pirates voyage soup recipe

Coupons | Cabins | Hotels | Condos

Home Blog Restaurants Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup Recipe and Mix

Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup Recipe and Mix

If you have ever been to the Dolly Parton’s Stampede Dinner Show in Pigeon Forge, TN or Branson, MO then you have most likely wondered what that delicious soup was! The Dolly Parton’s Stampede soup is a unique creamy vegetable soup that is actually easy and quick to whip up! Below you will find the Dolly Parton’s Stampede soup recipe as well as where you can purchase the official Dixie Stampede soup mix if you don’t feel comfortable making it from scratch. Either way, the Dolly Parton’s Stampede creamy vegetable soup makes a perfect companion to any dinner or party…it’s so uniquely delicious that it’ll have everyone asking what it is and how you made it!

Dolly Parton’s Stampede Soup Recipe

If you would like to make the Dixie Stampede soup recipe from scratch, the ingredients and simple directions below provide the basic method for creating this delicious soup. Where it says “finely chopped cooked vegetable” below, most people use carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, celery, or green beans. Do not use too many vegetable as it can get overpowering. Most successful recipes use no more than two vegetables. Some people just buy a can of mixed veggies and chop them. Also, if you would like a thicker taste, then you can use heavy cream instead of the half and half. If you end up with a combination you love, be sure to come back and share it with others in our comments section below!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup finely chopped cooked vegetable
• 1 pint half-and-half cream (or heavy cream for a thicker taste)
• chopped fresh parsley

Dixie Stampede Soup Mix

To purchase the Dixie Stampede soup mix directly from Dixie Stampede, click below: https://dpstampede.com/shop/soup-stampede

Final Thoughts

If you have never tasted the Dolly Parton’s Stampede creamy vegetable soup, you should either try making it or, better yet, visit the Stampede in Pigeon Forge or Branson to taste the original version! It’s one of the most popular dishes served at any dinner show in Pigeon Forge and is the one recipe that visitors are constantly asking about.

If you would like a discount to Dolly Parton’s Stampede then be sure to check out our guide on Dixie Stampede discounts to find out how to save a few dollars on tickets…that way you can spend that money on the ingredients or a bag of mix for the Stampede soup after you’ve tasted it!

If you use Pinterest, this is definitely a recipe to pin, try, and share!

Related Posts:

For the Best Dinner at Dollywood, Just Add Pirates

Pirates voyage dinner theater is a swashbuckling adventure in the smoky mountains..

Call it silly and touristy if you must, but I absolutely love a dinner theater attraction—the bigger, louder, and brighter, the better. I’ve eaten kalua pork and chicken long rice at a luau in Hawaii while hula dancers swayed against a blazing sunset, and I’ve tapped my toes while watching Irish step dancers and snacking on bangers and mash at Raglan Road in Walt Disney World. But admittedly, I’m not truly happy unless my meal is paired with death-defying stunts and pyrotechnics. These high standards of mine were instilled by none other than Ms. Dolly Parton herself.

Related Content

I started going to Dolly Parton’s Stampede when it first opened in 1988, back when it was the Dixie Stampede . It’s in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, a tiny town in the Smoky Mountains that’s home to Dollywood and to countless other kinds of family entertainment, from a Titanic museum to a lumberjack stunt show to a centuries-old grist mill that’s now a restaurant on the banks of the Little Pigeon River. Every time my family would go back to Pigeon Forge, our Dollywood trip wasn’t complete unless we sat high up in that arena, watching games of horsemanship and “stampeding” our applause with our feet because, as part of the entertainment, we were eating with our bare hands.

On my most recent trip back, though, I wanted something different. Something daring. Something adventurous. Something… with pirates.

Dollywood’s Pirates Voyage dinner show, explained

Pirates Voyage is a dinner show that’s owned by Dollywood, but isn’t part of the park itself—although dinner for an adult costs almost as much as a ticket to the theme park just down the road. Over the course of an hour and a half, guests sit and eat while a show unfolds, combining physical stunts, aerial acrobatics, sword fighting, fire dancing, animal actors, and games of competition. Oh, and mermaids.

The theater’s tiered seating is situated around a 300,000-gallon lagoon, which is 15 feet deep and holds two 25-foot pirate ships, one decked out in crimson and one in sapphire. In the center of the pool is a deck with a ship’s mast rising up from it and a platform sort of like a crow’s nest high overhead. The entire set is visible as soon as you enter the room, but still, I couldn’t have anticipated the complexity and quality of the stunts we were about to witness.

Our party included my Dollywood-loving lifelong best friend and her daughters, 8 and 2, whom we were introducing to the wonders of Pigeon Forge for the first time. Our adult tickets were $69.99 each, the 8-year-old’s ticket was $35, and the toddler was free as long as she sat on someone’s lap. The price of admission includes a four-course meal and unlimited soft drinks, and alcohol is available for purchase. Shows happen almost every night of the year in Pigeon Forge and at the Myrtle Beach location as well.

