onion-soup-msg – 4/23/20

Period onion soups.

NOTE: See also the files: soup-msg, onions-msg, leeks-msg, broths-msg, thickening-msg, stews-bruets-msg, porridges-msg, root-veg-msg, serving-soups-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

Please  respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 13:06:16 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Jamey R. Lathrop" <jlathrop at unm.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - A.P.B. : Have You Seen This Recipe?

Good day to all, from Allegra Beati, who's WAY behind on this list.

On Sun, 5 Oct 1997, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> Within the last two weeks or so I ran across what seemed like a
> wonderful vegetarian vegetable recipe which seemed like a lovely pottage
> for SCA use. Trouble is, I can't remember the source or even the name of
> the dish.
> 
> It is for a thick pottage made from sweated (sauteed but unbrowned)
> sliced onions, in a seasoned almond milk base, boiled until slightly
> thick, and garnished with fried "onion rings" made from an egg pasta
> dough, cut into circular shapes. 
> 
> Suspected sources include Taillevent's Viandier, Le Menagier de Paris,
> Chiquart's Fait du Cuisine, and all of Curye On Inglysche. Possibly the
> Two Fifteenth-Century Cookbooks, but less likely than the others...

As it happens, I included this one in the recipes our local cookery group
is going to do at a redaction party tomorrow.  It's from CURYE ON
INGLYSCH, Part II:  DIUERSA SERVICIA.

	88.  For to make a porrey chapeleyn, tak an hundred onyons o[th]er
an half, & tak oyle de olyf & boyle togedere in a pot; & tak almande mylk
& boyle yt & do [th]ereto.  |  Tak & make a [th]ynne paast of dow, & make
[th]erof as it were ryngis.  Tak & fry hem in oyle de olyue or in wyte
grees & boil al togedere.

Hope this helps,

Allegra Beati				Jamey Lathrop
Barony of al-Barran			jlathrop at unm.edu
Outlands


Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 13:47:11 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Long: Da whole onion soup deal, including porrey chapeleyn

> As it happens, I included this one in the recipes our local cookery group
> is going to do at a redaction party tomorrow.  It's from CURYE ON
> INGLYSCH, Part II:  DIUERSA SERVICIA.
>
>         88.  For to make a porrey chapeleyn, tak an hundred onyons o[th]er
> an half, & tak oyle de olyf & boyle togedere in a pot; & tak almande mylk
> & boyle yt & do [th]ereto.  |  Tak & make a [th]ynne paast of dow, & make
> [th]erof as it were ryngis.  Tak & fry hem in oyle de olyue or in wyte
> grees & boil al togedere.
>
> Allegra Beati                           Jamey Lathrop
> Barony of al-Barran                     jlathrop at unm.edu
> Outlands

A simple, small-scale redaction.

Porrey Chapeleyn (approx. 4 servings?)

3 cups blanched almonds
3 pounds large yellow onions
salt and pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 Tbs. good olive oil, like the really green extra-virgin stuff,
otherwise you might as well
                        use vegetable oil
deep-frying oil, maybe two or three cups
water

Start by making the pasta dough for the garnish. Add a pinch of salt,
and a Tbs. of your olive oil to the cup of flour. Add only as much cold
water to your flour as you need to make a stiff dough. Knead until it is
no longer sticky. It should be elastic, smooth, and have a bit of a
shine to it; this may take 15 minutes or so. Just hold tight and think
of England ;  ). When done, cover the dough and let it rest. (Cheaters
can use won-ton wrappers and a cookie cutter, I guess.)

Make some almond milk. Grind the almonds in a blender, food processor,
or mortar, until they are a slightly granular flour. Don't forget to add
a few drops of water to keep the pulp from de-emulsifying and leaking
almond oil all over the place. Add as much boiling water as your almonds
will drink up, plus another three cups. This may take six or eight cups,
but what you need is three cups of almond milk. Stir and let your
almonds steep 10-15 minutes. You may want to strain off your milk at
this point, and add more boiling water. Another strategy is to run the
almonds and their liquid through a blender, and then strain, which will
probably give you a stronger almond solution. The final product should
be pretty smooth, almost completely white (still slightly translucent)
and look a bit like skimmed milk. The goal is for it to be slightly
thick, but it can range anywhere from water to cream. Keep this on the
side.

