Soups: Grandma McQuown's Potato Soup (for Stan)

Subject: Grandma McQuown's Potato Soup (for Stan)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 11:33:15 -0500
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Grandma Lena Ruffner is the German side of my family; this is a Pennsylvania Dutch style soup.

4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp. pepper
salt as needed
4 c. chicken stock or water
water to cover potatoes
2 slices bacon, fried (not too crisp)
Rivlets (see recipe)

To make the soup: bring stock or water to a boil and add onions, potatoes and other seasonings. Boil about 20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Stir in cooked bacon. Stir in rivlets until they are done. Serves 6.

Rivlets:

3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg

Combine flour and salt. Mix in egg until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
From: Michael (dog3 at mindspring.com)
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 21:23:20 -0700
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I can't wait to try this one. Thanks for the recipe.. even though it's for Stan.
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 08:58:14 -0500
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Dog 3 wrote:
> I can't wait to try this one. Thanks for the recipe.. even though it's for

Hope you enjoy it! Grandma made this soup with water; I'm the one who added the chicken stock. It was a (USian) depression era soup so she was being conservative and didn't have chicken to make stock with. Lucky she had the egg for the rivlets! But that was a way of "stretching" the soup, adding the dumplings, so I guess an egg wasn't too dear.

The last time I saw my grandmother before she died she invited my mom and my aunt and I to lunch and she served potato soup with rivlets. Oh joy! I was 19 years old at the time.

Dad kept talking about this wonderful potato soup his mom made. When I was 30-something I finally managed to duplicate it to his satisfaction and that's what you see posted here. She rarely wrote things down and when she did they often didn't make much sense (laughing). I'm still reeling over the directions that say "butter the size of a walnut" for her fabulous candy.
From: Scrooge (e.r.worster at att.net)
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 15:50:44 GMT
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> the directions that say "butter the size of a walnut" for her fabulous
> candy.

"Size of a walnut" was a fairly standard measure for my mom and grandma.

The one that really laid me out was in the oatmeal cookie recipe, which called for (I'm NOT making this up) "Two gurgles of molasses".
From: Damsel in dis Dress
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 16:07:31 GMT
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Scrooge wrote:
>The one that really laid me out was in the oatmeal cookie recipe,
>which called for (I'm NOT making this up) "Two gurgles of
>molasses".

That would blow me away, too. Everyone knows that molasses comes out of the bottle in "glugs!" Sheesh! Some people's grandmothers! <G>

Damsel, who measures in glugs
From: Stan Horwitz (stan at typhoon.ocis.temple.edu)
Date: 2 Jul 2001 18:02:28 GMT
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Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
> That would blow me away, too. Everyone knows that molasses comes out of
> the bottle in "glugs!" Sheesh! Some people's grandmothers! <G>

I am looking forward to making up a batch of the potato soup. How recipes ever managed to be passed from one generation of a family to the next is amazing considering how few of them are written down with precise directions and ingredient quantities.
From: Michael Edelman (mje at spamcop.net)
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 14:42:51 -0400
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Stan Horwitz wrote:
> How recipes ever managed to be passed from one generation of a
> family to the next is amazing considering how few of them are
> written down with precise directions and ingredient quantities.

Prior to the late 19th century, few if any recipes had proportions or directions of any sort. The techniques for cooking were passed on in apprenticeships and in families. You didn't learn Grandma's pie from a written recipe. You learned it from Grandma.

Ever read Apicius' books? They're the model for centuries of recipes. "Take some lovage, and cumin, and silphium as well as pepper and salt and crush it in a good amount or wine and oil; in this, boil whatever meat you choose..." etc.
From: sghesquire at aol.combuboe (SGH Esquire)
Date: 02 Jul 2001 21:29:09 GMT
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This is probably a good soup. After all, the McQuowns posed for "The Potato Eaters."
From: penmart01 at aol.como (Sheldon)
Date: 02 Jul 2001 20:06:59 GMT
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Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
>That would blow me away, too. Everyone knows that molasses comes out of
>the bottle in "glugs!" Sheesh! Some people's grandmothers! <G>
>
>Damsel, who measures in glugs

Mine comes with half dozen big "spurts" and then a few gurgles of glugs.
From: Damsel in dis Dress
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 22:31:32 GMT
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Sheldon wrote:
>Mine comes with half dozen big "spurts" and then a few gurgles of glugs.

Are we still talking about molasses, dear? ;-)

Damsel the Innocent
From: Gargoylle (gargoylle at postmaster.co.uk)
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 18:14:45 -0500
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Damsel in dis Dress wrote:
>Are we still talking about molasses, dear? ;-)
>Damsel the Innocent

You're about as innocent as my name is Gar. <g>

(trying to remember name)
From: connieg999 at aol.com (ConnieG999)
Date: 02 Jul 2001 19:35:23 GMT
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Jill McQuown writes:
>Hope you enjoy it! Grandma made this soup with water; I'm the one who added
>the chicken stock.

Oh, THANK you for saying that! My greatgrandmother was old-world German and my Grandmother was only slightly more "Americanized." (I lived with them when I was small.) The potato soup in her house was EXACTLY like yours except for the chicken broth...and I was wondering why the difference. My Great GM could (and needed to) squeeze a penny until it screamed, and I know that potato soup was one of the cheapest meals around to feed us all. She would never have used good chicken stock in her potato soup! She made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles with her stock and the shreds of chicken gleaned from the necks and backs used to make the stock. (G) We were fortunate enough to have chickens in the yard; we had plenty of eggs and chicken meat. I have many of those "depression era" recipes floating around, and ONE very old German cookbook. I wish I could have saved more of her "in my head" recipes before she died.
From: Stan Horwitz (stan at typhoon.ocis.temple.edu)
Date: 3 Jul 2001 15:55:58 GMT
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Jill, I am looking forward to making your soup recipe. I wonder though, have you tried adding any corn to the soup? It seems to me like a cup of corn would go well in that soup. Also, when you make your grandmother's potato soup, do you usually have any left over to eat another day? This soup seems like it would be one of those things that tastes better the day after its made, like chicken soup does.
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 13:00:39 -0500
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Stan Horwitz wrote:
> Jill, I am looking forward to making your soup recipe. I wonder though,
> have you tried adding any corn to the soup? It seems to me like a cup of
> corn would go well in that soup. Also, when you make your grandmother's
> potato soup, do you usually have any left over to eat another day? This
> soup seems like it would be one of those things that tastes better the day
> after its made, like chicken soup does.

Oh yes, this was a nice large-ish (word?) pot of soup that served about 6-8 people (if you only ate one bowl *and* had a slice of her homemade bread with butter!). I've never added corn to it but if I did it would certainly be a close match to the corn chowder served at my parents 50th anniversary dinner :) Yes, when I make it I have leftovers so it's best the next day. But who can resist a bowl when it's fresh out of the pot? <G>