As soon as we sat down, a server dressed as a pirate came to take our drink order. The meal started with a creamy vegetable soup; I enjoyed the thick bisque purely for the nostalgia, since it was essentially the same recipe as it has been at the Stampede for more than 30 years. As the show progressed, we were served fried chicken, sugar-cured ham, corn on the cob, a roasted potato, and a biscuit, then an apple turnover. The chicken was flavorful and I especially liked the ham, but the meal is a distant second on the list of reasons I enjoyed the experience.

Just as our food started coming out, the lights in the theater went down, and all of a sudden Blackbeard descended from the ceiling, sitting in what I can only describe as a pirate throne. He started the show, a parrot on his arm, setting the scene for what would be the night’s competition between the crimson pirates and the sapphire ones. Eventually, there would be challenges they’d try to win to capture the hidden treasure. First, there were going to be some really thrilling stunts.

Mermaids dropped down from the rafters, sitting on ship anchors suspended from the ceiling and diving into the water. A fire-wielding pirate took center stage with a flaming sword, who lit the stage on fire before setting the water itself ablaze. Stunt divers careened off high-dive platforms, plunging into the water and disappearing under the ships. There was a lot of sword fighting, a lot of swinging wildly on ship’s rigging, a lot of truly unbelievable feats of strength and skill.

And there were animals, too. Trained dogs performed tricks, tropical birds took flight, and Salty the Sea Lion stole the show with his antics, stealing fish from his pirate trainer and eliciting a huge audience response when he succeeded in getting his treats. Dolly Parton wrote a song for the show, “Sail Away,” which plays during the performance, while two performers partner for aerial acrobatics.

The whole thing was bigger and more spectacular than any show I’ve ever seen at a theme park, and I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The next day, we spent the day at Dollywood riding roller coasters and eating the park’s incredible cinnamon bread until we were about to burst. The day after, we went attraction hopping in Pigeon Forge, exploring Wonderworks, the interactive science museum housed in an upside-down mansion, and Magiquest, where we had magic wands and used them to unlock treasures in a medieval-style castle. It was a lot of fun packed into three days.

At the end, I asked my friend’s 8-year-old what her favorite part of the whole trip was, fully expecting her to say one of the thrill rides—she goes to Disney a lot and knows her way around a theme park vacation.

“Um,” she said, “probably Salty.”

A sea lion performing tricks in a pirate lagoon won the whole trip. I honestly can’t say I’m surprised. That guy has some real star power.

Best Pressure Cooker Copycat Dixie Stampede Creamy Vegetable Soup

The Fervent Mama uses Affiliate Links. See our disclosure policy here .

When we visit Branson or Gatlinburg, my family always has a few favorite spots. One of them is Dolly Pardon’s Dixie Stampede! From the kids to the adults, it’s always a blast for everyone! The animals, the comedy, the patriotism, the show, the stampede-ing, you’ve got to enjoy it all!

My father-in-law, who comes with us on all the vacations , always tries to get us to go back for a second go-round. He even skips out on a few meals in preparation for the “big night” at Dolly’s.

I’d put money that if he had to choose his favorite, it would be the Creamy Vegetable Soup and Homemade Biscuits. This soup’s a crowd-pleaser for sure.

Why Not Just Make it Myself?

After the night was over, I really started thinking. Why wait until the next vacation to savor the flavor again? And this Pressure Cooker Copycat Dixie Stampede Creamy Vegetable Soup was born!

If you’re a fan of this real-deal yum, then this will surely help out your hankering for a good creamy homestyle soup . With our family (of 2 kids), there’s always enough food to go around. The littles aren’t very good soup eaters, so we get our fill of this yummy soup.

If there’s anything you should know about this soup it’s that it’s as easy as it is delicious. Like almost all of our pressure cooker recipes , you can always make this recipe your own by making just a few alterations. As an example, if you like fresh veg, you can totally chop up your own veggies from your garden and add them in too without any changes to cook time! The Instant Pot (or your favorite brand) will do all the magic.

The soup is so simple! You make a blonde roux, sweat your garlic and onions, add the liquid, seasonings, and vegetables, give it a good stir, close and lock the lid, cook.

Sometimes food is as much about nostalgia as it is about taste. Our soup has both! If you are looking for nostalgia, comfort, and taste to take to the dinner table tonight, I’m telling you – this soup is it.  

This Pressure Cooker Copycat Dixie Stampede Creamy Vegetable Soup is sure to bring you right back to your time at Dolly Pardon’s Stampede. You may even find yourself cheering on your home flag at the dinner table tonight. Yes. It’s that good! I love it when a good meal brings back good memories.

