Mock Choc.

I love the history of ‘mock’ food. I love genuine chocolate. I love really good soup. I love the crazy fact that someone, somewhere, a little over a century ago, thought that the world needed (and would be fooled by?) a recipe for ‘mock chocolate soup.’

I gave you a recipe for Chocolate Soup (from 1890) in a previous post, but one can’t have too many chocolate soup recipes (even if they are actually for custard), can one? From yesterday’s source, the simply named Soups, by S. Beaty-Pownall (London, 1904), please enjoy ….

Chocolate Soup.
Put into a pan 2 oz. or 3 oz. of best chocolate, grated or powdered, together with a stick of cinnamon or vanilla, as you choose; pour on to it a quart of new milk, sweeten to taste, bring it all to the boil, and let it cook till the chocolate is all melted and the whole is smooth; meantime, whip the yolks of four or five eggs to a stiff froth, draw the soup to the side of the stove, and when it has cooled for a few minutes, work in the eggs sharply, and pour the hot soup at once into a tureen, in which you have already placed some nice sweetened coffee rusks.


Chocolate Soup (Mock)
Brown 2 oz. of fine sifted flour in the oven till of a rich chocolate brown (be careful it does not catch or burn), then put it into a pan with a tablespoonful of sugar, a clove or two, and a piece of vanilla or cinnamon stick; pour to this a pint of new milk, boiling, then stir it all steadily till it re-boils, being careful it does not get lumpy, add in egg yolks as in the preceding recipe, and serve very hot. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, with a little caster sugar, and drop spoonfuls of this on to the boiling soup a minute or two before serving it. This garnish may also be added to the preceding soup. Use vanilla sugar with the egg whites.

Quotation for the Day.
If any man has drunk a little too deeply from the cup of physical pleasure; if he has spent too much time at his desk that should have been spent asleep; if his fine spirits have become temporarily dulled; if he finds the air too damp, the minutes too slow, and the atmosphere too heavy to withstand; if he is obsessed by a fixed idea which bars him from any freedom of thought: if he is any of these poor creatures, we say, let him be given a good pint of amber-flavored chocolate....and marvels will be performed.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin