Recipe #20: Komstborscht

I believe this should also be credited to Reuben Epp, as it's written in the same style and also ends with Low German. If so, danke, Reuben!

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To begin with, a "Komstborscht," Mennonite Low German name for a cabbage Borscht "Soup," is in fact a soup that starts out with at least part of a head of cabbage, to which are added numerous other vegetable, grain and meat ingredients to make a delicious and wholesome soup, there named "Komstborscht," perhaps erroneously.

Item No. 1 is a large soup pot of at least two gallon calibre for a family-sized pot of Borscht.

Then:

1. 1 lb. (pound of beef) stew or barbecued steak. If it is stew, brown it thoroughly in a frying pan or if in the form of a cooked steak, cube into pieces of 3/4 inch or smaller.
2. 2 or 3 cooking onions, chopped fine and pan-browned in butter before adding to the cooked stew or steak pieces.
3. Allow beef and onions to simmer together in the pot for the better part of an hour, just covered with water, before adding other vegetables.
4. Add 1/2 of a medium rutabaga turnip, peeled and diced in small cubes.
5. Cut into small pieces 1/2 head (or more) of regular white or green cabbage, and add to the pot.
6. In the meantime, peel and dice 4-6 medium-sized potatoes and place them in the soup pot to boil (simmer.) Add water as needed to keep vegetables barely covered.
7. Chop fine about 1/2 of a whole garlic (8 cloves) and add to the pot.
8. Peel and dice 4-6 carrots and add to the potatoes to low  boil or simmer.
9. Chop up and wrap in cheese-cloth two or three full grown stalks of fresh or frozen green dill weed, in the yellow flower stage. Fish this bundle out of the pot when the Borscht is fully done.
10. Add 200-250 ml of pearled or potting barley.
11. Add 4-6 stalks of celery, diced in small pieces.
12. Add 1 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces.
13. Add several sprigs of broccoli, stems and heads, chopped.
14. Add several sprigs of cauliflower, stems and heads, chopped.
15. I often add two cups or more of pre-cooked mashed yam.
16. When rutabaga, potatoes and carrots are about done, add 800 ml of canned or home-canned tomatoes.
17. Add one 300 ml can of tomato soup.

While simmering this Borscht, keep the water in the pot about level with the top of the vegetables, but not more.

I have listed the various components of this Borscht approximately in the order in which they should be potted to provide appropriate cooking time. The experienced cook will recognize and adjust this schedule appropriately. There is no end to variations possible in such a thumb-rule recipe, but no one will dispute that the ingredients make good soup (Borscht).

Seasonings are somewhat optional in this Borscht: I usually use steak spices, granulated garlic and seasoned salt to prepare the meat, but add no other seasonings to the Borscht.

Total cooking time about 2 hours plus, or until the rutabaga, potatoes and carrots are well done.

Un nu, lot et goot schmaikje!

Recipe #19: Icicle Pickle

The source of this one is clear: my grandmother, Mary Dorita Bradley Bryson. Recipe hand written on stationery from my grandfather's garage.

To see it larger, click on it.

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1 peck (two 6 quart baskets) cucumbers cut into strips.

Soak in brine for 5 days (salt and water that will float an egg)

Drain off the brine and cover the cucumbers with boiling water, let stand  for 24 hours

Drain again and cover with fresh boiling water

Add alum the size of a walnut, and let stand for a further 24 hours

Prepare the syrup:
2 1/2 quarts of white wine vinegar
6 pounds of white sugar

Make a spice bag of mixed spice and place in the syrup

Bring syrup to a boil

Drain the cucumbers and pour the syrup over them

Pour off the syrup and heat it to the boiling point for 4 mornings

Add green food colouring on the first and second boil.

On the fifth morning pour off the syrup and bring to a boil

Place pickles in jars and cover with boiling syrup.

Place lids on jars, let stand to cool.

Enjoy.

Recipe #18: Bread and Butter Pickle

Of unknown origin.

