Jewish Penicillin

Kitchen Witch · #1 (**permalink**) October 1st, 2006, 12:01 PM

Today it's homemade chicken soup. It's the perfect day for it.

Chicken simmering in the pot with celery, onion, carrot, parsley, salt and pepper; skimming until chicken is done. Then I will strain into a fresh pot, remove the chicken pieces and cut up, add sliced carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, re-season as needed; just before done add frozen peas and corn. Maybe I will add some noodles, rice, barley or couscous - haven't decided yet. And of course I have my crusty rolls for dipping in the broth! It should be done in time for me to watch my football game!!!

lanababy · #2 (**permalink**) October 20th, 2006, 10:56 AM

Please do not call this Jewish Penicillin, because it is NOT!
If you want to know how to make REAL Jewish Penicillin let me know.
It's okay if you're not Jewish. I'll help you make the real thing and I also make an easy version with only skinless chicken breasts (kinda cheating). But the end result is great because I puree the veggies in the pot.

Jewish chx soup must contain parsnips, onion, carrots, dill, white turnips, celery, salt and pepper. Not necessarily in this order. Don't forget the chicken.

MaryAnn123 · #3 (**permalink**) October 20th, 2006, 06:47 PM

I would love to have the real Jewish Penicillin recipe!

Kitchen Witch · #4 (**permalink**) October 20th, 2006, 08:12 PM

MaryAnn - Looking for "the real" Jewish Penicillin recipe is like looking for the real Italian Lasagna recipe, or the real German brat recipe, etc. Every family has there way of making it.

For several years I had the pleasure of living in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood and I met some of the most wonderful people who taught me a lot about their culture and ways. Many of my teachers were also Jewish. In grammar school my teacher would always tell us anytime any one had a cold to go home and tell your mom to make some good old-fashioned Jewish Penicillin - meaning homemade chicken soup.

I've called homemade chicken soup Jewish Penicillin forever.

I posted a recipe a while back in the Recipe Exchange that was handed to me from Grandma O - a wonderful woman who made very good Jewish Penicillin. She was remarkable woman - and to this day I can still see the numbers on her arm from the concentration camp.

This is the recipe that I had posted a while back that I had gotten from her:

JEWISH PENICILLIN
(Jewish Style Chicken Soup)

1 stewing chicken [if you cannot get a stewing chicken, use an oven-stuffer]
Water to cover the chicken, approx. 4 quarts
2 large yellow onions, peeled but left whole
1 tbsp. salt
1 pound of carrots, scraped but left whole
1 to 2 parsley root, scraped but left whole [you have to decide how large they are and if you need more]
1 bunch of dill, washed, roots cut away, and tied together in a bunch with string
2/3 ribs celery, cleaned but left whole
pepper to taste

Place the whole cleaned chicken in the water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and skim the scum from the pot. When finished skimming, add the vegetables and seasonings. Bring to a gentle boil and immediately reduce to barely a simmer, covered, for 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. or until chicken is tender. Cool chicken in the broth until almost cool enough to handle; remove all chicken and save for another use. If you wish, drain broth so it will be clear, but save the carrots to serve with the broth. [Some people like the pieces of dill floating about in the broth.]

I am quite sure there are many original Jewish recipes that are a bit different for this same recipe.

MaryAnn123 · #5 (**permalink**) October 22nd, 2006, 09:07 AM

Kitchen Witch,

Thanks so much for the recipe. You're friend went through some horrible things and I am glad she survived. It's a chilly day here and soup just may be on the stove shortly.

Mary Ann

Kitchen Witch · #6 (**permalink**) October 22nd, 2006, 09:15 AM

You're very welcomed!

I am the lucky one for having met such a wonderful, warm-hearted and loving person. She treated me as if I was her one and only granddaughter - and she had many grandchildren. I miss her warm smile and her laugh.

It's cold here too - expecting snow - which of course we don't want to see - they still have not restored power to everyone after the last storm. I have my Jewish Penicillin (homemade chicken soup - I made mine with veggies and rice this time) and I am deciding if I want stew for tomorrow - I love those belly-warmer dishes.

Enjoy the recipe!

KW

pmuhlhan · #7 (**permalink**) October 23rd, 2006, 01:36 PM

KW,

Your recipe is exactly right. I met my best friend, who happens to be Jewish, when I first moved to Florida. We were all transients and developed a close family relationship. She invites us over for Seder and we have them over for Christmas. Been doing this for years!

You forgot the matzo balls

This is one of my all time favorite soups. The dill makes a nice difference. She doesn't add parsnips but everything else is right on the money. My problem with this soup is that one bowl is just not enough. Sometimes I make egg salad on the side to fill up the rest of the family so that I can devour the soup myself LOL. After eating the soup...oh, many small bowls throughout the day...I feel like a ball myself. It truly is a comfort food.

BTW, her parents were survivors of the holocaust, too.

Kitchen Witch · #8 (**permalink**) October 23rd, 2006, 03:57 PM

It is a very good soup - with or without the matzo balls! I enjoyed sharing holidays with them - they were such loving people and they had such good hearts. I have always enjoyed learning recipes and the ways of other cultures - and you collect many favorite dishes that way! Too bad everyone couldn't be that way - I feel the people miss out on so much when they don't try something new.

