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 recipe may/june 2006
Herb Soup with potato dumplings
A delicate herald of spring.
Dutch version of this recipe

A refreshing spring soup with tender greens.
The text for this recipe is from a cookbook from the nineteenth century, but in fact the recipe is older. In Le cuisinier from Pierre de Lune (1656) there is a 'potage the santé' with sorrel, purslane, chervil and herbs, and no doubt there are other comparable recipes.

When I decided on this recipe I found it in two of my nineteenth century cookbooks, De hedendaagsche kookkunst ('The contemporary art of cooking') by Maria Haezebroek and the Keukenboek (litt. 'kitchenbook') by Henriëtte Davidis in practically the same version. 

Which of these books had the recipe first? I own one edition of each of these cookbooks, but to determine which had the 'premiere' of this particular recipe that is not enough. 
The printing history of De hedendaagsche kookkunst shows that from the first edition in 1848 this cookbook has been revised and augmented several times, growing from 155 pages to 384 pages in the ninth edition from 1892, which is the one I own (the last edition was the tenth, from 1901).
The Keukenboek was a free adaptation from the eleventh edition of the German Praktisches Kochbuch from 1865. This also had been revised and augmented several times since it was first printed in 1844. I own the second edition of the Dutch adaptation from 1868. 
It appears that the recipe from the Keukenboek is the oldest. It was translated from the German original, where it first appeared in the tenth edition from 1864. In De hedendaagsche kookkunst the recipe for this soup appeared for the first time in the sixth edition from 1880 (thanks to Joop Witteveen for providing me with this information).
I have chosen to represent the oldest Dutch version, which is the one from the Keukenboek  from Henriete Davidis. 

Henriëtte Davidis (1801-1876) was a well-known writer of cookbooks in nineteenth-century Germany. Her mother was of Dutch origin, her father was a clergyman. Some of the other cookbooks she wrote are: Puppenköchin Anna. Ein praktisches Kochbuch für kleine, liebe Mädchen (1856) (Doll-cook Anna. A practical cookbook for sweet little girls) and Die Hausfrau: Praktische Anleitung zur selbständigen und sparsamen Führer des Haushaltes (How to be an independent and economical housewife). These books were also translated in Dutch.
Her books were also important for the American cooking tradition in the Mid West, many emigrated Germans entered the new country with their own volume of the Praktisches Kochbuch. In 1897 an American edition was published, entitled Henriette Davidis Practical Cook Book (see Bibliography). 
In the city of Wetter near Dortmund there is Henriette Davidis Museum. Another recipe from the Keukenboek is Capon à la braise with caper sauce. By the way, the soup in the picture on the home page is also from this Keukenboek, a curry soup with meatballs of veal and hard-boiled egg yolks.

My knowledge of Maria Haezebroek is very limited. All I know is that she has published one cookbook,  De hedendaagsche kookkunst, of de wetenschap om lekker en goedkoop te eten en te drinken. [...], ('The contemporary art of cooking, or the science of eating and drinking well and cheap') that first appeared in print in 1848 and was reptinted until 1901, when it had grown to more than double its original size. 
My Hedendaagsche kookkunst (ninth edition) is not just a cookbook. There is information on kitchenware and appliances, laying the table, how to make your own cleaners and shoe polish, and a rather lugubrious chapter on how to treat people who are apparently dead, methodically divided into asphyxia by carbon monoxide, drowning, hanging and being overcome by cold. The preceding chapter is on various symptoms of poisoning and antidotes. Not a popular subject in modern cookbooks.

The Keukenboek has a lot to say on making stock (pp. 22/23), but I don't qlways agree with Davidis (that is italicized). How to make a good stock according to my opnion can be found here.
A summary of 'how to make stock' by Davidis: Use enamelled or well tinned copper pans, meat that has been slaughtered the previous day, preferably without fat and deboned. Rinse the meat off under running water, beat it with a wooden mallet on the cutting board until it is tender. Put it on the fire with cold water and salt. Bring to the boil, skim it, and let it simmer for an hour. Then strain the stock, rinse the meat, and put strained stock with the meat and vegetables (that will be served as well, not strained out of the stock before serving). The meat can either be served in the soup, or served seperately in the following course, with an 'eijersaus' (resembles sauce Hollandaise). If the meat was lean it is best to leave it in the soup. A strong stock is served clear, but if less meat was used one should thicken the soup with rice, pearl barley, vermicelli or sago. A good strong stock required a good quantity of meat, 250 to 350 gram pro person. Even if you served large portions (4 decilitres pro person) that would mean 2 to 3 pounds of meat (no bones) for little over 1.5 litres soup. 

The original recipe from the Keukenboek by Henriëtte Davidis from 1868, respectively pp. 30 and 148.

The modern adaptation of the recipe:
Printout version

The taste of this spring soup depends not only on the greens, but also on the stock that is used. Home-made chicken stock would be excellent, or a good vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian version. No stock cubes, please, the main ingredient of those is salt.

