Parks Canada Heritage Gourmet Recipes

Marm Bailey’s Moose Muffle Soup

This tasty soup has been revised for contemporary cooks, using lamb and pork instead of the moose muffle. See the original version below!

Origin: Fort Anne National Historic Site
Region: Atlantic (Nova Scotia)
Period: 19th century
Course: Soups and Starters

Bailey House
© Annapolis Heritage Society Archives

This 200-year old recipe is attributed to Marm Bailey, who served the soup in Annapolis Royal in the 1800s. Marm Bailey’s husband, Thomas Bailey, was an officer posted at Fort Anne. After his death, she opened a boarding house and dining establishment on Lower Saint George Street. It was there that she started serving her world-famous Moose Muffle Soup. Folks came from miles around to have a bowl, and Marm Bailey even bottled the soup and exported it to England.

Marm Bailey’s boarding house is now an inn known as “The Bailey House” and is pictured above. In 2006, for the first time in 150 years, Moose Muffle Soup was served again in Annapolis Royal. The historical association there staged a re-enactment at the inn, and 30 lucky diners ate this special soup in Marm Bailey’s old dining room, using her old silver spoons.

Marm Bailey’s Moose Muffle Soup

Ingredients

• 3 lamb shanks
• 1 pork hock
• 12 meatballs (use your own meatball recipe to put your signature on the recipe)
• 2 - 3 onions, chopped
• Yolks of 12 hard-boiled eggs
• 2-3 tbsp | 30-45 ml ketchup
• Marjoram, cloves, cayenne, thyme, salt and pepper
• 1 bottle of port

Directions

• Place lamb shanks and pork hock in a large pot/cauldron. Add water to pot/cauldron so that it rises 3 inches above the lamb shanks and the pork hock. Bring the water to a boil and let it boil vigorously for 45 minutes. Reduce to a simmer and let the shanks and pork hock cook for 3 hours. All the juices, flavours and gelatin will combine to make a wonderful broth. Remove the shanks and hock from the pot. Cool and remove the meat from the bones. Chop the meat into small pieces and place the meat back in the broth.
• Add the meatballs to the cauldron, the hard-boiled yolks and the ketchup. Sauté the chopped onions and add to broth. Add marjoram, cloves, thyme, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Add 1 bottle of port. Bring the soup back to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer on low for about one hour.
• Fill a serving tureen with the moose muffle soup and ladle into large soup bowls. Serve with thick homemade bread and a glass of red wine.
• The original recipe (below) appears in “The Romance of Old Annapolis Royal,” written by Charlotte Isabella Perkins and published by the Historical Association of Annapolis Royal in 1934. It has been adapted by Alan Melanson, a Parks Canada interpreter at Fort Anne National Historic Site.
• 1 moose nose
• 1 knuckle of veal
• 12 meatballs (use your own meatball recipe to put your signature on the recipe)
• 2 - 3 onions, chopped
• Yolks of 12 hard boiled eggs
• 2-3 tbsp catsup
• Marjoram, cloves, cayenne, thyme, and salt (to taste, depending on size of moose nose)
• 1 bottle of port
• Remove all hair off the moose nose, using pliers to remove larger bristles. Thoroughly rinse and clean the moose nose, and place moose nose in a large cauldron (size of cauldron depends on size of moose nose). Add water to cauldron so that it rises 3 inches above the moose nose. Bring the water to a boil and let it boil vigorously for 45 minutes. Reduce to a simmer for the morning and most of the afternoon. In this manner all the juices, flavours and gelatinous substances will combine to make a wonderful broth.
• Remove moose nose from cauldron and pull the meat off the nose. Chop the moose nose meat into small pieces and place the meat in the broth. Add all remaining ingredients to the cauldron and simmer on a low heat for about 3 hours.
• Ladle into large soup bowls and serve with thick homemade bread and a glass of red wine.

Credits

Recipe tested by Chef Scott Warrick, Algonquin College of Hospitality and Tourism

The original recipe (below) appears in “The Romance of Old Annapolis Royal,” written by Charlotte Isabella Perkins and published by the Historical Association of Annapolis Royal in 1934. It has been adapted by Alan Melanson, a Parks Canada interpreter at Fort Anne National Historic Site.