A lovely article about a lovely soup at the right season of the year. My recipe is very close, differing only in having a touch of clove instead of paprika, so, quatre-épices.
Thank you. And it's funny that you mention cloves....I would never have thought to add clove to this recipe and yet look at some of the really early recipes! They simmer the soup with an onion stuck with cloves! I must try it now!
I’m going to make it this weekend for sure! Especially since J (who always complains that he doesn’t like pumpkin) ordered a potage de butternut at a restaurant during our trip and enjoyed it. I got such a kick out of the article because since I want to knit and read the article at the same time I used the feature where an automated voice reads it (I know, I’m lazy sometimes) and it kept saying potiron as “ pot iron” which I found hilarious.
hahaha oh we don't like something until we try it! What I love about this recipe is the slight hint of sweet that comes through the savory. And the cheese on top is really excellent! I don't ever eat pumpkin soup without it now!
(when I tapped potiron into the search bar on Gallica I would get so many hits on the word potion)
my mother [ new zealand ] used to cook pumpkins soup from when i was a child until i left for canada
her soup started with 2 diced white onions and 500g of bacon fried in a dutch oven with salted butter
various savoury pumpkins were used throughout my time from homegrown to heritage varieties and they were diced into 50mm cubes and covered with water , along with salt and pepper to taste.
boiled for an hour then simmered for another with the lid ajar.
once cooled it was strained with the bacon removed.
it was then run through a food mill [ manual version of a food processor ] with 2 different hole sizes.
reheated prior to meal time with the bacon added and salt and pepper to taste.
"In 1615, Jacques Dalechamps differentiated the citrouille from cucumbers, melons, and pompons in his Histoire Générale des Plantes: “Its stem trails along the ground. Its flower is yellow. The fruit is marvelously huge, rotund, heavy, and is covered in a smooth, green, spotted peel or rind, white where it sits on the ground. Its pulp or flesh is moist and watery; in certain it is bland, in others it is slightly sour."
This sounds nothing like a winter squash or pumpkin. Their flowers are orange, while cucumber & watermelon flowers are yellow. And winter squashes do not have red flesh.
Are you certain this isn't a reference to watermelon? Watermelons originate from Africa, were eaten in Italy. They were originally bitter but bred to be sweet. There is a closely related species to the watermelon called Citrullus colocynthus (bitter cucumber) which is toxic.
In any case, whatever food "the ancient Romans knew" simply cannot refer to pumpkin. After all, pumpkins aka winter squashes -- species Cucurbita pepo & related-- are native to the Americas and have been domesticated there for millennia. As such, they would not have been found in Europe before 1493 AD at the VERY EARLIEST. The French introduced gros melons or pompions (pumpkins) to England.
I hope this helps clarify the confusion. I'm proud of all the crops native to the Americas that have been popularized worldwide. Old names for foods often jump to new foods, with modifications, and varieties may have special names now lost to history, which does make it challenging.
Yes, indeed! I wanted to dive more into this but haven’t. I also suspect that cucumbers back then - which were always eaten cooked - might have been closer to today’s zucchini - which supposedly didn’t arrive in France until much later.
I can easily see later summer squash like zucchini being analogued to cucumbers, too. (Maybe called "dry cucumber?")
I've eaten cucumber cooked, and while I like it (my partner doesn't), unless the recipe is for sour cucumber (or pickle), I think zucchini is slightly better; no risk of a bitter tinge, and underripe winter squash even better. (I also don't use cucumber flowers for that reason-- winter squash flowers are sweeter.) So not surprising zucchini became king of the cooked squash.
Cooked cucumbers would have provided ample fluids, a boon in summertime ;).
Marvelous read, Jamie! I’ve never been a huge fan of pumpkin soup, finding versions I tasted too sweet, too creamy or both. This sounds excellent, especially with the addition of cheese. Would it work with kabocha as well, do you think, or would an American “pie pumpkin” be a better choice?
reading your article/history on a Sunday morn to clear away the chaotic chatter of a troubled world is a perfect tonic. Much as pumpkin soup is for an upset stomach.
I’ve been meaning to follow up on citrouille vs potiron for nearly 50 years. What a harvest! Merci!
Fun, right? Now I need to pay closer attention to how things are labeled in the market!
A lovely article about a lovely soup at the right season of the year. My recipe is very close, differing only in having a touch of clove instead of paprika, so, quatre-épices.
Thank you. And it's funny that you mention cloves....I would never have thought to add clove to this recipe and yet look at some of the really early recipes! They simmer the soup with an onion stuck with cloves! I must try it now!
The onion stuck with cloves works with several recipes I like, such as blanquette de veau. But if you use too many cloves you might regret it!
