve food was inevitable. This made it the perfect choice for both sedentary and travelling cultures, rich and poor, healthy people and invalids. Soup (and stews, pottages, porridges, gruels, etc.) evolved according to local ingredients and tastes. New England chowder, Spanish gazpacho, Russian borscht, Italian minestrone, French onion, Chinese won ton and Campbell's tomato...are all variations on the same theme.

Soups were easily digested and were prescribed for invalids since ancient times. The modern restaurant industry is said to be based on soup. Restoratifs (wheron the word "restaurant" comes) were the first items served in public restaurants in 18th century Paris. Broth [Pot-au-feu], bouillion, and consomme entered here. Classic French cuisine generated many of the soups we know today.

Advancements in science enabled soups to take many forms...portable, canned, dehydrated, microwave-ready. "Pocket soup" was carried by colonial travellers, as it could easily be reconstituted with a little hot water. Canned and dehydrated soups were available in the 19th century. These supplied the military, covered wagon trains, cowboy chuck wagons, and the home pantry. Advances in science also permitted the adjustment of nutrients to fit specific dietary needs (low salt, high fiber, etc.).

"Cereals, roasted to make them digestible and then ground and moistened or diluted with water to make a paste, either thick or thin, did not become gruel or porridge until people had the idea and means of cooking them. They may initially have been cooked by hot stones in receptacles of natural substances, and then in utensils which could go straight over the fire. Soup, in fact, derives from sop or sup, meaning the sliced of bread on which broth was poured. Until bread was invented, the only kind of thick soup was a concoction of grains, or of plants and meat cooked in a pot. Gruel or porridge was thus a basic food, a staple from of nourishment, and long held that place in Western countries, for in practice bread was a luxury eaten only in towns. A thick porridge of some kind is still the staple food of many peoples, and it is not always made of cereals, but may consist of other starch foods: legumes, chestnuts or root vegetables."
---Food in History, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 177)

"Soup...This category included liquid foods for invalids, such as beaten egg, barley and emmer gruel...and the water from boiling pulses, vegetables or other foods...soups or purees made from vegetables or fruits...broth made with meal of legumes or cereals with added animal fat...and soup in the usual modern English sense, based on meat and vetetables...Medicinal spices and herbs might be added to these various soups, especially if they were intended for invalids as part of a prescribed diet."
---Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 307)

"Soups. General Observations. The culinary preparations included in this section are of fairly recent origin in their present form, dating from only the early part of the 19th century. Soups of the old classical kitchen were in fact complete dishes in themselves and contained, apart from the liquid content and its vegetable garnish, a wide variety of meat, poultry, game and fish. It is only the liquid part of these classical dishes which has retained the name of soup. Examples of old style of soup which still survive are the Flemish Hochepot, the Spanish Oilles and the French Petite Marmite...On this point as on many others, culinary art owes much to Careme...."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A. Escoffier, first translation of Le Guide Culinaire [1903] by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1979 (p. 65)
[NOTE: Escoffier's notes regarding soup classification and serving are also contained in this book.]

Why the word "soup?"
"The etymological idea underlying the word soup is that of soaking. It goes back to an unrecorded post-classical Latin verb suppare soak', which was borrowed from the same prehistoric German root (sup-) as produced in English sup and supper. From it was derived the noun suppa, which passed into Old French as soupe. This meant both piece of bread soaked in liquid' and, by extension, broth poured onto bread.' It was the latter strand of the meaning that entered English in the seventeenth century. Until the arrival of the term soup, such food had been termed broth or pottage. It was customarily served with the meat or vegetable dishes with which it had been made, and (as the dreivation of soup suggest) was poured over sops of bread or toast (the ancestors of modern croutons). But coincident with the introduction of the world soup, it began to be fashionable to serve the liquid broth on its own, and in the early eighteenth century it was assuming its present-day role as a first course."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 316)

"Our modern word "soup" derives from the Old French word sope and soupe. The French word was used in England in the in the form of sop at the end of the Middle Ages and, fortunately, has remained in the English language in its original form and with much its original sense. We say "fortunately" because it is clear that nowadays a "sop" is not a "soup." The distinction is important. When cooks in the Middle Ages spoke of "soup," what they and the people for whom they were cooking really understood was a dish comprising primarily a piece of bread or toast soaked in a liquid or over which a liquid had been poured. The bread or toast was an important, even vital, part of this dish. It was a means by which a diner could counsume the liquid efficiently by sopping it up. The bread or toast was, in effect, an alternative to using a spoon...Soups were important in the medieval diet, but the dish that the cook prepared was often a sop that consisted of both nutritious liquid and the means to eat it. The meal at the end of a normal day was always the lighter of the two meals of the day, and the sop appears to have had an important place in it. In fact it was precisely because of the normal inclusion of a sop in this end-of-the-day meal that it became called "souper" or "supper."
---Early French Cookery, D. Eleanor Scully & Terence Scully [University of Michigan Press:Ann Arbor] 1995 (p. 102)

"Soup. The most general of the terms which apply to liquid savory dishes...Similar terms in other languages include the Italian zuppa, the German Suppe, Danish suppe, etc. Of the various categories of the dish which may be eaten, soup can certainly be counted among the most basic...Its role...as an appetizing first course should be viewed against the historical background, in which soups with solids in them were a meal in themselves for poorer people, especially in rural areas..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 735)
[NOTE: This book has separate historical entries on several popular soups. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

Why do we "eat" rather than "drink" soup?
Etiquette experts tell us we "eat," rather than "drink" soup because it is considered part of the meal. Additionally, in most cultures soup is consumed with a spoon rather than sipped from the container. Consistency (clear broth, chunky chicken vegetable, creamy cold cucumber), preparation (puree, reduction, simmer, dried), and ingredients (meat, vegetable, strarch, dairy, fruit) do no factor into this particular equation.

"The liquid element in a meal is either placed first and "eaten" as a soup, with a spoon, or it is poured over the solids as sauces, gravies, creams, or syrups. The accompanying drink is kept separate, standing outside the meal: literally standing in a high glass, and literally outside, beyond the cutlery fence bounding the "place."...We...carry the liquid in our beer and wineglasses directly to our mouths." ---The Rituals of Dinner, Margaret Visser [Penguin Books:New York] 1991 (P. 242)

CULTURE/CUISINE VARIATIONS
You can study these by examining current and historic cuisine-specific cookbooks. Here you will find popular/traditional recipes. Some of these books also contain historic notes. Books concentrating on specific eras/countries (classical Greece, Medieval Europe, 19th century Russia, etc.) are good for background. Reay Tannahill's Food in History is an excellent place to learn about the prehistoric origins of cooking. If you are a culinary student check your school's library. It most likely has the books you need to complete this assignment. If you need help identifying books written on a specific place/time we can provide you with titles. Your librarian can arrange to obtain them for you. Sorry, we do not find a comprehensive book covering the history of all soups in all places through time.

SPECIFIC SOUP TYPES
Looking for a case study? We recommend Andrew F. Smith's Souper Tomatoes. This informative book tracks the origin and evolution of tomato soup. It also includes historic recipes.

SoupSong is a culinary delight of facts, fiction, and trivia.

The difference and connection between stock, broth, bouillon, and consomme is complicated. It helps sometimes to start with definitions:

ABOUT STOCK
"Stock. Etymologically, stock is simply something one keeps a stock of for use. Nowadays usually conveniently conjured up by adding water to a commercial preparation (the term stock cube is not recorded until as recently as the 1960s; American English still prefers the more refined-sounding bouillon cube, which dates from the 1930s), stock is traditionaly the product of a pot kept constantly simmering on the hob, to which odds and ends of meat, bones vegetables, etc. are added from time to time to keep up a continuous stock for flavoury broth as a basis for soups, stews, sauces, etc...In practice, few households or restaurants have the sort of constantly available source of low heat necessary for this perpetually self-renewing stockpot, and most stock is made afresh in individual batches as needed."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 325)

[1869]
"General stock, or Grand Bouillon, is the principle of all the soups and sauces which follow; it is used instead of water, to which it is much to be preferred. General Stock is made with legs of beef, knuckles of veal, and any fresh meat trimmings and bones. Cut all the meat from the bones; break them; and put them, together with the meat, in a stock-pot, with about 2 1/2 pints of cold water to each pound of bones and meat; and add a little salt, and put on the fire to boil; skim carefully; and put in some carrots, onions, and leeks; simmer for five hours; strain the Stock through a broth napkin, into a basin, and keep it in a cold palce, till wanted."
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, Translated from the Fench and Adapated for English Use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 226)

[1875]
"Stock is the bassis of all meat sauces, soups, and purees. It is really the juice of meat extracted by long and gentle simmering, and in making it, should be remembered that the object to be aimed at is to draw the goodness out of the materials into the liquor. It may be prepared in various ways, richly and expensively, or economically, and recipes for all modes are given in this work. All general stock, or stock which is to be used for miscellaneous purposes, should be simply made, that is, all flavoring ingredients should be omitted entirely until its use is decided upon. The stock will then keep longer than it would do if vegetables, herbs, and spices were boiled in it, besides which the flavouring can be adapted to its special purpose. To ensure its keeping, stock should be boiled and skimmed every day in summer, and every other day in winter. The pan and the lid used in making it should be scrupulously clean. A tinned iron pan is the best for the purpose. Those who need to practise economy will do well to procure a digester, which is a kind of stock-pot made with the object of retaining the goodness of the materials, and preventing its escape in steam. When ready, stock should be poured into an earthenware pan, and left uncovered until it is cold. It should on no account be allowed to cool in a metal pan. Before being used, every particle of fat which has settled on the surface should be removed, and the liquor should be poured off free from sediment. A few years ago it was customary for cooks to make stock with fresh meat only, the rule being a pound of meat to a pint of stock. Altered prices have necessitated the adoption of more economical methods, and now excellent stock is constantly made with the bones and trimmings of meat and poultry, with the addition or not of a little fresh meat, or a portion of Liebig's Extract of Meat. In a house where meat is regularly used, a good cook will never be without a little stock. Broken remnants of all kinds will find their way to the stock-pot, and will not be thrown away untily, by gentle stewing, they have been made to yield to the utmost whatever of fresh meat is used it is better for being freshly killed. The liquor is which fresh meat has been boiled should always be used as stock."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875? (p. 924-5)
[NOTE: This book contains general notes on the prinicples of stock as well as several recipes.]

