Studying how folks survived harsh winters in the 18th century is fascinating journals
seeing ledgers seeing how people were preparing for the winter and thinking about things like
the only food you're going to eat is the food that you grow there's nothing else that you can
count on it's easy for us to romanticize what it would be like to live 250 or 300 years ago us as
we're researching for videos and we're reading books you guys in the comment section and often
times even see this term called simpler times or we'll say that there really wasn't anything
simple about it it was pretty darn terrifying if you think about it it's the middle of winter
it's freezing there's snowstorms up north there are snow drifts because there's nothing to stop
the wind from blowing across and you are kind of holed up in your house or your cabin by yourself
or with your family and all you have is what you were able to store back for the winter this is
not a situation where there are grocery stores close by this is not a situation where there
are neighbors close by that you can go to and ask for food if you need it this is isolation
It's nothing new they knew what they were getting into but not only are you getting to an area
where you're building house and you're starting to prepare your property and get everything situated
winter's still coming so while you're doing all of that work you're still putting things in the
ground and planning everything so that you're gonna have food stores come wintertime one of the
main things that people are going to be storing back for winter are root vegetables now they're
going to be salting meat they're going to be drying grains there's going to be other things to
eat but when it comes down to the day to day what can we store back at high volume to get through
this winter it's root vegetables and in the onion video that we did not too long ago is said the
onion was the king for a savory flavor and for the potato it is the King to fill the belly.
If you go searching for poor people food in the time period you're going to find potato potato
potato if you're going to look for food that can be a substitute for something to make something
cheaper and still be filling you're going to find potatoes if you're looking for anything
that can be added to something to fill it up it is potato no matter what if it's an apple pie
you will find apple pies with potatoes we've done them on the channel if it is I need to substitute
flour you're going going to make potato bread if you're looking to spread anything it's potatoes in
fact primitive cookery was a cookbook that was put out in the time period and it was a way of
making cheap meals in the back of that book there are several for the dirt cheap and so many of them
use potatoes because they're plentiful they're easy to grow and they don't really cost a lot.
On top of a potato being a cheap and sustainable way to feed your family and yourself it is
a fantastic way to feed your livestock during my research I found this little bit of reading
"this is after all the chief object of modern husbandry for if a man can rely
upon this potato for the winter consumption of his yard and fattening or keeping Hogs and
feeding his horses and fattening his Bullocks he has made one of the greatest Acquisitions
that can be desired since he can do all of this upon land much too stiff and wet for
turnips" this was a staple for the homestead this kept the homestead going through winter.
Not only is the potato keeping the homestead or the farm functioning during the winter time but
it is actually keeping the city going as well because this is poor people food if you look
through cookbooks of the time period potato is the number one thing that people are going to
when they're poor and they can't afford nicer ingredients because you can take a potato and
it's basically just the starchy mush if you boil it and you can flavor that however you
want to so you're seeing everything from mock apple pies to mock cheesecakes uh they're just
having a dish of butter and potato which we would call mashed potatoes now but that
was just that was dinner it was here's a potato here's some butter mush it together there you go.
One of the things that you see at the poor house or even from Street fenders that is
very affordable and easy to come buy is potato soup there are so many recipes
for potato soup in this time period but they are all in the context of poor food.
I have not found a single one that wasn't a meager soup.
Here's a reading from a country Housewives family companion by William Ellis says several of our
prudent Housewives foresee the great conveniency of having broad beans peas carrots turnips
potatoes cabbages onions parsley and other kitchen wear ready for use against one of them in Harvest
time so so they're planning ahead they're already thinking okay we're going to have all these
Harvesters in here we need to feed them we're going to store these things back and then what's
not used that just goes right into winter storage. So when I first had the idea to do this winter
survival food series I knew okay I knew I wanted to do something with onion and that was easy so
I did that first and then potato was kind of like the Pinnacle but I didn't know which direction to
go with it because you can go so many different ways so I started on potato bread we've had a
really popular video with potato bread in the past so I decided not to do that and I wanted
to think about okay what is the easiest way that people can incorporate potatoes
into their diet but it's not just a potato like a baked potato or something like that.
Potato soup is it and as you keep going and looking for potatoes with poor people
because let's face it if you're rural in the time period you're not necessarily poor but
the idea of winter survival food we're talking about people that don't just have the pick of
everything they have to deal with with what they have that's what I want to focus on and potato
soup is something that you see over and over and over again this recipe in particular has
been rehashed in so many different books for different quantities of soup that they want
in the end result and used in different people's dialects or in their own words but it's the same
recipe and they're just copying it and they're just copying it for their own personal use and for
their own soup kitchen or their own just cause when they're trying to feed the poor people.
Let's talk about let's dig into this recipe for potato soup just a little bit it's like
I said it's rehashed a lot there are different versions some people give a lot of explanation
as to why you're using these ingredients for some people it's short and sweet and they're just like
just do it it's cheap and people will like it. Potato soup stew 5 lb coarsest parts of beef
or mutton and 10 quarts of water till half done add a quantity of potatoes skinned and
some onions pepper and salt stir frequently and boil enough bones of beef added would
increase the soup in richness or quantity. Now what's interesting about this is that
they've broken it down so that you know how much is going to cost and they've estimated the cost
at 50 cents for the entire pot of soup and it says it gives 10 quarts of soup meat and potatoes and
dines 10 men for just 5 cents so there it is it is that simple beef broth with potatoes onions
and seasoning they go on to explain why this is such a great solution to the problem of poor food
all these people need to eat but they don't have time to make bread and they don't have time to be
in the kitchen all day you put all this into a pot let it boil and it's good to go we're
going to cut this recipe in half we don't need a potato soup that is 10 quarts the first thing
that you need to do is get 5 quarts of water on the stove started boiling you're going to take 2
and 1/2 pounds of meat and you're going to cut it up now if you can't find something that's coarse
and you can't find something that's got bones in it that's fine just take some beef and cut
it up and put it in the water to start cooking. In the meantime you're going to be pairing these
potatoes now it calls for 11 to 12 lbs of potatoes if you cut this in half so that's
a lot of potatoes give yourself some time to get the pairing done after they're pared slice and
put them in the water to start boiling with a couple of onions and some salt and pepper.
All right so this is an interesting point I'm going to try to make here and it's stretch so
come along with me in the Christmas Carol Scrooge gets a bowl of something to eat now
Dickens leaves us some evidence of what might be here in a popular culture you will see mainly the
idea that he is eating gruel because the point that Dickens is trying to make is that Scrooge
is so cheap such a miser that he will not even spring for a good meal now I know that popular
culture says gruel I've even seen some people say it's split pea soup but scrooge says in the
context of the story that he has eaten something bad and that is why he's seeing spirits and he
gives us two hints and the list of foods that it could be was potato and beef and I think and Jon
thinks as well that he was eating potato soup. It's finished here's our potato soup as you can
see it looks a lot different than what we would come to expect is a potato soup now
it's not a loaded baked potato soup with cheese and sour cream and all sorts of chives and that
kind of thing but it is the most common potato soup that you would find in the period most
everything started with some beef broth this has potatoes that are just starting to break
down from the reading it looked like maybe they intend for potatoes to really break down
you can just cook it longer if you'd like that to happen but I wanted to have some chunks of
potatoes left in it and we're going to give it a try I'm expecting the beef to really be the
flavor that comes forward the onions are going to come and give a little sweet Savory thing and
the potatoes I think they're just going to be a nice mouth feel filler let's see what's going.
On that is really really good it's like when you're pot roasting your pot roast
potatoes kind of come together on your plate it's fantastic you'll love it.