# Ernie's Eternal Soup



## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

So Ernie, what is the recipe, and is this something you just leave on the woodstove and could I just leave it on low on the back of my electric stove? Thanks


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

I thought you said ENTRIL soup.:grit:


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i hardly ever miss Ernie's posts but i didn't see the one about the soup today so i had to go back and check. i do think that's what he means. when i was growing up we always had soup cooking on the back of the old woodstove. mom kept adding to it. it never went bad. probably because it was always simmering. it was lovely to come home from school and smell the soup especially on cold winter days.i can't remember a day when it wasn't there. sure takes me back.~Georgia.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I guess you can put entrails in it if you want. 

The whole thing about eternal soup is that you more or less put whatever you've got on hand into it. 

Tonight it's got carrots, potatoes, 4 cups of chicken broth, 2 large onions, 2 cups of rice, and about a cup of lentil beans. And a whole lot of water. Tomorrow we'll probably add more water and spice and then throw in some pork sausage and noodles. I've got some okra too that I'll use as a flavoring agent on day 3 or 4. 

You just keep it going on the back of the stove as long as is feasible. Turn it down to a low simmer for most the day, but before you eat out of it you bring it up to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes or so. 

This time of year I've got all sorts of pieces and scraps leftover from the garden, but hardly any one thing in enough quantity to make a meal. The eternal soup is my way of getting rid of all those loose ends in a healthful and tasty way. 

It's also not a bad way to stave off starvation. Even if on day 5 or 6 it's nothing but water, that water has all the nutrients of everything that's been cooked in it. If you ever find yourself with extremely limited food supplies then boiling your food is the way to go. Boil it in a pot and then drink ALL of the liquid. It's the best way to stretch out your food resources.


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## megafatcat (Jun 30, 2009)

My dad did that. The recipe was... everything, just like Ernie said. Dad did not waste food, he was a Polish farm kid of 16 when the Nazis came through in 1939 and threw him into the camps. He can make wire stretching every penny.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

You do want to be somewhat careful what you put into the Eternal Soup. Last year I added some herring and then nobody would eat any more of it. So oily fish are off the list of potential ingredients in my house. 

Mega, I am a huge fan of folks like your father. People who have been through hard times are the ones most likely to avoid hard times in the future. I've never really been through hard times, at least not on that scale, but I certainly learned the lessons of those who did. My wife likes to say I'm so cheap that I make Lincoln squeal when I pinch him, but I feel money is your protection against the outside world. 

I like everything I own to be fat. A fat pantry, fat lambs, a fat bank account, and a fat pot of soup simmering on the stove and I'm a happy man.


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## FrontPorch (Mar 27, 2008)

I've got to try this.


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Ernie said:


> Mega, I am a huge fan of folks like your father. People who have been through hard times are the ones most likely to avoid hard times in the future.


I know what you mean, Ernie -- my dad lived through the Depression as a child, his parents were subsistence farmers, and food was pretty scarce. Ever since, it's been something he refused to "do without". We went without a LOT of things as kids, but food was always plentiful, and Dad would never see a kid go hungry -- we always seemed to have an extra kid or two hanging around at mealtimes. We all learned from an early age how to make a food budget stretch -- it's a lesson I'm very thankful for.

I have a great deal of respect for those who lived through those years and bother to help the younger generations learn the skills they learned from living that way. Most of us really have no idea of what real hunger feels like -- not really, and it's a lesson that each of us SHOULD learn. Maybe we'd be better stewards if we did.


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## beahold (Jan 30, 2008)

Hi Everyone,

We use a crock pot with a separate hot plate for this. We swap the pan part to a different electric Crockpot base every 12-18 hours so we don't damage the Crockpot. We will reboil the pot on the stove top with each change also!! Our stainless pan set has a hot plate that turns some of the pans into a Crockpot. Works very well.

ALSO I try not to use the electric stove top for this because a new burner for my stove is $300 X 2-3 (don't ask) new burners a winter adds up fast. A wood stove works well for this as long as stove stays hot all the time to keep soup a safe temp.

Also we add all kinds of bones to this. All bones, joints, (yes beef joints) gristle, skin, from any type of animal (no fish) works very will believe me they will dissolve give enough time cooking. Any kind of veg peel, leaf or part thatâs been scrubbed will dissolve given enough time. If it can go into compost pile think about using it for this soup. Just clean very well first. We don't like anything from the broccoli/cabbage family cooked this long. 
Very good nutrition for your body.

This is a very very old method still used in rural eyrup today with wood stoves or Aga stoves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_stew

A perpetual stew is a pot into which whatever one can find is placed and cooked. The pot is never emptied all the way, as ingredients are replenished as necessary. The concept is often a common element in descriptions of medieval inns. Ripley's Believe It or Not! makes mention of stews in some Polynesian families which have been cooking for over one hundred years.[citation needed] Perpetual stew can also be called a âhunterâs stewâ.

Enjoy

Bea


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Any of you have one of those Aga stoves? My wife has been after me for awhile to buy one, but they are really, really expensive.


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## jlxian (Feb 14, 2005)

I would adore an AGA stove, but as you say they are expensive. And maybe in my warmish part of Missouri they wouldn't really serve all year long. 

As for endless soup, my parents used to keep a pot on the back of the stove and kept adding little bits to it. Some very delicious soup resulted!


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## Ryan NC (Jan 29, 2009)

I'm NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!! WHoooHOOoo lol. Growing up my father would start making soups in the fall before grain harvest really hit (slow times I'm guessing) I looked forward to each "soup change" as we would have eaten the last batch every day for a week or two... 

Potato soup was the biggest dollar stretcher as far as I can see, he'd start with a box of cheap instant mashed potato's, about 3 or 4 decent sized potato's diced, a small bag of cheddar cheese, and a couple onions. On the first day it was excellent, each day there after what we ate would be replaced by instant mashed potato's and water or milk. when the chunks of potato's started running out about mid week he'd dice and boil a few more... in hind sight he fed a family of four dinner each night for about a dollar a day in today&#8217;s money. 

He'd did the same thing with other soups as well, it was more a learned behavior the same as has been mentioned from his mother who was a very young mother during the first great depression. I still don't care for vegetable beef soup to this day from about a 2 week stint with vegetable soup w/o beef by the end as a young child. I still stretch a dollar but not near as bad (or maybe as good) as my father. Y&#8217;all gave me a smile today =)


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

is it pottage??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottage
I remember reading about it in "The Pillars of the Earth"


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## MOgal (Jul 27, 2002)

While I don't actually keep a pot of soup simmering, I do keep a large container in the freezer. Into it go the last bits of vegetables, including mashed potatoes, meats, etc., leftover from meals. When the container is full, I let it thaw then simmer, adjust the seasonings and have a new dish to serve. It usually makes enough for a couple of meals with homemade muffins or cornbread and a simple dessert like baked apples.


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## beahold (Jan 30, 2008)

"is it pottage??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottage
I remember reading about it in "The Pillars of the Earth"....

Kind of yes but kind of no. Pottage has oats in it and burns very easily.

"I do keep a large container in the freezer. Into it go the last bits of vegetables, including mashed potatoes, meats, etc., leftover from meals. When the container is full, I let it thaw then simmer"....

I do the same also during the summer to cook soup in the winter. I live in the city so no pigs to feed my scraps to.

I'm a sales rep for some farmers so I spend a lot of time teaching people how to use the bones, bits and pieces of the pasture feed beef and chicken. This long time of cooking the bones and other products works the best. 

Now the chicken feet for broth has taken some time to get people going on that one. But a few have started along with some friends, so that project is coming along well.

Anyway this is a great way to gain a lot of nutrition from things that are thrown away.

Bea


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## gideonprime (Oct 17, 2007)

Esau's Pottage is one of the most famous recipes in history. Various simmered red lentil dishes are known as Esau's Pottage in Biblical lands (Bible verses below).

2 tablespoons olive
or other oil 
1 large onion, chopped 
4 stalks celery, chopped 
2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic (or 1 teaspoon dry) 
1 1/2 cups dry red lentils 
2 quarts (8 cups) water 
4 to 6 chicken bouillon cubes
Salt and pepper to taste


With the exception of boullion cubes I had always thought this was teh most common pottage.

I had not heard of oats being added. Thanks Rose! On a good day I learn something new.


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

We do the same here. Usually, I start by having a pot roast or a boiled smoked picnic dinner (w/ cabbage and taters of course)..then I add liquid, veggies and so on as days go by. It's a great way to use the last fresh remnants from the garden. It's nice on cold damp days when you know you can come in from working outside and in no time at all have a nice steaming bowl of goodness.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

If you brown the meat and veggies(like carrots, cut up potatoes, onions)first, either under the broiler, on the grill or in a hot fry pan(and deglaze it), it will add a lot of flavor. You dont' have to cook it through, just brown it fast. It releases sugars that complicate the flavors and also give the broth a nice color. You can do this with bones too.


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## Pets4me (Oct 6, 2009)

This reminds me of the stories my Grandmother told me about the days she taught in a one room schoolhouse during the Depression. She and Grandpa had a farm across the road with gardens and milk cows. Grandma realized that the kids were coming to the school starving and not paying attention to her teaching. So each day she set a big pot on the woodstove in the morning, and filled it will mostly potato soup from her farm milk and veggies. She said the kids never complained of it being mostly the same thing day after day because for a lot of them it was their only meal of the day. She and Grandpa donated a lot of milk and veggies for those pots of soup! :angel:


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

Yep, a good soup should be a family heirloom, passed down between the generations. Of course, that requires constant contact, so soup will live on when the older generation dies.

One thing not many do is use cabbage in soup, but you can. This is not an eternal soup though - cabbage shouldn't be overcooked - bad for the vitamins and it makes that horrid cheap overcooked cabbage smell all through the house.
Start bringing a large saucepan of water to the boil.
Meanwhile get a whole cabbage and strip off the tough dark green protective outer leaves. 
*Use those tough outer leaves first.* Cut them _across_ the grain, so the tough ribs of the leaves are cut _across_ into thin sections. Love those French-style chef's knives. You're aiming for very thinly cut, almost like shredded cabbage; then cut across the shreds to cut them down to two to three inch lengths. Now you've got a lot of cheap healthy green vegetable that others throw away. 
Put the shredded cabbage into the boiling water. When it's cooked _only just_ until the sections from the thickest toughest ribs of the leaves are tender, fish out the cabbage or strain, but save the water. 
Refrigerate the leftovers, cooked or not. 
Cook anything you want in a soup in the water. Lentils, rice, pasta, cubed potatoes, carrots cut in fine discs, pre-cooked beans or barley, chopped leftovers, are good. A fine-chopped onion added towards the end is excellent, as is any ground or fine-chopped meat - leftovers or fresh. You can also beat some eggs, slowly stir the boiling soup, and slowly add the eggs as you stir. Those two "slowly"s mean the egg cooks as you add it, rather than getting stirred all through the soup first.
At the end, add as much of the pre-cooked shredded cabbage as you want and bring back to the boil. More cabbage is cheaper and healthier than bought rice or pasta, particularly if you want to control your weight. If you've got children who need more energy, serve bread of some sort.

The cabbage you cooked, didn't use and refrigerated can become soup tomorrow; or you can add a little fruit juice as a dressing and use cold as a salad, or reheat as a hot vegetable.

Be cautious the first time. Maybe a Friday night meal. For some people, a soup with cabbage, eggs and onions can become a little explosive, or at least hard to live with.


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## amylou62 (Jul 14, 2008)

I have never heard of this but it sounds pretty cool. I'll just have to start one today. It would be great to have something already nice and warm to eat when we get home.


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## oldmanriver (Aug 1, 2004)

peas pot is hot peas pot is cold peas pot in the pot 9 days old .


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