Subdeacon Joe Posted January 27 Author Posted January 27 (edited) A Receipt for a Cheap Soup for Six Persons Published for the Use of the Private Soldiers and their Families, encamped on Cox-Heath, near Maidstone, 1778. TAKE half a pound of beef, mutton, or pork, and cut it into small pieces, and three spoonfuls of split peas; then take three quarts and one pint of water, and put it into a pot or saucepan, and put in the meat that is cut in pieces and the peas, and let them boil; then put in three turnips, three Jerusalem artichokes, three potatoes, one onion, and some celery, that have been all cut in small pieces; boil them over a very slow fire for three hours, then thicken the soup with half a pint of oatmeal, or half a pound of flour, or ground rice, and let it boil half an hour after the thickening is put in, stirring it half the time; then season it with pepper and salt to the taste. Pounded ginger and all-spice may be used occasionally in the seasoning; also thyme, chives, onions, garlic, rocambole**, savory, and almost any sort of garden stuff or pot-herbs, provided they are cut small, for they will dissolve in the soup while it is stewing; and if the bones are chopped small and boiled in the soup, it will much improve it; and thus by varying the above ingredients, a number of cheap soups may be made, that will not cost more than a penny for each person for a good meal. N.B. The chief Art in preparing these cheap Foods, is to cut the Ingredients small, and stew them a considerable Time over a flow fire, and thus almoft all Sorts of Meat and Garden-stuff will dissolve, and when properly seasoned, be a very wholesome and pleasant food, and will sqerve very well at the Tables of the Rich, as well as the Poor. ======================== Bringing that into today's money, that six pennies would be about $1.50. Can't do it for that now. But you could probably make it for around $10. **Rocambole is a gourmet hardneck garlic (Allium sativum var. ophioscorodon) or the related sand leek (Allium scorodoprasum) known for its complex, intense flavor. Valued by chefs for its rich, earthy taste, it is often consumed raw or used to enhance sauces. It is characterized by its twisted scapes and papery skins. Edited January 27 by Subdeacon Joe 1 1 Quote
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted January 29 Posted January 29 On 1/27/2026 at 10:27 AM, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said: Oatmeal waffle for breakfast, recipes are everywhere. Don’t know why the charred spots. There’s no fruit there. theory about the charred bits, My brown sugar was not sufficiently declumped - just a theory. 3 Quote
Eyesa Horg Posted January 29 Posted January 29 (edited) On 1/28/2026 at 11:03 AM, Subdeacon Joe said: Or just roast up hind quarter! Edited January 29 by Eyesa Horg Otto 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted January 29 Author Posted January 29 1 hour ago, Eyesa Horg said: Or just roast up a hundred quarter! Fore-quarter or hind-quarter? Or a hundred quarter weight? 1 2 Quote
Eyesa Horg Posted January 29 Posted January 29 14 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said: Fore-quarter or hind-quarter? Or a hundred quarter weight? Fixed it, dang Otto and I missed it. 1 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted January 29 Author Posted January 29 1 hour ago, Eyesa Horg said: Or just roast up a hundred hind otto quarter! 2 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 Lunch today: 1. Silky Squash & Onion Soup The obvious move, but done right it’s velvet in a bowl. Sweat onions gently in butter or oil until sweet, not brown. Add cubed squash, salt, white pepper or black pepper. Cover with chicken broth, simmer until collapse-soft. Purée smooth. 2 medium Onions. 1 medium Squash 2 TBS Butter 2 cup homemade Chicken Broth plus enough Swanson to cover. A tiny bit of Black Pepper. After I blended it I adjusted the salt with about 1TBS of Knorr Chicken Bouillon powder. Good stuff, Maynard! 2 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRbZM1BDc4E/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Quote
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted February 4 Posted February 4 BREAKFAST, AND DESSERT I am not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I am a nurse and as such, firmly of the opinion that efficiency is greatly to be desired. Before entering that noble (and overwhelmingly overworked) profession, I was an unmitigated slob. I had to learn organization fast. If you're not organized, if you're not efficient, as a nurse, you sink -- fast and catastrophically. This contaminated my general worldview, which brings us to breakfast. Rather than dirty up a skillet and stand in front of the stove (which does most unkind things to my poor old back), I saw and purchased a clamshell, microwave, omelet maker mold. Works fine, to wit: (always wanted to say that. Makes me sound eddjycated!) Spray your open clamshell mold with mold release, set this in microwave and leave door open. To spray greased half of clamshell, add whatever you like. I used sliced almonds, cut up spinach leaves, until they got old and felt greasy and threw out half a bag with a feeling of failure, as I spent good money for it. Laid in strips of Swiss cheese, cut up two strips of cooked bacon, then cracked two eggs in a bowl. Added minced garlic to