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paradise soup
***Zuppa Paradiso (with beaten egg whites, breadcrumbs, Parmesan)
Originated from: Italy
Occasion: Any time
Contributed by: Taken from "Italian Cooking" by Dorothy Daly

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Ingredients

***Zuppa Paradiso

2 quarts good soup stock
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
4 eggs separated
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Pepper and salt
Nutmeg

***Mystery to be solved (see Notes)



Directions

"Bring soup to a boil, slowly add the following mixture a spoonful at a time, boil 5 to 8 minutes and serve.

Beat the egg whites till stiff, add beaten yolks and beat till well blended, add cheese, breadcrumbs."


Notes

This recipe was taken from "Italian Cooking" by Dorothy Daly. It was published in 1900 by Spring Books in Great Britain. For the complete copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org.... MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED: Dorothy Daly introduces "Zuppa Paradiso" on page 39 of her book by saying, "This recipe, given in Rose L. Sorce's 'La Cucina' is just too good not to be included." Now this may not in itself seem in anyway mysterious, but as Sorce's book was published in 1953 and Daly's book in 1900, it does seem rather impossible that an author writing in 1900 could comment on a book that was not to be published for another 53 years. The easiest explanation would be that Sorce's book "La Cucina" was published prior to 1900, now that would make a lot sense, but there is no indication in any bibliographic source available (at least on line) that "La Cucina" was published prior to 1953. To all accounts Sorce's book was a best seller in the 1950s, and it seems that it was not a reprint. If it were a reprint and the publishers failed to mention it, then it would be a windfall for those interested in copyright-free books as Sorce's "La Cucina" contains 800 Italian recipes!!!!!! There is yet another logical explanation to this mystery -- perhaps the copy scanned by www.archive.org is a later edition of Daly's book and the note inserted was not by Daly herself, but by an editor at the publishing house. This could be a reasonable scenario, except the copy scanned that appears on www.archive.org has the stamp of Boston Public Library and its Dewey Decimal number -- TX 723.D295 1900 Zx -- indicates that the date of publication was 1900. This seems to suggest to all accounts that the book scanned and is presently available on www.archive.org was printed in 1900. At this point in time I cannot solve this mystery, but I hope to do so one day. And if I can't, I pray someone else will.............. Well, after an arduous investigation a librarian at the Boston Public Library sadly solved the mystery for me. I say sadly because the solution to the mystery is not what I had anticipated and it's not to my liking!!!! It seems (The librarian is not 100 per cent sure) but all evidence suggests that a cataloging error was made in the book's call number. It's not a big error, still, it's big enough that can throw someone like me, an amateur food historian, off track. Anyway, whoever catalogued Daly's "Italian Cooking" added the date, "1900" in its call number. However, the fact is there is NO PUBLICATION DATE anywhere in the cookbook. The reference librarian currently working [September 2010] at the Boston Public Library believes the book was very likely published in the 1950s as the author, Dorothy Daly, published other cookbooks around this time. "Cooking the Italian Way" was published by Daly in 1958. This came as a big shock to me as I had assumed the book was published in 1900 thus making Dorothy Daly the first cookbook author to publish a collection of Italian recipes in the English language. Obviously, she was not the first, still, in my humble opinion, she is one of the best cookbook authors of the 20th century. As her book, "Italian Cooking," is now available for free on line at www.archive.org, anyone who is interested in Italian food can have access to her extensive knowledge of the subject. Notes and photo: Mary Melfi.

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