Alexis Soyer continued

Soups is the first chapter in Soyer’s shilling cookery for the people and it contains a variety of healthy soups for example carrot soup and clear turnip soup.  He begins with saying the majority of English people are ‘opposed’ to soup and the reason for this is because ‘it’s so complicated and expensive that they cannot afford the money, time, or attention, to prepare it’. This is a problem which I think many people still face nowadays as often it’s difficult to find recipes that fulfil time and cost constraints and are simple enough to make them part of our daily cooking habits.  But Soyer through Hortense will ‘obviate that difficulty’ and reduce it to a ‘quick, nutritious, wholesome, and economical’ system that hopefully will ‘form part of the daily fare of every dinner table’. A kind piece is offered: ‘Please pay particular attention to the following receipt for when you are perfect in it, and can make it quick and well, almost every sort of soup can be made from it’. This is reassuring as essentially if you master one you’ve kind of mastered them all!  One of the soup recipes is mock turtle soup.  Turtle soup was considered a luxury and so mock turtle soup was the cheap alternative. It contains a calf’s head and Soyer says if it is too large ‘use one half for a day’s dinner’ (which he’s given another recipe for) thus suggesting portion control and minimalism so no waste is made too. Funnily enough mock turtle soup became a British classic and even Heinz even made it!

 

Vegetables

The chapter on vegetables also has some very useful advice especially on eating a balanced diet which ensures ‘proper nourishment’.  Soyer talks about the lack of vegetables the labouring poor ate at the time and instead ‘the poor are doomed to live entirely on bread and cheese’ and ‘a small portion of animal food not even a potato is to be had during the winter and spring’. He mocks the idea of the lack of vegetables in the English diet on the cold climate which is why ‘more heating food’ is required but that ‘in the summer the English are as much vegetable eaters as their neighbours’. Here, he suggests adding vegetables and other ingredients that give the same benefits as meat does in cooking to ensure everyone eats more vegetables.  He also criticises that most people misunderstand the potato! ‘If you ask Betty why she boiled the potatoes in such a manner’  ‘she answers’  ‘my mother or my sister, did so and they were good’. Perhaps signifying recipes are a form of tradition and pass through generations even if they are incorrect.  So Soyer is writing to remove these misconceptions that hinder people’s cooking. He also advises people to change their methods of cooking if boiling doesn’t work then try steaming etc. One of the recipes he gives in this chapter is how to cook French beans or kidney beans.  His method is very simple and direct. First  ‘head, tail and string them; cut them down in strips or in the middle, throw them into boiling water, in which a little more salt than usual has been put. Boil for fifteen minutes’ and serve with parsley and butter. At the end he adds the nutritional benefit as he states ‘skins of the pulse, and are exceedingly wholesome’ as they ‘purify the salt of the blood’, so he is educating the reader on cooking skills but also nutrition  too.