Roma’s Dakota Tomato Soup Bread

While Roma was never above stealing someone else’s recipe and claiming it as her own to win 1st prize at a Church Supper, her recipe of Tomato Soup Bread, she admitted, was taken directly from the Campbell’s can itself.

There is just something about Tomato Soup Bread and the way it could spice up any North Dakota spread of potluck dishes. It certainly wasn't elegant or refined. And it wasn't even all that tasty. It was just plain expected, a time-honored tradition served up in any church basement.

If they were going to be serving up funeral hotdish and hard rolls, then you can darn well betcha that there would be a few loaves of Roma's Tomato Soup Bread. It was what you could call an enduring classic, a traditional staple. And in the ways of honoring tradition, Roma stepped up to give the masses what they expected. This way, everyone walked away not criticizing those hard-working church basement cooks all the way up to Sunday morning's mass.

And while everyone tried to believe Roma when she said that her recipe was right from the soup can, there was lingering doubt. As Effie Rogowski used to say: “Uff da, Roma, if ya don’t make the darndest bezt Zoup Bread. What’s yer secret?”

And Roma would reply: “If it ain’t goin' broke, Effie, don’t go a’fixin’ it. I just go offen the can like all youse guys.” Saying this, all the while knowing that her generous pour of Hooch into the batter would never hurt a thing at any church event. It’s funny how a little bit of something extra makes life a whole lot better.

You have to remember; Roma was one of those gals who none of the other ladies wanted to play Whist with on Saturday nights. Why? Because Roma always won the hand. Was she just lucky? I don’t know, but I always suspected that Roma had an ace or three hidden in her apron pocket. Just like I used to suspect that all of Roma’s recipes had that little extra "giddy up" that she wasn’t about to share. And if she did tell? Well, I’m not so sure it was the truth that she was sharing.

The Art of . . .

Roma had a way with cards and cooking. And her star ingredient? Hooch. I can still see her at the red vinyl-topped card table that she and the other church cooks would set up outside the kitchen door in the church basement. Cigarettes lit and using empty green bean cans for ashtrays, jelly jars of Hooch being refilled: the scene was set. At the time, I didn’t realize that I was serving witness to several different art forms – all of which were completely lost on me as a child.

• The Art of Cooking when you didn’t have access to a whole lot of fresh ingredients due to being holed up during a blizzard and you couldn’t get to town.

• The Art of Cards that extolled the virtue of shuffling time-worn cards while pulling off a We-Be-Cheat move or two, despite the cards’ stickiness.

• The Art of Gab that went beyond simple B.S. The Gab that paid homage to the subtlety of time passing while preserving times gone by. Times that could no longer be retrieved – having started over in a new country, a new lay of the land, a new culture that couldn’t fully comprehend what had been left behind.

Times change and we with time, but not in the ways of cooking, cheating at cards, and enlivening a church supper with a hint of Hooch.

I wish I had paid better attention when the ladies were gabbing about this or that. Listened more closely and recorded the stories. Kept track of the ingredients going into those time-tested recipes and watched the shuffle of the cards with a better eye. I might have picked up some good tricks from Roma and her posse.

A Rite of Passage

All girls growing up in North Dakota were required to learn how to make Roma's Tomato Soup Bread in 9th grade Home Economics class. Traditionally served at the school’s Annual Mother-Daughter Fashion Show, we girls were required to bake this classic bread the day before the show and then serve it to our mothers after modeling the wonky aprons we had learned to sew.

Intuiting that the soup was being used entirely out of savory-to-sweet context, we girls would groan and say "Ewwww!" when plopping the can of soup into the batter. The mothers –having been raised by their mothers who shared Roma’s culinary talents – literally scarfed down the bread like a flock of gulls in a diner’s parking lot. While we girls didn’t have access to Roma’s secret pour of Hooch, the bread was a big hit with the mothers all the same.

It was suggested by Mrs. Budd that we pour the batter into the empty tomato soup cans for a spin on novelty. Admittedly, the weirdness of tomato soup being baked into bread aside, the cylindrical ribbed loaves looked pretty cute.

And guaranteed: If you make Tomato Soup Bread once, you will remember the experience. How can something that sounds so wrong actually taste pretty good?

So, honor these North Dakota roots and buy some Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Make this bread with a friend and have a bonding experience. It’s a hoot! Bon appétit or as Roma would say, “Belly up to the bar and keep one foot on the floor when reaching for the butter.”

Note: If you don’t want to mess with the soup cans – which other cooks have said to be messy and not quite as picture-perfect as the Web site shows – use a muffin tin. The batter is just as tasty and you won’t have the curse-inducing mess of getting your bread out of the cans or having to clean your oven from any volcanic overflow. Some bakers remarked that the new pull tab cans can make removing the loaves a nightmare.

What You'll Need

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground ground cloves

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell’s® Condensed Tomato Soup

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon orange zest

How to Make It

1 Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray 7 empty Campbell's® (10 3/4 ounce) soup cans with vegetable cooking spray.

2 Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, baking soda and cloves in a medium bowl. Add the soup, shortening, eggs and water. Beat until mixed, using an electric mixer at low speed. Spoon into the prepared cans and place them on a baking sheet.

3 Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool in the cans on wire racks. Remove the cakes from the cans.

4 Mix the confectioners' sugar, orange juice and orange zest in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle the tops and sides of the cakes with the icing. Top with additional orange zest, chopped nuts or red candied cherries cut in "leaves", if desired.

Recipe and image taken from Campbell’s Soup Company’s Web site:http://www.campbellskitchen.com/recipes/spiced-tomato-soup-cancakes-25030

There you have it: Roma's Dakota Tomato Soup Bread. You may find that making this recipe proves to be a cultural experience: your very own taste of Americana. At the very least, reading the Ratings & Reviews on the website for this recipe is, as Roma would say, a bit of a hoot. Enjoy!

Dakota winters came and go, silver tracks remain just there

And each few years more neighbors left, seeking changes in the setting.

– Clarence Holm