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Mitzapuny Soup is unpretentious comfort in a bowl. It fills the stomach and satisfies the soul. There won’t be any beauty awards given for Mitzapuny Soup. But if you are looking for something that is easy to make and will ward off any damp or chill, then look no further. I came across it in my Jewish Holiday Cookbook by Gloria Kaufer Greene. It’s a wonderful cookbook with great recipes and stories. While out of print, it is available online if you look for it. I have made a few adjustments to her recipe. But don’t I always?!

The name comes from the Yiddish word martzpunis, which over the years has come to mean something special or extraordinary. Origins of words and how they morph over time is an interesting topic for a doctoral thesis and martzapunis would be right up there. Apparently, it was the name of some exotic fruit, which of course would be rather extraordinary in some shtetl in the Pale of Settlement. I can’t even find it on Google!

This meaty, split pea, bean and barley soup uses ingredients that would have mostly been available in the dead of winter. And if meat was scarce and your purse was almost empty, the frugal housewives made Mitzapuny with beef bones that the butcher would give you for nothing or just a kopeck or two. Try finding soup bones today that don’t cost as much as actual meat!

While you could make this soup completely meatless, you would really need to up the ante with the onions, salt and pepper. I would also probably add a turnip in addition to the carrots and celery and would cook this in a vegetable stock instead of plain water.

However you choose to make this soup, now that winter has settled in for the next several months in most of the Northern Hemisphere, make a big pot soon. Serve it with your favorite bread or rolls and gather in your friends and family for a big bowl of old-fashioned comfort food. And give everyone a good laugh while you are at it when you tell them the name.

I served our Mitzapuny with a dark pumpernickel that I baked earlier in the day.

Recipe

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

12 cups of water (You could use part beef or vegetable broth, although it was unlikely that would have been how my grandmother made it.)

2 to 3 pounds of soup meat (I like beef shank or short ribs, but my grandmother might have used deckel or flanken, trimmed of most visible fat. The bones in the shank and short ribs add flavor and in the case of the shank – marrow.)

1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped

4 to 5 large, fat carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks or rounds

2 celery stalks, thinly sliced

1.5 cups of green split peas, sorted

1 cup dried lima beans, sorted (baby lima beans, regular or Christmas Lima Beans, which is what I had on hand)

1/2 cup hulled barley (you could use pearled barley but it is not as nutritious nor as flavorful IMHO

Kosher salt to taste (you can always add more but you can’t remove it!) How much you use will also depend on whether you: salted your beef (or bought kosher meat) and if you used salted broth or stock vs. plain water

Freshly cracked black pepper

Directions

If you did not buy Kosher meat, I highly recommend that you liberally salt the meat you did purchase overnight in the fridge, covered or in a plastic bag. This not only keeps in the flavor of the meat but will prevent it from drying out.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place your beef shank or other meat, meat side up on a foil covered pan. Sprinkle with fresh-cracked black pepper. There is no need to add salt if you salted your meat overnight or if you are using kosher meat. Roast for 15 minutes. Then turn the meat over and roast for 12 more minutes. Turn them on their side and roast for about 8 to 10 more minutes or until well-browned. Set aside.

You can brown the meat in the pot instead of in the oven. However, I find this a tedious process and one that invariably spatters grease all over my stove. I also find that when I brown the meat in the oven, I really don’t have to skim the soup liquid – another tedious process. And almost all of the excess fat remains on the foil which I simply discard, instead of either having to clean the pot in between or later skim off.

Place the lovely, roasted meat into the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed pot (6 or 7 quart enameled cast iron is best.) Rinse very well the split peas, beans and barley. Then add them and all of the remaining ingredients into the pot with the meat.

Cover everything in the pot with your liquid of choice. You want the liquid to be about 2-inches above the other ingredients.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 hours, checking occasionally to make sure that your liquid hasn’t all evaporated. You can add additional liquid to keep things from drying out. By this time, the split peas have become mush and the beans, barley and meat are tender.

The soup should be thick and will continue to thicken as it sits. The barley will add a creamy thickness to the soup. Exactly how thick you like your soup is between you and you.

If you made the soup ahead and are reheating it, you will likely need to add some additional liquid. This soup does freeze well so don’t be afraid to make a big batch. Winter has only just begun!