Peel and slice your onions thinly, or chop finely. (I've had good
results with grating them coarsely, as you might do for curry paste).
Add your remaining olive oil to a deep cassserole pan or Dutch oven, and
heat it. When it is pretty hot, but not smoking, add your onions, stir
them, and reduce the heat until the onions begin to sort of melt in the
pan. They shouldn't brown, but will soften, and become concentrated in
flavor as well as volume. Stuir frequently, if not constantly. This may
take 15-20 minutes.

Add your almond milk to the pan, and stir. Raise the heat and heat,
stirring, until the liquid is simmering. Simmer for about an hour.

While the soup is simmering, form the pseudo-onion-ring garnish. Either
pull off chunks and roll them, with your hands, into 6-inch-long threads
no more then 1/4 inch thick, and form rings by sealing the ends with
water, or roll out like pasta dough, 1/8 inch thick, and cut with round
donut, biscuit, or cookie cutters, cutting out the center with a smaller
round cutter. A set of nested biscuit cutters is great for this, but a
standard donut cutter is good too. You get more if you have several
different size cutters, since you can cut smaller rings out of the
centers of other rings. As I said, cheaters can use wonton, egg roll, or
gyoza wrappers (which last are ideal because they are eggless: my guess
is that this is intended to be a fast-day or fish-day dish, since it
avoids meat, dairy, and eggs).

Dust these with an absolute minimum of cornstarch or flour, to keep them
from sticking to your board or each other, and cover with a towel. Heat
your oil in a wok, a medium-sized saucepan, or a heavy iron skillet. The
oil will need to be about an inch deep. When the surface shimmers just a
bit, but isn't smoking yet, and add two or three rings at a time. They
are done when they are golden brown. Remember they will continue to
brown after they come out of the oil, so if they are a shade lighter
than you want them, don't worry. Drain on paper towels.

By this time the onions should be nearly disintegrated, and the pottage
should have thickened a bit. When the soup is done, season to taste with
salt and pepper. Fanatics could use white pepper, but the more period
alternative would be ordinary black. The recipe doesn't call for any
pepper at all, but it does help.

Serve into bowls and top with a few "onion" rings.

If Lady Allegra Beati has a different redaction of this that her cooks'
group worked on, I'd love to see it. Mine is still in the experimental
stage, and is more intuitive than reasoned.

Good luck and enjoy!

Adamantius
troy at asan.com


Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 16:40:22 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - "classical" onion soup...

> From: Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net>
> Does anyone know of a medieval onion soup that uses a meat broth?

Offhand, no. Some use almond milk, and many use wine or ale, but I
haven't come across one using meat stock, at least not in a quick,
cursory check through a couple of sources. If I do run across any, I'll
mention it.

Adamantius


Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 17:23:19 -0800
From: kat <kat at kagan.com>
Subject: SC - onion soup - IP

Good Stefan asks:
> If not, my question still stands, Does anyone know of a medieval onion
> soup that uses a meat broth?

I believe (book not in front of me) that one or more of the "onyon soppes" recipes in Take 1000 Eggs (these are from Harleian MS, no?) calls for onions, water, and almond milk "made with wine or broth."  I could be wrong.

- kat


Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 13:42:09 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - onion soup - IP

>Kat answered my inquiry:
>Good Stefan asks:
>> If not, my question still stands, Does anyone know of a medieval onion
>> soup that uses a meat broth?
>
>I believe (book not in front of me) that one or more of the "onyon soppes"
>recipes in Take 1000 Eggs (these are from Harleian MS, no?) calls for onions,
>water, and almond milk "made with wine or broth."  I could be wrong.

>However, my question was more to the overall soup base and not just
>whether it had some meat broth in it. This one appears to me, not
>having ever made it, to still end up being a white/cream base rather
>than a brown, meat one. I imagine there is a better, more precise way
>to phrase the question than I initially did.
>
>Stefan li Rous

Hello!  Here are the recipes for onion soups from Take 1000 Eggs:

Harleian MS. 279, Potage Dyvers
xxx. Soupes dorroy. Shere Oynonys, an frye hem in oyle; [th]anne take Wyne,
an boyle with Oynonys, toste whyte Brede an do on a dysshe, an caste
[th]er-on gode Almaunde Mylke, & temper it wyth wyne:  [th]anne do [th]e
dorry a-bowte, an messe it forth.

