Chicken Soup From 1759

There is only one true chicken soup recipe we have found from the 18h century. You would think there would be hundreds, but there aren’t. This one is strange, and fun, and super tasty!

Instagram ➧ townsends_official

[Elban]

"What are we missing for this chicken broth?"
"A snake"
"Ah, yes."

[wwsuwannee]

Chickens were too valuable for their eggs to eat all the time. Unless a new brood had to many roosters, or an old hen quit laying, everyday folks didn't eat it. Side note: if you have or can find an old tough stewing hen to make broth...you just elevated chicken soup to world class, the flavor is amazing.

[IsaVarg]

This channel is my chicken soup. I've always loved history, but for whatever reason, it wasn't until I found this channel that I started being interested in early American life, and now I'm hooked on the cozy, welcoming atmosphere.

[metalpower]

In Poland, beef is a usual ingredient of chicken soup and it makes the soup even more delicious. We just boil cuts of chicken and beef together with basic spices and add other ingredients after the meats are almost done. Beef instant broth is optional.

[snowysnowyriver]

Here in the UK, right up to the 1960s, fresh roast chicken was expensive for just this reason. Chickens were raised for eggs. Only older birds were available for stews for the working class, often mostly rural families My grandparents kept chickens and a young bird was culled just once a year for Easter Sunday lunch. The rest of the year we only got chicken when a bird stopped laying. Only the middle-class city dwellers and the rich could afford to spend a lot of money on a young chicken. We working rural people were far more likely to be eating home-raised duck and rabbit.

[tanikokishimoto]

Back when i was a kid (I am 70 now), groceries would sell "stewing hens". These were older chickens that didn't lay many eggs any more. Mom would buy these for her chicken and dumpling stew.

I raise my own chickens now. Most are for egg production, but I do have a couple older ones in the freezer. Waiting.

[SheyD]

I'd imagine it would be a little different with period ingredients, because the chicken would probably be older and tougher than the norm today, unless it was for a really high end household. The lettuce and spinach too except at the very beginning of their season. Makes sense to boil them and cook them more than we might today. Bet their chicken had more flavour in those days though.

[ginndiaries]

I always eat my meals while watching your videos. I have appreciated my life and this food in front of me by learning how hard to make delicious meals in old time. Thank you really.

[jamesellsworth]

Veal broth has a lighter flavor than beef broth, so I would use it. I would also blanch the younger vegetables we get today rather than stewing them. Egg yolks are better than whole eggs as a thickener.

[nickcody]

Another thing to note is that Chickens are nearly 4 times larger now then in the 1950s. In the 1920's people talked about preferring Doves (aka pigeons) that thank goodness no one has decided to breed to be 4 times larger as well.

[DaleBaker-eu]

This man's videos, are a different class. Utterly brilliant, and always fascinating.

[Hato]

Oh damn. In Poland we call it rosół. You can say it's one of national dishes here. Funny fact, rosół at first was term used to call a broth made out of salted meat cut cooked to get rid excess of salt from this meat, name come from rozsół, sól is salt and prefix roz can be used to describe to get something away.
But of course it would be waste to throw it away, so it was made into a soup. It's almost always a choice for any event dinners as 1st dish.

[Whitetail]

Why am I watching a Townsends video while hunting? I'm hungry now.

[dansharpe]

I suspect that the original intention of this recipe is how to cook a whole chicken in a rich broth that will eventually become a distinct soup to be eaten on subsequent days, no doubt with the tied leek and celery added back in, and some of the leftover chicken meat added after the bird being served whole. Akin to American Italian Sunday Gravy in concept.

[richki.]

when my grandmother was alive she swore by chicken soup as a healing food ...

[JoDusepo]

3:35 Had this recipe author not heard of full stops? What a long-running sentence!

[jackforeman]

Missed opportunity to call this video “chicken soup for the 18th century soul”

[QuantumRangerPower]

A complex recipe, but sounds and looks delicious.

[thelittlehooer]

I'm recovering from surgery now, and this has made me get more of the chicken bone broth I made. It's all I can eat, but it's soooo good.

[Phoenixesper]

This should just be called barn yard soup, on account the entire barn is in it! LOL