Southern Cookery: Soups and Stews

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

From What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, by Abby Fisher, 1881.

[Abby Fisher, born an enslaved person in Alabama, relocated to San Francisco to start a pickling business. Her cookbook was the second ever published by a Black woman in the United States.]

Soups and Stews

Beef Soup

Six pounds of meat to two and one-half gallons of water. Boil to one gallon and one-half; then strain all meat out from the bouillon. Season with pepper and salt.

Ox-Tail Soup

Can be made from the same bouillon of beef as seen in No. 38, in the following manner. Take two quarts of bouillon to two ox-tails; boil down to three pints. You can put in either ochra or vermicelli. Season with salt and pepper. Skim all grease off while boiling. Have the butcher unjoint the ox-tail.

Calf's Head Soup

Let the butcher open the head wide. Take the brains from it and lay into clean water with a little salt. Leave the tongue in the head when put on to boil; when the tongue is tenderly boiled or done, take it out of the pot and let it get cold for making tongue salad.

Two gallons of water to a calfs head; boil to one gallon; strain it off clear for soup to one dozen guests. Take two quarts of this liquid and put to boil; two table-spoonfuls of flour and brown it; one tablespoonful of butter; rub into the brown flour till it comes to a cream, then add to the soup gradually, and stir well while adding. Season with salt and pepper, and a little red pepper. While cooking, boil a small piece of thyme and the half of an ordinary sized onion tied tight in a clean linen rag, and to be taken out of soup when done. One teaspoonful of mustard mixed with one tablespoonful of wine, to be put into the tureen before pouring in the soup hot, also one glass of sherry wine.

Pick all skin from brains; beat two eggs light and add to the brains, then beat the eggs and brains together to a batter; take one-quarter tea cup of powdered cracker, one tablespoonful of flour added to the brains and egg batter well beaten together. Then make this brain batter in cake the size of a hickory nut, and fry them brown in hot fat just before taking up soup, and send to table on separate dish. Serve them with the soup, two cakes to a plate of soup.

P.S. Chop parsley very fine, and boil it into the soup. You will find the calf's head soup the most delicious soup in the cookery. Study the recipe and remember it well.

Mock Turtle Soup

Follow the same directions given for calf's head soup. Prepare your calf's head in the same way exactly. Use for flavor half of a lemon sliced, and put in tureen and pour hot soup on. Instead of brain-balls or cakes, make a forced meat of boiled ham chopped very fine with the yolk of a hard boiled egg; season with black pepper. Make balls the size of a hickory nut and fry in hot butter. Send to table in separate dish, serving one ball to a plate of soup. Use beef in place of ham if liked best.

Green Turtle Soup

To two pounds of turtle add two quarts of water, put to boil on a slow fire and cook down to three pints. Season while boiling with pepper and salt to taste. Take three hard boiled eggs, slice very thin and lay in tureen; slice one-fourth of a lemon and put in tureen also. Then pour in tureen one gill of sherry wine. Then pour on hot soup and send to table. The above quantity will make soup for one dozen guests. If there are more to serve, increase the quantity.

Oyster Gumbo Soup

Take an old chicken, cut into small pieces, salt and black pepper. Dip it well in flour, and pat it on to fry, over a slow fire, till brown; don't let it burn. Cut half of a small onion very fine and sprinkle on chicken while frying. Then place chicken in soup pot, add two quarts water and let it boil to three pints. Have one quart of fresh oysters with all the liquor that belongs to them, and before dishing up soup, add oysters and let come to a boil the second time, then stir into soup one tablespoonful of gumbo quickly. Dish up and send to table. Have parsley chopped very fine and put in tureen on dishing up soup. Have dry boiled rice to go to table with gumbo in separate dish. Serve one tablespoonful of rice to a plate of gumbo.

Ochra Gumbo.

Get a beef shank, have it cracked and put to boil in one gallon of water. Boil to half a gallon, then strain and put back on fire. Cut ochra in small pieces and put in soup; don't put in any ends of ochra. Season with salt and pepper while cooking. Stir it occasionally and keep it from burning. To be sent to table with dry boiled rice. Never stir rice while boiling. Season rice always with salt when it is first put on to cook, and do not have too much water in rice while boiling.

Old Fashioned Turnip Soup

Take two pounds veal bones to half a gallon of water, and boil to one quart. Put turnips and bones on to boil together, then strain the liquor off and send to table hot. Season while cooking with pepper and salt.

Chicken Soup for the Sick

Take an old chicken and put on with one gallon of water; boil down to half a gallon. Take the yolks of two eggs, tie them up in a clean cloth with a little thyme and put in the soup after you have strained the meat from it, and put back to boil till down to three pints. Dish up and send to table hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Corn and Tomato Soup

Take a fresh beef bone, put on to boil with one gallon of water, and when boiling skim the grease off. Cut corn from cob and scald tomatoes with boiling water. Skin them and put both vegetables into soup, the corn ten minutes before dinner. Cut tomatoes in small pieces and let them boil in soup at least one hour.

Fish Chowder

Cut up one pound of salt pork in pieces one and two inches in size for a large fish, of about six pounds. Cut the fish in pieces the same as the pork; slice in pieces half dozen Irish potatoes the size of fish. Beat one sea cracker fine, take and slice one large onion, chop it fine; fry the pork brown, take it from the fat. Having all now prepared, put your pot on fire, and put in pot a layer of fish, then a layer of pork, then a layer of cracker, then put in one tablespoonful of butter, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste; add one pint of water, and let it stew one hour, when it will be ready for table use.

Clam Chowder

Prepare and make clam chowder in the same way as the fish chowder, except you must use tomatoes; a layer of tomatoes and a layer of the other articles, for fifty to one hundred clams. Put in one pint of sweet milk; before putting clams in pot cut away the black part of clams, add half a teaspoonful of ground cloves, and one teaspoonful of ground allspice, salt and pepper to taste; one dozen tomatoes scalded in boiling water, and skin them.

Creole Soup

Take three pints of this same bouillon, put on to boil, just before use chop four leaves of parsley fine, and put in. Brown a teaspoonful of brown sugar on a till plate, add a sherry wine-glass of sherry wine to sugar, stir it well, then strain through a fine sieve; then stir three tablespoonfulls into soup. Beat two yolks of eggs into tureen and pour hot soup on it and send to table.

Chicken Gumbo

Salt and pepper chicken before frying it. Take a chicken, separating it from all the joints and breaking the bones, fry the chicken in one and a half tablespoonful of lard or butter. First well mix the chicken in dry flour, let the fat be hot, put chicken to fry until brown; don't burn chicken. After fried, put it on in soup kettle with half a gallon of hot water, one and a half quarts of green ochra cut into thin pieces, throwing the end away, and let the whole boil to three pints; season with pepper and salt. Chop half of an ordinary sized onion fine, and fry it with chicken; chilli pepper chopped fine if added is nice when liked.

Fisher, Abby. What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Women's Co-operative Printing Office, 1881.

Abby Fisher

Recipes of the World

A collection of delicious recipes from around the world. Please feel free to add your own family recipes here!

View Group