Laud MS. 553
17 Soupes dorrees.  Nym oynons, mynce hem, frie hem in oille de olyue:  nym
oynons, boille hem with wyn, tost whit bred, & do it in dishes/ and cast
almand mylke theron, & ye wyn & ye oynons aboue, & gif hit forth.

Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers
xxxiij.  Oyle Soppys.  Take a gode quantyte of Oynonys, and mynse hem not
to smale, an sethe in fayre Water:  [th]an take hem vp, an take a gode
quantite of Stale Ale, as .iij. galouns, an [th]er-to take a pynte of Oyle
fryid, an caste [th]e Oynonys [th]er-to, an let boyle alle to-gederys a
gode whyle; then caste [th]er-to Safroune, powder Pepyr, Sugre, an Salt, an
serue forth alle hote as tostes, as in [th]e same maner for a Mawlard & of
a capon, & hoc quære.

Harleian MS. 4016
130 Oyle soppes.  Take a good quantite of oynons, and myce hem, no[3]t to
smale, & seth hem in faire water, And take hem vppe; and then take a good
quantite of stale ale, as .iij. galons, And there-to take a pynte of goode
oyle that is fraied, and cast the oynons there-to, And lete al boyle
togidre a grete [while];  and caste there-to Saffron and salt, And [th]en
put brede, in maner of brewes, and cast the licour there-on, and serue hit
forth hote.

Cindy Renfrow
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 11:26:15 +0000
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Onion Soups

I didn't keep the originals, hence don't remember the details, but I
know there was some discussion recently of onion soup.  Someone (I
think) wanted to know if there were any onion soups based on a meat
stock, and there was also some lively debate about "French"
onion soups topped with bread and cheese.  Here is a translation of
a recipe from the 1528 edition of the "Libro de Guisados".  I have
not tried redacting this one (I'm a better researcher than cook, I'm
afraid), but if anyone would like to play with it, please do.

Potage of Onions Which They Call "Cebollada"

Take peeled onions which are well washed and clean and cut them in
thick slices, and cast them in a pot of boiling water, and then
having let them come to a boil once or twice, take them out of the
pot and press them between two wooden chopping boards and then fry
them gently with good fatty bacon or with bacon grease, stirring with
a little shovel and moving it about in the frying pan with the
aforementioned little shovel which should be of wood.  And if the
onions dry up, cast in some good fatty mutton broth until the onions
are well cooked.  And then take almonds which are well peeled and
white and grind them well in a mortar and then dissolve them in
good mutton broth and pass them through a woolen strainer and then
cast the almond milk in the pot with the onions and mix it well, and
cook them well until the onions are cooked in the almond milk, and
cast good grate cheese from Aragon in the pot, and stir well with a
stirrer as if they were gourds, and when they are well mixed with the
cheese and you see that it is cooked, prepare dishes, first casting
into the pot a pair of egg yolks for each dish, and upon the dishes
cast sugar and cinnamon if you wish; and it is good.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 22:44:39 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: SC - Onion Soup--Correction

I made another try at the recipe I posted the other day and realized I had left out one step in the directions I posted.  So here is the corrected and updated version. 

Potage of Onions Which They Call "Cebollada"
Libro de Guisados, 1528, tr. Robin Carroll-Mann

*Take peeled onions which are well washed and clean and cut them in thick slices, and cast them in a pot of boiling water, and then having let them come to a boil once or twice, take them out of the pot and press them between two wooden chopping boards and then fry them gently with good fatty bacon or with bacon grease, stirring with a little shovel and moving it about in the frying pan with the aforementioned little shovel which should be of wood.  And if the onions dry up, cast in some good fatty mutton broth until the onions are well cooked.  And then take almonds which are well peeled and white and grind them well in a mortar and then dissolve them in good mutton broth and pass them through a woolen strainer and then cast the almond milk in the pot with the onions and mix it well, and cook them well until the onions are cooked in the almond milk, and cast good grated cheese from Aragon in the pot, and stir well with a stirrer as if they were gourds, and when they are well mixed with the cheese and you see that it is cooked, prepare dishes, first casting into the pot a pair of egg yolks for each dish, and upon the dishes cast sugar and cinnamon if you wish; and it is good.

*Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba, 
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

1 lb 10 oz onions
1 slice bacon = 1 oz
2 3/4 c lamb broth from 2 oz lamb fat and trimmings
1/2 c almonds
2 1/2 oz parmesan cheese
4 egg yolks
1 t sugar
1/8 t cinnamon

Put lamb trimmings in 4 c water and simmer an hour or so for broth. Blanch almonds (put into boiling water briefly, remove, and squeeze almond out of brown skin).  Peel and slice onions.  Grate cheese.  Separate eggs.  Grind almonds fine and use 2 c of the lamb broth to make almond milk from them, straining through cheesecloth.  Bring 4 c water to a boil; add sliced onions, bring back to a boil, let boil a minute or two and then remove from heat and drain. 

Squeeze the onions between  two wooden boards and drain off the juice.  
Cut up bacon and fry in pot for a couple minutes, then add onions and fry together for 10 minutes; add 1/2 c broth and cook another 5-10 minutes.  

Add almond milk, simmer about another 10 minutes.  Stir in grated cheese; as soon as it is melted, add egg yolks, stir them in and remove from heat.  Put into serving bowl, mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the top.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 11:16:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Onion Soups

Brighid (or Robin) wrote:
> ...  Here is a translation of
> a recipe from the 1528 edition of the "Libro de Guisados"....
>
> Potage of Onions Which They Call "Cebollada"
>
> Take peeled onions which are well washed and clean and cut them in
> thick slices, and cast them in a pot of boiling water, and then
> having let them come to a boil once or twice, take them out of the
> pot and press them between two wooden chopping boards and them fry
> them gently with good fatty bacon or with bacon grease, stirring with
> a little shovel and moving it about in the frying pan with the
> aforementioned little shovel which should be of wood.  And if the
> onions dry up, cast in some good fatty mutton broth until the onions
> are well cooked.  And then take almonds which are well peeled and
> white and grind them well in a mortar and then dissolve them in
> good mutton broth and pass them through a woolen strainer and then
> cast the almond milk in the pot with the onions and mix it well, and
> cook them well until the onions are cooked in the almond milk, and
> cast good grate cheese from Aragon in the pot, and stir well with a
> stirrer as if they were gourds, and when they are well mixed with the
> cheese and you see that it is cooked, prepare dishes, first casting
> into the pot a pair of egg yolks for each dish, and upon the dishes
> cast sugar and cinnamon if you wish; and it is good.

Even in translation, this looks very much as though it was copied from
the 14th-c. Catalan _Llibre de Sent Sovi_, which says (our translation):

95 Cebada or Porada (onion or pea pottage) with milk
Take peas or onions, wash them well, cut them not too small, and make
sure not to put in any green.  And put them in water to soften until
morning.  And then wash them twice in hot water and once with cold.
And then put it to cook with plenty of grease, and cook well for the
third part of a day.  And leave it for a morning, and don't stop
stirring it.  And when it is nearly done, put in good goat's milk,
according to [?] whether cebada or porada, and good aged cheese; and if
you don't have goat's milk, use almond milk.  And this goes in the
cebada or porada.  And cook until thick as for squash.  And when thick,
remove the pot from the fire, and manage it until it stops boiling.
And then [...?] beaten eggs, and mix them in bit by bit.  And when you
dish it out, if you wish, gild it with finely ground cinnamon and good
white sugar, and put this above and below the dishes, because [...?]

We conflated the "onion" and "pea" versions of the dish in our
redactions, which we eventually used as a "vegetarian alternative" for a
feast a year ago.  Here's the better of our two redactions.

Make almond milk: 4 cups water and 1 cup of almonds.  Let settle and
strain.  Wash 1 lb (2 cups) dried split peas (the package says they
don't need soaking).  Put in crock-pot on high (10:15 AM) with 6 cups
water, 1 T vegetable bouillon, 6 T butter.  An hour before serving, add
strained almond milk and 10 oz. grated cheddar cheese and heat through
without boiling.  Just before serving, beat 5 eggs at room temperature
(Joy of Cooking says 1 yolk/cup to thicken, but this should be pretty
thick already), gradually stir in some broth, and add back to the
soup.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar at the table.

                                        mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 17:23:38 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - New to the list with questions

Jo Marie Friedel wrote:
> Does anyone have a recipe for a medieval onion soup? ( I have lots for
> modern versions but no medieval ones).

My favorite is porrey chapeleyn, 14th-century English. It calls for lots
of onions (presumably chopped or sliced, but the recipe doesn't say)
sauteed slowly (my inclination is that they should brown not much, or
not at all), and the onion "puree" is thinned down with some almond milk
and cooked until it's a rich oniony "cream" soup. This is garnished with
deep-fried pasta crunchies, made from flour and eggs (yolks?), rolled
out and cut in the shape of onion rings.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 06:30:41 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] onion soup not period?