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Recipe #17: Oatmeal Casserole Bread

Not an original, obviously. Perhaps from a ROBIN HOOD flour bag?

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Recipe #16: Mexican Bean Casserole

Or as the photo says: Mexican Brunch Bake (Source: Unknown.) Why does it say it takes 13 hours, 15 minutes? (Oh, refrigerate overnight!, then bake in the morning....)

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Recipe #15: Leek & Potato Soup

Not sure what deseeses or reblens are Maybe Google? (Actually, don't. Just skip that part.)

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This soup may be served hot or very cold. Be sure to serve the soup reduced to a velvet smoothness.

Mince:
 3 medium size leeks - white part only
 1 medium size onion

Stir and sauté them 3 minutes in
 2 tablespoons of butter

Pare, slice very fine and add
 4 medium size potatoes

Add
 4 cups stock

Simmer the vegetables, covered, for 15 minutes, or until tender.

Let cool slightly then blend to smoothness.

Add
 1 - 2 cups cream
 (or 1 cup pealed, deseeses, cubed cucumber & reblens)
 1/4 teaspoon mace
 salt & pepper to taste

Garnish with
 Chopped watercress or chives

Recipe #14: Vegetable Soup

Recipe says to add lecithin ... but not how much! (Nor does it say how much apple juice, not too much I imagine.) MCEC Soup says one capsule. Try that!

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1 large onion
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup green pepper
Apple juice

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/3 pkge Lipton onion soup mix
1 tablespoon dry parsley
2 cups carrots
2 cups potato cubes
28 oz tin of tomatoes
2 - 3 cups hot water 

1 cup parsnips
4 - 5 cups chopped cabbage 

In a dutch oven, sauté onion, celery and peppers in apple juice. 

Mix in salt, sugar, pepper, soup mix, parsley, potato, carrots and tomatoes. Add water and lecithin and simmer for one half  hour.

Add parsnip and cabbage and simmer for another hour.

Enjoy.

Recipe #13: MCEC Soup

A very popular soup in our household, back in the day. Did you know that MCEC stands for Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada? Well, it does, and they have their own soup, or at least they had a cookbook from which this recipe is taken. It's possibly attributed to an individual in that cookbook. If the cookbook turns up, I'll check!

Update: I asked my mother about the source for this one, and what happened was, my father went to an MCEC conference and they served this soup en masse, and he asked one of the organizers for the recipe, and it was provided to him. So it was known in our house as the MCEC soup.

If you want to feed 80, see below.

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Feeds 8

1/2 lb ground beef
1 large onion
2 stalks celery
1 cup green pepper
1 cup red pepper
Apple juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 pkge Lipton onion soup mix
1 tablespoon dry parsley
2 cups potato cubes
28 oz tin of tomatoes
4 cups hot water
1 Lecithin capsule
1/2 head chopped cabbage

In a frying pan, sauté beef and drain off fat. 

In a dutch oven, sauté onion, celery & peppers in apple juice.  When these are soft add beef.

Mix in salt, sugar, pepper, soup mix, parsley, potato and tomatoes.  Add water and lecithin and simmer for one hour.

Add cabbage and simmer for another hour.

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Feeds 80.

2 kilos ground beef
10 large onions
1 head celery
5 green peppers
apple juice to saute in
10 tsp salt
10 tbsp sugar
5 tsp pepper
4 pkges Lipton onion soup mix
10 tbsp dry parsley
8 lbs potatoes in 1/4" cubes
8x28 oz tins of tomatoes
40 cups hot water
84 Lecithin capsules
4 heads chopped cabbage

In a frying pan, sauté beef and drain off fat. 

In a dutch oven, sauté onion, celery & peppers in apple juice.  When these are soft add the beef and divide evenly into four large boilers.

In each boiler add propotionately the salt, sugar, peppers, soup mix, parsley, potatoes and cut up tinned tomatoes.  Add water and lecithin.  Let simmer for one hour.