Recommended reading
Pickled, Potted, and Canned/Sue Shepard "Concentrates" (p. 175-184)
---notes on stock, bouillion, portable soup & Liebig

ABOUT BROTH
"Etymologically, broth is that which has been brewed'; the word comes ultimately from the same prehistoric Germanic source as modern English brew. From earliest times it was used for the liquid in which something is boiled', and the something' could be vegetable as well as animal...By the seventeenth century it was becoming largely restricted to the liquid in which meat is boiled', and more particularly to a thin soup made from this with the addition of vegetables, cereal grains, etc. (the term Scotch broth dates from at least the early eighteenth century)...The proverb "Too many cooks spoil the broth' is first recorded in Sir Balthazar Gerbier's Three Chief Principals of Magnificent Building, 1665."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 44)

"Broth. A term which usually means the liquid in which meat has been cooked or a simple soup based thereon. It is a close equivalent to the French bouillon and the Italian brodo, but difference between the evolution of cookery in English-speaking countries and those of the cuisines which use other languages have give it...a flavour of its own. The word comes from a root which means simply to brew, without specifying the presence of meat, and there are early examples of broths made with just vegetables...However, for several centuries, broth has usually implied meat. It has also been prominent in invalid cookery...It could be said that broth occupies an intermediate position between stock and soup. A broth (e.g. chicken broth) can be eaten as is, whereas a stock (e.g. chicken stock) would normally be consumed only as an ingredient in something more complex. A soup, on the other hand, would usually be less simple, more finished', than a broth."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 108-9)

ABOUT COURT BOUILLON
"Court bouillon. A court bouillon (in French literally short bouillon') is a light stock used mainly for poaching fish or shellfish in. It is made from water and the usual mixture of stock vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) and herbs, with the optional addition of white wine or (particularly for freshwater fish) vinegar. The term has been used in English texts since the early eighteenth century, but Eliza Acton in her Modern Cookery (1845) made it clear that cooking with court bouillon was still far from an everyday event: court bouillon--a preparation of vegetables and wine, in which (in expensive cookery) fish is boiled.'"
---An A to Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 92-3)

"Court buillon. A flavored liquid intended for the cooking of eggs, vegetables, or seafood, and in use in France and elsewhere for many centuries. In modern times its use is reserved almost exclusively for seafood, especially fish..In early Englsih cookery books the term is ofent spelled strange ways, e.g. courbolion (May, 1685). However, there was little difference between early English recipes and early French ones. La Varenne...gave several recipes for fish cooked in a court bouillon...Stobart (1980) points out that: "Meats and vegetables are less often cooked court-bouillon for an obvious reason. A court-bouillon is prepared in advance by boiling the flavouring ingredients before the food it put in to cook. This is necessary with fish, and shell fish, as they spend only a short time in the cooking liquid. But the meats and vegetables, which take longer to cook, the flavouring materials can usually be boiled while the food is cooking.""
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 220)

Ude's recipe, 1828

"Court Buillion.
Take three carrots, four onions, six shallots, and two roots of parsley, which pick and wash. Mince them. Put a small lump of butter into a stew-pan, with the above roots, and fry them till they begin to get brown. Moisten next with two bottles of red wine, a bottle of water, a handful of salt, some whole pepper-corns, and a bunch of parsley and green onions, seasoned with thyme, bay leaves, sweet basil, cloves, &c. Let the whole stew for an hour, and then strain it through a sieve, to use as occasion may require. If you should have no wine, put In some vinegar. The court-bouillon is better after having served sevearal times than on the first day. It is a famous thing for stewing fish."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, [1828] facsimile Englished reprint [Arco:New York]1978 (p. 257)

Soup mix, as we Americans know it today, descends from portable soups consumed by explorers, soldiers, and travelers for hundreds of years. Rehydration is a simple and economical way to serve hot nourishment when standard recipes are not possible.

A survey of historic American newspaper articles and food history sources confirm dried soup mixes were introduced to the general consumer in the 1930s. The market blossomed in the 1940s, when several companies agressively promoted a variety of flavors to busy housewives. The hook? Convenience (quick, easy), economics (mixes were inexpensive) and versatility (mixes could be used to create sauces for casseroles, gravies for meats/vegetables, and dips for snacks).

Of all these products, the most famous is Lipton's Onion Soup Mix. Why? In the early 1950s a recipe for California Dip, combining this product with sour cream, caught the attention of the American palate. This classic dip is still beloved by many today.

ABOUT DRY SOUP MIXES

"A new branch in the food industry has spring up rapidly since the start of the year and is beginning to contribute some funds to advertising. It is the soup mix business and at the rate companies are entering the field there will be at least a dozen contenders by the end of the year. The Thomas J. Lipton Company appeared to have started the parade earlier this year with numerous test campaigns on Contintental Noodle Soup mix in newspapers. Since that time General Mills, with its Betty Crocker noodle soup mix, Skinner and Eddy Corporation with its Minute Man vegetable, noodle and chicken flavor rice soup mixes and Dainty Food Manufacturers, Inc., a Kraft Cheese affiliate, with its Dainty noodle soup mix, have all entered the lists. These three companies are all using newspapers and radio to test comapigns in various cities."
---"Advertising News and Notes," New York Times, June 10, 1941 (p. 39)

"Manufacturers of dehydrated soups have formed an organization sponsored by the Grocery Manufactures of America to handle the industry's problems and have elected L.J. Gumpert, director of sales of B.T. Baggitt, Inc., as chairman. The group will be known as the Soup Mix Manufacturers. Mr. Gumpert said sales in the industry have jumped from $300,000 in 1939 to an estimated $40,000,000 for this year."
---"Heads New Association of Soup Dehydrators," New York Times, April 22, 1943 (p. 35)

How much did these early soups cost? These prices were advertised by Gimbel's Department Store, New York Times, November 7, 1943 (p. 23)

"Dainty Onion soup mix, 4 portions, .10
Lipton's noodle soup mix, .08
Lipton's pea soup mix, .09
Lipton's black bean soup mix, .09

ABOUT CALIFORNIA DIP

Combinations of onions and sour cream have been enjoyed by Northern European peoples for centuries. This 20th century dip was the brainchild of a visionary housewife who took dry soup mix to the next level.

"This may not be "the mother of all dips," but it is surely America's most beloved. The Lipton Company, whos dry onion soup mix is the basis of California Dip, doesn't claim to have invented it. That distinction belongs to an anyonymous California cook, who blended sour cream with the soup mix back in 1954--two years after it hit the market. Word of the new dip spread through Los Angeles faster than a canyon fire, newspapers printed the recipe, onion soup mix sales soared, and Lipton executives, a continent away in New Jersey, were ecstatic. They tracked down the recipe, perfected it, and beginning in 1958, printed it on every box of Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix."
---American Century Cook Book, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 24)

"Imagination and ingenuity go hand-in-hand when you are planning a party menu. And the canapes you serve to whet guests' appetites should be given free rein on both counts. Here is a delightful development in the 'dunk and dip' department that will have the crowd pleasing their crackers for more. It is an original hors d'oeuvres that combines a package of onion soup mix and a pint of sour cream, both available at the corner grocery store. And it takes but a minute to mix--happy news for the harried hostess! She can either mix it up at the last minute or make it a bit before the party and then tuck it away in the refrigerator. This mixture should be kept chilled until you use it. To make a sizeable bowl of this delicacy called "California Dip," stir a package of onion soup mix, just as it comes from the package, into a pint of commercial sour cream and blend thoroughly. Place the bowl in the center of a big round wooden platter and surround it with a piquant variety of cheese crackers, corn chips, melba toast and potato chips. Give it a gay garnish or snipped parsley for looks and serve with a flourish. This basic recipe can also be varied by blending a three-ounce package of cream cheese thoroughly with the onion soup mix and half-pint of sour cream. The subtle blend of flavors and creamy consistency make this dip a delightful beginning to the rest of the menu. Try it once and see how it adds to yoru laurels as a hostess.

California Dip
1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 pint commercial sour cream
Stir Lipton Onion Soup Mix just as it comes from the package into sour cream and blend thoroughly. Use as a dip for potato chips, corn chips, crackers or melba toast. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Philadelphia Spread
1 package Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 pint commercial sour cream
3 oz. package cream cheese
Allow cream cheese to soften. Stir in Lipton Onion Soup Mix (just as it comes from the package) and sour cream, then blend well. Use as a spread for crackers, melba toast, or your favorite wafers."

Culinary evidence confirms early bisque recipes did indeed include pulverized shells of the featured crustacean. Bisque descended from pottage, a thick soupy mixture often consistent with puree. Most early recipes call for "crayfish," which denotes what we Amerians currently know as "rock lobster." Notes here.

"Bisque is a thick rich soup, usually containing crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, and crayfish. The word was originally borrowed into English from French as bisk in the mid-seventeenth century, at which time it still retained an early application, since lost, to soup made from poultry or game birds, particularly pigeons'. It is not clear where the word came from, although some have linked it with the Spanish province of Biscay."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 29-30)

"Bisque. A rich soup of creamy consistency, especially of crayfish or lobster. An earlier use, for soups of game birds, has fallen into disusetude. Wine and/or cognac often enter into the recipes. When the word was first adopted from the French language, it came over as bisk', and it thus appears in The Accomplisht Cook of Robert May (1685). His recipes, incidentally, illustrate the wider use of the term in his time. He gives two recipes for Bisk of Carp, both involving many ingredients and having plenty of solid matter in them. And his Bisk of Eggs sound even more surprising to modern ears."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidison [Oxford Universtiy Press:Oxfod] 1999 (p. 77)

Tomato bisque? Not exactly accurate, per Larouuse Gastronomique

"Bisque...A seasoned shellfish puree flavoured with white wine, Cognac and double (heavy) cream, used as the basis of a soup. The flesh of the main ingredient (crayfish, lobster or crab) is diced as for salpicon and used as a garnish. The shells are also used to make the initial puree. The word 'bique' has been in use for centuries and suggests a connection with the Spanish provice of Vizcaya, which lends its name to the Bay of Biscay. Bisque was originally used to decribe a highly spiced dish of boiled meat or game. Subsequently, bisques were made using pigeons or quails and garnished with crayfish or cheese croutes. It was not until the 17th century that crayfish became the principal ingredient of this dish, which soon after was also prepared with other types of shellfish. The word is now used imprecisely for several pink pureed soups."
---Larousse Gatronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New YOrk] 2001 (p. 115-6)

HISTORIC SAMPLER OF BISQUE RECIPES

[1753]
"Potage of Crawfish.
Cleanse your Crawfish, and seeth them with wine and vinegar, salt and pepper. After they are sod, pick the feet and taile, and fry them with very fresh butter and a little parsley. Then take the bodies of your Crawfishes, and stamp them in a mortar with an onion, hard eggs, and crums of a loaf. Set them in stoving with some good herb broth or some other; if you will use pease porridge it must be very clear. After it is boiled, strain all together; after it is strianed set it before the fire. Then take some butter with a little minced parsley and fry it; then put into your broth well seasoned, and stove it with your dry crusts, covered with a dish or a plate. Put also on your bread a little of a hash of Carp, and juice of Mushrums; fill up your dish, and garnish it with your feet and tails lf Crawfish, with Pomegranate and juice ot Lemon, and serve."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre, La Varenne, translated into English in 1653 by I.D.G., with an introduction by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 121-2)

[1869]
"Crayfish Soup, or Bisque
Put 40 crayfish in a stewpan, with:
1 bottle Sauterene,
1 sliced onion
1 sliced carrot,
5 sprigs of parsley,
1 small pinch of cayenne pepper;
1 small sprig of thyme,
1 bay leaf,
1/2 oz. Of salt,
1 pinch of pepper
Boil for ten minutes; tossing the crayfish to cook them evenly; when done, take off the tails; free them of shell, and reserve them, to add to the soup. Put by the shells and the claws, to make the crayfish butter. Put the insides of the crayfish in the liquor in which they have been boiled; add 2 quarts of consomme, and 2 French rolls, previously cut in slices and dried in the oven, without being coloured; put the stewpan on the fire, and simmer for one hour; then pass the whole through a tammy-cloth, and pour the soup into another stewpan; stir over the fire till boiling takes place, and simmer for ten minutes; Prepare some crayfish butter in the following manner:-- Put the shells and claws of the crayfish in a mortar; pound them well; add 1/4 lb. Of butter, and, when well mixed together put in a closed bain-marie placed in a stewpan half full of boiling water; boil thus for one hour; then press the butter through a broth napkin into a basin of cold water; when the butter is set, take it off the water; drain, and dry it with a cloth, and pass it through a fine hair sieve add a fourth part of the butter to 1/4 lb. Of Whiting Forcemat and, with it, form some quenelles of the size of a pea; poach them in some boiling broth; drain, and put them in a soup tureen, together with the trimmed crayfish tails. Boil up the soup; skim; and thicken it with the remaining crayfish butter; pour it in the soup tureen; and serve."

