Wood Cookstove Potato Soup

 

 

Since we are now past the holidays and into those long, dark, cold months of winter (don't let my word choice fool you; winter is my favorite season), now is the perfect time to be cooking those cold weather comfort foods like potato soup.  I suppose that there are as many methods of making potato soup as there are people who cook it, so I will merely share what I do.  I apologize from the beginning about the lack of exact measurements.  If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know how I am sometimes.

First I start by peeling and dicing several potatoes.  A rough estimate of how many would be one medium size potato per person who will be enjoying the end product.  I don't get really fussy about how neatly the potatoes are diced.  I just quarter them and then begin slicing each quarter in roughly 1/2 inch cubes.  At this point, I would like to interject that I admire my sister-in-law.  When she cuts up her vegetables for her potato soup, she is maticulous, and they look beautiful.  You can see her version of potato soup here at her blog.  I think I should hire her to be my photographer, don't you?

Back to my soup.  I cut up two or three ribs of celery (depending on my mood), a couple of carrots, and a medium sized onion.  All of that goes into the soup kettle with the diced potatoes, a tablespoon or two of dried minced garlic, some salt, and just enough water to cover everything.  Bring this to a boil directly over the fire.

The beginnings of potato soup.

While that begins to cook, begin frying a few slices of bacon.  For this batch of soup, I used the oddly shaped end pieces of the bulk bacon that we had purchased on sale a while ago.

The vegetables coming to a boil over the firebox while bacon
cooks and bread rises.

After the vegetables have come to a good boil, you can move them from directly over the fire to medium heat.

The soup kettle has been moved over to less intense heat, and the bread
is now in the oven.  Hey, how do you like my new red Lodge kettle?  It
is porcelain on cast iron, and it was a Christmas gift from my in-laws.

When you are frying the bacon for this soup, be careful not to do it over heat that is too intense.  You want to fry the bacon until it is crisp, but don't try to hurry it along so much that it gets too hot and smokes.  You'll see why in a minute.  Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the skillet to cool.  Remove the skillet from the stove, too.

Once the vegetables are tender, add milk to the water that they have been cooking in.  I added a good quart to this batch because I was making soup for six people.  Move the pot back over to the fire to bring it back to a boil after the cold milk cooled it off.  While it is heating, you'll want to stir it occasionally and begin to make your thickening.  I combined 2/3 c. flour with enough additional cold milk to make a fairly thin mixture.

The soup is heating over the firebox after the addition
of the cold milk while I mixed flour and cold milk for
thickening. 

Add the flour and milk mixture to the soup kettle, stirring it in thoroughly.  You'll need to stir frequently from this point on since you now have the flour in the soup.  You don't want it to stick on the bottom of the pot.

Now, about this next part . . . .

What do you say we make a deal?  I'll tell you how to make good potato soup as long as you promise not to tell my doctor my secrets.  Seems fair to me.

See, I wrote earlier that you don't want your bacon to cook so fast that it begins to smoke because you don't want your bacon drippings to take on any off flavors which result from them getting too hot.  This is important because you are going to pour your bacon drippings into the soup.  Just remember, we have a deal: no tattling!

Pouring the liquid gold into the soup.

I know that I should feel guilty about this, but other potato soup recipes call for cream, cream cheese or other cheeses, or canned soups--all of which are sources of fat.  This bacon grease and any fat still on the bacon are the only fat in this soup, so I'm not feeling too bad.

Crumble the bacon into little pieces and throw it into the soup.

Sorry this picture is on its side.  I'm having trouble with blogger
today.  It's making uploading pictures a difficult process.

At this point, you need to season the soup to your taste.  I add onion salt, celery salt, garlic salt, and ground pepper--with the emphasis on the garlic salt.  You do what you want, but don't be afraid of the garlic salt.  I think the potatoes need it.  Then, keep the soup over the firebox and stir pretty much constantly until the soup comes to a boil again.  This will ensure that the soup thickens and doesn't taste like raw flour--which is only a desirable flavor in cookie dough.

Unfortunately, this meal was taken immediately over to my in-laws' home to be eaten for supper, so I neglected to snap a photo of the finished product.  I mean, of course, that it is unfortunate that I didn't get the photo.  It is not unfortunate that we took it to my in-laws.  Food always tastes better when eaten with lots of people, and besides, I got compliments from my wife's grandmother about this recipe, and she is a fellow foodie.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!