Al Capone's Soup Kitchen

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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose

#tastinghistory #alcapone

[TastingHistory]

I just saw the first copies of the Tasting History cookbook and they're beautiful! I can't wait to share it with everyone.

[lairdcummings]

Capone knew the power of having the masses on his side; if the people like you, they're unlikely to rat on you.

[lilyw.]

Capone had one of the greatest quotes I have ever heard:

"Do not mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to remember about me."

[XShmoke]

Ingredients —

6 small potatoes
1 large carrot (optional)
2 stalks celery (optional)
1 large onion

2 cloves garlic
3 leaves mint
5 sprigs parsley
1 sprig rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
Salt &Pepper
3 tablespoons Olive oil

1kg beef stew meat (chuck)

Roman or Parmesan cheese
2 cans of 500g tomatoes (1kg)
Rigatoni pasta

Cooking Instructions —

Finely chop herbs, garlic and dice onion, mix together.

Pan fry beef in olive oil and add herbs and onion, season with salt and pepper. 7 mins

Add 2 cans of tomatoes

Once simmering cook 10 minutes

Add 4 cups of water

*Stew slowly 60 mins~

Add diced vegetables potatoes, carrot, celery

Stew for 45 mins~

Serve over rigatoni pasta and add grated Roman cheese garnish with parsley.


This was my take, tasted so good and serves about 3-4 adults.
*May prefer to stew longer, before adding vegetables, for more tender beef

[bluevioletandlilac]

The saddest takeaway from this video by far is that some guy was at a soup kitchen again 25 years after visiting Capone's. Poor guy, living on the streets (or nearly so) for 25 years.

[chaoticklutz]

One of my favorite stories about Capone was how he was the instigator behind the expiration dates in milk. He would often go to hospitals to tend to his men and often paid for children's stays, but once he heard how a common problem amongst the hospitalized youths was having drank/eaten bad milk, he personally went out of his way to make sure that legislation was passed to make sure milk had expiration dates.

[MariMiniattL]

It wasn't just the soup kitchen. My Sunday school teacher had been a small child when Al Capone was alive. They lived in NW Wisconsin where he had a vacation home. Her mother cleaned his home. One day, they were in town shopping. My teacher stopped in front of a store and started to cry when she saw the new winter coats. Because she knew her family could not afford them. Al Capone comes out of the store and recognizes her. He stops and asks why she is crying. She tells him about the coats. The next day, the entire family had new winter clothing. Hats, coats, mittens, boots, everything. He bought all of it and had it delivered. Because he didn't want anyone that worked for him to worry about things like that.

[skipjyc]

"It was the murders, Al. The murders." DUDE you mad me laughing

[Hank..]

If you were homeless in Chicago and you got a delicious and filling bowl of soup as a kindness, I don't think you'd care that it came from Capone. He was a brutal, ruthless gangster, but he wasn't completely devoid of humanity. He was a loving father, generous to the people, and even contributed to food being labelled with expiration dates, specifically milk, after someone he knew got sick from out-of-date milk. That doesn't wash away his crimes, but it definitely makes him more understandable than some of the more terrible people in history.

[igormoreno]

I just love how Max can effortlessly insert a hard tack reference in any situation 🤣

[NWFLDeaconsWife]

My Grandmother was present at the grade school where Al Capone dumped the crates of milk all over the cafeteria floor because he could smell it was all spoiled even though none of the cartons were open yet. He absolutely hated that smell! He had new milk from a nearby grocery brought in and then began a politcal campaign for milk given to kids in schools to be marked with a "use by date" so no kid ever got spoiled milk at school ever again, even if the adults couldn't smell it was off.

[benpeters-brown]

Al capone is the embodiment of "your a bad guy, but that doesn't mean your a bad guy"

[jeannamcgregor]

My husband grew up in Chicago and has stories about Al coming to dinner at his great-grandfather's house. He always brought flowers. He had a reputation for being "a nice guy outside of business hours".
But they pronounced his last name Caponi...it certainly sounds more classically Italian.

[mcomeslast]

My grandfather and great grandmother survived because of his food kitchens. Grandpa would roam the train tracks looking for bits of coal that fell off the train bins. It was their heat in the Chicago winters. He said the constant cabbage soup was bad enough but he said at least having salt and pepper would have helped. I interviewed Grandpa for a history project. Grandpa pushed broom for one of the guys killed in the Valentine’s Day massacre (it was one of that guys bars). Grandpa swore they wouldn’t have survived without it. Edited to add. We are Native American and European mixed. We ended up in Chicago because one great great grandfather escaped the trail of tears and we were in Chicago for 3 generations before returning home. Imagine being starved out of your land to move and having a mobster provide food so you don’t starve some place else.

[johnvanantwerp]

A "spray" is 2-3 sprigs. If you look at how Rosemary grows there is typically a single branch with1-3 other branches coming off it. That is what my great-grandmother taught me (who lived in Capone's Chicago--she and her sister actually ran a Speak Easy for him) was a spray...

[JAG]

Some of my mother's family were associates or knew associates of Tommy Lucchese in NYC. According to my mother, no one had a bad word to say about Al Capone and he was well respected by the families in NYC. Also, all of Al Capone's associates had to "adopt" a homeless, unemployed man and provide him with housing, food, clothing, medical care, and anything else that was needed. Like all of us, Al Capone had his faults and his virtues. I think he should be remembered for his virtues.

[debrabeeson]

My mom was a volunteer for the Salvation Army in Hot Springs, AR when she was 25 years old. Big Al showed up with his bodyguards to see the pleasant young woman he talked to on the phone. Mom said that his eyes looked to glow in the dark. She saw him coming down the dark hallway that led into the office. She said he was a gentleman. She was impressed. He asked what they needed and by the close of business, it arrived at the office.

[hannahpumpkins]

My grandmother was friends with Capone (she lived next to him in Cicero). She said he was a very kind gentleman, and would bring groceries over to her house, and help her out with things, and they voted together (he brought her over to the polling site). I lived with my grandmother growing up, and she used to say to me, "we don't talk bad about Mr. Capone in this house - he was saint to a lot of people".

[oneblacksun]

Think I know why the recipe didn't call for salt or pepper at all - it was already in the canned tomatoes. Homemade canned tomatoes were quite common, and they were usually already seasoned.

[MariaDeLuca]

My dad was born in Italy and raised there. The soup you made reminds me of my Nona’s recipe. Although she also uses some pork once in awhile. Depending on the weather and Nono’s mood lol 😂