taste, pepper, a short squirt of mustard, spun this up with a fork, added half a shot glass of whole milk. You can use heavy cream or half and half, honestly it improves it. Once this is all spun up and fluffy, well aerated and you're tired of beating it with a fork (you can use a whisk or if you are fancy, use a deep bowl and a hand held immersion blender), add two shakes of soy sauce and spin it up again. Pour this well aerated admixture into the clamshell, top with a sprinkle of shredded Mexican cheese or whatever you like, flip the clamshell shut and microwave for three minutes, or however long will give a complete cook in your machine. Too long and it comes out tough. I learned this the hard way. Ate it anyhow. So much for breakfast. My grandson, bless him, is a Columbus fire medic and makes dump cake when it's his turn to cook. I tried making dump cake and wasn't satisfied, so instead I dump a can of pie filling in a mixing bowl and added a box of cake mix. Most recent effort was blueberry pie filling and chocolate cake mix. Stir this up, add a long shake of vanilla, stir again. I use a spatula because a mixer shreds the pie filling fruit and it raises a dust cloud that has to be cleaned up afterward. If you avoid causing that dusty over lay that requires subsequent cleanup, you're being efficient. See above. Turn this into your greased cake pan, bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean, my oven takes an hour. Now grab another mixing bowl, dump in heavy whipping cream and whip this up. I don't have a stand mixer nor have I a whisk attachment so I just use regular beaters in a hand mixer with a long shot of vanilla and it's a good thing neither my wife nor I had a hangover because it's noisy clattering in that stainless steel bowl. Whip this up nice and fluffy and then add one box of whatever kind of instant pudding you like. I used chocolate. It'll turn into kind of a stiff mousse. Use this as icing. When you mix it, use a spatula, for the same practical and efficient reason you don't want to power mix that freshly dumped pile of super fine cake mix described earlier. Once it's mixed up and stiff and you're ready to ice the cake, if you have a new, never used, smaller sized trowel, use that. You'll have better luck than I did trying to putty that stiff chocolate mousse with a butter knife. Should have used the spatula. Hind sight is 20-20. My wife pronounced this a repeat, which means I can safely pass it along for your collective consideration. 2 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 4 Author Posted February 4 4 hours ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said: Once this is all spun up and fluffy, well aerated and you're tired of beating it with a fork (you can use a whisk or if you are fancy, use a deep bowl and a hand held immersion blender), add two shakes of soy sauce and spin it up again. A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make scrambled eggs. I had just emptied a small jar of olives, so thought "What the heck?" Put all the ingredients into the jar, put the lid back on, shook it vigorously for about 20 seconds and had a perfectly blended batch. Now that's my favorite method. 2 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 6 Author Posted February 6 Mayberry Cookbook https://dn721605.ca.archive.org/0/items/aunt-bees-mayberry-cookbook/Aunt Bee's Mayberry Cookbook_text.pdf 2 1 Quote
Tooky Slim Posted February 6 Posted February 6 Some really interesting recipes from Mayberry. I'm gonna have to try a few of those 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 6 Author Posted February 6 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUJEM4pDa0q/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Quote
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted February 7 Posted February 7 Subdeacon Joe, thank you, I honestly never thought about shaking the ingredients in a jar like that! Efficiency! (Which too many short sighted bosses take for laziness!) I will very definitely give that a try! 1 1 Quote
Lawdog Dago Dom Posted February 9 Posted February 9 Salsa Recipe. 1831 Mexican cookbook. Authentic Mexican Salsa Recipe from 1831 – Eats History 1 Quote
Tooky Slim Posted February 10 Posted February 10 On 2/5/2026 at 8:43 PM, Tooky Slim said: Some really interesting recipes from Mayberry. I'm gonna have to try a few of those I made Mrs. Mendlebright:s Stuffed Mushrooms for the SuperBowl...none were left after halftime 1 Quote
Buckshot Bear Posted February 11 Posted February 11 For those weird types who don't like cross contamination. 4 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 14 Author Posted February 14 https://www.scribd.com/doc/56122890/U-S-Navy-Cook-Book-1920 https://dn721908.ca.archive.org/0/items/TheCookBookOfTheUnitedStatesNavy1944/TheCookBookOfTheUnitedStatesNavy1944.pdf https://share.google/gSiboMsBAQxQXjtHE Quote
