№ 28Vilkābolu zupa

Rose hip soup with wine Serves 4 · 1¼ hours (about 30 minutes of it cleaning the rose hips) · Adapted from the 1796 recipe; not yet tested.

The book gives no quantities; the amounts below are ours.

Ingredients

• 500 g fresh rose hips (or 150 g dried rose hip shells; see Notes)
• 1 l water
• 200 ml white wine
• 80–120 g sugar, to taste
• Peel of ½ lemon, in strips
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 slices white bread, toasted and cut into pieces

Method

1. Wear thin gloves. Trim the stalk and flower ends of the rose hips, cut each one in half and scrape out all the seeds and hairs with a small spoon or the tip of a knife. 2. Wash the halves well in a bowl of cold water, rubbing them between your fingers. Change the water 2–3 times, until no more hairs float to the top. Drain. 3. Simmer the rose hips in the water, covered, for 20–30 minutes, until very soft. 4. Press them through a fine-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle, scraping the purée off the underside. Throw away what is left in the sieve. 5. Return the purée to the pan with the wine, sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon. Simmer for 5–10 minutes, then remove the lemon peel and cinnamon. Thin with a little water if it is too thick. 6. Put the toasted bread in bowls and ladle the soup over.

Notes

• The hairs: the fine hairs inside rose hips irritate the mouth, throat and gut; they were once used as itching powder. The book itself says to take them out with the seeds and to wash the hips well. The gloves, the repeated rinsing and the fine sieve are our additions. If you aren't sure you got them all, strain the cooked hips through muslin instead: the soup will be thinner and clearer, but safe.
• Strain or purée? The book's izkāsi means "strain". It could mean pressing the hips through, giving a purée as in German Hagebuttensuppe, or keeping only the liquid. We press them through for a thicker soup.
• What the book says vs. what we added: cleaning the hips, cooking them soft in water, straining, then simmering with wine, sugar, lemon peel and cinnamon and adding toasted white bread are the book's. All amounts and times, removing the spices and the choice of white wine (the book says only "wine") are ours.
• Which plant: the book's German gloss Hanbutten (Hagebutten) shows that vilkāboli here are rose hips, not hawthorn berries.
• Dried rose hips: soak 150 g dried shells overnight in the water, simmer for 30–40 minutes, then carry on from step 4. Check them for hairs too.