Soup of the Evening

The middle of March is here and that means it’s time for another dive into the gastro-catastrophe known as the Gourmet Cookbook Volume II…or what I’ve come to call The Crazy Stuff People will Eat. Yes, that’s right, a look at all that’s unfit to serve – or at least strange to our modern eyes from the venerable 1957 cookbook that catered to the crustiest of the uppers. Today we’re dishing out a tureen of soup. Soup, the innocuous meal starter, soup the partner of nuts in describing all that could possibly be contained in a hardware store, soup the cheap mealtime companion of sandwiches across the continent and (so far as I know) beyond.

I’m actually a little excited about the soup section of the cookbook. I enjoy cooking and lately Kelly and I have been on a bit of a soup tear, working our way through another cookbook that goes by the unassuming title of The Ultimate Soup Bible (I’m actively seeking The Penultimate Soup Bible, but so far no luck). Most of the heathen soups that are found in Gourmet’s cookbook don’t appear in the soup bible. It’s as if the Gourmet chapter is mostly composed of soup Canaanites, prone to worshiping the golden soup calf or something. Then again, if you look at some of the recopies it’s pretty obvious why they’ve fallen out of favor. The modern palate isn’t ready for an Easter soup of lamb heart and lung, okra chowder, or jellied wine consume. Take the following example…

  

I have to admit that I can’t look at the name of this soup without thinking of Rose Marie who played Sally on the Dick Van Dyke Show. Definitely not an image that piques the appetite. If you can get past the name, though, the idea of sorrel combined with cream of tomato soup isn’t unappealing. We just finished a cream of tomato soup that had a nice, spicy flavor and adding the sharpness of something like common sorrel wouldn’t be bad. Maybe I’ll have to rename this one and try it this summer when tomatoes are in season. 

The second soup that caught my attention was Senate Bean Soup, described in Gourmet as follows…

 

I checked the US Senate website and it contains the same recipe along with a little bit of history. Not surprising that the Senate would have its own soup – they can make soup out of just about anything. I guess it’s even less surprising that their soup would be filled with beans…

All in all, organ meats and poor period photography aside, this wasn't a bad chapter. I've made a few of the soups featured in Gourmet from other recipe books and had good luck and they provide an extensive stock and soup starter section that is missing from many modern cookbooks. I'll keep you up to date on any of the Gourmet recipes we decide to try.