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>You're not the first to ask about this. I asked a very similar question
>here some time ago. Most of the period onion soups we have are, I think,
>white soups in an almond milk or similar base. I think the darker, broth
>based onion soups show up later. I'm not sure that we came to a
>conclusive answer. If someone can point me to some early in period,
>dark onion soups, I'd like to hear about it.

In general, one of the big limitations on soups in period Europe is
likely to be an effective absence of brown stocks. While I could see
the bones from roast meat going into the stockpot (hopefully not
after being among the scented rushes and chewed by dogs), the kind of
caramelization of the bones required for a good brown beef or veal
stock doesn't seem to be happening in period, AFAIK.

>This is hardly a comprehensive survey of onion soups and may well be
>subject to some type of bias such as folks not giving dark, broth
>based period soup recipes because the white ones are more different
>than the "ordinary" onion soups of today. My wife does make a
>modern white-based onion soup which she got from a modern cookbook,
>so these are still around.

It is, among other cultures, an Irish thing, to make a milk-based, or
a milk-and-white-stock-based, onion soup.

Adamantius


Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 23:15:43 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks) onion soup...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach BeckysQuilt at aol.com:
> I would like to use bread bowls for service. I was thinking of your standard
> French onion but I am open for suggestions. Period would be nice but my
> priorities are presentation and something people will really eat. Us
> Ansteorrians
> are hungry people. Oh, and I will have an industrial kitchen to work in.
> I have done smaller feasts before and helped in many larger ones but this is
> my first bid for a big event. 

Okay, let's start with the (or rather, a, as in, one of many) period 
recipes.

PORREY CHAPELEYN [MS D, ff. 86r-96v, ~c. 1381 C.E.]
"For to make a porrey chapeleyn, tak an hundred onyons o(th)er an
half, & tak oyle de olyf & boyle togedere in a pot; & tak almond mylk
& boyle it & do (th)ereto. Tak & make a (th)ynne paast of dow, & make
(th)ereof as it were ryngis. Tak & frye hem in oyle de olyue or in
wyte grees & boil al togedere."

"For to make a porrey chapeleyn, take a hundred onions or a half, and
take olive oil and boyle together in a pot, and take almond milk and
boil it and add thereto [to the onions]. Take and make a thin paste
of dough, and make rings out of it. Take them and fry them in olive
oil or lard, [add to the soup], and boil all together."

For eight servings (in the East we usually do tables of eight, and
the number is pretty easy to multiply out to whatever number you
need), you'd need:

Three large onions, sliced
1 ounce olive oil
1.5 quarts thick, blended almond milk (made from 1.5 cups blanched
almonds and about 7 cups water)
salt to taste (it'll be bland without it)
pepper (optional)

Oil for frying

1 cup flour and enough water, eggs, a combination, or almond milk to
make a stiff pasta-type dough
OR ~1/4 package wonton wrappers, cut into rings with concentric biscuit 
cutters

Slice the onions and wilt them in the olive oil, without browning too
much, over a low heat. At the same time, heat the almond milk to a
boil and simmer until slightly thickened, stirring regularly. Pour
over the onions and simmer until the onion slices are extremely soft
and the soup is slightly thickened.

While the soup simmers (or you can do this part in advance), make,
roll, and cut out your dough (or wonton wrappers, or other stiff,
thinly-rolled, premade dough), and fry them in hot oil at about
325-350 degrees. Drain and reserve; add them to the simmering soup
before serving. An additional garnish of sliced chives or scallions
looks nice...


You can then take the same basic quantities for this soup and make a
similar, modern, Irish white onion soup.

IRISH ONION SOUP (adapted from a recipe in one of Malachi McCormick's 
books)

3 large white onions, sliced
2 oz butter
2 Tbs flour
3/4 pint milk
2 pints white chicken stock
salt and pepper
2 egg yolks (optional)

Melt the butter over low heat and sweat the onion slices until they
wilt and begin to soften (again, you don't want them to brown). Stir
in the flour and cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently,
then stir in the stock and the milk. Whisk or stir until the flour is
incorporated into the liquid, and simmer until the soup is slightly
thickened, and the onions are very soft. Season with salt and pepper
(fanatics can use white pepper) and finish, if you want, by putting
the two egg yolks in a bowl, beating them, adding some of the soup to
the yolks and mixing completely, then returning them to the pot, off
the heat. Heat gently until the soup thickens slightly further. Do
not boil after the yolks have been added.