Make This Creamy Homestyle Soup work for you!

True confessions: this version is a little more chunky than the version you’ll eat at The Stampede. My family loves the chunkiness of it, but I know that texture or consistency is not for everyone.

If you prefer a thinner soup, you can cut the number of veggies, chop the veggies finer, or strain the veggies out of the soup after cooking it to get the veg flavor without all the chunks. Either way you make it, you will get that famous Dixie Stampede flavor in a creamy homestyle soup.

The Recipe for Pressure Cooker Copycat Dixie Stampede Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ready to give it a try? Add this to your menu plan and make your shopping list for this week. Your family will thank you for it. Serve the soup with a nice crusty bread as pictured, or a warm biscuit for a nice balance. Here is the recipe with everything you need to make this creamy homestyle soup for your family.

Pressure Cooker Copycat Dixie Stampede Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ingredients.

• 4 tbs butter
• 4 tbs flour
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 2 cups chicken broth/stock, or bone broth
• 1 bag frozen chopped vegetables
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

• Turn your pressure cooker to the SEAR/SAUTE setting. Add butter. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir for about 3 minutes. 
• Add your chopped onion and garlic and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until they become soft.
• Add the broth/stock, chopped vegetables, salt, pepper, and cayenne. 
• Stir until mixed well. Close and lock lid, cook on HI pressure for 3 minutes.
• When the timer goes off, unplug the pot and let it naturally release pressure for 5 minutes, and then perform a manual release of the pressure. If soup begins to leak out of the vent, carefully close it and wait a few more minutes.
• Plug the pressure cooker back in and turn on to SEAR/SAUTE. Add the heavy cream and stir. Cook for 5+ minutes or until the mixture thickens. 
• If your mix is still too thin, you can add a cornstarch slurry at a 1:1 ratio. One tbs of cornstarch to 1 tbs water added to the soup and stir until thickened. 
• If your mix is too thick, you can add a little water or broth to desired consistency. 

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

Did you love it???  We appreciate it so much when our readers come back and tell us how they liked our recipes, and even more when they tell us how they made them their own! If you tried our recipes, let us know in the comments, or email us to chat about it!

Are you looking for a community where everyone loves their pressure cookers as much as you do? Or are you a pressure cooker newbie? Join  our Facebook Community Pressure Cooker Family Recipes  where you can be free to share your favorite recipes, ask questions, or share great tips and tricks too! 

How would I cook this in a crockpot? Or the stovetop?

How would I cook this in a crockpot?

I can you freeze leftovers?

Absolutely!

I am trying this recipe tonight. I have made copy cat versions of this soup before, and I have always used canned mixed vegetables-the Veg-all brand. And then i puree the soup to make it super creamy like Dolly’s. Ill be trying it in my pressure cooker tonight!

We love Dixie Stampede soup and I love using my pressur cooker. Due to food allergies, I successfully modified this recipe so that it was dairy and gluten free. (Modifications~Earth balance soy free butter, gluten free flour, and almond milk [in place of the heavy whipping cream]) thanks for an awesome recipe.

What size bag of vegetables? And my flour and butter turned to clumps.

Hi, Jessica! Just a regular 12 oz bag. There’s a few things to consider when making a roux. Make sure that your ingredients are both equal, too much flour will result in a clumpy roux. So will a roux that has been overcooked. Also, the roux will be thick before you add the liquid, although it should not be clumpy.

Forgot to take a pic! This was very good and took less than 30 min to make. It was very creamy and rich. My husband doesn’t like garlic, so I reduced that to 1 large clove. It also would be easy to do variations—make it a little lighter using half and half, adding cheese, or adding chicken. It’s definitely a “make again” for us. One note: I didn’t have any issues with the soup coming out the top during the quick release, but I my thickened liquid had stuck a little bit. It wasn’t an issue—everything mixed in when I stirred it.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Mom For All Seasons

October 10, 2020 · Leave a Comment

A Homeschooler’s Guide to Pirates Voyage Dinner Show

fun for kids · homeschool · Reviews · Travel

This post is part of my Fun & Educational Guide to Myrtle Beach .

If you get the chance to visit Pirates Voyage Dinner Show in Myrtle Beach you can totally use it as a springboard for homeschool lessons! This dinner show gets you right in there with a lot of swashbuckling action and a four course feast. While there, you probably want to sit back and enjoy the show with your kids, but this makes for a great way to begin or end a pirate study.

The fun starts right outside with a very inviting entrance! Barrels, a mast, a crumbling facade and a big pirate ship’s mast rising up in the center that just invites imagination and adventure!