Divide cabbage between four boilers and simmer for another hour.

Recipe #12: Garlic Soup

To cook this one, you need to look up a recipe to roast garlic heads. Like, say, this one.

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Serves 4

1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2  sticks of celery, chopped
1  tbsp  butter
5 plum tomatoes, quartered
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 to 3 heads of roasted garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Small French loaf
1/2 cup Emmenthal cheese, grated

1. In a large soup pot, brown the first five ingredients 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Add quartered tomatoes, bay leaves, chicken stock and cayenne and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Squeeze garlic from the roasted heads, putting aside 2 to 3 tbsp (30 to 45 mL) of the purse.  Add the remaining roasted garlic to the soup and simmer 10 more minutes.
3. Strain soup, pressing down on solids. Discard solids and return soup to pot.  Heat and season to taste.
4. Toast thick-sliced rounds of bread on both sides. Spread roasted garlic reserve over one side and sprinkle with Emmenthal cheese, toast until melted and place rounds into each serving of soup.  

Recipe #11: Ham & Pea Soup

Recipe from Reuben Epp - 1999

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A ham-pea soup starts out with several pieces of hambone with considerable meat, to which are added vegetables, grain and legumes to make a delicious ham and pea soup.

Item No. 1 is a large soup pot of at least two gallons for a family-sized pot of ham-pea soup.

Then:

1. Add to boiling water in the pot about 1½ to 2 lbs. of bone in large pieces with meat from a smoked ham.
2. Add to the pot 2 or 3 cooking onions, chopped fine and pan-browned in butter.
3. Allow the ham, bone and onions to simmer together in the pot for the better part of an hour, well covered with water, before adding vegetables.
4. Then add about 1 cup of pearled or potting barley
5. Then add about 1 cup each of yellow split peas and green split peas.
6. Add 1 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces.
7. Chop fine about 1/2 of a whole garlic bulb (8 cloves) and add to the pot.
8. Peel and dice 4-6 carrots and add to the soup. Continue low boil or simmer.
9. Chop up and wrap in cheese-cloth two or three full grown stalks of fresh or frozen summer savoury weed. A bundle about the size of a man's thumb or slightly larger. Fish this bundle out of the pot when the soup is fully done.
10. Add 4-6 stalks of celery, diced in small pieces (optional).

While simmering this soup, keep the water in the pot generously above the top of the vegetables because the barley and peas thicken the soup considerably as they become done.

I list the various components of this soup approximately in the order in which they would be potted to provide appropriate cooking time. An experienced cook will adjust this schedule
appropriately. There are many possible variations in this thumb-rule recipe.

Seasonings are somewhat optional in this soup. Try it first without seasonings.

Total cooking time is about 1½ to 2 hours, or until the carrots are well done and the peas have disintegrated.

And then...enjoy!
Lot et goot schmaikje!

Recipe #10: Puree of Carrot and Parsnip

This one is made in the microwave.

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Serves  6

2 cups chopped carrots (about 4 medium)
1 cup peeled, chopped parsnips
1 medium chopped onion
1 medium potato, pealed and chopped
3 cups vegetable stock - Oxo
1½ cups skim milk
Sprinkle of chives or chopped green onion to serve

In microwaveable dish, cook carrots on high for three minutes, add potato and cook for 2 minutes, add onion and parsnip and cook for 5 minutes.

Stir in vegetable stock, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

In a food processor or blender process the mixture until smooth; return soup to pan.

Stir in the milk and reheat without boiling.

It can be prepared in advance and refrigerated up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 2 months.  If you make it ahead of time, add the milk just before serving.

When serving, sprinkle each bowlful with chives or chopped green onion.

Recipe #9: Bill’s Chicken Soup

This would appear to be a William Bryson original. All ingredients, no directions, no fluid. Maybe chop veggies and combine all into 6 cups of boiling water? 