"Crayfish Soup, or Bisque, au Maigre
Prepare 40 crayfish, as in the preceding recipe; remove the tails; pick, and put them by to add to the soup; Put all the shells and the bodies of the crayfish in a mortar; pound them well; put them in a stewpan with 3 quarts of Fish Consomme; boil for half an hour, and strain throguh a broth napkin; trim the tails; put them in the soup tureen with some Fish Forecemat Quenelles, made as above; pour the soup over them; and serve.

"Crayfish Soup with Cream
Put 40 crayfish in a stewpan; boil them with:
1 pint of consomme,
10 sprigs of parsely,
1 middle-sized sliced carrot,
2 middle-sized onions cut in slices;
Boil for ten minutes,--tossing the crayfish occasionally; when done, remove the tails; pick them, and put them by; Pound the bodies, claws, and shells in a mortar; put them in a stewpan, with 5 pints Chicken Consomme; boil; and simer for one hour; Make a roux in a stewpan, with 1/2 lb.of butter, and 1/4 lb. Of flour; stir over the fire for five minutes; Strain the consomme from the pounded crayfish; add it ti the roux in the stewpan; stir on the fire for twenty minutes; add 1 pint of double cream, 1/2 pint at a time; and, when the soup is sufficently reduced, strain it through a tammy cloth, into a bain-marie-pan to keep warm; Five minutes before serving, boil up the soup, and add another 1/2 pint of double cream; put the crayfish tails in the soup tureen; pour the soup over; and serve."
---Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and adapted for English use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marson:London] 1869 (p. 249-250)

[1903]
665. Bisque or Coulis d'Ecrevisses--Bisque or Cullis of Crayfish
Ingredients:
30 small crayfish, approximately 40 g (1 1/2 oz) each
For the Mirepoix:
50 g (2 oz) carrots
50 g (2 oz) onions
50 g (2 oz) butter
1 sprig thyme
1/2 bayleaf
3 parsley stalks
1 small tbs flamed brandy
2 dl (7 fl oz or 7/8 U.S.cup) white sugar

For the Thickening and Moistening:
120-150 g (4-5 oz) rice
1 1/2 litres (2 5/8 pt or 6 1/2 U.S. cups) White Bouillon

For finishing:
1 dl (3 1/2 lf oz or 1/2 U.S. cup) cream
150 g (5 oz) butter.

Method:
1) Cut the carrots, onions and parsley stalks into very small dice and cook to a light brown in the butter together with the thyme and the bayleaf. Wash the crayfish, remove the tails then cook the crayfish with the Mirepoix until they turn red. Season with 12 g (1/3 oz) salt and a little milled pepper, sprinkle with the brandy and the wine and allow to cook gently to reduce. Add 1 « dl (9 lf oz or 1 1/8 U.S. cups) White Bouillon and allow to cook gently for 10 minutes.
2) Cook the rice in 7 « dl (1 1/3 pt or 3 1/4 U.S. cups) of the White Bouillon.
3) Shell the crayfish and reserve all the tails and ten of the heads.
4) Finely pound the remainder of the shells, add the rice and its cooking liquid together with the cooking liquid from the crayfish.

Pass through a fine sieve ad dilute this puree with 5 dl (18 fl oz or 1 1/4 U.S. cups) White Bouillon. Bring to the boil, pass through a fine strainer and keep in the Bain-marie.
Finish the soup before serving with 150 g (5 oz) butter and 1 dl (3 « fl oz or « U.S. cup) cream; correct the seasoning and add a little Cayenne.
Garnish: Cut the reserved crayfish tails in dice and add to the soup. Serve separately the ten crayfish heads which have been trimmed, cleaned and filled with a fish and cream forcemeat and cooled at the last moment."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A. Escoffier, originally published in 1903, translated by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 88)

"668. Bisque or Cullis of Lobster.
Repace the crayfish with 1 kg (2 2/4 lb) small live lobsters cut into sections. Saute with the Mirepoix and proceed in exactly the same way as for Bisque of Crayfish using rice for thickening. Garnish: Small dices of the reserved loster meat."
---ibid (p. 89)

Borscht is soup made mostly from beets. It is/was a specialty of eastern European/Russian cuisine, primarily of the poorer people (beets were cheap). The soup dates at least to Medieval times.

"Borchch. A beetroot soup which can be served either hot or cold. It is essentially a dish of E. Europe, this region being taken to include Russia, Lithuania, Poland (where the name is barzcz) and, most important, the Ukraine. Ukranians count it as their national soup and firmly believe that it originated there. They are almost certainly right, especially if...one can properly apply to such questions the principle followed by botanists: that the place where the largest number of natural variations is recorded is probably the place of origin of a species. There are more kinds of borshch in the Ukraine than anywhere else; these include the versions of Kiev, Poltava, Odessa, and L'vov. Borshch, which is also counted as a specialty of Ashkenazi Jewish cookery, can be made with a wide range of vegetables. However, the essential ingredient is beetroot, giving the soup its characteristic red colour. Sour cream is usually added on top, just before serving..."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 89)

"Beet soup or barszcz (commonly Germanized in the United States as borscht) never appeared on the royal table during the reign of the Jagiellonian kings, nor was it consumed by the royal servants. Furthermore, it was not even made from beets in its original form, but from the European cow parsnip--also called barszcz in Polish--that grows on damp ground. Its roots were collected in May for stewing with meat, the shoots and young leaves were cooked as greens, and the unopened flow penduncles were eaten as a vegetable or added to soups and pottages. Szymon Syrennius discussed this plant in his herbal and further stated that soups made with it were highly valued in Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. During the Middle Ages it was prepared in soup by itself or was cooked in chicken stock with such additions as egg yolks, cream, or millet meal. The dry leaves exude a sweet substance that was used to create sweet-sour flavors, especially when used with vinegar. The adaptation of cow parsnips to Polish cookery appears to have come from Lithuania. Another wild plant called "water" barszcz...belongs to a related species...and was also used to make a similar soup, although it was considered best when cooked with meat...But where does this leave the beet soup we know today? Mikolaj Rej mentioned a "broth from pickled beets" in the sixteenth century, but it was not known in all parts of Poland. The evolution of barszcz into a recipe using sour beets is of much later date than most Poles would suspect. In fact, the well-known barszcz bialoruski (beet soup with meat,cabbage, eggs, and sour cream) did not arrive in Poland from Russia until the nineteenth century."
---Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past, Maria Dembinska, revised and adapted by William Woys Weaver, translated by Magdalena Thomas [University of Pennsylvania Press:Philadelphia] 1999 (p. 127-128)

19th century Russian recipes

[1861]
"31. Ukranian borshch (Borshch malorossijskij)
Perepare bouillon #1 from 3 lbs of fatty beef or fresh pork, or from beef with smoked ham. Omit the root vegetables, but add a bay leaf and allspice. Strain the bouillon. An hour before serving add a little fresh cabbage, cut into pieces. Cook, stirring in beet brine or grain kvass to taste or about 2 spoons vinegar. Meanwhile thoroughly wash and boil 5 red beets, but do not peel or cut them; that is, boil them separately in water without scraping. Remove them when tender, peel, and grate. Stir 1 spoon of flour into the beets, add them to the bouillon with some salt, and bring to a boil twice. Put parsley in a soup tureen (some people add the juice of a grated raw beet) and pour in the hot borshch. Add salt to taste. Sprinkle with black pepper, if desired, and serve with the sliced beef, pork, or ham; or with fried sausages, meatballs, or mushroom buns. The borshch may also be served with fried buckwheat kasha, pancake pie with beef stuffing, or plain pancakes."
---Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives (originally published in 1861) translated and introduced by Joyce Toomre [Indiana University Press:Bloomington] 1992 (p. 131)

"119a. Meatless borshch with sour cream (Borshch bez mjasa so smetanoju)
Prepare a bouillon from root vegetables and dried boletus mushrooms [Boletus edulis]. Strain the bouillon. Bake 2 lbs of beets, peel them, and finely grate. Place the beets in a stewpan, cover with the vegetable bouillon, pour in beet brine, boiled separately, and sour cream, and heat until the soup is very hot. Add salt, black pepper, greens, and finely shredded mushrooms. Serve with fried buckwheat groats.
INGREDIENTS: 1 parsley root, 1 leek, 2 celery roots, 2 onions, 10-15 allsocie, 2-3 bay leaves, 5-6 black peppercorns, parsely and dill, 2 lbs beets, beet brine, 1/8 lb dried boeltus mushrooms, 1 or 2 glasses sour cream."
---ibid (p. 144-5)

"2739. Borshch from fried beets (Borshch iz zharenoj svekly)
Peel and shred 5 large beets. Grease a large skillet with sunflower or mustard seed oil and heat the pan. Add the beets, moisten them with 3 spoons vinegar, and fry, stirring. Sprinkle on 1 spoon flour, mix, and conitnue frying until the beets are almost cooked while adding root vegetables bouillon by the spoonful. Transfer the beets to [a pan of] strained bouillon and cook until done. To serve, season with greens and 2-3 shredded small mushrooms.
INGREDIENTS: 5 large beets, 3 spoons vinegar, 1-2 spoons oil, 2 carrots, 2 onions, 2-3 small mushrooms, 1 spoon flour, 1/2 parsley root, 1/2 celery root, 1/2 leek, bay leaves, allspice, greens."
---ibid (p. 549-50)
[NOTE: This is listed in the category of "Oil-based fast day soups."]

ABOUT BEETS
"Beet...The name is from the Latin 'beta', which in Middle English became 'bete'.
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 27)

"Beet. All of today's beets are descended from a wild forebear whose green tops doubltess nourished our own prehistoric forebears. Indeed, the first cultivated beets were apparently tended only for their leaves (eaten like spinach), and it was not until the early Christian era that their roots became appreciated..."
---The Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, editors [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 1999 Volume Two (p. 1730-1)

"Beetroot...of four useful forms of the versatile plant 'Beta vulgaris'. The two which provide vegetables for human consumption...All these cultivated forms are descended from the sea beet, 'Beta maritima', a wild seashore plant growing around the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and North Africa. This has only a small root, but its leaves and stems are sometimes eaten. Early Greek writers such as Theophrastus referred to the cultivation of this plant. By about 300BC there were varieties with edible roots....until well after medieval times, beet roots remained long and relatively thin. Ther first mention of a swollen root seems to have been in a botanical work of the 1550s and which is recognized as the prototype of the modern beetroot, the 'Beta Roman' of Daleschamp, dates back only to 1587...In Britain the common beets were originally all light in color. The red beet, when introduced in the 17th century, was described by Gerard [1633] with some enthusiasm... It soon found its way into the recipe books..."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999(p. 70)

"Beetroot...was eaten in antiquity and was described in 1660 by Olivier de Serres, who was a self-appointed publicist of newly imported prducts in France, as "a very red, rather fat root with leaves like Swiss chard, all of which is good to eat".
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang, editor [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 89)

• Beets: from Gerard's Herbal, 1633
• Beets, National Geographic
• Those Bossy Beets, Betty Fussell
• Beets, Jeanette Ferrary and Louise Fiszer
• "The Beet Goes On", Robert Becker, Horticulture [magazine] October 1987 (p. 51-55)
  [Your librarian can help you find this article]

Chowder

According to the food historians, the word chowder "and its application to fisherman's stew comes from France. Versions of la chaudree, (cauldron) are common along the coast from just north of Bordeaux well up to Brittany...Mrs. Glasse [Hannah Glasse, 18th century English cookbook] gives a recipe To Make Chouder, A Sea Dish: cod, pickled pork, onions, [sea] biscuit, and water."
---Historical notes by Karen Hesse, Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-wife [University of U South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (pages 265-6).