The crew recommends that you get there about 50 minutes early and you will be entertained with animal acts, juggling, sea shanties, and more prior to the main event. Note- due to COVID precautions, the pre-show is not currently running.

The show features the famous Blackbeard and Calico Jack as they lead their swarthy band of pirates battling on the land and sea. They encounter mermaids, hidden lagoons, and tropical birds- enough to keep any pirate loving family on the edge of their seat.

If that isn’t enough you and your hungry crew are treated to a lovely 4 course meal which includes…

Voyager Creamy Vegetable Soup

Buccaneer Bread

Half O’ Roasted Cackler (Chicken)

Captain’s BBQ Pork

Cob O’ Buttery Corn

Pirate Herb-basted Potato

Apple O’ My Eye Pie

Unlimited Coca-Cola®, tea, or coffee

There are also Gluten Free and Vegetarian options to choose!

In addition to learning all about the life of a pirate, your child will learn some pirate terminology, see some fascinating animals: African macaws, sea lions, and dogs to name a few. My favorite is Salty the Sea Lion!

If you head to Pirates Voyage during the Christmas season , you’re in for even more of a treat with a beautiful live nativity, and retelling of the Biblical narrative of Christmas. It’s the most beautiful live nativity that I’ve ever seen. Our family has been going to the Pirates Voyage Christmas show every year for almost a decade.

No matter which time of year you visit, you will leave The Pirates Voyage Dinner Show with a head full of memories and a belly full of great food!

Special discount pricing for groups of 20 or more, makes it the perfect field trip for homeschool co-ops!

If you have little ones who are super interested in pirates- they would LOVE my Pirate’s Week of my Summer Camp at Home product line. Don’t worry- you can do these themed weeks any time of the year! Check it out here!

For some great reading for before and after your visit I recommend you grab some of these books!

Who Was Blackbeard

Treasure Island

Pirate’s Dead Men’s Tales

The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay The Pirate

Send them on a virtual treasure hunt to discover the answer to these questions (You can play this on the way to the Pirate Dinner Show as well!)

• Were Pirates real?
• What was the Jolly Roger?
• What does “walk the plank” mean?
• What was the name of Blackbeard’s Ship?
• Were there female pirates?
• When was pirating the most common?
• How deep is a fathom?

Your little ones will enjoy this Pirate activity printable pack in the car on the way there, or in the days afterward.

Enjoy the  Pirates Voyage Dinner Show landlubbers!

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Pirate Soup

by Editorial Staff

Ingredients

• 250 g minced meat, half and half
• 480 g sauerkraut
• 100 g tomato paste
• 1 liter milk
• 0.5 liter ½ cream
• some Sambal Oelek
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• Sear the minced meat, chop the sauerkraut and add it, simmer for about 15 minutes on a low flame, stir in the tomato paste and pour in a little broth, simmer for 10 minutes, add the cream first and then add the milk two minutes later.
• Bring everything to the boil and season with sambal oelek, salt, pepper and sugar.
• It goes best with flatbread or baguette.

Spicy Pirate Soup

The perfect spicy pirate soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Burger

The perfect pirate burger recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Cake

The perfect pirate cake recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Goulash

The perfect pirate goulash recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Pizza

The perfect pirate pizza recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirates Of Caribbean

The perfect pirates of caribbean recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Hot Pirates – Noodles

The perfect hot pirates – noodles recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Floating Pirate Islands on Vegetable Cream

The perfect floating pirate islands on vegetable cream recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Sambal Bajak According To Kurang Pedas1

The perfect pirate sambal bajak according to kurang pedas1 recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Pirate Ship Birthday Cake À La Dani

The perfect pirate ship birthday cake à la dani recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Equestrian Soup – Party Soup

The perfect equestrian soup – party soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Fish Soup Basic Soup

The perfect fish soup basic soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Midnight Soup or Cabanossi Soup

The perfect midnight soup or cabanossi soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Vegetable Soup or Miracle Soup

The perfect vegetable soup or miracle soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Clear Meat Soup, Beef Soup

The perfect clear meat soup, beef soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Bihun Soup – Rice Noodle Soup

The perfect bihun soup – rice noodle soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Sauerkraut Soup, Parsonage-style Soup

The perfect sauerkraut soup, parsonage-style soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Palatinate Potato Soup or Raspberry Soup

The perfect palatinate potato soup or raspberry soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Sour and Spicy Soup / Peking Soup

The perfect sour and spicy soup / peking soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Sour Cucumber Soup or Pickle Soup

The perfect sour cucumber soup or pickle soup recipe with a picture and simple step-by-step instructions. More...

Comments for "Pirate Soup"

Best Food Ideas

Get FREE Recipe Gifts now. Or latest free cooktops from our best collections.

