On Sale at FACT Cinema
Copies of Chicken Soup and Scouse are now on sale in the kiosk at the FACT Cinema, Wood Street Liverpool L1

KEEP IN TOUCH

We hope when you have seen the film, you may have an interest in the Liverpool Jewish Community, its institutions, members, families and its heritage. Please use this website as a forum to exchange ideas and make friends.

Please get in touch with us and let us know what you thought of the documentary and if you have ideas for future programmes on a similar subject.  And with your authority we may publish any interesting stories or messages.

our email address is :   info@chickensoupandscouse.com

MORE NEWS

Chicken Soup and Scouse is simmering nicely. We are receiving enquiries and orders from all over the world, Germany, Australia, South Africa, Israel, US and Canada as well as from all over the UK. The film is appealing to Jewish people and non Jewish people who are keen to learn about the Liverpool Jewish community and about this interesting facet of Liverpool's history.

We have also given talks to accompany the screening of the film to several cultural and other groups in the Liverpool and Manchester area. In addition, we are currently considering the viability of editing the film down to 20-30 minutes and making a version suitable to show children as part of the school curriculum. Our friends at Liverpool Capital of Culture are keen for another public screening of the original film in the not too distant future. For people in Liverpool, watch out for details and announcements of this. 

In the meantime, copies of the film are available from the 08 Place Shop, 36/38 Whitechapel, Liverpool L2 6DZ, tel 0151 233  2459, also from the Heritage Centre shop in St Georges Hall, Liverpool L1, and also from the shop at the Liverpool Jewish Youth and Community Centre, Harold House, Dunbabin Road, Childwall, Liverpool L15 6XL (Sunday mornings only)  Copies are also obtainable by mail order using the order page on this website.

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RECIPES FOR CHICKEN SOUP AND SCOUSE

CHICKEN SOUP
When it comes to comfort foods, chocolate, ice cream, doughnuts and even burgers and chips, pale into insignificance compared with the world’s most famous dish that comes with its own built in feel good factor. A bowl of hot, delicious, golden chicken soup cooked to perfection in the Jewish style, just like momma used to make has often been called Jewish Penicilin.

On the eve of the sabbath or a high holy day, a pot of steaming golden chicken soup is as much a focal point on the dinner table in a Jewish home, as the pair of candles with their glimmer of hope, remembrance, solidarity and well being. Food is very much a central part in Jewish ritual and the observance of festivals and the sabbath. Cookery skills which are passed down through generations include frugal methods reminiscent of not too many generations ago when Jewish families wondered where the next meal would come from. Traditionally the peasant Jewish families living in Russia before the 1st World War may have only been able to afford meat once a week. To mark the Sabbath day as special and different to the rest of the week, a chicken was purchased. A fowl was cheaper and made perfect soup. With often six or more children to feed, meals had to go further. Every part of the chicken was used, extracting every last ounce of flavour.

The chicken would provide ingredients for at least three courses; starting with the fresh carcase and bones to make the stock for the chicken soup, the liver was finely chopped, seasoned and served as a secondary starter. The remaining pieces of meat roasted. The soup was garnished with either or both fine stringy vermicelli (lockshen), fluffy dumplings made from matzo meal and egg (kneidlach), as well as carrot, onion and celery. Popular Jewish cookery books including, Claudia Roden, Florence Greenberg, Evelyn Rose, Bessie Carr etc will claim to have the definitive recipe for chicken soup but those handed down from mother to daughter are often the best. Here is one version.

Ingredients: 1 boiling fowl; a large onion; 2 carrots sliced lengthways; a piece of parsley root; a stick of celery; a teaspoon of salt; 1/4 teaspoon of pepper; water to cover; parsley to garnish.

Method: Scald the fowl with boiling water then remove all the fat. Prepare and slice the vegetables. Place the fowl in a large boiling pot, add vegetables and seasoning. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Remove the scum. Simmer for 3 hours or until tender. Remove the fowl and serve it separately. Skim the soup to remove the fat. Adjust the seasoning and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Flavour can be enhanced by adding a chicken stock cube. Serve with a small qty thin vermicelli and or kneidlach. See below.

Kneidlach: 1 small onion; 2 tablespoons melted chicken fat; 4 oz (1cup) medium matzo meal; salt and pepper. 1/4 pint (1/2 cup) boiling water; 1 egg; Peel and grate the onion. Melt fat in a saucepan and fry the onion. Add to the matzo meal with the salt and pepper. Add the boiling water, and allow to cool, then add the beaten egg. Stir well. Leave in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly. Dip your hands in cold water and then roll the mixture into small balls. Drop the balls into the boiling soup or boiling salted water and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Serve in the soup.

SCOUSE
Another staple meal cooked to feed large families living in poverty. Originating in the late 1800s and introduced by seafarers possibly from Scandinavian countries and originally known as Labskause but mostly associated with Liverpool where the name was anglicised to become scouse. Although considered a working class dish, there is an alternative version called Blind Scouse, made by those on the harshest of budgets, and with the absence of meat. The internet is full of recipes and anecdotes for scouse but here is one.

Ingredients to serve 4-6 people: Half a Pound of Stewing Steak; Half a Pound of Lambs Breast;  A Large Onion; 1lb of Carrots; 5lb of Potatoes; 2 beefstock Cubes; 2 Teaspoons of Vegatable Oil, Worcester Sauce, Salt and Pepper, Water.

Method: Takes 4 hours of slow cooking
Cut the meat into large cubes and fry in the vegatable oil until lightly browned all over. You may wish to add some Worcester Sauce at this point for added flavour. Transfer the meat to a large saucepan and add the onion that should have been chopped into large chunks. Follow this by chopping the carrot into medallions and place this on the meat. Peel and then Finely dice 1lb of the potatoes and place on top of the carrots. Fill the pan with cold water until it is half full. Break up the beefstock cubes and sprinkle into the water. Add salt and pepper for seasoning. Let the pan simmer gently, stirring occasionally. The large pieces of onion will start to break up and the potato will become soft and will make the final sauce thick. Simmer for a total of two hours, then add the remaining potatoes that should have been peeled and roughly chopped, along with a few splashes of Worcester Sauce. Then simmer for another two hours. Serve piping hot with red cabbage, beetroot, pickled onions and crusty bread. You may add Ketchup and HP sauce for flavouring.