I have more of her recipes - I need to dig those out and post them.

pmuhlhan · #9 (**permalink**) October 24th, 2006, 04:53 PM

Hi KW,

I am looking forward to the recipes! I have a couple from my friend, Fran that were passed down to her. I will pass them on when I get to my recipe archive.

I, too, love to learn about different cultures...it's so interesting. If there is anything that we all truly have in common is the desire for the foods that we were raised with.

MaryAnn123 · #10 (**permalink**) October 27th, 2006, 09:42 PM

Kitchen Witch,

There is great big pot of the best pencillin I have ever tasted in my kitchen! Your recipe is terrific!!

Thanks!
Mary Ann 123

Kitchen Witch · #11 (**permalink**) October 28th, 2006, 09:59 AM

Mary Ann 123 -

I am glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the compliment - but it's Grandma O who deserves the credit for the recipe. And I feel extra-special for having met one of the most wonderful women ever! I am going to post some of the others that she gave me in the Recipe Exchange. Grandma O was a great person and she passed down many recipes that everyone likes!

Sophie · #12 (**permalink**) November 24th, 2006, 11:18 PM

I'm Ukrainian and make my own noodles-very simple.

2 eggs stirred
1 to 2 tbsps. cold water
1 1/2 cups of flour
pinch of salt

Mix ingredients into a smooth stiff dough. Let rest for 10 minutes, then on a floured board, roll out as thing as possible. Let dry for a few minutes. Dust with flour. Easier to cut in half and roll out and cut in strips a few inches wide (I use a sharp pizza cutter-works the best) and start cutting the width you choose. Then roll out the other half as it is easier to work with one half at a time. Place onto a floured tea towel in the meantime, toss occasionally so they don't stick.
Boil salted water and put the noodles into boiling water and when they rise to the surface about 5 minutes (el dente), strain (don't rinse) and serve with the soup. I use Campbell's chicken stock. Homemade noodles are so delicious and my husband won't eat chicken soup any other way.
Recipe can be doubled.
If you double the recipe, it will serve 6 hungry people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitchen Witch

MaryAnn - Looking for "the real" Jewish Penicillin recipe is like looking for the real Italian Lasagna recipe, or the real German brat recipe, etc. Every family has there way of making it.

For several years I had the pleasure of living in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood and I met some of the most wonderful people who taught me a lot about their culture and ways. Many of my teachers were also Jewish. In grammar school my teacher would always tell us anytime any one had a cold to go home and tell your mom to make some good old-fashioned Jewish Penicillin - meaning homemade chicken soup.

I've called homemade chicken soup Jewish Penicillin forever.

I posted a recipe a while back in the Recipe Exchange that was handed to me from Grandma O - a wonderful woman who made very good Jewish Penicillin. She was remarkable woman - and to this day I can still see the numbers on her arm from the concentration camp.

This is the recipe that I had posted a while back that I had gotten from her:

JEWISH PENICILLIN
(Jewish Style Chicken Soup)

1 stewing chicken [if you cannot get a stewing chicken, use an oven-stuffer]
Water to cover the chicken, approx. 4 quarts
2 large yellow onions, peeled but left whole
1 tbsp. salt
1 pound of carrots, scraped but left whole
1 to 2 parsley root, scraped but left whole [you have to decide how large they are and if you need more]
1 bunch of dill, washed, roots cut away, and tied together in a bunch with string
2/3 ribs celery, cleaned but left whole
pepper to taste

Place the whole cleaned chicken in the water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and skim the scum from the pot. When finished skimming, add the vegetables and seasonings. Bring to a gentle boil and immediately reduce to barely a simmer, covered, for 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. or until chicken is tender. Cool chicken in the broth until almost cool enough to handle; remove all chicken and save for another use. If you wish, drain broth so it will be clear, but save the carrots to serve with the broth. [Some people like the pieces of dill floating about in the broth.]

I am quite sure there are many original Jewish recipes that are a bit different for this same recipe.

lanababy · #13 (**permalink**) November 24th, 2006, 11:21 PM

Glad you gave out a "real deal" Jewish chicken soup recipe. Mostly because I just never measure anything when making soup. And I'm glad I didn't have to measure all the proportions. I can barely count my change. For me when cooking anything I find that I am always "tweeking" all recipes depending on my menopausal mood swing at the time. Oy veh!

Kitchen Witch · #14 (**permalink**) November 25th, 2006, 10:54 AM

I have and always will refer to chicken soup as Jewish Penicillin. Cultures vary, recipes vary - everyone's tastes are different - but as long as it is good to you and your family - then that is the recipe for you - regardless of what the recipe is. Every family does something a tad different than the next - that is the great part of cooking.

In all honesty - I don't think there is a "real deal" with any recipe. Even with all these restaurant "clones" or "copycat recipes" out there. Usually when a recipe is given out by a restaurant it is because they are making changes to it; same with many of these cook-off/contest recipes. They are more than willing to give out the recipe they "used" but that is because they are only changing it.

As long as people have been cooking, recipes have been changed (or "tweaked" as many say) to make it "their own".

It's all a matter of individual taste.