Disable Ad block to get all the secrets. Once done, hit any button below

January 19, 2018

Food , Recipes

12 Mouthwatering Vintage Soup Recipes

How we made soup 100 years ago.

Post Editors

• Share on Facebook (opens new window)
• Share on Twitter (opens new window)
• Share on Pinterest (opens new window)

Weekly Newsletter

The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox!

In 1913, our cooks were talking variety in vegetable soups. Fifty years earlier, we were all about stewed meat: shin of beef, knuckle of veal, slice of ham, old fowl, and eye of newt. Okay, we’re kidding about that last one. But here are some delectable and curious soup recipes from our archive:

Variety in Vegetable Soups

By Dora B. Haines

Originally published in The Country Gentleman , May 17, 1913

Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive.

It has been said that the essence of economy is a good soup. We Americans waste a good deal of material that might be converted into most palatable and nourishing soups. The recipes which follow are given because the materials used are nearly always at hand in practically every household. With a little skill ordinary material may be converted into a most delicious soup.

Soup #1 Vegetable Soup

To make a vegetable soup, the bone and scraps of meat left from a steak may be used for the stock or a 10-cent soup bone may be provided. This should be put on in a quart of cold water to which has been added a level teaspoonful of salt and cooked slowly for an hour and a half. Pare two or three good-sized potatoes and slice in the chopping bowl. Scrape one good-sized carrot and slice two medium-sized onions and a quarter of a small head of cabbage. Chop these all together until quite fine. Put these in the kettle with the meat and broth from it and cook, covered, over a very low flame at least an hour. Have soaked for three or four hours half a cupful of pearl barley. Add this to the kettle at the same time you do the vegetables. It will be necessary to add at least a pint of water, and possibly more, according peppercorns placed in the kettle with the meat give the soup a very distinct flavor. Some people use a bay leaf and a clove. The problem of seasoning is altogether a matter of individual taste.

Soup #2 Ham and Pea

Puree of pea soup is a very delicious and hearty soup, and the ease with which it may be made should be a recommendation for its more general use. Carefully look over and wash two cupfuls of dried peas. Soak overnight and in the morning place over a slow flame in a covered kettle. Cook until the peas are soft enough to put through a sieve. I always save the liquor in which a ham is boiled and always plan to have a pea soup at that time. To the puree I add three cupfuls of the ham liquor and cook very gently. You will need to add for seasoning a little pepper, half a teaspoonful of scraped onion and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley just before the soup is to be taken from the stove.

Soup #3 Kidney Bean

Beans make one of the heartiest soups. Soak two cupfuls of red kidney beans overnight and put them on to cook in the morning with an onion and a carrot and a bit of parsley. Cook slowly in a covered pot until the beans are tender enough to put through a sieve. To this puree add two cupfuls of soup stock and one cupful of boiling water. Season with salt, pepper, and half a teaspoonful of scraped onion and serve. This is especially good for luncheon where there are children. Two tablespoonfuls of tomato ketchup or chili sauce added to the beans give a flavor which adds real distinction to what might otherwise be an ordinary dish, if it were served often.

Soup #4 Creamy Potato and Bacon

Potato soup is another very hearty soup which I think will be welcomed generally by the children. To make it, cut up in small pieces three thin slices of bacon; slice very fine one medium-sized onion and cook in the bacon fat. Do not let it brown very much. Pare and cut up into dice four or five medium-sized potatoes, and place the bacon with the onion and fat together with the potatoes, in a kettle and add one quart of boiling water. Let this cook very gently until the potato is thoroughly done. Add a pint of milk. Cream together two level tablespoonfuls of butter and two level tablespoonfuls of flour and add to the kettle of soup. This will just make the contents of the kettle creamy, not thick. Toasted bread is an excellent accompaniment for this soup. Just to dress it up anew, I occasionally chop fine some of the tender yellow leaves from a stalk of celery and sprinkle these over each dish.

Soup #5 Creamed Onion

We do not often eat a creamed onion soup but it is most delicious, and because onions make so desirable a food we should use more of them in every possible way. This soup would lend variety. To make it chop finely four medium-sized onions and put them over the fire with three cupfuls of cold water and very little salt. Cook them until they are sufficiently tender to put through a sieve. Add the pulp and liquor left from the onion to one pint of cream sauce. Stir very carefully together and heat slowly for five or ten minutes. Then remove from the fire and just before the soup is taken to the table sprinkle a little chopped parsley over each plate.

Soup #6 Creamy Corn

This creams of corn soup is very delicately flavored. To make it take a can of corn and cook with a cupful of water for fifteen or twenty minutes over a very slow fire. Put the corn through a sieve and add the pulp to a pint of thin cream sauce. Season this with salt, a bit of paprika and add the chopped parsley before it is taken to the table. A dash of celery salt is advisable too. Toasted wafers are the best to serve with this soup.