"Chowder.
A seafood soup associated with New England, the most popular of which is clam chowder. The term may also describe a buttery, hearty soup made with corn, chicken, or other chunks of food still evident in the blend. The origins of the word "chowder" are somewhat obscure, but most authories, including the Dictionary of American Regional English, believes it derives from the French word for a large caldron, chaudiere, in which Breton sailors threw their catch to make a communal stew, a custom carried to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and down to New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...The first American cookbook to give a chowder recipe was the second edition of Amelia Simmons's American Cookery (1800). It called for bass, salt pork crackers, and a side dish of potatoes...Although by 1836 "clam chowder" was known in Boston, where its associations are still strong, throughout the century chowder was less commonly a dish of clams than of fish, usually cod or haddock, and by the 1840s potatoes had become a traditional ingredient...Chowder was a staple dish of New Englanders, and for sailors merely another another way to make a constant diet of fish palatable...By the end of the century certain New England regions became known for their various interpretations of chowder--one might find cream in one spot, lobsters in others, no potatoes elsewhere--but most were by then a creamy white soup brimming with chopped fish or clams, crackers, and butter..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 81-82)

Amelia Simmons' recipe

"Chouder.
Take a bass weighing four pounds, boil half an hour; take six slices raw salt pork, fry them till the lard is nearly extracted, one dozen crackers soaked in cold water five minutes; put the bass into the lard, also the pieces of pork and crackers, cover close, and fry for 20 minutes; serve with potatoes, pickles, apple-sauce or mangoes; garnish with green parsley."
---American Cookery, Amelia Simmons, facsimile of the second edition printed in Albany, 1796 with an introduction by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1996 (p. 22-3)

Related food? Oyster crackers & cioppino.

Related food? Chowder.

This venerable combination dates (in print) to 1598. As with most traditional dishes, recipes evolved according to taste and place.

"Cock-a-leekie. This sustaining broth of chicken and leeks is firmly associated with Scotland, although something similar appears in other parts of Britain, and indeed of Europe. In its earliest medieval versions, it was a chicken stew with onions, and also raisins or prunes. The chicken would often have been eaten separately, and the stewing liquor drunk as soup. Adapated to Scottish conditions, leeks replaced onions, and by the nineteenth century the prunes seem to have disappeared, leaving the cock-a-leekie (or, in an earlier spelling, cocky-leeky) we are familiar with today."
---An A to Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 82)

"Cock-a-leekie, a Scottish soup/stew of chicken and leeks. The name came into use in the 18th cnetury, but the dish itself is commonly siad to date back to medieval times, when it contained onions and prunes (and/or raisins), and was probably served as two dishes--the chicken and the broth. Modern recipes are generally for just one dish not two; they provide for cutting up the chicken meat before the soup is served; and they are virtually unanimous in insisting that chicken and leeks between them provide plenty of solid matter. Onions have retained their place in the recipes, but raisins have largely disappeared and there has been controversy over the prunes."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 197)

"Cock-a-leekie. One of the most famous Scottish 'soup-stews' which was mentioned as early as 1598 by Fynes Morrison in his book An Itinerary: 'had Pullet with some prunes in the broth'. Two well-known Frenchmen renowned for their knowledge of food commented on it. Talleyrand the diplomatist thought it very good, but that the prunes should be removed before serving. The famous chef Alexis Soyer said: 'I will always give preference in the way of soup to their Cock-a-Leekie, even before their inimitable Hotch-Potch!' It is often served for banquets or large dinners."
---Traditional Scottish Cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon [Fontana Paperbacks:Great Britain] 1980 (p. 7)

"[in Medieval times] Sometimes the bird stew had onions and raisins in it, and it is from pottage of that type that the Scottish cock-a-leekie is descended; the onions were replaced by locally grown leeks. Fynes Moryson, who was in Scotland in 1598, ate what seems to have been this dish at a knight's house there. But the 'upper mess', he reported, 'instead of porridge, had a pullet with some prunes in the broth.' The recipe stemmed, in all probability, not from England but from France, as one minor resout of the auld alliance."
---Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 124)

"The medieval running pottages of meat and dried fruits also continued through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though they lost ground to the newer stews and made-up dishes of meat or fish to which were added sharp fresh fruits or recently introduced vegetables. Nevertheless capons and hens were on occasion boiled in white broth with ground almonds, currants, raisins, dates, prunes, sugar, spice and sack...But by Georgian times such compositions had lost their appeal and were rarely eaten. There were one or two notable exceptions. Cock-a-leekie still survived in Scotland. Lady Grisill Baillie in 1743 wrote a special instruction to her housekeeper to use a measured six ounces of prunes in its making. Mrs. Margaret Dods affirmed in 1826 that 'the soup must be very thick of leeks'; but she omited the prunes."
---ibid (p. 226-7)

"Like haggis, cockie-leekie is now firmly tied to Scotland in most people's minds. However, in 1867 Lady Llanover gave an identical recipe in her Good Cookery, which has to do with Welsh food. And if one compares the basic ingredients with the recipe for Hindle Wakes...it becomes obvious that these are very old dishes, European dishes, if you like, which have survived from many centuries back in those parts of the country which have not been too buffeted by new fashions."
---English Food, Jane Grigson, with a forward by Sophie Grigson [Penguin Books:London] 1992 (p. 195)

RECIPES

"The one cookery book of great authority is The Cook and Housewife's Manual (1826), written under the authorship of Mrs. Margaret [Meg] Dods, who is a character in Sir Walter Scott's St. Roman's Well...The author was really Mrs. Johnston, the wife of an Edinbrugh publisher...she considered Anglo-Gallican cookery to be the best the world has ever known...Apart from the chicken and leek, her Cock-a-Leekie also has prunes and like the Oyster Soup has two lots of leeks, the first cooked into a puree, the second cut into chunks and added later."
---British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History, Colin Spencer [Columbia University Press:New York] 2002 (p. 196)

[1829] Meg Dods

"726. Cock-a-leekie.--Boil from four to six pounds of good shin-beef, well broken, till the liquor is very good. Strain it, and put to it a capon, or large fowl, trussed for boiling, and, when it boils, half the quantity of blanched leeks intended to be used, well cleaned, and cut in inch-lengths, or longer. Skim this carefully. In a half-hour add the remaining part of the leeks, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. The soup must be very thick of leeks, and the first part of them must be boiled down into the soup till it becomes a green lubricious compound. Sometimes the capon is served in the tureen with the cock-a-leekie. This is good leek-soup without a fowl.--Obs. Some people thicken cock-a-leekie with the fine part of oatmeal. Those who dislike so much of the leeks may substitute shred geens, or spinage and parsley, for one half of them. Reject the coarse green part of the leeks. Prunes wont to be put to this soup. The practice is obsolete."
---Cook and Housewife's Manual, Margaret Dods, facsimile 1829 fourth edition revised and enlarged [Rosters Ltd:London] 1988 (p. 364)

[1860] Alexis Soyer

"New Cock-a-Leekie. ma chere Amie,--With all due respect to Scotch cookery, I will always give the preference, in the way of soup, to their cock-a-leekie, even before their inimitable hodge-podge. Having a very old friend from the neighbourhood of Dundee, who used to praise my cock-a-leekie, when on a visit to St. John's Wood, I thought I would give him the same treat here, and on looking over my frugal store and garden of Camellia Cottage, I found I had all that was required, barring the bird; but, with a little perseverance and ingenuity, I succeeded in producing a very nice soup, although it wanted the principal ingredient, so that it deceived not only my husband, but my friend from the other side of the Tweed. Here is the receipt:

"24.--I bought two pounds of veal cutlet, and cut it into pieces, like the felsh from the breast of a fowl, and put them in the pan with a quarter of a pound of butter, the same of lean bacon, three cloves, two good onions sliced, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one of sugar, half a one of pepper, a gill of water; set it on the fire, turn it over until forming a white glaze at the bottom, add to it five pints of water, simmer half an hour, pass through a sieve, save the best pieces of the veal. In the meantime blanch two pounds of leeks, free from the top green part, for ten minutes, in a gallon of water, and drain them; then boil the stock and half the leeks together, till almost in a pulp, then add the other half of the leeks and the meat, also eighteen good fresh French plums; simmer half an hour, and serve. I must observe that my friend praised it very much for having put in the flesh of the fowl only, as he though, and not the whole carcase, which is the way they serve it in Scotland; and exceedingly inconvenient way, as everybody expects a piece of the fowl, and you often tear it to pieces in serving."
---A Shilling Cookery for the People, Alexis Soyer, facsimile 1860 edition [Pryor Publications:Whitstable UK] 1999 (p. 13-14)

[1861] Mrs. Beeton's Cock-a-leekie soup (recipe #134)

[1929] F. Marian McNeill

"Cock-A-Leekie
The King (James VI and I): 'And, my lords and lieges, let us all to dinner, for the cockie-leekie is a-cooling.'--Scott: Fortunes of Nigel, last line.
(Mrs. Dalgairns' Recipe)
A cock or fowl, beef or veal stock, leeks, prunes, Jamaica pepper, salt.
Cut off the roots and part of the heads for two or three bunches of large winter leeks. Cut in pieces an inch long (which amy be split). Wash well in three waters, and, if old and strong, boil for ten minutes in water. Put them in a close stew-pan with some beef or veal stock and a trussed fowl or cock, with Jamaica pepper, and salt. Let the whole simmer very gently at the side of the fire for four hours, keeping it well skimmed. Half an hour before serving add a dozen or so of prunes, unbroken. When ready to serve, take out the cock or fowl and cut it in pieces, place it in the tureen, and pour broth over it. The prunes may be omitted."
---The Scots Kitchen: Its Traditions and Lore with Old-time Recipes, F. Marian McNeill, facsimile 1929 edition [Mercat Press:Edinburgh] 1993 (p. 94-95)

ABOUT CHICKEN About chicken & onion soup.

We find no recipes titled bouillion or consomme in La Varenne's French Cook [Englished 1653]. The French version may offer better insight. "Consomme, meaning a clear soup, has been used in English since the early part of the 19th century, but has been a French culinary term since the 16th century. It is the past participle of the verb consommer, meaning to consume or accomplish or finish, and indicating in this context a finished soup as opposed to a simple stock or broth. Double consomme is a clarified consomme. Little fragments of this or that may be introduced into a consomme at some stage in its production, or just when serving, and the nature of these is, in classical French cookery, reflected in the name give to the consomme...A consomme may be served hot or cold, usually at the beginning of the meal. The simplest consomme of all, in France, is the broth (bouillon) from Pot-au-feu."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 212)
[NOTE: this book has separate entries for soup, broth [bouillon], pot-au-feu and stock. Your librarian can help you find these pages.]

"Consumme. In French, consomme is literally something that has been consummated- that is, by boiling down, the flavours of meat, vegetables, or whatever have become completely concentrated...Originally, the word seems to have been applied to any rich broth which was the product of long, slow cooking; but by the mid-nineteenth century the current signification 'clear soup' was well established. One of the earliest references to consomme in English is by Bryon, who in Don Juan (1824) laments Alas! I must leave undescribed the gibier,/the salmi, the consomme, the puree/all which I use to make my rhymes run glibber/than could roast beer in our rough John Bull way.'"
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 88)

CONSOMME RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1750]
Consomme gras.
Prenez de la volaille & du veau, coupez-les par petits morceauz que vous fourerex dans une bouteille qui ait le goulot assez large: quand elle sera remplie, vous la boucherez bien avec do al pate & du parchemin colle par-dessus; vous la mettrez dans un chaudron plein d'eau, & vous la lasserez bouillir pendant trois heures. Au bout de ce tems vous oterez le juc de la bouteille, & vous le verserez dans un pot pour vous en servir dans le besoin.

