One of Mrs. Anne Gibbons Gardiner’s Receipts from 1763
Ingredients
1 pound butter
10-12 onions
flour
1-3 quarts boiling water
stale bread
salt to taste
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vinegar
Instructions
Take half a pound of butter, put it into a stew pan & set it on the fire, & let all the butter melt, and boil until it is done making a noise; then have ready ten or a dozen middling sized onions, peeled and cut small, which throw into the butter, and let them fry for a quarter of an hour; then shake a little flour and stir them round; shake your pan and let them do a few minutes longer; when you must pour in a quart or three pints of boiling water; stir them round, and throw in a good piece of the upper crust of the stalest bread you have. Season with salt to your palate. Let it then stew or boil gently for ten minutes observing to stir it often; after which take it off the fire, and have ready the yolks of two eggs beaten fine in a spoonful of vinegar, and then stir it gently and by degrees into your soup, mixing it well. This is a delicious dish. (Indeed it is, and the substitution of beef stock for half of the water gives this soup the fillip it needs today. Serve with grated cheddar cheese).
