I’ve been tasting out a Victoria recipe from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management for Mullagatawny soup (as is spelled the book). The book stated off as monthly instalments before being publish all together and covered not only recipes but also discussed fashion, childcare, household and servant management, animal husbandry, first aid and poisons. At time it was published, it received many positive reviews due to how comprehensive it was and continued to be best seller after her death. More modern analysis of her work shows that many of the recipes were taken from other published works and would be classed as plagiarism now. It has been suggested that Mrs Beeton also did not have much experience in the kitchen herself despite claims that she tested all the recipes herself. For example, some of the food preparation instructions she gives in suggesting that pasta was boiled for 1 hour and 45 minutes, while carrots should be boiled for 2 hours and parsnips for 90 minutes, completely obliterating them in the process.
It is good fun though, to try and re create some of the recipes in her book.
Here are her ingredients for the soup. I’ve given amounts in the metric system where appropriate mainly because I find that easier to use.
2 tablespoonfuls of curry powder, 6 onions, 1 clove of garlic, 1 oz. (30 grams) of pounded almonds (ground almonds), a little lemon-pickle, or mango-juice, to taste; 1 fowl (chicken) or rabbit, 4 slices of lean bacon; 2 quarts (2 litres) of medium stock, or, if wanted very good, best stock.
Method as given in the book: Slice and fry the onions of a nice colour; line the stewpan with the bacon; cut up the rabbit or fowl into small joints, and slightly brown them; put in the fried onions, the garlic, and stock, and simmer gently till the meat is tender; skim very carefully, and when the meat is done, rub the curry powder to a smooth batter; add it to the soup with the almonds, which must be first pounded with a little of the stock. Put in seasoning and lemon-pickle or mango-juice to taste, and serve boiled rice with it.
Most of Mrs Beeton’s instructions are straightforward, even to a modern reader. I took the liberty of making my own stock to use where she refers to “medium stock or very good, best stock”, using the carcass of the chicken I brought for this purpose. I removed the meat from the bones and put it aside to chop up later when I got on with making the recipe. The bones, chicken wings and left-over carcass I but in a deep pot with 1 chopped up onion, 1 chopped up carrot, 2 bay leaves, a small handful of black peppercorns and 3 chopped up cloves of garlic. I covered everything with cold water and brought to a boil. Once the liquid was boiling, I turned the heat down to medium and continued cooking for 1 hour 15 minutes. Once everything was cool enough to handle, I drained the liquid from the meat and vegetables into a clean, large bowl and removed all meat from the bones and put that aside for later. The stock is now ready to use in the rest of the recipe.
I did end up using only 3 of the specified 6 onions though, as once I had sliced them, I felt the rest were not required. There is no mention of the use of fat to fry the onions in, so I put a nob of butter to melt and cooked the sliced onions on this once it had melted until golden brown. I diced the bacon and added that next to fry, followed by the garlic clove that I grated in. While this was cooking, I cut the raw chicken into bite sized pieces and added it in to fry with the onion and bacon mixture. I used some of the chicken stock to mix the curry powder and almonds into a paste ready to add at the very end. Once the chicken pieces had turned white all over, I poured in the stock I had made earlier and brought to a boil, going on to cook for about 10 minutes until the meat had cooked through. I added the cooked chicken I had removed from the bones at this stage too. Once the meat has cooked through, I added the carry paste, almond paste and mango juice to taste, before turning off the heat ready to serve.
Overall, I can understand what others meant when they claimed Mrs Beeton may not have had much experience in the kitchen. She did not mention anything about using fat to fry the onions in, so I had to add extra ingredients. Usually all of her recipes included a costing of all the ingredients used for the savvy housewife, so this is slightly misleading. There is also no mention of seasoning when cooking, so you will have to ensure you do this yourself when cooking.
And the final taste test? I thought the final product was a little on the bland side, so next time I will look at playing around with the amounts of curry powder to liquid and look to add vegetables to the soup. Carrots, parsnips and swede might work well….
Let me know what you guys think and if you do decide to try making it yourself.
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