Turn of the Century Soups

Quick, what would you say are the seven most popular soups for sale at Kroger? Dusty D would guess chicken noodle, cream of chicken, beef and veggies, tomato, chicken and rice, beef barley, and that grand old lynchpin of Midwestern "cooking," cream of mushroom.

Well, according to a November 27, 1896 ad for Kief and Meanwell's grocers on North Huron, these preferences were very different--if we assume that the soups advertised were the popular ones that would appeal to readers.

The seven soups here are "Tomato, Chicken, Ox Tail, Mock Turtle, Consomme, Julienne, French Bouillon."

Dusty D is proud to say that with my usual penchant for anachronism, I have oxtails in my freezer at this very moment! Yesirree.

Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and said to Alice, "Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?"
"No," said Alice. "I don't even know what a Mock Turtle is."
"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from," said the Queen. --Alice in Wonderland, 1865

Thanksgiving Suggestions from 1896

The Ypsilanti grocers Kief and Meanwell offered a list of tempting Thanksgiving goodies in the November 20, 1896 edition of the Ypsilanti Commercial.

Two items that seem to have been more popular then are an assortment of table relishes and plum pudding. There are also a few brand names that I hadn't realized were so old. I also hadn't realized that salad dressing was commercially available this early, in lieu of making one's own at home. The foods are:

Queen Olives in bulk
Queen Olives in Bottle,
East India Pickles,
Cross & Blackwell's Pickles,
Heinz's Chili Sauce,
Heinz's India Relish,
Lea & Perrin's Sauce,
Durkee's Salad Dressing,
Keystone Gelatines,
Bon Ton Cheese,
Nose Gay Club Cheese,
Malaga Grapes,Catawba Grapes,
Jersey Sweet Potatoes,
Cape Cod Cranberries,
Fancy Layer Figs,
New Mixed Nuts,
Gordon & Dilworth's Plum Pudding.

The Delectable Fig-Fag

The term "faggot" was not used as a pejorative term for a gay person until 1914, and the shortened form "fag" was not used until 1921, according to this online etymology dictionary.

This ad is from the March 11, 1897 Ypsilantian. Therefore DD presumes that the word "fag" used here refers to the older meaning of "bundle of sticks." I'm guessing that this product came as a roll of crushed figs wrapped in paper. Ten cents please.

"The new Fruit Food" does not have a manufacturer's name appended to its description. DD finds this interesting. DD speculates whether Kief and Meanwell's got a great deal on ten crates of bruised figs in Detroit, toted it home, and set up a washtub and a potato masher in back of the store. Sprinkle in a little corn starch, roll out a glob on the table, wrap it in paper, et voila! The world will beat a path to Kief and Meanwell's door for "Fig-Fag"!

Sadly, "Fig-Fag" never caught on. Perhaps the closest we'll ever get to experiencing it is the mush inside Fig Newtons. This March 11 ad for "Fig-Fag" appears to be the only such "Fig-Fag" ad that ever appeared in the paper. It is absent from succeeding editions of the Ypsilantian.

Kief and Meanwell may have meant well, but one wonders if their assessment of what constitutes desirable edibles might have been a bit off. Kind readers may recall that this grocer's was the enterprise that previously brought us the dainty known, briefly, as "Breakfast Fish Balls."

19th-Century Breakfast Fish Balls

As I observed my husband studying on his laptop for an upcoming business trip, I sensed that what he really wanted at that moment was a conversation about 19th-century fish balls.

DD: "Check this out. How would you like fish balls for breakfast?"
DH: "How would I...what?"
DD: "Delectable codfish balls first thing in the morning."
DH: [reads ad] "OK, I don't get it. It says they're, like, flakes in a box. How do you make the balls?"
DD: "I guess you have to moisten them a little...add an egg...smoosh 'em up..."
DH: "And then do you...what?"
DD: "I guess you could boil them, like a soup. Wait, it says 'no boiling.'"
DH: "And then do I...squish them on my toast? Eww."
DD: "Fish balls and toast! That sounds good! Can you imagine messing around with all that first thing in the morning?"
DH: "Maybe it's like that Scandinavian thing that whats-his-name always talks about..."
DD: "Lutefisk. Cod jelly...but there's weren't a lot of Scandinavian immigrants in this part of Michigan. They were all up north. We did have a lot of New Englanders, and German and English immigrants..."
DH: "Well, I guess the English have their herring in a pan, or whatever that is."
DD: "Kippers? See, they have that here: 'smoked herring'."
DH: [reads] "All refuse is removed...nummy..."
DD: "No refuse! Goes with your fish balls! Maybe they fry 'em, like fritters..fish fritters! It's like those 'catfish nuggets' at Von's. I can make some tomorrow!"
DH: "Umm....."

--ad from October 20, 1896 Ypsilanti Commercial