Squibbel Soup

Ingredients

• Three squirrels
• a small tablespoonful of salt
• a gallon of cold water
• a piece of butter
• a spoonful of flour
• two slices of bread

Method

1. 1

   Put three squirrels with a small tablespoonful of salt in a gallon of cold water.

2. 2

   Cover and simmer gently.

3. 3

   Add vegetables like corn, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, okra, and Lima beans.

4. 4

   Strain the soup when the meat has boiled to a rag.

5. 5

   Thicken with butter rubbed in flour.

6. 6

   Toast two slices of bread, cut into dice, fry them in butter, and put them in the tureen before pouring the soup over.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Virginia Cookery-book (1884) by Mary Stuart Smith, page 42. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Squibbel Soup. Even persons who find squirrel positively distasteful as meat regard it as supplying delightful material for soup. Three squirrels are none too much to allow for making a tureen full of soup. Put them on, with a small table- spoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water. Cover the pot close and set it on the back part of the stove to simmer gently, not boil. Add vege- tables just the same as you do in case of other meat-soups in the summer season, but especially good will you find com, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, okra, and Lima beans. Strain the soup through a coarse colander when the meat has boiled to a rag, so as to get rid of the squirrels' trou- blesome little bones. Then return to the pot, and after boiling a while longer thicken with a piece of butter rub- bed in flour. Celery and parsley leaves chopped up are also considered an improvement by many, and those who like it thick as gumbo add a spoonful of powdered sas- safras-leaves. Toast two slices of bread, cut them into dice an inch square, fry them in butter, put them into the bottom of your tureen, and then pour the soup boil- ing hot upon them. Tomato Soup. Put on a gallon of water ; let it boil ; put in two double- handfuls of okra, one handful of shelled butter beans, one small cymling, six Irish potatoes, one onion, four ears of com, and a soup-bone of beef, or one fowl. About an hour before you take up your soup put in the tomatoes, peeled and cut up, in such quantity as you can spare — from one pint to two quarts, according to taste or con- 4* 82 VtRQINIA COOKERT-BOOK. VeniiBiice. A red pepper pod adds greatly to the flavor of this soup, and black pepper and salt too must bie piit in to taste. Put the soup-pot on the fire as early as possible after breakfast, letting it simmer all the time, not boil. A stone vessel and wooden spoon are desirable for the preparation of such soups. Good Lenten Soups. (Miss Loa AnnstroDg.) Tomato Soup. — To one quart of tomatoes stewed and run through a colander add one quart of boiled milk, thickened with a small table-spoonful of flour or corn- starch; add a table - spoonful of butter, and season to your taste with black pepper, salt, and a teaspoonf ul of mustard if yoii choose. Let the soup merely come to a boil, and serve immediately. This soup offers the advan- tage of being presentable upon very short notice. Onion Soup. — Cut in pieces twelve large white onions ; boil them in three quarts of milk and water equally mixed. Put in a bit of veal or a fowl after the onions are boiled soft. Thicken it with a gill of sweet creain, pepper, and a bit of butter rolled in a teaspootiful of flour

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.