Judy Youngdoff and I email back and forth quite a bit, and one day she mentioned making "Hamburg Soup." Never heard of it, so I asked her for the recipe.

I call what she sent me a "cook's recipe." It's a recipe from a seasoned cook. Judy gives you the basics, and you use your own cooking skills to recreate a delicious dish.

She wrote back ""Just an old family recipe for vegetable soup........my grandmother made it, my mother made it and I've made it a lot through the years......our version of 'comfort food.'"

 

Hamburg Soup

1. 2 lbs extra lean ground beef, crumbled and simmered awhile. 

2. You need to add liquid after you put the meat into the pot.  I sometimes I just use water, sometimes beef broth, and sometimes as mixture of both, depending on what I happen to have.  (Always used to use just plain water..............adding tomato-something near the end of cooking adds more flavor to the broth.) 

3. Add sliced carrots, diced onions, a handful of barley, and diced celery. After simmering that for a while,  toss in a bit of pasta (rice, mini pasta of some sort, or whatever you happen to  have on hand.) 

4. Finally, a can of petite diced tomatoes, or tomato juice, sauce, or whatever you have. 

Keeps well, is even better the next day, and freezes well.  If you make it a day ahead and let it cool, you can easily pick off any grease that has floated to the top.