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1 chicken carcass - body & long bones; no wings, no small bones nor fat
Carrots
Parsnips
Celery
Yam
Onion
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Basil - 1 teaspoon
Parsley - 1 tablespoon
Poultry Spice - 1 teaspoon
Lecethin - 1 capsule of 1 teaspoon of granules.

Recipe #8: Butternut Squash Soup

Serves  8

1  cup apple juice
1 large onion – chopped
2-4 cloves garlic – crushed
1 large potato – diced
4 cups veggie stock from cubes
1/4  teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4  teaspoon curry powder
1/2  teaspoon marjoram
1 medium sized butternut squash, peeled, cut & diced
1/2  teaspoon salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a dutch oven or large sauce pan sauté the onion, garlic & potato in apple juice until the onion and potato are tender.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients except for the lemon juice. Bring this to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes, or until squash is tender.

Let cool slightly.

In small batches purée the whole lot in a blender or food processor - do this to different degrees of smoothness so there is a variable consistency to the soup.

When it is time to serve the soup reheat it and add the lemon juice.

Garnish each bowl with fresh parsley or green onions if you wish.

*** To increase sweetness, bake the squash in the oven on a greased pan for 45-50 minutes and then add to the mixture in the dutch oven once the other vegetables are tender.

Recipe #7: Slow Cooked Beans & Veggie Chili

3 cups dry kidney beans
2 tablespoons olive oil ... optional...
1 large onion sliced thinly
4 cloves of garlic minced well
1 green pepper (can use red or yellow) chopped coarsely
1/2 cup red unpeeled potatoes diced
1 10-ounce canned tomatoes undrained
1 teaspoon chill powder (use more if you wish)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice (may use white if you wish)
5 cups water or vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to your liking
Grated cheese for garnish, if desired

Soak beans overnight in cold water to cover.

Drain. 

Put beans in slow cooker. 

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil or a small amount of liquid; sauté onion and garlic until soft ... about 3-5 minutes. 

Add bell pepper, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, chill powder and cumin.

Continue cooking, stirring frequently for 3 minutes; transfer to slow cooker. 

Add rice and water or broth; cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or until chill is thick and rice and beans are tender. 

Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Garnish with cheese if desired.

Recipe #6: Slow Cooked Roast Beef & Sauce Options

Serves 6

3 lb beef bottom round roast
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
Sauce (options below)

Rub a well-trimmed 3 lb beef bottom round roast with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Choose a sauce from the options below and mix the ingredients in a bowl.

Pour half the sauce into the slow cooker.

Add the roast and top with the remaining sauce.

Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours or until meat is very tender.

Remove meat to cutting board.

Skim the fat off the top of the sauce.

Slice the meat against the grain and serve with the sauce.

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Slow Cooker Sauces

Italian sauce
1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup dry red wine or water
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Chinese sauce
1 cup bottled stir-fry sauce
1/4 cup orange juice
Chopped white part of 4 scallions
1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic

Mexican sauce
2 cups of  bottled salsa
4 ounce can chopped green chiles
6 ounce can of tomato paste
1/2 cup water
11/4 ounce  package taco seasoning  mix

Swedish sauce
10 ounce can of  condensed cream of mushroom soup
2.2 ounce beefy mushroom-onion soup mix
1 teaspoon dried dillweed

Copyright and Health Notice

To be clear, I assert no copyright over any of the recipes on this site.

The source of the recipes is mostly my father's computer. He put a manuscript together in the 1990s. He never published it, and I am publishing it bit by bit on this blog, plus adding other recipes found on his computer.

I am quite sure, however, that he wasn't the original source of the recipes. Where the source is known, or might be guessed, I will add that. Otherwise, if anyone has a clue ... please let me know.

Likewise, I cannot vouch for the health qualities of any of the recipes. It is customary these days to include calorie counts and nutrient information with recipes. These recipes do not have that.

I did, however, find the below helpful image on my father's computer. So take note!

(You may also want to check out the Flax vs Chia article....)

