Hodge-Podge (soup) facts for kids
| Type | Soup or stew |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Mutton, beef, veal or other meat; green vegetables; root vegetables |
Hodge-podge or hotch potch is a delicious soup or stew. It usually has diced meat, like lamb or beef, mixed with lots of green and root vegetables. You can find different versions of this dish in Britain and North America. It's especially well-known in Scotland!
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What's in a Name?
The word "hodge-podge" comes from an old French word, hochepot. This word meant "a dish with many different ingredients." Imagine a meal that's a mix of all sorts of good things! The Oxford English Dictionary says it's a dish with various meats and vegetables cooked together. For Scotland, it's often a thick soup with barley, peas, other vegetables, and sometimes meat.
A Look Back in Time: The History of Hodge-Podge
This dish has been around for a very long time, even in medieval times!
Medieval Meals
Around the year 1390, a cookbook called The Forme of Cury shared a recipe for a hotch-potch made with goose.
| Take gees and smyte hem on pecys. Cast hem in a pot; do thereto half wyne and Half water; and do thereto a gode quantite of oynonns and erbest. Set it over the fyre, and cover it fast. Make a layor of brede and blode, and lay it therewith. Do thereto powdor-fort, and ferve it forth | Take geese and chop them in pieces. Put them in a pot and add half wine and half water. Then add a good amount of onions and herbs. Put it over the fire and cover it tightly. Make a mixture of bread and blood and add it. Season with strong mixed spice and serve. |
This old recipe shows how people used to cook with different meats and herbs.
Hodge-Podge Through the Centuries
In the 1500s, the writer Arthur Golding mentioned a "Hotchpotch" made with barley, flax, and coriander seeds. This shows that the dish could be made with many different plant ingredients too.
The Netherlands has a similar dish called "hutspot" since the 1500s. It includes potatoes and cheese, along with onions and carrots. In the 1600s, John Dryden wrote about a "Memphian hotch-potch" with strong leeks and garlic.
By the 1700s, famous cooks were sharing their own recipes. Hannah Glasse, in her 1780 cookbook, suggested using diced beef, veal, and lamb. Her vegetables included turnip, celery, carrot, and lettuce. She even added spices like cloves and mace! Another cook, Mary Cole, gave recipes for hodge-podges made with just one type of meat, like beef or lamb. She used vegetables such as turnips, carrots, and leeks.
In the 1800s, Mrs Beeton also shared recipes for hodge-podges with a single meat, either beef or lamb. An American recipe from this time used lean lamb boiled with carrots and turnips. It was seasoned with salt and pepper, then had puréed peas, celery, and onion slices added.
Margaret Dods, in her 1826 book, called hotch-potch a "Scotch National Dish." She even had recipes for summer and winter versions! The summer one used lamb and young vegetables like peas. The winter version used beef or lamb with root vegetables.
Hodge-Podge Today
In the 1900s and 2000s, hodge-podge continued to be a popular dish.
Modern Recipes
A recipe from 1924 in American Cookery suggested using at least four different kinds of meat. This could be lamb, beef, ham, or chicken. These meats were simmered with lettuce, chives, celery, and butter. Just before serving, succotash (a mix of corn and lima beans) was added. The soup was then topped with fresh parsley and paprika.
In 1925, Henry Smith's The Master Book of Soups noted that hotch-potch was still very much linked to Scottish cooking. His version was more of a soup, made with lamb stock, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, spring onions, cauliflower, and lettuce. A version from Yorkshire (in England) is more like a stew. It uses lamb or mutton cooked in water, then mixed with braised onions, carrots, turnips, and celery.
Even famous people have shared their hodge-podge recipes! Paul Newman included a chicken hodge-podge in his 1985 cookbook. His recipe was different because it added potatoes and green peppers.
Canadian Hodge-Podge
In the Canadian Maritime provinces, hodge-podge is a creamy soup. It's made with cream or butter and fresh vegetables. Sometimes it has meat stock or bacon for flavor. But in its simplest form, it's a vegetarian chowder, which is a thick, creamy soup.
