What’s in a name?
The other day I was asking my Mother about recipes from the past.
Ma: Your Nana (my paternal grandmother) made excellent soups.
Me: Like what? I remember her chicken soup and borscht…what else?
Ma: Oh, I liked her meat soup.
Me: Meat Soup?
Ma: It’s like chicken soup but with meat. I think I still have the recipe…
My Nana was born in Kiev, Russia 1894. The family fled to Canada when she was a young girl. Her name was Vitte but she took her sister’s name, Fanny, after Fanny was killed in a machine accident. She met my Papa (paternal grandfather) when they were teenagers and their families were living in the same apartment complex in Montreal. His name was Yitzcok when he was born in Romania 1891 but changed it to Isadore upon arrival in Canada when he was 13 years old. He celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on the boat. Fanny and Isadore married then made their way to America and settled in Chicago where Papa took on the name, Irving, and they raised their children, Edythe and Leonard (my father).
I remember one day when we were kids, my Dad asked us if we knew Papa’s real name. I thought about it and said “Is” because that’s what Nana called him. Then I fell into a fit of giggles. What kind of name is Is, Dad? That’s a verb!
My nephews are Stone Leonard, his middle name in memory of our father, and Jett Izzy’s middle name is in honor of our Papa – Is, or Izzy.
Meat Soup
3 1/2 lbs. short ribs
4 carrots
2 onions
2 parsnips
3 celery stalks
1 parsley root
1 c. dried large lima beans
Egg noodles
These are the ingredients my Mother has listed on her old recipe index card from notes she took years ago while watching her mother-in-law make meat soup.
Here is how I made my Nana’s soup:
Put short ribs in a soup pot full of water, heat on high until the water boils, then turn down the heat to a simmer. Skim off the scum and fat constantly. After 1 1/2 hours add rough chopped vegetables and beans. (I couldn’t find parsley root so I used a bunch of parsley). Simmer another hour or so, until the beans are cooked and the meat is butter-tender and falling off the bone. Season with salt and pepper. (I also added some beef base). To serve, put cooked egg noodles in a bowl and ladle soup on top.
Meat soup. What’s in a name? Indeed.
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Hi Marie – born and raised. Sullivan High School and UIUC.
Hi Bridgett – I guess I could have cut them up and took them off the bone, but I like rustic too.
Thanks Laurie – and me too on bones in soup!
Hi Ann – “So, what’s not to like, eh?” That’s how Nana would have said it.
Hi Soni – I remember coming home from school in winter and the kitchen windows would be all fogged up from Nana’s making soup.
Hi Marla – I can’t believe I haven’t made this before now. I need to pick my mother’s brain for more recipes and stories.
I forgot that the soup vegetables include also a small leek.
Your family history reads like a novel. It’s incredible how much your relatives have been through! Have you ever travelled to Kiev? An incredibly beautiful city, albeit its inhabitants are still very very poor. You’d love the Ukraine also for the food, their cuisine is incredibly varied. At times I felt like being somewhere in the Mediterranean, while the next serving could have come straight out of a Russian kitchen.
This same soup is very popular in Austria. Greengrocers and supermarkets carry little bundles, tied by strings, that include an orange and a yellow carrot, a few sprigs of parsley, a slice of celeriac (celery root), and a parsnip. Very handy! The soup is served with “soup noodles”, a kind of short angelhair pasta, made with eggs, and freshly grated horseradish.
Thanks for sharing a little about your heritage. I think it really helps us get to know the person behind the recipes.
My Nonna made a soup like this too, only Italian-style. I loved hers and I love yours too. Perfect for the impending cooler days!
borscht…
Any chance of getting that recipe too?
My mother used to make it but mine turned out horrid – too many carrots I guess, not enought beets
No hydrangeas in this recipe I guess..