- Michael Bryson, Dec 2017

Gramma's Cookbook

The Gramma here, I believe, is Florence Bradley. My father had these image files saved in the Soup Therapy folder, titled "Gramma's Cookbook." The book itself is? Well, we'll find it. 

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Recipe #5: Slow Cooker Chicken

Serves 4

1 large onion, sliced
Grated  peel and juice of 1 orange
2 Tablespoons each of Worcestershire sauce, soya sauce and Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic,
4 each of chicken drumsticks and thighs, skin removed
1 cup dried  fruit: such as 1/2 cup each snipped dried apricots and dried cranberries

Place onions on bottom of slow cooker bowl. Mix orange peel and juice, Worcestershire sauce, soya sauce, mustard and garlic in a large bowl.

Add chicken and toss to coat. Place all in slow cooker; add dried fruit.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until chicken is tender.

Recipe #4: Bread Pudding

Unsourced, but likely of English origin?

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2 cups milk
4 slices of white bread
3 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
Raisins (handful)

Pour milk into a sauce pan and bring to simmer - do not boil.

Cut the bread into small cubes and add to hot milk.

Remove from the stove and set aside to cool.

Separate two eggs, retaining the whites for later and beating the yolks with the third egg.

Beat the egg whites into a fluffy meringue.

Mix the sugar with the eggs and add to the bread and milk combination, adding a handful of raisins - more or less.

Recipe #3: Cooked Play Dough

This is definitely not soup. It's also definitely not edible. It's also a staple of my childhood: play dough. Home made play dough. You can eat it. I've ate it. It tastes like ... salt!

To preserve (and re-use), keep in plastic wrap or plastic bag. Or leave out to harden. Instant statue!

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1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1 cup water
food colouring

Mix dry ingredients in a sauce pan.

Add the food colouring to the water.

Stir the oil into the dry mixture, then stir in the water.

Cook over medium heat, continuing to stir until the mixture pulls away from the side of the saucepan.

Remove from the heat and let cool.

Form dough into a ball.

If too soft, roll on a floured surface until the right density.

Recipe #2: Busy Day Macaroni

I know what you're thinking. Second recipe, second non-soup recipe. Well, I did say this blog would include more than soups. This one is a favourite from my childhood! For some reason, it was filed under "Baked Goods." It ain't soup, but it ain't baked goods, either.

Update: After consulting with my mother about the origin of this recipe, I need to correct my statement above that it was a favourite from my childhood. The source is a cookbook my mother put together in the late-1980s for Daycare Connection, where she worked 1988-1998. Someone submitted this recipe for the cookbook, which was a fundraiser for the organization. By 1988, I had left home for university. So it was a favourite of the 1990s, I guess.

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Makes 4 servings

2 tablespoons of butter
2 cups uncooked macaroni
2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
2 cups of milk

Melt the butter in a 9" square pan.

Spread the macaroni evenly over the bottom of the pan.

Spread the cheese evenly over the macaroni.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the cheese

Pour the milk over all.

Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Apology (to those seeking "the other" Bill Bryson)

This was written by my father for the book that never was - which is now this blog.

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To those of you who bought this book thinking it was written by BILL BRYSON. I’m afraid it was not. No. It was written by me - Bill Bryson, an entirely different person; in fact, a very different person.

You see, BILL BRYSON is an author, I am not: I’m a photographer.  And BILL BRYSON is an American; I’m a Canadian. And BILL BRYSON is barely middle-aged; I’m a Senior Citizen - only barely, mind you.

So you see, if you’re upset by this, I do understand.

Mind you, I have met BILL BRYSON and he is a charming gentleman.  He even autographed the first book of his I ever received - Mother Tongue by BILL BRYSON.

Strangely enough, in spite of all the differences between us there are some striking similarities as well. BILL (let’s just call him Bill, I’m sure he won’t mind) came from North America and so did I.  Bill went to England as a young man and so did I. Bill got a job in a health care institution and so did I. Bill fell in love and married a health care worker - a Nurse, and so did I - a Radiographer. 