Soup #7 Cream of Celery

Celery soup is one of those delectable dishes that may be made from what might otherwise be thrown away. I use for this the outer stalks and leaves that I cut from a bunch of celery in preparing for the table. I carefully wash it all, cut it up rather fine and put it in a kettle with three cupfuls of cold water. I add two peppercorns and half a bay leaf. These are cooked until the celery is tender and then the water is drained off. To a cupful of this juice I add one pint of cream sauce and heat thoroughly, seasoning with salt to taste.

The cream sauces should be rather thin for this. I whip half a cupful of cream and when each plate is ready for the table I put a spoonful of whipped cream on top, sprinkling over it a dash of paprika and a very little of the tender yellow leaves of the celery chopped very fine. A wafer just heated sufficiently to make it crisp is the best to serve with this soup. This is one of many cases in which a delicious dish may be prepared from those parts of a vegetable which are too often thrown into the garbage pail.

Soup #8 Tomato Soup

Another tomato soup which I serve very often is made by cooking an entire canful of tomatoes with a small onion cut up fine, two stalks of parsley, a little celery, and one green sweet pepper from which the seeds and white pulp have been removed, a bay leaf and two peppercorns. This should be cooked in a covered pot over a very slow fire for at least half an hour. Then put the entire contents of the pot through a sieve and add a cupful and a half or two cupfuls of boiling water, according to the amount of evaporation that has taken place. Soup stock may be used instead of the boiling water. If the tomatoes are very acidic that condition may be neutralized by adding a pinch of soda and a very tiny bit of sugar, perhaps a quarter of a teaspoonful.

Soup #9 Lima Bean with Sweet Pepper and Cheese Garnish

A cream soup of Lima beans is very delicious and very easily made. Soak a cupful of Lima beans overnight, put them on in cold water and cook until tender over a slow fire. When they are thoroughly cooked put through a sieve. Add the purée of beans to a pint of thin cream sauce, seasoning with salt and a dash of paprika.

When this is ready to take to the table I have chopped very fine a sweet pepper from which the seeds and white pulp have been removed. This I serve sprinkled over the top, together with a teaspoonful to each plate of dry cheese finely grated.

Soup #10 Mock Bisque

Mock bisque or cream tomato soup is probably more generally liked than any other soup made. My recipe for this is to stew half a canful of tomatoes for five minutes and then put them through the sieve, adding a level teaspoonful of salt, an eighth of a teaspoonful of paprika, half a teaspoonful of sugar and a pinch of soda. I make a pint of cream sauce and stir this tomato puree into it while both are hot. This soup should always have served with it croutons, which are small toasted squares of bread.

Tip: To make the cream sauce used in soups above (#8 and #9), place two level tablespoonfuls of butter in a stew pan and bring to the boiling point, but be very careful not to brown it ever so little. Stir into this two level tablespoonfuls of flour and half a teaspoonful of salt. Cook the flour until it bubbles and then slowly add one pint of milk and stir very carefully until all is of the consistency of thick cream and free from lumps. If any of the butter stays on top of the cream sauce it is not cooked sufficiently and should be left on the stove a little longer.

Bonus Recipes from 1868

Originally published in The Saturday Evening Post , October 24, 1868

#11 Gravy Soup

Nothing is better than shin of beef for this soup, though pieces of the rump and other parts are used; the shin should be sawed in several places, and the marrow extracted; this, if laid in the bottom of the saucepan, will take the place of butter; if marrow is not forthcoming, butter must be employed; take a fourth of the quantity of ham, stew gently until the gravy is extracted, care being taken it does not burn; a little water may be employed by the inexperienced, but not much; when it has nearly dried up again, put in herbs, a couple of carrots cut very small, pepper ground, salt a little white sugar (this can be omitted, but it materally adds to the flavor;) add boiling water in requisite quantity, and stew gently for five hours; when cold, remove the fat, and warm up as wanted.

#12 White Soup

General directions for white stock have been given, but to prevent mistake, take a knuckle of veal, separated into three or four pieces, a slice of ham as lean as possible, a few onions, thyme, cloves, and mace, stew twelve or fourteen hours, until the stock is as rich as the ingredients can make it; an old fowl will make it much richer, if added. This soup must be made the day before it is required; when removed from the fire, after sufficiently stewed, let it cool, and then remove the fat, add to it four ounces of pounded blanched almonds, let it boil slowly, thicken it with half a pint of cream and an egg; it should boil slowly for half an hour.