Consomme maigre.
Le consomme maigre se fait de la mem maniere. Au lieu de viande, on prend des desossemens de poissons avec du bouillon de pois." ---Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royale et Bourgeois ou Cusinier Moderne, Massialot, facisimile edition originally published in 1750, [Elibron Classics:Paris] 2003 (p. 149-150)

[1828]
"No. 2.--First Consomme.
Mark in a stock-pot a large piece of buttock of beef, or other part with a knuckle of veal, and the trimming of meat or fowl, according to the quantity of sauce you may wish to make. This broth will admit all sorts of veal or poultry. Let the meat stew on a gentle fire. Moisten with about two large ladlesfull of the first broth; put no vegetables into this broth, except a bunch of parlsey and green onions. Let them sweat thoroughly; then thrust your knife into the meat: if no blood issue, it is a sign that it is heated through. The moisten it with boiling broth to the top, and let it boil gently for about four hours; after which, use this consumme to make the sauces, or the consommes of either poultry or game. Take off the fat and scum of all the various broths, and keep the pots full, in order that the broth be not too high in colour. When the broth remains too long on the fire, it loses its flavour, acquires too brown a colour, and tastes strong and disagreeable."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude [1828], photoreprint of edition orginally published by Carey, Lea and Carey, Philadephia [Arco:New York] 1978 (p. 203)
[NOTE: this book also contains recipes for consomme of poultry, consomme of game, and consomme of rabbits.]

[1869]
"Broth, or Consomme.
Take 6 lbs of gravy beef, 4 lbs. of leg of veal, and 2 hens, removing their fillets; Truss, and roast the hens before a brisk fire, so that they may be coloured before they are half cooked; in that state put them, together with the meat, in a stock-pot, with 7 quarts of General Stock; put the stock-pot ont he fire to boil; skim; and add some salt, carrots, and leeks; simmer for four hours on the stove corner; strain the broth; take the fat off carefully, and clarify the broth with the fillets of hens, reserved for the purpose. Strain the consomme again, through a broth napkin into a basin, and keep it in a cold place till wanted."
---Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated to English by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, & Marston:London] 1869 (p. 227-8)

[1885]
Consomme , La Cuisine Creole, Lafcadio Hearn [New Orleans].

[1903]
"Consomme Ordinare
To make 4 litres (7 pt or 8 3/4 U.S. pt)
Liquid: 5 litres (8 8/4 pt or 1 3/8 U.S. gal) White Bouillon.
Nutritive Ingredients: 1 1/2 kg (3 lb 6 oz) very lean beef, well trimmed and chopped.
Flavouring ingredients: 100 g (3 1/2 oz) carrots, 200 g ( 7 oz) leek both roughly chopped into small pieces.
Clarifying agent: 2 egg whites
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours.
Method of clarification: Place the chopped meat, vegetables and whites in a small stockpot, mix well together, add the White Bouillon, bring to the boil stirring it gently from time to time, then allow it to simmer very gently for the time indicated. When ready, pass the Consomme through a clean cloth.
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, A. Escoffier, first translation of Le Guide Culinaire [1903] by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1979 (p. 69)
[NOTE: Escoffier listed 90 distinct consomme recipes in this book.]

[1908]
"Consomme stock
Cut finely a shin of beef, put it in a stockpot with two scraped carrots, two peeled onions, three washed leeks, a few sticks of celery, and a small bunch of parsley roots, all finely minced; add six cloves, one teaspoonful of peppercorns, a bay leaf, and the whites and shells of six eggs. Moisten this with two gallons of broth and one quart of water, stir for a few minutes, place on the range, add a few pieces of chicken or bones if handy. Simmer for four hours, skim off the grease and strain through a wet cloth."
---The Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky [Saalfield Publishing Company:Chicago] 1908 (p. 15)

[1941]
"Clear Consomme
1 to 1 1/2 lbs chopped beef from the shin
3 leeks, chopped
1 stalk celery
1 medium sized carrot, chopped
1 or 2 egg whites
6 or 8 peppercorns
3 quarts beef or chicken stock
Chopped chicken bones
2 medium sized onions, browned on the stove
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and add the stock. Bring to a boil and skim well. Allow it to simmer over a low heat for 2 or 3 hours, skimming it from time to time. Strain through a muslin cloth. Correct the seasoning with salt. The consomme should be clear and have a golden color."
---Cooking A La Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott:New York] 1941 (p. 48-9)

Onions, and onion soup were enjoyed by ancient Roman and Greek peoples. French onion soup (with the bread and cheese topping) is reminicent of Medieval sops. The recipe we know today is a direct descendant of modern French bouillon crafted in the 17th century. Onion soups are likewise found in early English cookbooks and American cookbooks from colonial days to present. Curiously, it is absent from Escoffier's Guide Culinaire [1903]. Onion soup enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the 1960s, when French cooking was promoted in the United States.

WHY ONIONS?
Onions were common in the Old World and were used in many recipes: boiled, baked, and fried. For many centuries they were considered food of the poorer people. Onions were also thought to have restorative powers, making them a perfect choice for soup. It is interesting to note that early peoples thought eating raw onions caused headaches.

About onions: I & II.

RECOMMENDED READING
Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson

Acquired Taste: The French Origin of Modern Cooking, T. Sarah Peterson

ONION SOUP RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1651: France]
"Potage of onion.
Cut your onions into very thin slices, fry them with butter, and after they are fried put them into a pot with water or with pease broth. After they are well sod, put in it a crust of bread and let it boile a very little; you may put some capers in it. Dry your bread then stove it; take up, and serve with one drop of vinegar."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre La Varenne, [1651] Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 130)

[1803: United States]
Onion Soup, The Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter [1803]

[1869: France]
"Onion Soup.
Peel 2 good-sized onions (say 7 oz.), cut them, in halves and then crosswise, in thin shreds:
Blanch, in boiling water, for five minutes, to remove their acrid flavour;
Put in a 6-inch stewpan, with 1 1/2 oz. of butter;
Stir over a brisk fire, and, when the onion becomes of a light brown colour, add a tablespoonful of flour, say 1 oz.;
Keep on the fire for two minutes longer;
Add: 1 quart of water; 2 pinches of salt; and 2 small ones of pepper;
Stir till boiling;
Simmer, for five minutes, on the stove corner; taste the seasoning;
Put in the soup-tureen 2 ox. of sliced dried roll, and 1 oz. of butter; our in the soup, stirring gently with a spoon to dissolve.
Serve."
---The Royal Cookery Book (Le Livre de Cuisine) , Jules Gouffe, translated from the French and adapted for English Use by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 38-9)

[1913:France]
"Soupe a l'oignon.--Si vous desirez gouter a cette soupe si appreciee des disciples de Bacchus, preparez-la selon les indications suivantes: Faites revenir dans due beurre (pour deux litres de lait), un gros oignon, coupe en tranches fines; quand l'oignon est bien dore, mettez le lait et le sel et laissez suire. Preparez ensuite dans votre souiere, de fines tranches de pain que vous recouvrez de fromage de Gruyere rape, continuez ainsi jusqu'a mi-hauteur, versez dessus votre bouillon et servez."
---L'Arte du Bien Manger, Edmond Richardin [Agence General de Librarie et de Publications:Paris] 1913 (p. 517)

[1941:United States]
"Onion Soup.
Serves six.
3 medium onions, finely sliced
3 tablepsoon sweet butter
1 teaspoon flour, if desired
2 quarts plain consomme...or water
1 tablespoon salt
A little pepper
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped, if desired
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese
Sliced toasted rolls, buttered.
Cook butter and onions in a saucepan until golden brown. Add 1 teaspoon of lfour if you like the soup thick. (But the soup is just as good not thickened.) Add the consomme or swater. Add slat and pepper and cook for 10 or 15 minutes. The tomatoes five the soup more flavor. This soup may be strained if desired. Pour it into an earthenware casserole, then place the buttered toast on top. Sprinkle with cheese andput under a hot broiler or in a hot oven unitl the top is well browned. Serve very hot."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott:Philadelphia PA] 1941 (p. 53)

[1972:United States]
"Your Own French Onion Soup.
Soupe a l'oignon, a large bowl of it bubbling under a brown crust of cheese, is practically a meal in itself. Serve it after a football game, as a Sunday-night supper, or as a midnight snack. Its rich aroma, its wonderful flavor and savor, have made French onion soup a world favorite. Here are directions for brewing your own...

Soupe A L'Oignon, Maison
For 6 to 8 servings
Onion soup is simply a large quantity of sliced onions slowly cooked and browned in butter, then simmered in beef bouillon. To achieve the true homemade taste, you'll need a homemade bouillon--beef bones and shank meat simmered for several hours with the usual carrots, onions, celery, seasonings, and herbs. If your own bouillon is lacking, substitute canned beef bouillon.
2 Tb butter 1 Tb olive oil or cooking oil
About 1 1/2 lbs or 5 to 6 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tb flour
2 quarts hot beef bouillon (you may dilute canned bouillon with 2 cups of water)
1 cup red or white wine
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp sage
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter with the oil in the saucepan or casserole; add the sliced onions and stir up to coat with the butter. Cover the pan and cook over moderately low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and translucent. The uncover the pan, raise heat to moderately high, and stir in the salt and sugar. (Sugar, by caramelizing, helps onions to brown.) Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions have turned an even deep golden brown. The lower heat to moderate, stir in the flour, and add a bit more butter if flour does not absorb into a paste with the onions. Cook slowly, stirring continually, for about 2 mintues to brown the flour lightly. Remove from heat. Pour in about a cup of the hot bouillon, stirring with a wire whip to blend flour and bouillon. Add the rest of the bouillon and the wine, bay, and sage, and bring to the simmer. Simmer slowly for 30-40 minutes, season to taste with salt and pepper, and the soup is done. If you are not serving immediately, let cool uncovered, then cover and refrigerate. Serve with French Bread and grated Parmesan cheese, or bake with cheese as follows.

Soup a l'Oignon Gratinee
This turns onion soup into a hearty main course...You may prepare all the elements for this ahead of time, but once the soup is assembled in its casserole, you should proceed with the recipe or the bread may sink to the bottom of the dish. (Note: you will need a chewey homemade type of bread...)
A loaf of French bread
Olive oil or melted butter
The preceding soup, brought to the simmer
Optional: 1/4 cup cognac
A peeled 2-inch raw onion
A 2-ounce piece Swiss cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Swiss and Parmesean cheese, mixed
Cut the bread into slices 1 inch thick, paint lightly with oil or butter and arrange in one layer on a baking sheet. Place in middle level of a preheated 325-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until beginning to brown lightly; turn and brown lightly for 15 to 20 minutes on the other side. These are called croutes. Pour the hot soup into a serving casserole or baking dish. Pour in the optional cognac, grate in the onion, and shave the piece of cheese into fine slivers and strew over the soup. Place a closely packed layer of croutes over the top of the soup and spread on the grated cheese, covering the croutes completely. Sprinkle a tablespoon of oil or butter over the cheese, and set the soup in the middle level of a preheated 350-degree oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until soup is bubbling slowly and cheese has melted. Meanwhile, heat up our broiler to red hot; just before serving run the soup under the hot broiler for a moment to brown the cheese lightly. Pass remaining croutes in a bread tray along with the soup."
---The French Chef Cookbook, Julia Child [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1972 (p. 275-7)

---

Gazpacho

Food historians generally agree that gazpacho, as we Americans know it today, is a Spanish recipe. Why? The word evolved from Arabic roots. Spain (Andalusia, more specifically) was invaded by the Moors in the Middle Ages. As a result, much of that region's gastronomy was greatly affected by Middle Eastern recipes and ingredients. Italian cuisine, though sharing many of the same foods as that of Spain, evolved differently. The earliest gazpacho type recipes (soup-salad) date to the middle ages, long before tomatoes were known in the Old World. When the Spanish came to the New World they brought with them hundreds of years of culinary traditions. Many of these recipes, including those for soups and stews, readily embraced new ingredients, including tomatoes.

