Today, we are taking a trip back to the mid-century kitchen by diving into the 1946 edition of the Joy of Cooking. I decided to tackle the winning recipe.

The original Potato Soup recipe yields about 3 cupfuls. It calls to peel and slice 2 medium-sized potatoes, skin and chop 2 medium-sized onions, and include 4 ribs of celery. Naturally, I had to make a few tweaks to suit our tastes, so I completely left out the celery.

The instructions say to boil the vegetables until the potatoes are tender. After they are cooked, the recipe instructs to thin the soup to the desired consistency with rich milk, stock, or both. The book specifically shows how to make stock. I went with the chicken stock, but I got a little heavy-handed and thinned it out way too much! Thankfully, a quick cornstarch slurry thickened it right back up beautifully. Despite the little detour, the final result was very good.

The most interesting part of this recipe actually happened away from the stove. The traditional method for this kind of vintage soup involves pushing the boiled vegetables through a tool to make a smooth puree. While reading up on vintage preparation methods, I kept seeing references to a “potato ricer.” I honestly had no idea what a potato ricer even looked like!

After a quick Google search, a lightbulb went off—I realized I had one sitting in a box down in our basement. I dug it out and discovered a genuine 1950s potato ricer that most likely belonged to Steve’s grandmother. Unfortunately, it’s currently far too rusty to actually use on our food, so it’s going to need a full restoration.

Even though I couldn’t use it for this batch of soup, I do show off this fantastic piece of family history in the companion YouTube video I made for this recipe.

Now, while the soup turned out perfectly, my resident taste-tester had some feedback about the evening’s dinner service. Steve actually really enjoyed the soup itself, but he was a little grumpy that it was served as a standalone meal. Because we had eaten a large lunch earlier in the day, a simple, comforting bowl of soup made perfect sense to me! Steve, however, helpfully suggested that I should start creating menus for him—just like they do in hospitals—so he can have choices and pick out his meals for the day.

Challenge accepted. I immediately whipped up my very own custom “hospital menu” just for him and formally presented it for his meal selections. He got a really good chuckle out of it, and I think it is safe to say the kitchen management here at Bobbi Jo’s has successfully handled all customer complaints for the week.

Be sure to check out the YouTube video to see the vintage ricer, and let me know in the comments if you still use one in your kitchen today!