Become a Saturday Evening Post member and enjoy unlimited access. Subscribe now

Recommended

Jan 03, 2024

Environment , Food , Our Better Nature

Our Better Nature: Try Blue Food to Beat the Food Blues

Paul Hetzler

Dec 22, 2023

Curtis Stone’s One-Pot Cold Comfort

Curtis Stone

Dec 19, 2023

Curtis Stone’s Arugula Salad with Pomegranate, Persimmon, and Toasted Hazelnuts

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Does an authentic pirate recipe exist? It's a culinary treasure hunt

• Christopher Spata Times staff

In a quest to cook an authentic pirate meal, the first step would be locating the turtle meat.

Sea turtle is well documented as a favorite of pirates who sailed the Caribbean during the so-called "golden age" of piracy — the era Tampa conjures during this weekend's annual Gasparilla festival.

Sailors then were quite desperate for fresh meat because livestock didn't last long aboard a ship, but 300-pound turtles plucked from tropical beaches would simply roam the deck until it was time for stew.

Sea turtles are endangered now, and thankfully off the menu everywhere except the Cayman Islands, the last place on earth they're eaten legally. A much smaller reptile, snapping turtle, would have to substitute.

Once a delicacy of American cuisine (George Washington dined on turtle during a tearful farewell dinner with his officers after the war), snapping turtle has fallen out of favor over the last couple of decades, though nostalgic fans can be found in numbers discussing its flavor on the internet. So can the meat itself.

I settled on Exotic Meat Market for my needs after a conversation with owner and farmer Anshu Pathak, star of a viral Buzzfeed video in which he blissfully celebrates humane farming while sipping goat milk straight from an udder. His operation met my two requirements: The turtle was common snapping turtle, not the rarer alligator snapping turtle, and it was farmed, not taken from wild habitat.

Pathak hung up the phone to go "deal with a water buffalo." I clicked "order" on a pound of turtle meat.

Setting out in search of a pirate recipe yields two immediate results. The first is novelty cookbooks (think crossbones on cupcakes). The second is salmagundi, a highly seasoned hodgepodge of meats, pickled veggies and fruits. It's what Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was eating for breakfast when the British ship that ultimately killed him surprised his hungover crew off the coast of Africa in 1722.

I'd found the salmagundi recipe that included the turtle on National Geographic 's website, which said it was from 1712. Another site noted that this same recipe was from a tavern in Port Royal, the Jamaican town of legendary pirate debauchery.

"They would buy a pipe of wine, place it in the street and oblige everyone that passed to drink," Charles Leslie wrote in a history of Jamaica published in the mid-1700s. It sounded like the right place to produce a dish fit for a Gasparilla party.

The full recipe: "Chop into small chunks turtle meat, chicken, pork, beef, ham, pigeons and fish. Marinate with spiced wine and roast. Add the meats to boiled chopped cabbage, anchovies, pickled herring, mango, hard-boiled eggs, palm-hearts, onions, olives and grapes. Add pickled chopped vegetables and garlic, chili pepper, mustard, salt and pepper, and serve in a mound upon a large dish."

I set out with plans to re-create it exactly, but the pigeon proved a rarity at local butchers. When I asked for "pigeon meat" at Coquina Meat Market in St. Petersburg, Maher Albarghuthi offered up a can of pigeon peas. When I clarified, he said, sadly, no, then wistfully recounted his days raising "delicious" pigeons "back in Jerusalem." Eating them, he assured me, was proven to boost a man's sexual performance.

Explore Tampa Bay’s sights and bites

Subscribe to our free Do & Dine newsletter

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

The next frustrating ingredient was the "spiced wine," as different historians offered varying descriptions. Did I mix Madeira with cloves, or add ginger to a bottle of Trader Joe's "two buck chuck"?

And then came the real letdown: The Port Royal "recipe" didn't check out. Kelsey Brow, a food historian and curator at King Manor Museum, said the wording was all wrong for the era, and further research showed it was in reality just a general description from Douglas Botting's 1978 book Seafarers: The Pirates . It may have been pirate-ish, but it wasn't the ancient word-for-word instructions from some salty pirate cook I'd hoped for. An accurate pirate meal began to seem lost to time.

So what did pirates actually eat? At sea, typical British sailor provisions that wouldn't spoil, such as salted beef so hard they'd carve buttons from it, and equally indestructible hard tack biscuits, which could break a tooth if not softened in liquid.

"You come across stories of knocking those biscuits on the table to knock the bugs out," said Laura Sook Duncombe, author of the upcoming Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas . "Then they ate the bugs for protein."

Henry Morgan's crew ate their leather shoes and bags to avoid starvation.

Beyond that, we don't know all that much. When pirates stopped at a port, they might get some fresh chicken, goat, fruit or vegetables, but mostly they were game for "whatever was available whenever they could get it," said Kevin P. McDonald, history professor at Loyola Marymount University. "I haven't seen accounts of pigeons exactly, but they certainly wouldn't have been averse to eating any bird they could catch. They weren't picky."

