Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cuisine in times of crisis

David Seaton's News Links
I think it is time to trot out some old recipes that were popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, as conditions have changed, so the recipes must be brought up to date with more modern ingredients.

The following is an old family favorite and was collected by my late grandmother.

Recipe for Chicken Shadow Soup

Ingredients:
  • One frozen chicken*
  • One bright lamp
  • Two quarts of water
  • Cooking pot
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Put the water in the pot and put it on the stove.
  2. Light the fire under the pot
  3. Point the light at the pot*
  4. When the water boils take the chicken out of the freezer and hold it between the light and the pot so the shadow of the chicken falls on the boiling water
  5. Hold it there for a quarter of an hour: take turns holding it for an hour or more for deeper flavor
  6. Return the chicken to the freezer
  7. Salt the water to taste
  8. Serve
With the recipe you can make hundreds of bowls of soup with only one chicken. DS


*During the Depression live chickens and window light were used.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Story from my late mother in law:

Potatoes and Point

Serve the potatoes around the table. Put the one piece of meat in the middle of the table. Before you take a bite of potato, stick the fork briefly in the meat. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

I tried it-- it's good!

Anonymous said...

It's great - by defrosting and re-freezing the chicken you're sure to build up a healthy population of deadly microbes, who will gladly take care of your family and then you can make some real soup.

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

It is critical not to really ever defrost the chicken: it takes away a lot of the homey flavor.