Old-Fashioned Cream of Onion and Potato Soup

Cream of Onion and Potato Soup in bowl

Brrr. . . it’s freezing outside, and soup’s the perfect food to warm body and soul. So when I saw a hundred-year-old recipe for Cream of Onion and Potato Soup, I decided to give it a try.

The soup was lovely. It was creamy, comforting, and flavorful.

Here’s the original recipe:

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Cream of Onion and Potato Soup

Servings: 5 - 7
Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: moderate
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3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 2 1/2 cups cubes potatoes)

5 medium onions, coarsely chopped (about 2 1/2 cups chopped onions)

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

4 cups milk

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

parsley sprigs (for garnish)

1 hard boiled egg (for garnish)

Put the cubed potatoes and chopped onions into a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil using high heat; reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 12-15 minutes). Remove from heat and cool slightly, then puree. (A food processor or blender works well.) Set aside.

In the meantime, put the butter in a Dutch oven or other similarly-sized pan; melt butter using medium heat. Stir in the flour, then gradually add the milk while stirring constantly. Add the salt and pepper, then stir in the pureed vegetables. Bring to a boil while stirring occasionally. When served, if desired, the soup may be garnished with parsley sprigs and slices of a hard-boiled egg.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Onion Souffle (Recipe 2)

Onion Souffle in Casserole Dish It fascinating how much variation there can be from one recipe to the next. Three years ago I posted a recipe for Onion Souffle which called for chopped onions, bread crumbs, and egg. The mixture was cooked in individual ramekins. That recipe was good (at least that’s what I wrote at the time), but not memorable. I recently came across another hundred-year-old Onion Souffle recipe that was very different from the other one, so I decided to compare the two recipes. The second recipe called for pureed onion, and was a savory custard.

I can’t tell a lie-

I somehow forgot that I’d previously made an Onion Souffle recipe for this blog until I got ready to write this post. I’d already made the 1921 recipe, and had taken photos of it. When I loaded the photo into my computer and attempted to save it, my computer indicated that I had another photo with the same name. I did a search of A Hundred Years Ago posts for Onion Souffle, and a 2018 post immediately popped up.

Oops! I’d previously done an Onion Souffle post – though I have no memory of it. (It clearly was not a memorable dish).

Who would have guessed that the food I’m inadvertently make twice would be a quirky food like Onion Souffle? Apparently, at some subliminal level, Onion Souffle recipes appeal to me. Strange . . .

In any case, the “new” Onion Souffle recipe turned out well. The savory custard was light and smooth – and had a delightful onion flavor that was just right (and not too strong). I think that this Onion Souffle recipe will be a bit more memorable that the last one.

Here’s the original recipe:

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

Onion Souffle

Servings: 3 - 4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
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6 medium onions

2 tablespoons butter, melted

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs beaten

1/2 cup hot milk (I heated the milk in the microwave.)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Peel and quarter onions. Put onions in a saucepan, cover with water. Put on stove and bring to a boil Reduce heat and simmer until onions are tender (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and drain. Puree onions. (I used a Foley mill to puree the onions; though a food processor or blender could also be used.) There should be approximately 1 cup of pureed onion.

In the meantime, combine butter, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add, eggs and beat until smooth. While beating, slowly add the milk. Then add the onion puree and stir quickly to combine. Put in a 1-quart casserole dish. Set the dish in a pan of hot water and place in the oven. Bake 30-45 minutes or until the souffle is set.

http://www.ahundredyearsago.com

Hundred-year-old Recipe for French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup topped with toast and Swiss or Gruyere cheese is my favorite “restaurant soup,” so I was intrigued when I saw a recipe for French Onion Soup in a hundred-year-old cookbook. I could immediately tell the old recipe wasn’t exactly like a modern one because the soup was topped with toast and American cheese.

I have a somewhat negative stereotype of American cheese (and it just isn’t the same as Swiss or Gruyere cheese), so my expectations weren’t very high for this recipe. But I was pleasantly surprised. The resulting soup tasted similar to modern French onion soups–and the melted American cheese was yummy (and not the least bit jarring) when immersed in the soup. My husband even said that he liked how the cheese was “less stringy” than the cheese on the typical French Onion Soup.

Here’s the original recipe:

Recipe for French Onion Soup — Source: A New Snowdrift Cook Book (1920) by Mrs. Ida C. Bailey Allen

Old cookbooks often just use the generic term “cheese.” This is the first time I’ve seen a hundred-year-old recipe explicitly call for American cheese. According to Serious Eats, James Kraft patented a method for making process American cheese in 1916, and it apparently was widely available by 1920.

This recipe is from a promotional cookbook for Snowdrift published by The Southern Cotton Oil Trading Company. Snowdrift was a shortening made from cottonseed oil. When I made the recipe, I substituted butter for the Snowdrift.

And, here is the recipe updated for modern cooks:

French Onion Soup

Servings: 3-4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: moderate
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3 tablespoons butter

6 medium-sized onions, thinly sliced

1 quart soup stock (I used beef broth.)

1 slice of bread for each bowl of soup

1 slice American cheese for each bowl of soup (Use 2 slices per bowl if the slices are thin.)

Melt butter in a Dutch oven or stock pot, then add onion slices. Using medium heat sauté until the onions have softened and caramelized while stirring occasionally. It will take approximately 45 minutes for the onions to caramelize. Add the soup stock, and bring to a simmer.

In the meantime, lightly toast bread. Cut toast into squares small enough to fit the soup bowls; then cut the American cheese into squares slightly smaller than the toast. Top the toast with the squares of American cheese. Put under the boiler until the cheese melts (about 1 minute); remove from oven.

To serve: Ladle soup into bowls, and top with the toast squares/melted cheese.