He said the mangoes in my questionable salmagundi recipe would be accurate, for fighting scurvy, the pickled herring and veggies made sense to the time, and that boiled eggs were common. The varied salmagundi recipes that did appear in English cookbooks from the era also show that the dish rarely used the same ingredients anyway, but was more just a big salad of whatever was available, and ended up getting all mixed together on the plate.

The odds and ends of what you could get your hands on. Thrown together. It made sense as a pirate meal after all.

The red-meat turtle, marinated in Zinfadel with garlic, cloves and thyme, came out of the oven looking more like spare ribs but tasting like faintly fishy chicken. It was chewy, but not bad. The pigeon, or squab, as the meat is called, fried whole and plucked with tongs from a plastic bin on the checkout counter at the Dong A Grocery in St. Petersburg, was $2.50 a bird and much better than the turtle, with dark, tender meat like duck.

When those meats, plus roasted chicken, mingled together on a plate with pickled carrots, hearts of palm, anchovy, mango and grapes, the flavor was intensely sweet and salty. It was an unusual mix, but enjoyable. And it felt rugged to eat. With my hands.

And if you really want to eat like a pirate, don't forget to share.

"A pirate ship was in many ways a very egalitarian place," Duncombe said. "Everyone got an equal share, from the lowest ranking to the captain. Many times pirates would capture a British navy ship, and the navy men would turn pirate without even being coerced. They were tired of getting starvation rations while the officers were well fed."

Contact Christopher Spata at [email protected]. Follow @SpataTimes.

Enterprise Reporter, Culture

MORE FOR YOU

• Advertisement

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

• News & Events
• Pigeon Forge News & Events

Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show Ready to Set Sail for Fifth Season in Pigeon Forge

When visiting the Smokies in 2023, the first step in charting a course for adventure and fun begins at Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show. This swashbuckling show brings guests close to the exciting exploits of pirate legends and lore as its fifth season sets sail on Friday, February 10. The always daring and dramatic tale features pirates, mermaids, high seas escapades and romance, complemented with a captain’s feast to fuel the epic voyage.

From the show’s Buccaneer Bay, a colorful and fearless crew of characters combine acrobatics, pyrotechnics, animals, music and all things pirate for a treasure chest of memories. The uniquely-exciting Pirates Voyage showcases the thrill of sword fights, cannons blasting and pirates scaling high above two full-sized pirate ships in a “fight” to win Davy Jones’ coveted sunken treasure. Beautiful mermaids gracefully perform high above the water in Buccaneer Bay, while a couple of castaways that include a “Salty” sea lion win a battle with Captain Blackbeard through clever antics and pirate wit. An adventurous crew of characters then combines heroics and high-flying fun that will have guests cheering and experiencing thrills around every corner in an epic battle for lost treasure on land, on deck, and in the water of the show’s 15-foot-deep indoor lagoon.

“The entertaining elements of our Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show really put our guests into the action, as Captain Blackbeard and the entire crew navigate an adventurous journey that our visitors will certainly remember long after they leave,” said Jeff Thomas, General Manager of Pirates Voyage. “Families tell us how much they love experiencing all of these unique elements that are part of our show – the pirate ‘battles’ and acrobatics, amazing mermaids, cannons and pyrotechnics, the antics of our sea lions and dog, and a feast fit for a captain!”

As visitors enter the hideaway lagoon for this Dinner and Show spectacular, guests are served a hearty four-course feast straight from Captain Blackbeard’s galley that makes Pirates Voyage the most unique place to eat in the Smokies. The meal begins with voyager creamy vegetable soup and buccaneer bread. The feast fit for a pirate – or mermaid – continues with the crew’s secret recipe cracklin’ pan-fried chicken, swashbucklin’ sugar-cured ham, buttery corn on the cob and an herb-basted potato. Walk the plank specialty dessert and unlimited Coca-Cola® products, tea or coffee complete the meal. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free meals are available by request.

Show times and reservations are available by calling (865) 505-2469 or visiting our website .

Related Posts

Your Guide to Spending Spring in the Smoky Mountains

Debunking the Top Myths About Dinner Shows in Pigeon Forge

Top Tips for Visiting Pigeon Forge Dinner Shows With a Group

Family-Friendly Fun: Top Things to Do in Pigeon Forge for Kids

Recent posts.

What Makes the Dinner at Our Myrtle Beach Show Stand Out

All the Details About the New Pirates Voyage Show in Panama City Beach

MYRTLE BEACH

Pigeon forge, panama city beach, shop pirates voyage, corporate info.

© Copyright [copyright], Pirates Voyage. Items from the website, may not be used in whole or part without the expressed written consent of an officer of Pirates Voyage.