Foods of England - Sorrel Soup

Sorrel Soup

Soups

Coarsely chopped sorrel leaves in a thick soup base, eg. potato (Family Guide 1747, Eaton 1822, etc)

Original Receipt in 'The Cook and Housekeeper's Dictionary' by Mary Eaton (Eaton 1822);

SORREL SOUP. Make a good gravy with part of a knuckle of veal, and the scrag end of a neck or a chump end of a loin of mutton. Season it with a bunch of sweet herbs, pepper, and salt, and two or three cloves. When the meat is quite stewed down, strain it off, and let it stand till cold. Clear it well from the fat, put it into a stewpan with a young fowl nicely trussed, and set it over a slow fire. Wash three or four large handfuls of sorrel, chop it a little, fry it in butter, put it into the soup, and let the whole stew till the fowl is well done. Skim it very clean, and serve it up with the fowl in the soup.

Original Receipt from Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery, 1891

Sorrel Soup - Take some sorrel and wash it very thoroughly. Like spinach, it requires a great deal of cleansing. Drain it off and place the sorrel in a stew-pan, and keep stirring it with a wooden spoon. When it has dissolved and boiled for two or three minutes, let it drain on a sieve till the water has run off. Next cut up a large onion and fry it in a little butter, but do not brown the onion. Add a tablespoonful of flour to every two ounces of butter used, also a teaspoonful of sugar, a little grated nutmeg, also a little pepper and salt; add the sorrel to this, with a small quantity of stock or water, then rub the whole through a wire sieve, and serve. In some parts of the Continent vinegar is added, but it is not adapted to English taste.

See: Wood Sorrel

Common Sorrel, Rumex acetosa
Photo: 'Burschik'

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