Interestingly enough, gazpacho-type recipes were introduced to North America via Europe by Spanish missionaries, English colonists, French settlers, Italian Immigrants, and others. In the old world "In the Spanish style" often simply meant with tomatoes.

"Gazpacho is a Spanish vegetable soup whos chief characteristic is that it is served ice-cold. Its main ingredients are tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumber, olive oil, and usually breadcrumbs, but there are many additional regional variations within Spain. It is traditionally cooked in a large clay bowl, and brought to the table with garlic croutons and small bowls of raw vegetables. Its name is of Arabic origin, and means literally soaked bread'."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 139)

"Gazpacho, a Spanish term whose meaning had evolved over the centuries. It is now most familiar in the form of Andalusian gazpacho, which is typically a cold soup with various vegetable ingredients, notably garlic, tomato, and cucumber. However, a gazpacho may be served hot during the winter; and in its original form, derived from the Arabs who occupied much of Spain from the 8th to the 13th centuries, the essential ingredients were bread, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and water. These ingredients were pounded in a mortar, and the result was very similar to Ajo blanco (ajo meaning barlic and blanco meaning white) or Sopa de ajo (garlic soup), two other ancient dishes which have survived into modern times...Vinegar is important for the refreshing qualities of those gazpachos that are particularly associated with warm weather; and it provides a link to Roman culture, as it was the Romans who popularized throughout their empire the use of vinegar for refreshment purposes...The internationally famous Andalusian gazpacho...is said to have been introduced to France by Eugenia de Montijo of Granada, the wife of the Emperor Napoleon III...Ingredients from the New World, notably tomato, were not incorporated into gazpachos until comparatively recent times. Thus the recipe for gazpacho given by Juan de la Mata (Arte de reposteria, 1747) had none of these new' ingredients."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 333)

Gazpacho/Clifford A. Wright

GAZAPCHO IN AMERICA

"As gazpacho is served ice cold, it may have been one of the first popular chilled soups." ---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor, [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 466)

"Gazpacho...A cold tomato-and-vegetable soup popular as summer fare and a staple of American restaurant menus, especially in the West...Although long known in this country, gazpacho's popularity was for a great while confined to the South. Later, in the West, it took on a vogue that has made it one of the most often found contemporary soups on a menu."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 138)

"Before the first tomato soup recipe was published, tomatoes were used as ingredients in soups with altenative names. The first located recipes calling for tomatoes insoups were published in Mary Randolph's Virginia Housewife (Washington, 1824). Randolph featured tomatoes in recipes for veal, barley, and okra soups. It is also surprising to note that Randolph published the first known recipe for gazpacho. How the recipe for this traditional Spanish soup, whose name is from an Arabic meaning literally "soaked bread," could first be published in the United States relates to who wrote cookbooks in Spain and Randolph's relatives. In Spain gazpacho was considered a peasant soup. Consequently, recipes for it were not published in early Spanish cookbooks, which were written mainly for the upper middle class. As culinary historian Karen Hess has noted, Mary Randolph probably acquired her Spanish recipes from her sister, Harriet Randolph Hackley, who had lived in Cadiz, Spain. It is also interesting to note that the second and third known published recipes for gazpacho were also not published in Spain. Novisimo arte de cocina (Philadephia, 1845), the first located Spanish-language cookbook published in the United States, featured eight-eight tomato recipes, including two for gazpacho. This cookbooks was printed on a sterotype press for a client in Mexico and was probably not distributed in the United States. It has little influence on mainstream American cookery. While several cookbook authors published similar recipes under the name of Andalusian soup, the term gazpacho died out in America until the late twentieth century."
---Souper Tomatoes: The Story of America's Farvorite Food, Andrew F. Smith [Rutgers University Press:New Brunswick NJ] 2000 (p. 68)

Mrs. Randolph's recipe circa 1824:

"Gaspacha--Spanish.
Put some soft biscuit or toasted bread in the bottom of a sallad bowl, put in a layer of sliced tomatas with the skin taken off, and one of sliced cucumbers, sprinkled with pepper, salt, and chopped onion; do this until the bowl is full, stew some tomatas quite soft, strain the juice, mix in some mustard and oil, and pour over it; make it tow hours before it is eaten."
---The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facimile 1824 reprint with aHistorical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 107)

GAZPACHO/mid- 1960s
The New York Times historic database returns seven articles referencing gazpacho in 1964. Three of these reference the Spanish Pavillion at the New York World's Fair. Apparently, this menu item was quite popular. The New York Times Cook Book [1966] contains a recipe for Gazpacho a la Francaise (p. 116). One recipe is provided in 1964: ["Food: Fruit-Stand Vista," Nan Ickeringill, New York Times, August 4, 1964 (p. 32)].

"Chilled soup is delightfully refreshing in summer. Vichysoisse, Madrilene, Consomme, and Gazpacho are the most popular, but there are many other possibilities."
---The Fannie Farmer Cokbook, revised by Wilma Lord Perkins [Little, Brown and Company:Boston] 11th edition, 1965 (p. 57)

From the scary but true files:

"Gazpacho sticks.
In a blender, buzz 2 tomatoes, quartered, 1/2 cucumber, chopped, 1/4 green pepper, 2 tablespoons each chopped onion, olive oil, vinegar, 1/2 clove garlic, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 drops liquid hot-pepper seasoning, 1 1/2 cups tomato juice, Pour into molds and freeze. May about 1 quart of soup; 12 sticks."
---"Soup's On," Ladies Home Journal, July 1964 (p. 96)
[NOTE: These are served on ice cream sticks. Strictly a novelty item; not formal dinner fare.]

---

Goulash

Food historians trace the genesis of Goulash (gulyas), a thick soup/stew, to 9th century Hungarian shepherds. In fact? the term "Gulyas" literally translates as "herdsmen." Soup played a key role in the early pastoral diet. Dried meats and vegetables were eminently portable and easily reconsituted. Over the years, Hungarian Goulash evolved from peasant fare to signature national dish. Interpretations, especially in the USA, range from somewhat authentic to amalgamated leftovers whose only claim to Hungary is a generous helping of paprika. It is interesting to note that paprika, the spice that has become almost synonymous with Hungary, was probably not introduced until the 16th century. By the 19th century it was percieved globally as THE key ingredient in Hungarian cuisine.

"In the ninth-and tenth-century pre-Christian Hungarian cuisine, the most important element was the soup, and its importance has not waned since, except in the Middle Ages. An overhwelming number of the soups had a sour or semisour taste, achieved by whipping in sour cream, vinegar, yogurt, horseradish and sauerkraut. Other soups they thickened with a mixture of flour, milk and egg yolk or the browned flour and fat mixture still basic to many Hungarian dishes."
---The Cuisine of Hungary, George Lang [Atheneum:New York] 1982 (p. 5)

"The four pillars of Hungarian cooking are gulyas, porkolt, paprikas and tokany. Gulyas. A strange thing has happened to Hungarian gulyas. According to a 1969 Gallup Poll, gulyas is one of the five most popular meat dishes on the American cooking scene. Of course, what is usually served under this name shouldn't happen to a Rumanian. The origin of the soup...can be traced back to the ninth century--shepherds cut their meat into cubes, cooked it with onion in a heavy iron kettle (bogracs) and slowly stewed the dish until all the liquid evaporated. They dried the remnants in the sun (probably on their sheepskin capes), and then put the dried food in a bag made of the sheep's stomach. Whenever they wanted food, they took out a piece of the fired meat, added some water and reheated it. With a lot of liquid, it became a gulyas soup...if less liquid was added, it became culyas meat...Even today this distinction exists, probably to mystify foreigners and foreign cookbook writers. The more parts of beef and beef innards are used, the better the gulyas will be. Of course, lard and bacon (either or both) are chopped onion are absolute musts...Never use any flour. Never use any other spice besides caraway. Never Frenchify it with wine. Never Germanize it with brown sauce. Never put in any other garniture besides diced potatoes or galuska. But many variations are possible-- you may use fresh tomatoes or tomato puree, garlic, sliced green peppers, hot cherry peppers to make it very spicy, and so on. An interesting technique was suttested by Mrs. Mariska Vizvary and originally published in the 1930's. She added grated raw potatos in the very beginning, presumable to give body to the soup, and she cooked bones and vegetables separately to make a strong broth with which to strengthen the gulyas soup at the very end."
---The Cuisine of Hungary (p. 270-1)

"Goulash. This rich Hungarian meat stew seems not to have impinged on the British consciousness until the middle of the nineteenth century (it is first quoted in English in a letter from the Crown Princess of Prussia, 1866). The classic goulash is made of beef (or veal or pork or lamb) with of onions--generally the same among or onions as meat--bulked out with potatoes and seasoned generously with paprika. (Sour cream is not authentic, but has been transferred to goulash from other Hungarian paprika dishes in Western cuisine.). In Hungarian, guylas means literally 'herdsman', and the term goulash represents an abbreviation of gulyashus 'herdsmans' meat'."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 146)

"Goulash. Probably the best known, outside of Hungary, of Hungarian dishes...'What is goulash?' In Hungary, the word 'goulash' today refers to the cattle driver, the 'cowboy'. The only place on a Hungarian menu where you will find goulash (gulyas, as it is written in Hungarian) would be among the soups, and it would be called gulyas leves, meaning 'the soup of the cowboy'. What is known all over the world as 'Hungarian goulash' is called in Hungary porkolt or paprikas. Porkolt contains no sour cream. It is called paprikas if sour cream has been added to the porkolt...The dish of goulash is in fact relatively new under either of its names. Hungarian cattlemen, shepherds, and pigherders cooked cubed meat with onion and spices...for at least 300 to 500 years. But the dish could not be called porkolt or paprikas because this spice, paprika, today considered the most Hungarian of all spices, is realteive new to the Hungarian cuisine. It was not known in Hungary until the 1820s when it became extremely popular and practically eliminated black pepper and ginger from the average Hungarian kitchen...In the middle of the 19th cetnury, the new dish, porkolt, became as popular as chicken, veal, or pork similarly prepared with paprika. Because these had been holiday dishes served on special occasion to guests, they spread much faster than more commonplace dishes. Because visitors from Austria, Bohemia, Poland, and Switzerland were treated as honoured gusests and had been feted with porkolt or paprikas, those dishes found their way quickly into the cookbooks and restaurants of the neighbouring countries. What does this all have to do with 'goulash'? The difference between the Hungarian porkolt, known all over the world except in Hungary as 'goulash', and goulash soup, is in the, is in the amount of liquid added to the meat, and whether pasta or potatoes are included. In the real Hungarian porkolt or paprikas...there are no other ingredients except beef, pork, veal, or chicken, shortening...paprika, onions, and once in a while selected herbs, spices, or condiments. 'Goulash' became so popular in N. America that many American cookery books list as an integral part of American cusisine such items as 'Hungarian goulash,' ..."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 348)

