Straight to the recipe Take 200 capons … This is a recipe from the delightful cookbook Du fait de cuysine by Maître Chiquart. He was a cook in the service of Amadeus VIII (1383-1451, also known as the last Antipope Felix V from 1439 to 1449), count and first duke of Savoy. Amadeus was a regular guest at the…
Recipes for making stock and soup
There are many recipes for making stock, soup and processing leftover meat on coquinaria. On this page is a list of all recipes concerning these subjects.
La Varenne’s meat stock
This is the first ‘historical’ recipe for stock on my site. This meat stock is taken from Le cuisinier françois by François Pierre la Varenne, from 1651. It is the opening recipe in the book, a real basic recipe. The stock is made with a lot of meat, and all kinds of it: beef, mutton, fowl. From…
Potage à la Reine
Straight to the recipe The French origins of a Dutch soup ‘Queen’s Day‘ (Koninginnedag) was a national holiday in the Netherlands. It was celebrated on April 30, originally the birthday of Queen Juliana, grandmother of our King Willem-Alexander. Prior to Juliana’s ascension to the throne in 1949, Queen’s Day was celebrated on August 31, the birthday of Juliana’s…
Herb soup with potato dumplings
Straight to the recipe A delicate herald of Spring 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. Two…
Dashi
Recipes for Japanese stock Dashi is the basic stock of Japanese cuisine. It can be prepared in several manners, but mostly dashi is made with seaweed and dried bonito. Below there are several recipes for making dashi. When preparing noodlse, use Japanese noodle bouillon. The two main variations of dashi are ichiban dashi and niban…
Japanese bouillon for noodles
Asian noodles enjoy a worldwide popularity, thanks to the easily prepared noodles that only need boiling water. Japanese noodles can be eaten hot or cold. When served hot, the noodlses must be piping hot, and it is allowed to make some noise while eating them. The bouillon in which the noodles are served has two…
Home-made vegetable stock
Stock gets most of its taste from meat and bones (poultry, cattle or fish). What to do if you are vegetarian? This vegetable stock has an incredibly rich taste, without the help of salt, meat or stock cubes. Even real carnivores will appreciate this stock. You can use it for soups and sauces, and of…
Indonesian chicken stock
Indonesian cuisine does not have soups as a first course, although sometimes they appear on the menu through Chinese and Western influences. One of the dishes in which Indonesian broth is used is soto. That is a ‘full-bodied’ main-course soup, with the meat used for the stock, vegetables, and for example cooked eggs, peanuts, rice or…
Concentrated quail stock
Quails are small birds, related to partridges. Although -at least in the Netherlands- they are called ‘game birds’, they are actually bred at farms for their eggs and meat. They make a beautiful dark stock. The small birds could be regarded as the replacements of even smaller songbirds that used to be eaten (and in…
Chinese tomato soup
The secret ingredient in this soup is apple sauce. This soup is sold in many Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands. The recipe is very popular with children (no doubt because of the apple sauce), and very simple to make. How simple exactly depends on the stock you use. It is not necessary to make Chinese stock for…
Chinese stock
Soup is important in the Chinese kitchen. No good soup without a good stock. Chinese soup is better not made with a western stock cube, try preparing a Chinese broth instead. Chinese stock is lighter than Western stock. A comparatively small quantity of vegetables is used, just some spring onions and ginger. By the way: it…
Fish Fumet
A good beef stock is made with meat bones, a good fish fumet (concentrated stock) needs fish bones. Ask the fishmonger to collect the bones when he is filleting, you’ll need about one kilogram. The bones have to be from lean fish like sole, halibut, plaice, flounder, etc., no bones from salmon or maquerel. By…
Concentrated Game Stock
Back to the list with recipes for stock and soup No good stock without bones. When preparing hare, deer or whatever, and you only want to use the meat, use the carcass or ribs, or ask the shop. Sometimes you’ll have to ask in advance, so that he can collect a fair amount of bones….
Beef Stock
Back to the list with recipes for stock and soup You’ll never get a good beef stock without meat and bones. In some supermarkets in the Netherlands you can buy soup packages to make your own stock, but what they provide is a miserable quantity, barely enough for one cup of soup. That’s why so many recipes…
Chicken stock
To the list with recipes for stock and soup Basic recipe – 3½ liter (3 UK quarts, 3.7 US quarts) Commercial chicken stock is often a rather pale liquid. The taste is salty and artificial. Just try making this chicken stock and taste how a simple chicken broth should REALLY taste. To begin with: chicken…