Corn Soup
Mrs. S. Meaker. 1 qt. milk 1 can corn 1 t minced onion 1 rounding T butter Salt and pepper to taste Put all together and heat-don't boil.
Mrs. C. L. Thomson. 1 lb. lean beef
A four-ingredient milk soup of the kind church cookbooks printed by the dozen. The only technique in it is the one the recipe names: heat, do not boil.
- The hinge: don't boilMilk held at a simmer scorches on the bottom and can curdle. Keep it below a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring; a double boiler or a heavy pan makes this easier.
- What "1 can corn" meantA can of corn of this period held roughly a pint, about 2 cups, packed in its own starchy liquor. Either whole-kernel or cream-style corn will stand in; cream-style gives a more cohesive soup, whole kernels a thinner one.
- Abbreviationst is teaspoon, T is tablespoon. A "rounding" tablespoon of butter is as much as sits above the rim without being heaped — call it a generous tablespoon, about 20 g.
- The onionA teaspoon of raw minced onion warmed in milk stays raw-tasting and crunchy. Sweat it in the butter first, then add the milk and corn; the recipe's own order works, but the result is sharper.
- TextureThe original is left chunky. If you want it smooth, press the corn through a sieve before adding the milk, or use a stick blender.
- BodyThere is no flour or roux here, so this stays thin. If you want it to coat a spoon, cook a scant tablespoon of flour into the butter before the milk goes in.
- YieldA quart of milk plus a can of corn makes about 6 cups — four modest bowls, or six as a first course. Salt matters more than usual; canned corn and unsalted milk both need it.
- The stray line"Mrs. C. L. Thomson. 1 lb. lean beef" is a fragment of a separate recipe that has run on here. It belongs to nothing in the corn soup.
Community cookbooks compiled by church societies were sold to raise money for building funds, missions and organ repairs, and their contents reflect what members actually cooked on a weeknight rather than what a professional would demonstrate. Corn soup of this kind depended entirely on the canning industry: by the last quarter of the nineteenth century canned sweet corn is generally said to have been among the cheapest and most widely distributed packed vegetables in the American Midwest, and it turned a summer-only dish into a January one. The recipe's brevity is itself a period signature: the cook was assumed to know her stove and needed only the proportions and the single warning that mattered.