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Cabbage Soup
Put two ounces of butter or good dripping into a stewpan, and fry in it two sliced onions; brown the onions nicely. Pour on them two quarts of flavoured stock, and add two pounds of pickled pork, which must not be too salt. Simmer gently for half an hour, and skim well. Shred finely two small cabbages, two turnips, two carrots, and a head of celery, and throw them into the boiling liquor. When the vegetables are tender without falling to pieces, the soup will be ready. Time to prepare, two hours. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. per quart. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A thrifty pot-au-feu in the English manner: salt pork for depth, root vegetables for body, and no thickening at all. The whole thing hinges on controlling the salt.
- Pickled porkThis is fresh pork (usually belly or hock) cured in brine, not smoked bacon. A piece of unsmoked salt pork or green bacon is the closest supermarket equivalent; soak it in cold water for an hour or two and taste the water if you are unsure how salty it is. The instruction "must not be too salt" is the only seasoning guidance the recipe gives, and it matters, because two quarts of stock reduce as they simmer.
- Flavoured stockIn Cassell's this means a light meat or bone stock already seasoned with vegetables and herbs, not plain water. A good unsalted chicken or pork stock works; avoid salted commercial stock here given the pork.
- DrippingBeef or pork fat rendered from roasting. Butter is fine, or use a neutral oil; the point is simply a fat that will take the onions to a genuine brown without burning.
- Cook the pork properlyHalf an hour is unlikely to tenderise a two-pound piece of cured pork; 1 to 1.5 hours at a bare simmer before the vegetables go in gives a better result. Note that the recipe's own "time to prepare, two hours" sits oddly with its half-hour simmer.
- Vegetables lastShredded cabbage, turnip, carrot and celery added to boiling liquor need roughly 15 to 20 minutes. "Tender without falling to pieces" is the whole instruction: cabbage cooked past that point turns sulphurous and grey.
- SkimmingSalt pork throws a good deal of scum and fat. Skim during the first simmer, before the vegetables cloud the surface and make it impossible.
- ServingThe recipe does not say what becomes of the pork; it is not directed to be discarded, and lifting it out and slicing it to return to the pot or serve alongside is a reasonable modern choice. Sufficient for six or seven persons as written.
- CostThe recipe costs itself at 1s. 2d. per quart, in line with Cassell's practice of pricing every dish.
Cabbage and salt pork boiled together is one of the oldest peasant formulas in northern Europe, appearing as French soupe aux choux, Irish bacon and cabbage, and the German and Slavic cabbage pots, all built on the same logic: a preserved fatty meat supplies salt and richness to vegetables that store well through winter. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery was compiled for middle-class households running on a budget, and its method here is straightforward — brown your aromatics, build a broth on cured meat, then add vegetables according to how long they take. Costings are given throughout the book, so a housekeeper could reckon up the price of a dinner from the page. Pickled pork, kept in a brine tub or bought by the pound from the pork butcher, was an ordinary domestic standby before reliable refrigeration, and recipes of the period do warn against it being too salt.