From a Vintage Kitchen to Yours—A Recipe for Potato Soup

​Since soup is my go-to meal in winter months, I tried out one of Mrs. Williams’s recipes for it.  This potato soup is simple, hearty, and satisfying.

Here’s her original recipe:

• 3 potatoes
• 1 pint of milk
• 1 teaspoonful of grated onion juice
• ½ teaspoonful of celery salt
• ½ saltspoonful of white pepper
• ¼ saltspoonful of cayenne pepper
• ½ tablespoonful of flour
• 1 tablespoonful of butter

​Mash and pare the potatoes and let them soak in cold water half an hour.  Put them into boiling water and cook until they’re very soft.  Cook the onions with the milk in a double boiler.  When the potatoes are soft, drain off the water and mash them.  Add the boiling milk and seasoning.  Put it through a strainer and put it on to boil again.  Put the butter in a small square pan and when melted and bubbly, add the flour.  When it’s well mixed, add it to the soup and boil it for 5 minutes.

By now you’re probably wondering what a salt spoon is.  Starting in the early 1930s, anticaking agents such as silicates were added to table salt to keep the grains from clumping together.  Before the use of these additives, a lump of salt was stored in a salt cellar, broken up, and served to guests with salt spoons.  I used teaspoonfuls of ingredients instead of saltspoonfuls. 

Here’s my modern take on the recipe:

I doubled the recipe, added a ½ teaspoonful of ancho chili pepper for extra kick, and put everything in a crockpot.  I cooked the soup on the low heat setting overnight.  I served it with lots of golden and white cheddar cheese.  I’m a Wisconsinite, after all!

​See you next year!