To make the potato dumplings:
20 gram (1 1/2 Tbsp.) butter
1 egg, yolk and white separated
crumbs of 8 slices of white sandwich-bread 
250 gram (1 1/2 cup diced) floury potatoes
grated lemon peel, salt and nutmeg to taste
To make the soup:
1 litre (4 cups/2 pints) good stock (whatever your fancy is)
40 (3 Tbsp.) gram butter
40 (1/3 cup) gram flour
to taste and availability: 250 to 400 gram (5 to 8 cups) butterhead lettuce, spinach, purslane, sorrel and basil.
2 Tbsp. each of tarragon and chives
some chopped burnet if you can find it
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. each of chopped parsley and chervil
Optional 12 yolks of hard-boiled eggs

Preparation in advance:
Make the potato dumplings: Boil the potatoes and mash them when they are still hot. If you are in possession of a potato ricer, this is the moment to use it! You'll get a smooth purée. As soon as you have puréed the potatoes blend in the butter, egg yolks, bread crumbs and spices. Whisk the egg whites and blend in as well. Form small balls with well-floured hands. Set aside until use.
Was and chop all the greens, but keep parsely and chervil separate. 

Preparation:
Melt the butter in a large pan, stir in the flour. Let this "sweat" for several minutes on very low fire. Now add spinach, purslane, tarragon, chives and burnet and stir until the greens have lost the water and have shrunk. Pour in the stock gradually, keep stirring all the while to ensure that it has thickened. Don't forget to rake over the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.
Purée the soup in a (hand) blender or a passe-vite. Let simmer for fifteen more minutes, then add the potato balls and simmer for ten more minutes.
Finish the soup with the raw egg yolks (add a litle of the hot soup to the stirred egg yolks, add some more, stirring all the while,  then pour the egg yolks with the added soup into the pan, stirring the soup continually until it has thickened enough. The soup must not boil). 
Add chopped parsely and chervil just before serving.

To serve:
At once, using your finest soup tureen!
In addition to the potato dumplings you canadd hard boiled egg yolks, or little meatballs made from nothing but ground veal or beef with some pepper, salt, nutmeg and mace.

Potato: This tuber, Solanum tuberosum, originates from South America. When Spanish conquerers entered a vilage from which the inhabitants had fled they found several new food stuff, including potatoes. They first thought mistakenly that the potato was a kind of truffle. Soon after the potato was introduced in Europe, but it wasn't an immediate succes. The bulbs were bitter, the leaves poisonous. Potatoes did not become popular food on its own merits, the consumption of potatoes was more less forced by governmental decrees and subterfuges. By the end of the eighteenth century potatoes were finally accepted, although still grumbling, by the common people. But then disaster struck: in the nineteenth century there were several disastrous famines caused by failed potato crops. Especially Ireland was victim of these famines, but Belgium and the Netherlands also suffered. One fifth of the Irish population died, and many sought refuge elsewhere: the United States of America.
The famous painting 'the potato eaters' by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh gives an impression of the monotony and frugality of the meals of the common people in the nineteenth century. 
Burnet: A small, decorative herb (Sanguisorba minor) with dark crimson flowers. It is indiginous to Europe. Salad burnet is used most often in salads or summer drinks. The flower stalks should be cut, but the flowers are decorative enough to be used as garnish. (So, why not take two, one to use for the leaves, the other for the flowers).
Sorrel: There are several varieties, like the common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) and the Frenchsorrel or 'oseille' (Rumex scutatis). The leaves taste more or less sour, depending on the amount of sunlight (more sun means more sour). Sorrel grows in the wild and chances are that when you have a garden, it will turn up unasked for. Don't dig it up root and all, just cut of the leaves and use them in the kitchen, in salads or boiled as vegetable. However, do not eat it in great quantities or too frequently, because of the high content of oxalic acid. When sorrel is boiled the colour changes to a greyish green.
Tarragon: Be careful if you ever decide to grow your own tarragon.First of all, often Russian tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus var.inodora) is sold as kitchen herb (at least in The Netherlands), while the term inodora indicates that this plant hardly has any flavour. So be sure to find real French tarragon. Second warning: if your tarragon is happy, it will start to grow rank, sprouting up everywhere. So choose the spot where you want to plant your tarragon carefully.
Dried tarragon has hardly any flavour. If you do not have tarragon in your garden, use frozen tarragon, or ask your green grocer.

Bibliography
The editions below are in my possession. Links refer to available editions. 
All books mentioned on this site

Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Henriëtte Davidis, Keukenboek. 1868, 2d edition (1st ed. 1867). Free adaptation of the 11th edition of the Praktisches Kochbuch (1st ed. 1844). Online is an edition of the original German version of this cookbook, and also an edition of the first American edition (in English) from 1897.
Maria Haezebroek, De hedendaagsche kookkunst, of de wetenschap van lekker en goedkoop te eten en te drinken [...], Gouda, z.j. (1892), 9th, revised and augmented edition. The second edition of this book from 1851 has appeared as a facsimile in 1975 (Van Goor).
Alma Huisken, De aardappel. Alles over de pieper. Amsterdam/Antw., 1998.
Joop Witteveen en Bart Cuperus, Bibliotheca Gastronomica. Eten en drinken in Nederland en België 1474-1960. Amsterdam, 1998.

All text and pictures of dishes are the intellectual property of Coquinaria and may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement..