CSAFarmersMarket.net

Potato Soup

3 small potatoes
1 quart milk (sour milk tastes better)
2 slices onion
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Few grains cayenne
1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water; when soft, rub through strainer or use 2 cups mashed potato. Scald milk with onion, remove onion and add milk slowly to potatoes, mixing with a whisk. Melt half the butter , add dry ingredients, stir until well mixed, than stir into hot soup; boil 1 minute, strain, add remaining butter, and sprinkle with parsley. Serves 6 to 8

Here are some of the things I do differently than the recipe below.

I prefer to cup the potatoes up small (1/2"-3/4") than boil them and since we like to have some solid potatoes I mash 1/2 of them and leave the rest whole.
I like to saute the onions and cook them in a little butter before putting them in the soup.
I also like to use my own dried cayenne peppers, I have to be very careful to not use any seeds and I only put one or two of the small ones in, if I have a large one I only use half of it.
I also use dried celery leaves from our own plants instead of celery salt and I rarely use parsley.
I don’t scald the milk (although I have scalded the milk and it does change the flavor in a positive way)
I also like to make the rue (flour & butter) near the end of cooking and add it.
I also prefer to put the pot in the oven and cook it there instead of the stove top. I tend to get rather busy and the soup is less likely to burn on the bottom if I put it in the oven.
The recipe has no temperature because it came out of a 19th century cook book.
This soup tends to be thick.
I think some of the milk that I used was 2-5 months old (it was milk from a cow share program I belonged to).