The blacksmith's Aunt Mary's recipes have long been guarded. For years we admired her tomato soup. At the family reunion fund raising auctions, someone from the Iowa clan usually brought several jars to be auctioned off. The recipe never was to be found.
However, two years ago, her family made a cookbook in her memory. The books didn't come easily. You had to win one by being the highest bidder at the auction.
Some how we were successful.
Last night we looked up the recipe in the book and proceeded to make it.
It would take 15 pounds of tomatoes, celery, onions and a red sweet pepper. You cook that until tender and then run it through a ricer. This is where the first of our variations began. We ran our tomatoes through the food mill first, which removed the seeds and peel.
While the tomatoes were cooking with the diced celery and onions we washed the food mill, thinking we would use it again to squeeze out the onions and celery. As the vegetables became tender and smaller we decided why dirty the mill again? So we opted for chewy tomato soup. When it was all tender, I mixed up the flour, salt, butter and sugar using a pastry cutter. Then this is slowly stirred in to avoid any lumps. After bringing to a boil, I let it simmer for about 5 minutes before filling my jars.
The blacksmith then pressure cooked the quarts for 25 minutes.
So forgive us Aunt Mary for changing your recipe. But we are pretty sure it will taste the same!
Rest in Peace, Mary Monat - 1926-2009