Paprika derives from New World chile peppers. About paprika & Hungarian cuisine:

"There is something about paprika itself that makes it synonymous with "Hungarian." "Fiery," "spicy," temperamental"--all these adjectives suggest both paprika and the Hungarian national character. Paprika is to the Hungarian cuisine as it is to conversation--not just a superficial garnish, but an integral element, a very special and unique flavor instantly recognizable. The transformation of paprika into this vital element of Hungarian cuisine is a cuirous and fascinating story. Like the meeting of two people who seemed fated to fall in love, the marriage of paprika and Hungarian cooking was almost predestined. Where id paprika come form? There are many hypotheses...It came from the slopes of the Himalayas...Columbus brought it to Europe from America...it came from Central Africa...the Greek gods first used it for snuff on Mount Olympus...it came from India...It the first century A.D., Nero's celebrated personal physician, Dioscorides, in his famous De Materia Medica, described a piper longum rotundum--which sounds astonishingly like paprika. Was it paprika, or something similar? We shall probably never know for certain, as there was no record of it after that until Columbus' momentous voyage to the New World. The first written record of paprika as we know it appears in letters that Chanca, Columbus' ship surgeon, wrote to his friend Hernandex, court surgeon to King Philip of Spain. Chanca described "Indian pepper" growing in the New World as a "very attractive, ornamental plant which may prove medically useful." He mentioned, offhandedly, that the natives used this Indian pepper as a condiment....by the end of the sixteenth century a flourishing paprika culture had grown up in the Iberian peninusula...this is the time to meniton that several learned authorities, including Karoly Grundel, felt that the Spanish pimiento paprika indeed came from Spain via Columbus, but that the Hungarian capsium paprika arrived in Hungary from India via Persia, and was brought in by the Turks at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The main support for this "India" theory is simply that just about everybody called paprika "Indian pepper" for several hundred years...Amid this...conflicting evidence, we are sure of only one thing: before Columbus, paprika was unknown in Europe...After the Italians introduced paprika to their country (from Spain), the Turks, who had many contacts with the Italians, took the seeds from Italy to the Balkans, then part of the vast Ottoman domain. In the sixteenth century the Turkish Empire included Bulgaria as well as most of Hungary in its realm. The Bulgarians, known as the "garderners of Europe," have always been famous for being able to make almost anything bloom. Having learned to cultivate paprika from the seeds given them by the Turks, many Bulgarian gardeners emigrated to Hungary during the sixteenth century, partly attracted by the far more favorable soil and climate, and partly fleeing the Turks...There is ample evidence that the Bulgarians brought paprika to Hungary and started its cultivation...When a Hungarian says "paprika," it means only the ground spice...In Hungary there are two basic categories of paprika: first, those grown for eating fresh, cooked or marinated; and second, those destined to be dried, ground into powder and used as a condiment...As paprika growing took hold toward the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeeth century, the red pod began to be widely used as a spice. Shepherds added it to their kettle gulyas..., fishermen to their fish stew...Townspeople sprinkled their bacon with paprika...and added it to a variety of dishes, mixing it with sour cream. The landed gentry were slower to realize its virtues. At last, they, too, recognized that not only was paprika cheaper than black pepper, but it also stimulated the appetite and had a most delightfuyl character of its own...Hungary was unquestionably the first to use powdered paprika in pure form, unmixed with anything else...In its slow climb to acceptance as a national treasure, paprika rose from the lowest classes, through the broad masses of peasants and fishermen, to the townspeople and gentry. The nobility was the very last to acknowledge paprika, probably because it did not stem from aristocratic tradition. Eighteenth century records are full of recipes for pate made with turtle meat or pheasant cooked with crayfish, and other rare delicacies. But not till 1844 did Paprikas Chicken appear on a menu of the National Casino, the exclusive club of the Hungarian House of Lords. The fact that it was a favorite dish of the beautiful and popualr Queen Elizabeth (Franz Josef I's consort), who often visited Hungary, from 1860 until her assassination, probably won over the Hungarian aristocracy finally. A queen couldn't be wrong! Paprika's victory was complete. In shaping the cuisine of Hungary, it was itself transformed. It had now become utterly Hungarian. No less a personage than Escoffier himself introduced paprika to the grand cuisine of France. Escoffier brought it from Szeged, and served it in Monte Carlo in 1879, in Gulyas Hongrois and Poulet au Paprika...But the very first time paprika turned up in a recipe in a printed cookbook was much earlier--in 1817. Printed in Vienna, the cookbook was the work of one F.G. Zenker, chef of Prince Schwarsenberg. He listed paprika in his recipe for Chicken Fricassee in Indian Style...The earliest of "modern" Hungarian cookbooks...was probably Istvan Czifrai's...The first edition was published in the early 1820s. But it was not until the third edition (1829) that paprika appeared in two famous and characteristic Hungarian dishes...the other notable "first" is the paprikas csirke (Paprikas Chicken), which became one of the most popular dishes not only in Hungary, but the whole world. Here...the actual recipe as...appeared:

Paprikas chicken
"Take two or more chickens and cut them up into pieces. Melt a piece of lard in a copper pot. Put in paprika, clove and onion and cook slowly. The add the chicken pieces, pour a little meat broth over them, and begin cooking. Sprinkle with a spoonful of flour, add sour cream and sprinkle with paprika. Cook a little longer and then serve."

---The Cuisine of Hungary, George Lang [Atheneum:New York] 1982 (p. 126-133)
[NOTES: This book contains far more information on paprika than we can paraphrase. It also contains a modernized recipe for chicken paprika. If you need more details please ask your librarian to help you get a copy of this book.]

About goulash in America
This dish, like several others, was introduced to our country by immigrant cooks. Over the years it was thown into the American melting pot. Ingredients were changed to suit mainstream tastes.

"Goulash. Also "Hungarian goulash." A Hungarian-American stew of meat and vegetables seasoned with paprika. The Hungarian word is gulyas, which originally menat "shepherd," then was synonymous with the kind of stew. Its first printed reference in English was in 1865..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 142)

"During the great Depression, the names of foreign mixed dishes, such as goulash, hodgepodge (perhaps from hachepot), or chop suey, were applied to quick assortments of meat, vegetables, and potatoes, and sometimes even to desserts with mixed ingredients."
---Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 36)

This sampling of goulash recipes published in American cookbooks chronicles the dish's evolution from Old World soup to mainstream American fare:

[1903]
"Gulash.
Veal and beef mixed. Cut into one inch squares and brown in hot fat with one onion, salt and one heaping teaspoonful paprika. When the meat is brown, add one cup strained tomatoes, and one-half hour before serving, add some small potatoes."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander, facsimile 1903 edition [Gramercy Publishing:New York] 1987 (p. 61)

[1914]
Hungarian Goulash I & II, Neighborhood Cook Book

[1922]
Hungarian Goulash, Foods of the Foreign-Born

[1932]
"Goulash (Gulyas)
3 ounces of paprkia bacon
1 1/2 pounds bony beef
Potatoes
Salt
Onions
1 slice of garlic
Water
Egg barley
Cut up the meat to about the size of walnuts, then put it on the melted baon fat with onion; cover it up and steam, first over a large, then over a small flame, while continuously stirring, until nice and brown. Pour over it enough water to cover the meat. Then steam for additional 2 to 3 hours over a small flame. Peel potaotes, cut into quarters, add to the goulash and boil with it until soft.

Hungarian Goulash Szegedi Style (Gulyashus szegediesen)
Goulash is best when prepared from different parts of the beef. One may take the rump, loin, some of the heart, kidney, and also the neck. Cut them all into square pieces, wash well, put into a steam-kettle, and pour enough water over it to cover it completely. When it reached boiling point, add sliced onions, salt, and pepper, stir up well a couple of times and let it boil until the gravy has cooked away into the fat. Serve the goulash in the center of a dish and circle with spaetzels or egg barley. It is quite original to serve it in the kettle. Goulash has to cook for quite 3 hours to become tender. Prepare the spaetzels from plain kneaded dough. When kneaded, roll out about 1/2 inch thick, cut into long slices, tear the slices into small pieces (about the size of a peanut), round, then cook in salted water. Drain off the water, put some fat over them and mix in with the goulash and boil with that."
---Hungarian Cookery: Recipes new and Old [St. Marks Printing:New York NY] 1932 (p. 49-50)

[1933]
"Goulash
1/2 pound lean veal
1/2 pound beef round
1/2 pound fresh pork
1 tablespoon paprika
1 pair pork kidneys
4 tablespoons drippings
2 onlins, sliced
1 green pepper, shredded
1 cup tomatoes
1 sprig parsley
4 potatoes, pared and quartered
Salt to taste
1. Cut measts in 1-inch pieces and mix thoroughly with paprika.
2. Soak kidneys in cold watyer for 1 hour, drian and punge into boiling water for 1 minute. Cut into small pieces, discarding tougher parts. 3. Fry onions and pepper in hot fat until soft. Add meat and kidneys and brown in the fat. Add tomatoes and parsley.
4. Barley cover with boiling water. Cover and simmer slowly for 1 hour.
5. Add potatoes and salt and more water if needed. Simmer another half hour.
6. The liquid should be reduced to about 1 1/2 cups.
7. Thicken if desired with 1 tablespoon flour, rubbed smooth with 1 tablespoon butter. Cook a few minutes a higher temperature, untils stew boils up once.
8. Serve with Farina Dumplings...or left-over cold Farina cut into small squares and pan-fried until brown and crisp."
---Recipe 154, Balanced Recipes, Mary Ellis Ames [Pillsbury Flour Mills Company:Minneapolis MN] 1933

[1944]
"Hungarian Goulash
3 tablsp. butter, margarine, fat or salad oil
3 c. thinly sliced onions
2 1/4 teasp. salt
6 teasp. paprika
1 1/2 lbs. chuck, rump, or breast beef, in 1" cubes
About 3 c. water.
Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or deep kettle. Add the onions and salt, and saute until onions are a rich golden brown. Add a 1/2 teasp. of the paprika and the meat. Mix well. Cover and simmer over very low heat for 1 hr. Add the remaining 4 1/2 teasp. of paprika and about 3 cups water or enough to just over the meat. Cover and cook 1 hr. longer or until the meat is tender. Serve with noodles. Or, if desired, pare and cut four medium potatoes in quarters, and add to the meat during the alst 1/2 hour of cooking. Serves 4-5."
---The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Completely revised edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 207)

[1953]
"Goulash
2 cups diced left-over roast beef or pot roast
1 1/2 lbs potatoes, 3 or 4
1 cup water
1 No. 2 can tomatoes
1 lb. small white onions
2 tablespoons butter
Salt to suit taste
Combine meat with potatoes which have been pared and cut into 1-inch dice. Add water and tomatoes, cover and cook until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, peel and slice onions and saute in the butter until soft and yellow, or leave onions whole and boil in enough water to cover until just tender. Add to meat and vegetable mixture. Season to sut taste and serve piping hot. 5 servings."
---The Modern Family Cook Book, Meta Given [J.G. Ferguson:Chicago IL] 1953 (p. 328)

[1968]
"Beef Goulash and Noodles
2 pounds beef chuck, cut in 3/4 inch cubes
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon paprika
1 8-ounce can (1 cup) tomato sauce
1 1-pound can (2 cups) tomatoes
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced Bouquet garni*
6 ounces medium egg noodles
2 tablespoons poppy seed
2 tablespoons butter or margarine.
In large saucepan brown half the beef cubes in half the shortening; repeat. Add onion; cook till tender. Stir in flour, paprika, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add tomato souce, tomatoes, garlic, and bouquet garni. Cover, simmer over low heat till meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove bouquet garni. Cook noodles in boiling salted water; drain. Add poppy seed and butter. Serve Goulash over noodles. Makes 6 to 8 servings. *Bouquet Garni: In cheesecloth, tie 1 bay leaf, 1 stalk celery, cut up, 2 tablespoons parlsey, and 1/4 teaspoon thyme."
---Better Homes and Gardens Casserole Cook Book, Better Homes and Gardens [Meredith Corp.:New York] 1968 (p. 13)

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Italian wedding soup

The general concensus among the food people is that Italian wedding soup (originally known as Minestra Maritata or Pignato Grasso) has nothing to do with wedding ceremonies. This particular "marriage" (maritata is the Italian word for marriage) is between vegetables...or...depending upon the region?...sometimes pork and vegetables, in soup. Minestra maritata is usually associated with the southern-most parts of Italy. Recipes with pork are said to have originated in Napoli [Naples]. The phrase "Italian wedding soup" appears to be a recent addition to our gastronomic vocabulary. Culinary evidence confirms recipes for soups of this type were simply called (at least in American cookbooks) minestrone.

