We recently had our first big winter snowfall, after enjoying a pretty mild start to the season. The snow and cold weather have me craving warm and cozy comfort food, so I thought this might be a good time to try out another gravestone recipe—Chicken Soup!

This gravestone recipe comes from the tombstone of Valerie C. Volpe, of West Seneca, New York. I’m not sure exactly where Volpe is laid to rest, but her pink granite gravestone topped with an open book design features her chicken soup recipe in her own handwriting. I thought that was a beautiful touch. 

The recipe, inscribed on the open book is laid out like a recipe card and even has her signature. In life, Volpe was co-owner of Valerie’s Family Restaurant where she not only fed her family but her community as well.¹

The epitaph reads: “Beloved Daughter, Mother / Wife, Grandmother, / Sister, Aunt & Friend / Valerie C. Volpe / She was a lady raised by a lady / Apr. 18, 1947 / Sep. 10, 2016”

Unfortunately, the only photo I could find of the gravestone is not the highest resolution, so the handwriting is a bit hard to make out. I did my best to transcribe the recipe, as inscribed on the gravestone. Here is the recipe:

Recipe for Chicken Soup

From the kitchen of Mommy

• 1 Perdue oven stuffer
• Cut in 10 pieces
• 1 small Parsnip
• 1 small Turnip
• 2 stalks Celery
• 4 Carrots
• Parsley —
• Dill —

This makes 1 large pot or 2 — pots / Clean chicken. Cover with / cold water — / Celery, Carrots, parsnip – turnip / Bring to a boil — / — / — / — / Cook about 2 1/2 hours.  / Valeria C. Volpe

Since I had such a hard time reading the recipe from the photo, I went by this recipe description from Billion Graves:

“Cut an “oven stuffer” into 10 pieces. Place in a pot. Rinse and cover with cold water. Add salt. Cut up 1 small parsnip, 4 carrots, 1 turnip, and 2 stalks of celery. Add to the pot and bring to a boil. Sprinkle with dill. Cook for 2 1/2 hours and then remove the bones. Top with chopped parsley when ready to serve.”

This is one of the more detailed recipes I have made so far, so once I had the above instructions I didn’t have too much to decipher to make it. The recipe does call for a Perdue oven stuffer, which I did have to look up. A Perdue “oven stuffer” is an American brand, of fresh whole chicken. These chickens, also called roasters, are older chickens and usually weigh between 5 and 7 pounds. I made a shopping trip specifically for the ingredients of this recipe and although we don’t have Perdue brand in Canada, I was able to find a fresh chicken that would work for my needs. 

I have trimmed a roasted chicken before, but trimming a fresh chicken was new for me. I didn’t end up using 10 pieces of the chicken, as the thighs, wings, drumsticks, and chicken breasts were more than enough. I was also worried about smaller bones being lost in the soup and causing a choking hazard, so I was happy to have just some larger bones in the pot. 

I should note that this was my first time making soup from scratch! Aside from getting the chicken ready, this soup is pretty simple with hearty ingredients. 

Once the soup was at a boil I lowered the heat to medium and let it simmer for 2 1/2 hours, checking on it now and then to stir. I will admit I did need to add water periodically as it boiled off leaving more of a stew at times. I made sure to re-season the pot every time I added fresh water, but in the end, I still needed to season it when it was ready to serve. I’m not sure if that was supposed to happen, or if I didn’t really need to let the pot simmer for that long, but in the end, the soup still turned out. I was of course mindful of making sure the chicken was cooked through.

Since it took so long to prepare, I didn’t have soup for supper that night, but I did make sure to do a taste test after removing the bones. It wasn’t as seasoned as I would have liked, but the cozy warm chicken soup taste is unmistakeable. I ended up enjoying a bowl for lunch the next day.

This one was a little tricky for me, and I would tweak the cooking time if I were to make it again. This recipe took me out of my cooking comfort zone. I think I would prefer to stick to sweet gravestone treats, but at least I tried.

Have you made this recipe before? Do you make soup from scratch often? I would appreciate any tips in the comments! 

Thanks for reading!

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References:

1. Gravestone recipes so good they are set in stone | Billion Graves