Cut 2 pounds of fresh pork into thin strips and let fry ten minutes. Add 1 large onion sliced thin and let fry; then add 1 cup of sliced mushrooms, 2 stalks of celery cut fine, ¼ cup of Chinese sauce and a pinch of pepper; moisten with ½ cup of hot water. Cover and let simmer until tender. Thicken the sauce with flour moistened with a little milk and let boil. Put some well-seasoned cooked rice on a platter, pour over the chop suey and serve very hot.
A 1900s American chop suey, thickened with flour and milk rather than cornstarch and water. The recipe works, but a few of its terms need translating.
- "Chinese sauce"Almost certainly soy sauce, which period American recipes sometimes named only vaguely. A quarter cup is a lot of salt for two pounds of pork; start with two tablespoons and adjust once the sauce has reduced.
- Cut of pork"Fresh pork" distinguishes it from salt pork or bacon, both of which were common pantry forms of pork. Shoulder or loin cut into strips against the grain both work; shoulder rewards the long simmer better.
- The frying stageTen minutes of frying assumes a heavy pan and a real amount of fat. Brown the pork in batches in a wide pan rather than crowding it, or it will steam and grey.
- Simmering time"Until tender" is 30 to 45 minutes for shoulder, 15 to 20 for loin. Half a cup of water plus the onion and mushroom liquid is barely enough for a long braise; add water as needed to keep the pan from drying.
- ThickeningFlour slaked in milk is the American gravy habit rather than a Chinese one, and it will cloud the sauce. Whisk it in smoothly and boil a full minute so the flour loses its raw taste; a cornstarch slurry in cold water gives the glossier result most cooks now expect.
- VegetablesTwo stalks of celery and a cup of mushrooms is a modest amount by later chop suey standards, which lean on bean sprouts and water chestnuts. Add the celery in the last ten minutes if you want it to keep any bite.
- YieldTwo pounds of pork feeds four to six over rice.
Chop suey was the defining dish of Chinese-American restaurant cooking from the 1890s through the mid-twentieth century, and its name is generally traced to Cantonese tsap seui, roughly "miscellaneous scraps" or "odds and ends." Stories crediting its invention to a particular banquet for a visiting Chinese official are traditional rather than documented; what is clear is that by the time this book was compiled, chop suey had become familiar enough to American home cooks to earn a place in a day-by-day calendar of national dishes. The version here shows how thoroughly it had been naturalised: the soy sauce is called simply "Chinese sauce," and the finish is a flour-and-milk gravy of the sort used on any American roast. Books like this one sold the idea that a housewife could travel the world from her own kitchen, and the round-the-world menu was as much entertainment as instruction.