For French onion soup, you'd take those same three large onions,
slice them, and saute them to caramelize. I find it helps to deglaze
the pan with a little splash of water, wine, or stock every so often
to keep the juices from browning too fast. The stock would normally
be brown beef or veal stock, or a mixture. The soup usually isn't
thickened, except with onion juices. Ideally, you'd make round
croutons, such as a round of French bread, fried or toasted, then top
with grated Parmigiano or Gruyere cheese, which you then melt in a
hot oven or under a broiler. Float the toasts over the soup before
serving. Cheaters just float a piece of toast, add the cheese, and
broil the whole thing in an oven-proof crock. (NB: chopped fresh
thyme is a terrific addition to this soup.)

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 10:04:05 -0400
From: Jane Boyko <jboyko at magma.ca>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks) onion soup..and the feast
	experience	(long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On 02/10/04 09:15 am, Elaine Koogler wrote:
> Marina wrote:
>> As to onion soup.  I too have a favourite recipe from Sculley's "Early
>> French Cookery" p 104  called Onion-Pea soup.  I get requests for this
>> soup on a regular basis to the point I am pointing out to people that
>> there are other great onion soup recipes and just soup recipes that they
>> may be interested in having.  If you want I will be happy to post the
>> recipe.
>
> Of course we want the recipe.

This soup has made it into my regular "hearty soup to serve on a cold 
weekend" repertoire for my husband and myself.

Onion-Pea Soup (serves 10) (Early French Cookery p 104)

First you need to make a pea puree.  (see p. 63 of EFC)

Since I really do not like pea soup or white peas I now choose to make the pea
puree with split green peas.  The white peas provide a different flavour and
appearance.

1 c. split green peas (or white peas)
2 c. water.

Cook peas until they are mushy. Drain.  Mash with a pototo masher (I didn't
have a food processor at this point and the masher worked for me) or puree
until smooth with a food processor.  The masher allows some of the peas to
maintain their shape which I find provides more texture while eating.  You
should be left with 2 cups of pea puree.

For the soup.

1 lb onions - about 4 large cooking onions (thinley sliced and chopped into
bite size pieces)
1/8 c to 1/4 c of butter
6-8 c water with vegetable boullion
2 c pea puree
1/2 c chopped flat-leaved parsley
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp white wine vinegar

Place water and boullion in pot on stove and heat to boiling.  Add pea puree.
Meanwhile saute the onions until 1/2 of them are carmelized.  Dump onions and
juices into soup pot.  Simmer for 1/2 hour.  Add parsley, wine vinegar, salt
and pepper and cook for an additional 15 minutes to meld the flavours together.

Serve with a crusty roll or slice of bread.

Notes:

I have found that bite size pieces work better as sometimes the longer slices
leap off of spoons and splash back into the soup or the longer slices manage
to adhere themselves to cheeks etc.

Scully recommends lemon juice or white wine vinegar.   I tried both and found
the wine vinegar to sharpen the flavours better then the lemon juice.  I
enjoy the flavour some much that I occasionally am known to add ww vinegar
into other soups at home I am experimenting with.

You will also notice the butter flavour.  Since I am lactose intolerant I have
been experimenting with olive and vegetable oil, and bacon fat, but the soup
loses some of its' intense flavour. I use between 6-8 tbsps of oil.  I have
never measured the bacon fat.  So far I prefer the bacon fat as it gives a
stronger flavour which is comparable to the richness of the butter.

I have also added minced garlic (1/2 large head) to the onions as they saute
for a different flavour.

Marina


Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 10:04:12 -0400
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adelphi.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks) onion soup...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

There's an onion soup recipe entitled "Soupes Dorres" in _Two
Fifteenth Century_.  The original says

"Nym onyons, mince hem, frie hem in oille de olyve; nym onyons,
boille hem with wyn, tost whit bred, and do it in dishes and cast
almand mylke thereon and the wyn and the onyons aboue, and gif it
forth."

My wife's redaction (not scaled up for your size of feast, but it
should be easy enough) calls for
3 medium white onions, sliced into rings
2 T olive oil
1 C almonds, ground
in blender or food processor
3 1/2 C white wine
3 C water to make almond 
milk
1 mini-loaf white French bread
-- 
John Elys
 (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)


Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2004 10:24:30 -0400
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adelphi.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] onion soup
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> As to onion soup.  I too have a favourite recipe from Sculley's "Early French
> Cookery" p 104  called Onion-Pea soup.  I get requests for this soup on a
> regular basis to the point I am pointing out to people that there are other
> great onion soup recipes and just soup recipes that they may be interested in
> having.  If you want I will be happy to post the recipe.

There are at least one or two onion/pea soups in Menagier, IIRC,
which we've made successfully at home, but not tried for a feast; I
don't remember whether those are the same ones Sculley discusses in
the book mentioned above.
-- 
John Elys
 (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)


Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 02:23:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Pat <mordonna22 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Onion rings?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

XXXIX, For to make a Porrey Chapeleyn.

Tak an hundred onyons other an half and tak oyle de Olyf and boyle  
togeder’ in a Pot and tak Almande mylk and boyle ytand do ther’to.   
Tak and make a thynne Paast of Dow and make therof as it were ryngis  
and frye hem in Oyle de Olyve or in wyte grees and boyle al togeder’.

Boy, this guy can’t even spell it the same way twice in a paragraph.

Okay, let me see what  can do with this.

First a translation.

Take a hundred and fifty onions and take Olive oil and boil together in  
a Pot.  Take almond milk and boil it and do thereto.  Take and make a  
thin paste of dough and make, as it were, rings, and fry them in Olive  
oil or lard and boil all together.

I think, maybe, you are to make the dough rings and fry them  
separately.  Fry the onions in the olive oil, then add the almond milk  
and the fried rings and return it to the boil.   Sounds almost like  
onion gravy with donuts in it... for a hundred people?

Does Cury on Inglish have this one?

"Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org> wrote:
>>>
Ok. I came across this recipe. It's posted here:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/FoC162small.html, number XXIX, in the
middle of the page (scanned facsimile).

Is this a pottage? Is it more of a creamed onions? Or could it be onion
rings? I can sort of read it as any of them, but at the same time not.  It
sort of makes no sense!

(And now I'm really hungry for onion rins! Big, fat ones with thick slices
of onions...)

'Lainie
<<<

Pat Griffin
Lady Anne du Bosc
known as Mordonna the Cook
Shire of Thorngill, Meridies
Mndanely, Millbrook, AL


Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 06:16:23 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Onion rings?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cook at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach Pat:
> I think, maybe, you are to make the dough rings and fry them
> separately.  Fry the onions in the olive oil, then add the almond
> milk and the fried rings and return it to the boil.   Sounds almost
> like onion gravy with donuts in it... for a hundred people?

This is one of my favorite period recipes. I think the recipe is
calling for a hundred onions, or a half a hundred -- IOW, lot. We
did this here for a Crown Tourney in Northpass for... I forget, maybe
as many as 325 people? We used concentric biscuit cutters to cut
wonton wrappers into the ring shapes, fried them until crispy, and
made a thick white onion soup with the rest of the ingredients, and
added the faux onion rings at the last moment of cooking. The onions
are sauteed in liberal amounts of olive oil, but not deep-fried, and
if you cook the dish a couple of times, you find a point at which you
have the right amount of oil and onions to have the mixture boil,
mixing the oil and the onion juices into a temporary emulsion. You
then hit it with the almond milk and it becomes more stable.

The main point I thought the cook needed to look out for was to cook
the onions until soft and concentrated in flavor, without browning.
Almost like an onion confit... the onions also probably needed to be
nice and soft to make them easier to spoon up without the diner
wearing them. The recipe doesn't specify whether, or how, to cut them
up, but if you cook them properly, it almost doesn't matter. Leaving
them whole, if they're large, is probably a bad idea.

> Does Cury on Inglish have this one?

Yes, it's in the second book, "Diuersa Servicia", from MS D, ff.
86r-96v., published by Samuel Pege in the 18th century as "Ancient
Cookery".

