This recipe comes from Vegetable Cookery, one of the earliest completely vegetarian cookbooks. It was first published in periodical form in 1812, then went on to be published as a book. This recipe comes from the fourth edition published in 1833. Since the word “vegetarian” wasn’t popularized until the 1850s, Vegetable Cookery doesn’t actually use that term and refers to a “vegetable diet” instead.
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Unlike many 18th-century soups, this soup is (mostly) vegetarian so that it can be eaten during the fasting period of Lent. Instead of using meat, the soup is flavored with anchovies, since fish was often considered acceptable to eat during Lent.
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Compared to other 18th century soups, which almost always seem to include some obscure meats or animal parts and take hours to make, this is a relatively easy and inexpensive recipe from Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 book The Experienced English Housekeeper.
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History in the Making 