I’m going to make it this weekend for sure! Especially since J (who always complains that he doesn’t like pumpkin) ordered a potage de butternut at a restaurant during our trip and enjoyed it. I got such a kick out of the article because since I want to knit and read the article at the same time I used the feature where an automated voice reads it (I know, I’m lazy sometimes) and it kept saying potiron as “ pot iron” which I found hilarious.
hahaha oh we don't like something until we try it! What I love about this recipe is the slight hint of sweet that comes through the savory. And the cheese on top is really excellent! I don't ever eat pumpkin soup without it now!
(when I tapped potiron into the search bar on Gallica I would get so many hits on the word potion)
Haha potiron soup can really be a kind of magic potion, right? 😉🙂
haha indeed!
BTW I bought a copy of Les Plats Qui Ont Fait La France!!!
What a delightful read! I think I will make this soon. There are mounds of squash in the mercato near me in Florence. Yum!
Yay! Thank you and let me know what you think once you make it!
A beautiful article Jamie!
Thank you so much, Mary!
my mother [ new zealand ] used to cook pumpkins soup from when i was a child until i left for canada
her soup started with 2 diced white onions and 500g of bacon fried in a dutch oven with salted butter
various savoury pumpkins were used throughout my time from homegrown to heritage varieties and they were diced into 50mm cubes and covered with water , along with salt and pepper to taste.
boiled for an hour then simmered for another with the lid ajar.
once cooled it was strained with the bacon removed.
it was then run through a food mill [ manual version of a food processor ] with 2 different hole sizes.
reheated prior to meal time with the bacon added and salt and pepper to taste.
nothing else was added.
Thanks so much for sharing that, Pete! I’d love to try this version!! I’m wondering why the cook time was so
long though.
no idea
my mother has passed now so i can't ask her , and none of my siblings know either.
my brother makes it exactly the same as mum did and he adds roasted pumpkin if any are left from supper
Your soup bowls are very pretty too!
I bought them years ago - in France. Can't remember where.
Yum! I love the dark red-green pumpkin here called "musqué de Provence". Great fun reading all the old French cookbook texts. 🙂❤️
Reading those old cookbooks is so fascinating!!!
"In 1615, Jacques Dalechamps differentiated the citrouille from cucumbers, melons, and pompons in his Histoire Générale des Plantes: “Its stem trails along the ground. Its flower is yellow. The fruit is marvelously huge, rotund, heavy, and is covered in a smooth, green, spotted peel or rind, white where it sits on the ground. Its pulp or flesh is moist and watery; in certain it is bland, in others it is slightly sour."
This sounds nothing like a winter squash or pumpkin. Their flowers are orange, while cucumber & watermelon flowers are yellow. And winter squashes do not have red flesh.
Are you certain this isn't a reference to watermelon? Watermelons originate from Africa, were eaten in Italy. They were originally bitter but bred to be sweet. There is a closely related species to the watermelon called Citrullus colocynthus (bitter cucumber) which is toxic.
In any case, whatever food "the ancient Romans knew" simply cannot refer to pumpkin. After all, pumpkins aka winter squashes -- species Cucurbita pepo & related-- are native to the Americas and have been domesticated there for millennia. As such, they would not have been found in Europe before 1493 AD at the VERY EARLIEST. The French introduced gros melons or pompions (pumpkins) to England.
I hope this helps clarify the confusion. I'm proud of all the crops native to the Americas that have been popularized worldwide. Old names for foods often jump to new foods, with modifications, and varieties may have special names now lost to history, which does make it challenging.
Yes, indeed! I wanted to dive more into this but haven’t. I also suspect that cucumbers back then - which were always eaten cooked - might have been closer to today’s zucchini - which supposedly didn’t arrive in France until much later.
I can easily see later summer squash like zucchini being analogued to cucumbers, too. (Maybe called "dry cucumber?")
I've eaten cucumber cooked, and while I like it (my partner doesn't), unless the recipe is for sour cucumber (or pickle), I think zucchini is slightly better; no risk of a bitter tinge, and underripe winter squash even better. (I also don't use cucumber flowers for that reason-- winter squash flowers are sweeter.) So not surprising zucchini became king of the cooked squash.
Cooked cucumbers would have provided ample fluids, a boon in summertime ;).
Marvelous read, Jamie! I’ve never been a huge fan of pumpkin soup, finding versions I tasted too sweet, too creamy or both. This sounds excellent, especially with the addition of cheese. Would it work with kabocha as well, do you think, or would an American “pie pumpkin” be a better choice?
reading your article/history on a Sunday morn to clear away the chaotic chatter of a troubled world is a perfect tonic. Much as pumpkin soup is for an upset stomach.