This cookbook was published in 1909 and we’re exploring the recipes and the lives of the women who submitted them. (Want to know more? Read the intro here or the previous entry here.)

Please remember to use 2014 food handling safety practices when attempting to make 1909 recipes!

Page 14

Transcription

TURTLE SOUP.
To 1½ quarts soup add 1 ounce mace, 1 dessert spoonful allspice, 1 teaspoonful cloves, pepper, black and cayenne, and salt to taste. Tie up a bunch of parsley, thyme and onion in a cloth, and throw into soup when boiling. When nearly done thicken with two tablespoonsful flour. To give a good color take one tablespoonful brown sugar and burn it, add a wine glass of water and put two tablespoonsful in soup.

CREAM OF CELERY SOUP.
Four roots of celery, one quart of milk, one pint of water in which celery was boiled, three level teaspoonsful of butter, six level tablespoonsful of flour, about three level teaspoonsful of salt and white pepper to taste, one slice of onion. Wash the celery and cut into small pieces; cover it with boiling water and boil about one-half hour, or until tender, then press it through a colander. Put the milk on to a boil in a double boiler, with the onion. Rub the butter and flour together and stir into the boiling milk; stir a moment, then remove the onion and add the strained celery and water, also the salt and pepper. When thoroughly heated, serve. This soup is improved by using one-half milk and one-half veal or chicken stock.

I don’t think we’ll find him in the census, do you?

Since there are no credited contributors on this page, I thought we might investigate the missing guest of honor instead.

I read through the turtle soup recipe no less than three times before typing it up here. No mention of a turtle. Neither hide nor . . . shell.

Quite honestly, on the first reading when I saw allspice and the word “dessert,” my frame of mind shifted to something sweet. I thought it was going to be some kind of soupy, nutty, praline treat. Y’know. Turtles.

Upon closer inspection, however, I think I found our meaty little friend. The recipe begins with a quart and half of soup–not water. It seems the cook expected you to know how to soupify your turtles, and chose to delicately avoid describing the process.

I can’t say I have a problem with that. And actually, that probably means the recipe above would be suitable to season other kinds of meaty stock–just in case your neighborhood butcher doesn’t trade in turtle meat.

(Excuse me if I am unbecomingly interested in the poor turtle. I don’t normally think about whether my food has a face, but this one is proving an exception.)

Back to the neighborhood butcher . . .

It’ll be a while before we reach the advertisements printed in the cookbook’s last pages, but I can tell you now that Cowles & Latham boasted themselves the leading grocers in Buckhannon, West Virginia–claiming to be the “headquarters for everything that’s GOOD TO EAT.” No word on whether that includes turtle meat. (Sorry, sorry!) They were, however, “Agents for the Famous Blue Label Canned Vegetables and Fruits put up by Curtice Brothers, Rochester N. Y.” They also sold fine china and took special orders for cut flowers.

William F. Cowles (1) and Charles O. Latham (1) seem to be the gentlemen behind Cowles & Latham, and while they weren’t contributors to the cookbook, they indeed contributed to the fulfillment of any number of the recipes inside.

(Numbered sources are cited and linked in the index.)

Tweetables

Old-fashioned Turtle Soup. Step one: catch a turtle & soupify him…

Family Recipe Friday: Peeking back in time at 1909 recipes & the grocers who supplied the original cooks.

Next week, we’ll dive into some Oysters and Fish recipes.

That’s it for the Soups section! See you seafood-lovers next week.

If you are researching one of the individuals named here, email me! I’d love to hear your story!