"Minestra. Soup. At one time this term referred to any first course, but today it refers to soup, specifically one with pieces of vegetable or grain in broth...From [the word] minestare (to administer), probably because the food was portioned out as the only dish served at a meal. Minestra has a more liquid consistency than zuppa, which is often poured over roasted or fried stale bread...Minestra maritata (married soup) is a vegetable soup made in the south in various local ways. In Naples, it is called pignato grasso, and meat is added to the vegetables."
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p.154)

Minestra Maritata is thought to be based upon ancient Roman soup traditions. Culinary evidence confirms this statement. Although we do not find recipes with this exact name referenced by Apicius [Ancient Roman cooking text] or Platina [On the Right Pleasure and Good Health, 1475 Italian cook book] there is ample evidence of the existence of vegetable soup during these times. Soup has long been credited for nourishing the infirm and keeping hungry bellies full. Did you know the first modern public restaurants (18th century Paris) were places where soup was served to restore (from the French verb "restaurer") the patron's health? Some early soup recipes here:

ANCIENT ROME: "166. Minutal Apicianum
The Apician minutal is made as follows: oil, broth wine, leek heads, mint, small fish, small tidbits cock's fries or capon's kidneys and pork sweetbreads; all of these are cooked together. Now crush pepper, lovage, greeen coriander, or seeds, moistened with broth; add a little honey, and of the own liquor of the above morsels, wine and honey to taste; bring this to a boiling point skim, bind, stir well sprinkle with pepper and serve.
---Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, Apicius, edited and translated by Joseph Dommers Vehling [Dover:New York] 1977 (p. 115)
[NOTE: this book contains several other minutal (meaning a small dish composed of minutely cut foods) recipes served in broth. "Liquor" in these recipes means the liquid (broth) naturally occuring as the result of cooking, not a distilled alcoholic product.]

1475: "66. Minutal (soup)
Plunge green vegetables into boiling water, remove at once and cut up finely. When they are cut, pound them in a mortar, and when they are well pounded, make boil until cooked, with sugar added in the right amount. My friend Caelius, whose bowel is constricted, uses this, for even if it is of little nourishment and digests slowly, it nevertheless moves the bowels, increases fertility, and settles burning of the urine."
---On the Right Pleasure and Good Health, Platina, critical edition and translation by Mary Ella Milham [Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies:Tempe AZ] 1998 (p. 342-3)
[NOTE: this book also contains recipes for Ius in Faba Recenti (Fresh Broad Bean Soup), Ius in Curcurbita (Gourd Soup), Minutal Herbaceum (Herb Soup), and Ius in Cicere Rubeo (Red Chick-Pea Soup).

The earliest print American reference we find for "Wedding Soup" does not claim a country of origin:

"Wedding Soup
Have a good rich broth. Cook vermicelli until tender. Allow one egg yolk to each person to be served. Whip lightly in a bowl, add grated parmesan cheese and some soft butter. Pour the broth with the vermicelli in it slowly into the bowl, so that it does not lump."
---"Continental Dinner Gives You Savory Foreign Foods", Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1925 (p. B20)
[NOTE: The recipes in this article are specialties of Joseph Musso, Musso Cafe, Los Angeles.]

The Turkish connection?

"Wedding Soup
(Eight servings)
1/4 pound ground beef
8 cups beef stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup flour
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
Paprika
Shape ground beef into small balls, add to 6 cups beef stock and heat to boiling. Mix salt, flour, egg yolks, and lemon juice to remaining 2 cups of cold beef stock; strain if necessary to remove any lumps. Add mixture to boiling beef stock, stirring constantly, and cook until soup thickens. Serve in individual soup tureens, adding a few meat balls to each. Melt butter, add paprika, and serve as garnish for soup."
---"Tasty Food-Turkish Style," Madeline Holland, Chicago Daily Tribune, January 30, 1959 (p. B1)

"Wedding Soup/Dugun Corbasi
Ingredients: 200 g yogurt, 2 tablespoons flour, 4 cups water, 250 g mutton, or one lamb neck cut into 1/2 to 1 inch cubes, 3 tablespoons butter, teaspoon red pepper, ground or flaked.
Preparation: Put the meat in a pot and cover with 2 cm of water. Brink to a boil and simmer. From time to time, remove the foam rising to the surface. When the meat is nearly tender, melt in another pot the 2 tablspoons butter, add the flour and stir wtihout browning for a minute or two and then mix in the yogurt. Cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens. When the meat is tender, add the broth slowly to the pot with the sauce, stirring constantly. If the neck is used, separate the meat from the bones; while the cubes of mutton should be cut up into smaller pieces. Add the meat to the soup and cook another 15 minutes. Divide among the serving bowls. In a small pan, heat one tablespoon butter until sizzling, add the red pepper and stir. Drizzle over the serving bowls and serve. Note: Instead of yogurt, a sauce of 2 egg yolks and the juice of 1/2 to a whole lemon may be mad by stirring the juice slowly into the well-beaten egg yolks. After the soup is cooked, mix the egg yolks and the lemon juice with a whisk in a glass or porcelain bowl. Gradually add a small amount of hot soup broth to this mixture, stirring constantly. Add this mixture slowly to the boiling soup, mixing thoroughly. Bring to a boil and serve."
---Turkish Cuisine In Historical Perspective, Deniz Gursoy, translated by Dr. Joyce H. Matthews [Olak Yayincilik ve Reklamcilik:Istanbul] 2006(p. 22)
[NOTE: This book does not offer any historical notes regarding this recipe, or its name.]

About Italian wedding soup in western PA
Western PA folks of Italian/American descent claim this soup is an "energy fortification" to the newly married couple in order to sustain them through the first night of wedded bliss.

"I had never heard of Italian Wedding Soup until I came to Pittsburgh in 1992 to marry my future wife, who grew up in Mt. Lebanon. The first time my father-in-law ordered wedding soup, I became hooked forever. "The problem is that outside of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio, it is extremely difficult to garner up some of that chicken broth with beef meatballs, carrots, spinach, parsley, and of course, acini di pepi (pastina). All the Olive Gardens around Pittsburgh have wedding soup. If you go to any other Olive Garden in the country, they will not have it. In fact, most Italian restaurants outside Pittsburgh do not have it. The nation is being deprived of one, if the not the best, all-around soup in the world. "In your opinion, who has the best wedding soup in Steel Town? How about in The Strip? I'm coming to Pittsburgh in June for one week and I can't wait to have several authentic bowls of Italian Wedding Soup."
---"Mustard, Wedding Soup Stir Longings of Ex-natives," Woodene Merriman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), March 23, 2000 (p. E2)

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Vichyssoise

Most food historians generally attribute the creation of this cold soup to Louis Diat, Chef at the Ritz-Carleton in New York in 1917. There are, however, some conflicting facts that make this story interesting. Was Mr. Diat the first to make French-style cream of leek and potato soup? Culinary evidence suggests not. Recipe 696 in Escoffier's Guide Culinaire (circa 1903) provides instructions for Puree Parmentier. Jules Gouffe's Royal Cookery Book (circa 1869) contains a recipe for Potato and Leek Soup. The difference? Escoffier's and Gouffe's soups were served hot. Mr. Diat's Vichyssoise was served cold. If there is a connection to Vichy (beyond the name) it has not been preserved for posterity.

"Vichyssiose a chilled potato and leek cream soup created by a French chef, Louis Diat, in New York early in the 20th century. Of those who identify 1917 as the year of its creation, none gives chapter and verse. Hofler gives as the first occurrence in print in French a reference in an issue of La Revue culinaire of 1923, where the dish is identified as an item of American cuisine."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 826)

"Vichyssoise was created by Chef Louis Diat at the Ritz in New York City. In American Food (1975) Evan Jones said the soup was first served in 1910, while The American Heritage Cookbook (1980) adds, "[The soup] was served for the first time to Charles Schwab, the steel magnate" for the opening of the hotel's roof garden. But there are several things wrong with these assertions: Diat did come to work at the Ritz-Carleton sometime in 1910, but the restaurant did not open until December 14 of that year, and this was not the roof-garden restaurant in any case....the menu for that opening night's meal was listed in The New York Times the next day; the soup served was a turtle soup, not leek and potato...Diat himself remarked, in his book Louis Diat's Cookbook (1946), that "one of my earliest food memories is of my mother's good Leek and Potato soup...When I first came to this country I actually couldn't find any [leeks]. I finally persuaded one of my vegetable suppliers to find someone who would grow leeks for me." It is unlikely that Diat found someone to grow leeks quickly enough to have them in time for the opening in 1910...Curiously enough, Diat does not mention his famous soup by name in his 1946 cookbook...Elizabeth David...in her French Provincial Cooking (1960), gave, without comment, the date 1917 as the year of the soup's creation."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 340)

Mr. Gouffe's recipe, circa 1869

"Potato and Leek Soup
Trim and was 3 good-sized leeks, say 4 oz., as above;
Fry, moisten, and season as for leek soup;
Add 1/4 lb. Of good mealy potatoes, peeled, and washed, and cut in large pieces;
Boil gently, till the potatoes are done to a puree;
Add: 1 oz. Of bread, cut in thin slices; and 1 1/2 oz. of fresh butter;
Stir up, till the butter is melted; and serve."
--- The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Son, and Marston:London] 1869 (p. 40)

Mr. Diat's recipe, circa 1941

"Cream Vichyssoise Glacee
serves eight
4 leeks, white part
1 medium onion
2 ounces sweet butter
5 medium potatoes
1 quart water of chicken broth
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups milk
2 cups medium cream
1 cup heavy cream
Finely slice the white part of the leeks and the onion, and brown very lightly in the sweet butter, then add the potatoes, also sliced finely. Add water or broth and salt. Boil from 25 to 40 minutes. Crush and rub through a fine strainer. Return to fire and add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of medium cream. Season to taste and bring to a boil. Cool and then rub through a very fine strainer. When soup is cold, add the heavy cream. Chill thoroughly before serving. Finely chopped chives may be added when serving."
---Cooking A La Ritz, Louis Diat [J.B. Lippincott:New York] 1941 (p. 68)
[NOTE: this book has another recipe for Cream of Leek and Potato (Potage Parmentier), p. 69

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About these notes: Food history can be a complicated topic. These notes are not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the subject, but a summary of salient points supported with culinary evidence. If you need more information we suggest you start by asking your librarian to help you find the books and articles cited in these notes. Article databases are good for locating current recipes, consumer trends, and new products.
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Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.

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17 January 2010