Adamantius


Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:41:13 -0700
From: Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period oion soups
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

At 02:27 PM 9/6/2006,Gretchen Beck said something like:

> Why not try the oyle sops from the two-15th C cookery books; it can be
> interpreted as an onion soup in a beer base:
>
> .xxxiij. Oyle Soppys.?Take a gode quantyte of Oynonys, an mynse hem not to
> smale, an sethe in fayre Water: ?an take hem vp, an take a gode quantite of
> Stale Ale, as .iij. galouns, an ?er-to take a pynte of Oyle fryid, an caste
> ?e Oynonys ?er-to, an let boyle alle to-gederys a gode whyle; then caste
> ?er-to Safroune, powder Pepyr, Sugre, an Salt, an serue forth alle hote as
> tostes, [leaf 11.] as in ?e same maner for a Mawlard & of a capon, & hoc
> qu?re.*

I did that particular oil soppys for Caid 12th night 2006.  It went over
very very well.  My biggest tip would be to seriously brown the onions in
batches if you're making very large quantities. I had attempted to brown
them by baking since I was doing a 20 lb bag of onions at one time, and it
was less than successful.

On the upside, this gives your local brewers a chance to shine by making
you a brew to use in the soup.  We used a very light ale, and it was just
fantastic. This was also done on a very small scale with Guinness, and that
was also pretty nice (though not every one appreciated the slight
bitterness of guinness).

Maggie MacD.


From the fb "SCA Cooks" section:

Richard Rossow
November 22 at 12:11 AM
Is there a period version of French Onion soup?

Phil T Roy 
I would say it depends on how close to the modern standard you expect to get -- even that has changed pretty drastically, very recently: for example, the classic dish used to contain a fried crouton topped with grated gruyere, run under a grill, and then floated on top of the soup; now a lot of places use different cheeses, such as mozzarella, and place the entire bowl under the broiler.

I also am unaware of ANY period recipes calling specifically for the kind of brown beef or veal stock that is the standard basis for the modern dish.

That said, there IS a wonderful onion soup in one of the 14th or 15th century English sources, called porrey chapeleyn: it involves finely shredded onions cooked slowly without browning until they are almost dissolved, and then diluted and simmered with almond milk. The pottage is then garnished with crisp fried faux onion rings made of pasta dough.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya 
Porrey chapeleyn. Tak an hundred onyons oþer an half, & tak oyle de olyf & boyle togedere in a pot; & tak almande mylk & boyle yt & do þereto. | Tak & make a þynne paast of dow, & make þerof as it were ryngis. Tak & fry hem in oyle de olyue or in wyte grees & boil al togedere.

Leoba Mordenvale 
In The Forme of Curye there's a recipe for Blaunche Porre, or leeks in saffron broth. It's the closest I've seen.

Jennifer Soucy 
There’s a dish in Rumpolt for Hungarian Cheese Soup that admittedly the cheese is melted into the broth, but otherwise if you squint you can get something somewhat French Onion Soup like. 

45. Take onions/ that are peeled/ cut them very wide and thin/ add to water/ and let simmer/ take a hard cheese/ that is not spoiled and cut it very small/ put it into the broth/ where the onions simmered/ put good butter into it/ and let simmer together. And when you wish to dress it/ then slice of a weck bread very thin and wide/ arrange the broth with the cheese over it. Like this the Hungarian lords gladly eat.

Jeremiah Minear Edwards 
There is an Onion Pottage in Dining with William Shakespeare, I don't remember the original source which is period, that is made with beef stock and onions and served over toast points. It does not have cheese.

Amanda Lord
Take a look at Jacobean sops from Chiquart. https://coquinaria.nl/en/jacobin-sops/
It’s not an onion soup, but it’s a beef/mutton broth that’s poured over shredded chicken, cheese, and toasted bread.

The recipe for Jacobin Sops, a medieval soup
COQUINARIA.NL

Jennifer Soucy 
A similar recipe is found in Le Recuil de Riom, under the same name. (And the chiquart version is _really_ good. ) http://medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?recue:6

Amanda Lord 
Jennifer Soucy we made the chiquart recipe for a feast. It is SO good. And it’s a very approachable dish since it’s like French onion soup. Plus we served it as components so if someone couldn’t handle gluten, dairy, or chicken, they could just leave that part out.

Jeremiah Minear Edwards 
Robert May, "The Accomplisht Cook," 1660.
Onion Pottage
Fry good store of slic't onions, then have a Pipkin of boiling liquor over the fire, when the liquor boils put in the fryed onions, butter and all, with pepper and salt: being well stewed together, serve in on sops of French bread.

Jennifer Soucy 
Tasty but lacks cheese...

<the end>
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