Brackenridge - Recollections of Persons and Places in the West
Image:Kui-Doraku [Wikipedia]
Robert Mueller
Bouillon soup was the pot-au-feu of the Mid-Mississippi Valley. Since many early inhabitants of the Pays du Illinois or Illinois Country near Ste. Genevieve were French Canadians by birth, they made Bouillon d'habitant or farmer's soup an integral part of the local cuisine. While various kinds of meat can be used to make a Bouillon, chicken has become the traditional main ingredient in Ste. Genevieve.
Early visitors to the area wrote of the French inhabitants' penchant for Bouillon and other soups. Henry Marie Brackenridge, a seven year old boy sent from Pittsburg to Ste. Genevieve in 1793 to learn French wrote:
| "With the poorest French peasant, cookery is an art well understood. They make great use of vegetables, and prepared in a manner to be wholesome and palatable. Instead of roast and fried, they had soups and fricassees, and gumbos, (a dish supposed to be derived from the Africans) and a variety of other dishes."
Brackenridge - Recollections of Persons and Places in the West |
Image:Kui-Doraku [Wikipedia] |
John Reynolds, one of the early Illinois governors and historian wrote about the French in Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia across from Ste. Genevieve:
| "About the 6th of January, in each year, which is called Jour de Rois (please see the Events/Signature page on this website), a party is given, and four beans are baked in a large cake; this cake is distributed amongst the gentlemen, and each one who receives a bean is proclaimed king. These four kings are to give the next ball. These are called "king balls". These kings select each a queen, and make her a suitable present. They arrange all things necessary for the dancing party.
In these merry parties, no set supper is indulged in. They go there not to eat, but to be and make merry. They have refreshments of cake and coffee served round at proper intervals. Sometimes Bouillon, as the French call it, takes the place of coffee." Reynolds' History of Illinois, My Own Times |
William C. Carr, one of the early American lawyers in the area, described the French food of Ste. Genevieve in 1804:
| "The dinner of soup, very seldom of any other kind of meat besides that of which the soup is made."
William C. Carr |
Ste. Genevieve Bouillon is made by cooking a chicken, preferably an old hen, at a simmer for two or more hours. Vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, turnips, onions and celery are added to the pot and cooked until tender. The broth is flavored with herbs such as parsley. The chicken and vegetables are removed, the liquid de-greased, the seasoning adjusted, and the broth strained or clarified. The resulting clear Bouillon was served in cups as a first course. This was followed by the chicken which was deboned after cooking and the cooked vegetables.
While many of the traditional French dishes were not adopted by the Germans who started coming in mass to Ste. Genevieve in the 1830s, Bouillon was one of those dishes which the Germans readily adopted. In some German families, a little tomato juice was added to the broth during the cooking process. Bouillon became quite popular at various gatherings and card parties in Ste. Genevieve.
Bouillon has been the traditional chicken soup for the soul for generations of Ste. Genevieve inhabitants.