However, Bill stayed and raised his family in England for 20 years, I came back to Canada where Barbara and I raised two sons and now have a grandson. Bill is back in the States and continues to write while I am retired and have taken up writing. But, as I indicated earlier, HE’s a writer, I’m a photographer who just thinks he can write.

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy my book all the same.

Sincerely,
Bill Bryson, 1999

Dedication

To my mother, who let me as a child peal the apples for the six pies she made every Saturday morning, and then let me make a dozen or more butter tarts; and to my father, who worked 54 hours a week to support the family that ate them all.

Bill Bryson, 1999

Why it's called Soup Therapy

This is the 1999 introduction, written by my father for the book that never was - and is now this blog.

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At few years ago my doctor decided I should take an early retirement. I was 59 years old. At home, pondering this unanticipated early retirement, I phoned a friend who had been let go from his computer programming jobs a couple of years earlier, just after his 57th birthday.

When Bill asked me what I was doing with my time I replied “I’m making soup; it’s my therapy.” “Well,” said Bill, I’ve heard of Group Therapy, but I’ve never heard of Soup Therapy. We chuckled over this responds, and I shared it with others, over time.

About a year later I shared this tale with my son and daughter-in-law in Vancouver, and as soon as I said “soup therapy” I thought “now there is a snappy title for a book. Soup Therapy: a Recipe Book for Retired Gentlemen.”

So, with a minor change to the title here it is.  SOUP THERAPY – Recipes for the Retired Gentleman, and a mother-lode of  how too information for many other gastronomical creations as well.

Bill Bryson, 1999

A Word from the Author - 72 words actually

You may get the impression that this is a “how to cook” book. I can understand that, since much of the content is about cooking and many of the recipes have “how to” instructions.

However, I assure you, this is not a “how to cook” book. It is a “how to have fun mucking about in the kitchen” book; and there is a world of difference.  Muskrat* thought there was nothing in the world quite like mucking about with boats. I feel the same way about kitchens. And so can you if you let yourself.

I assume someone bought you this book because she thought it would be “good” for you.  Nay!! This book isn’t what’s good for you; it’s the mucking about that’s good for you.  And if you’re lucky, the eating won’t be half bad either.

So go ahead, read on, learn as much or as little as you like. But for crying out loud, get into the kitchen and start mucking. Don’t wait until you’ve read the whole book - I don’t want you reading books; I want you having fun in the kitchen.

So get on with it. Your first soup awaits.

Bill Bryson
April 10, 1999


* From Toad Hall, of course!

Recipe #1: Butter Tarts

Maybe you know that Ontario has a Butter Tart Festival? Maybe you are also familiar with the term "intangible heritage" and associate it with butter tarts, like the Ontario Heritage Trust does?

Whatever the case, the first recipe I'm posting here isn't going to be from my father's manuscript of recipes. It's going to be his mother's butter tart recipe, the filling anyway:

1/3 cup of butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup currants
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

450 degrees for 8 minutes
350 degrees until done

Presumably, you will know when they are done.

I heard my father tell a story once about how his mother's butter tart were unusual, unlike other butter tarts, because ... they had no butter. But this recipe says otherwise. I think he meant, they sometimes didn't have butter, as in when there wasn't any.

Stories are intangible heritage too.

Welcome to Soup Therapy

I have created this blog to share recipes for soup (and other things!) that my father, Bill Bryson (not the author!), collected about 20 years ago, following his retirement.

He passed away earlier this year at the age of 79.

He called his manuscript Soup Therapy: Recipes for the Retired Gentleman. I have tweaked the title slightly for this blog, as it's more accurate that these recipes are from him to us.

While his book was never published, he left behind more than enough files to make an interesting online archive. The manuscript was put together before the advent of blogs, but it will make an excellent one.

In the weeks ahead, I will share recipes and other stuff related to my father here.

Stay tuned!

Michael Bryson, Toronto
December 10, 2017

(Photo: Bill Bryson, December 2016)