Giblet Soup

[donna]

It is cooler here in Florida. It is time to make some soup. This soup my Granny would make. It is simple but nutritious. It came from her family.

Giblet Soup

Scald and cut up one set of giblets, that includes the neck, gizzard, liver, and heart of any fowl, put them in a pan with one quart stock or water, one whole onion stuck with cloves, and the grated rind of one half lemon. Simmer for three hours and strain. Peel and slice two onions and fry them in three tablespoons melted butter. When brown, stir in one tablespoon of flour and fry it brown, add the stock and stir until boiling, put back the giblets, season with salt and pepper, and one grated carrot, and simmer for 30 minutes.

 

[donna]

My Granny raised chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl. She always had plenty to have to make different recipes. She also sold eggs. This was profitable business for her.

Her Mother and many in her family always had chickens. Farmers can be very self reliant and have been for years.

 

[JPChurch]

Did you ever get to help your Granny clean them up? The fowl members that is...…..like from the barnyard to the stove???

 

[donna]

I gathered eggs with her but never cleaned them (the fowl). I watched. I was quite young. Loved all the chickens. The turkeys were very elegant but never liked you to get close.

 

[alan polk]

When you write "scald" in the recipe, does that mean to pan sear the giblets or does it mean boil them?

 

[dlavin]

Never let anything go to waste. We could learn things from those days. We throw away so much food these days.

 

[donna]

I believe it means to pan sear giblets and then put in water.

 

[Peace Society]

Did you ever get to help your Granny clean them up? The fowl members that is...…..like from the barnyard to the stove???

My mother did one of our chickens once. Really hard getting all the pin feathers off the body. After all the work it took to make it ready to cook, she said Never Again.

 

[alan polk]

My mother did one of our chickens once. Really hard getting all the pin feathers off the body. After all the work it took to make it ready to cook, she said Never Again.

Yeah, I've done my share of that work too. It's messy - ringing the neck etc. But afterward it helps to have boiling water waiting in which to soak the chickens before removing the feathers. That's how we did it. Regardless, it is hard work. And I mean hard! But I'll tell y'all this, it has always made me appreciate going to the grocery store and plopping a chicken in my buggy that's already been cleaned and ready to cook! When you know how hard it is, kinda makes you feel guilty or like your cheating!! Ha! Ha!

 

[JPChurch]

Agreed. Cleaning up a chicken is a total pain. Me and a hunting pal of mine were gifted two free roaming hens that were all done with egg laying. The end result was disappointing. The meat was very tough; nothing like a store bought chicken that's loaded with fat......
The boiling water helps plucking the feathers out but that's messy/tedious in itself. I have the entire process on video tape but I don't think I should share it here. Plus I don't know how to transfer VHS to a video file suitable for the internet.

I get whole chickens when they're on sale at Food Lion. Best bang for your buck. Sometimes the fancy Perdue whole roasters go on sale for .99 a pound.....still a good price when everything else in local grocery stores keeps going up....like the price of beef.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I'd have been the worst farm kid ever. Collect eggs, sure, wring a neck? Big nope. Much less beef- forget it.

Donna, hadn't thought about giblets for too many years to count. Nana, grgrandmother always used them for the gravy. Remember as kid discovering ' giblet ' was the term for pretty much any edible inside bits in a chicken and being very sorry someone told me.

 

[donna]

Always loved my Granny's giblet gravy, her fried livers and cooked gizzards. Just best not to thing where they came from.