Soup: The English Kitchen Book

Soup looks at the development of the essential English dinner by means of reprinting recipes from the classic period of English cookery, approximately 1660 to 1890. The author looks at the origins of soup in medieval pottages and stews and traces how it developed from a general liquid mess to a refined essence of flavor and character. She also places it within the context of the meal. The keen cook will find recipes for soups from crayfish, cucumber, several preparations for pea, mulligatawny, vermicelli, as well as jellied soups for consumptives. There are hints on serving the soup, placing it correctly on the board, as well as surefire methods for skimming and clarifying the soup, and ridding your cookpot of verdigris and "crock." Eileen White is a food historian working mainly in the medieval to early modern periods.