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted February 19 Posted February 19 WIFE WILL APPROVE PIE My wife asked if I had plans for the two graham cracker crusts I'd bought and had stacked on the kitchen counter. This is Wife Speak for "I want pie and you bought these for a reason, get on it, mister!" She knew I intended to put them to use because a) I am a cheap skate skin flint tight fisted sort who would not spend money on pie shells unless I intended they be used, and b) While I was what the actors call "Between Engagements" I felt so utterly worthless I assuaged my sorrowing soul with fabricated productivity: I made pies. I'd mix up an Instant Pudding Dream Pie and take down to my wife's workplace, where of course they were well received (as are all free food offerings in a medical setting) -- my wife got "Spoken To" by her disappointed co-workers when I got gainful employment and their twice weekly pies ended. I mixed up the Dream Whip per instruction and decanted this into a pie crust, to wit: Dump in milk Add long squirt of vanilla, using the esteemed Mrs. Brown's formula for "Measure With Your Heart!" -- add Dream Whip and mix well until it's lovely and fluffy and then add the rest of the milk and a box of instant pudding and mix some more. Things went fine until I set the electric hand mixer down with the beaters carefully over the mixing bowl. I opened the dish washer to put the measuring cup inside. Missed entirely the mixer's electric cord draped down over its front. Cleaned up splattered pudding and managed not to yelp when my opening the dishwasher door brought the hand mixer off the counter and onto my foot. The wife was still in bed and did not want to startle her awake with a pained and probably profane pronouncement. Problem. After I cleaned up my mess and decanted my mixture into the graham cracker crust, it filled it only halfway. Horse knuckles. Rinse the bowl and the beaters, fetch the measuring cup back out of the dishwasher, plug the mixer back in aaannnddddd ... no more pudding of that type. The too-thin layer was banana creme. No more instant banana creme in the cupboard, and no vanilla to try and sneak by with a similar colored content. Can't match it, so contrast it: go for the wife's all-time favorite anything, CHOCOLATE! (My wife is a great fan of chocolate. It contains isoflavones, anti-oxidants and two or three other long words, it eases symptoms of asthma, improves cardiac circulation, it makes you younger, smarter, and better looking, and at my age I need all the help I can get!) Mix up the second envelope of Dream Whip, add the correct second volume of milk and the chocolate instant pudding, mix this up and managed not to drop the mixer on my foot again. Not dropping a hand mixer on your foot is a good thing. Decanted the second layer atop the first, completely concealing my miscalculation, and when she cuts into it she'll approve of not only my having made it, but also the contents, and she will delight in the color-contrast multi-layer construction! 1 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted February 26 Author Posted February 26 The Project Gutenberg eBook of Directions for Cooking by Troops, in Camp and Hospital, by Nightingale, Florence. https://share.google/MxhF1pNnKz6aaamsv 2 Quote
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted March 4 Posted March 4 17 hours ago, Alpo said: I very clearly remember that.... 🙂 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 I know that the cook time seems long, but this isn't your 7 or 8 week old chicken from the store, but a 7 or 8 year old bird that's mo longer productive. I'd also say that the people would be using most of the dark green of the leeks, which take a long time to cook (can also cut them, toss with oil and seasoning and air fry until crisp for a crunchy snack or salad garnish). The rice cooks down to thicken the soup. Quote
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted March 15 Posted March 15 (edited) 6 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said: I know that the cook time seems long, but this isn't your 7 or 8 week old chicken from the store, but a 7 or 8 year old bird that's mo longer productive. I'd also say that the people would be using most of the dark green of the leeks, which take a long time to cook (can also cut them, toss with oil and seasoning and air fry until crisp for a crunchy snack or salad garnish). The rice cooks down to thicken the soup. I reckon if you're a chicken, retirement ain't something to look forward to. Edited March 15 by Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 1 1 Quote
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted March 22 Posted March 22 I ain't so sure 'bout this one... but it popped up this morning: Cheese and Vegamite Scrolls Perhaps someone braver than me might wanna try it and report back... 1 Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted March 22 Author Posted March 22 1 hour ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: I ain't so sure 'bout this one... but it popped up this morning: Cheese and Vegamite Scrolls Perhaps someone braver than me might wanna try it and report back... Actually sounds pretty good. In the dough I'd prefer buttermilk to sweet milk. But...consider this... Substitute Better than Bouillon beef base and a little mushroom powder for the Vegemite. And possibly pepper-jack for the cheddar. Or a combination. Quote
Subdeacon Joe Posted March 28 Author Posted March 28 Ice Cream! It actually sounds pretty good. 1 Quote
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted March 28 Posted March 28 18 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said: Ice Cream! It actually sounds pretty good. This one is absolutely going on my "gotta do this!" list for this summer! 1 Quote
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