• Welcome to the Receipts of the Blue & Gray. - The receipts you will find here are original Antebellum, and Civil War period receipts, as originally published between the years 1796 and 1880. One exception, is: Newspaper Clippings & Periodical Receipts are limited to a publishing period from 1858 to 1866.

    Some receipts from this era attempted to give medicinal advice. Many dangerous, and in some cases, deadly, "cures" were given, reflecting the primitive knowledge of that time period. Don't assume everything you read here is safe to try! Recipes and Receipts posted here are for Historic Research Purposes, enjoy them, learn from them, discuss them!

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Soup/Stew/Chowder Onion Soup

onion soup
(from The Virginia House-wife, by Mary Randolph, 1825)
x-Bol_de_soupe_%C3%A0_l%27oignon_des_C%C3%A9vennes.jpg


Ingredients:

12 large onions​
3 quarts milk​
3 quarts water​
bits of veal or fowl​
bacon​
pepper​
salt​
1 large spoonful of butter​
1 large spoonful of flour​
serve with toasted bread​

Instructions:

Chop up twelve large onions, boil them in three quarts of milk and water equally mixed, put in a bit of veal or fowl, and a piece of bacon with pepper and salt. When the onions are boiled to pulp, thicken it with a large spoonful of butter mixed with one of flour. Take out the meat, and serve it up with toasted bread cut in small pieces in the soup.​

Photo by Varaine, CC-4.0
Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife, is the first cookbook written and published in the US. Published in 1860, Mary’s book organized the recipes of her time, which was an improvement over word-of-mouth and in person experience, but they still leave a lot to interpretation. Mary’s recipe for “onion soup” reads as follows:

Check out this thread https://civilwartalk.com/threads/onion-soup.124244/#post-1325166 for additional details.
 
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Miss Ellie. You must be a mind reader. My sister and I are going to have French onion soup this weekend. Thanks for sharing this particular onion soup recipe which sounds absolutely delicious. I have never heard of putting meat in onion soup before I generally add sherry to mine at the end. David.
 
Sounds delicious! OK everyone...Eleanor Rose was gracious enough to provide us with a recipe for "Virginia" onion soup...forget the "French"...I presume meaning no cheese melted on top... even though they were sort of allies for the Rebels. :mstickle:
 
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