Soup
Soup is a
savoury liquid
food that is made by combining ingredients, such as
meat,
vegetables and
beans in
stock or hot
water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a
broth. Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of
waterproof containers (which probably came in the form of pouches made of animal skin) about 5,000 years ago, so soups presumably were little-known before that time.
Over the centuries, the terms
gruel and
potage have become separated from
broth and
stock (and their refinement,
consommé). The language may have shifted over time, but the modern definitions of soup and
stew were established in the
18th century: soups usually are more liquid; stews are thicker, containing more solid ingredients. Stews are cooked in covered containers for longer periods of time, at a gentle boil with less water and at a lower heat.
Traditionally, soups are classified into two broad groups:
clear soups and
thick soups. The established
French classifications of clear soups are
bouillon and
consommé. Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used:
purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch;
bisques are made from puréed
shellfish thickened with
cream; cream soups are thickened with
béchamel sauce; and
veloutés are thickened with
eggs,
butter and cream. Other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include
rice,
flour, and
grain.
The word
soup originates from the
Teutonic word
suppa, which refers to a
Medieval dish consisting of a thick stew poured on slices of
bread, called
sop, used to soak up the liquid. Often described as
potages,
French onion soup is an example of a modern soup that retains this bread
sop.
The word
restaurant was first used in
France in the
16th century, to describe a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup, sold by street vendors called
restaurer, that was advertised as an
antidote to physical
exhaustion. In
1765, a
Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in
restaurers. This prompted the use of the modern word
restaurant to describe the shops.
In
America, the first
colonial cookbook was published by William Parks in
Williamsburg, Virginia in
1742, based on Eliza Smith's
Compleat Housewife; or Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion and it included several recipes for soups and bisques. A
1772 cookbook,
The Frugal Housewife, contained an entire chapter on the topic. English cooking dominated early colonial cooking; but as new
immigrants arrived from other countries, other national soups gained popularity. In particular,
German immigrants living in
Pennsylvania were famous for their
potato soups. In
1794, Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien, a
refugee from the
French Revolution, opened an eating establishment in
Boston called
Restorator, and became known as "The Prince of Soups". The first American cooking
pamphlet dedicated to soup recipes was written in
1882 by Emma Ewing:
Soups and Soup Making.
Portable soup was devised in the
18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick,
resinous syrup was left that could be dried and stored for months at a time. The
Japanese
miso is an example of a concentrated soup paste.
Today, according to the
Campbell Soup Company,
chicken noodle soup is one of the most popular soups in America. It is considered by many an effective remedy for the
common cold, and is sometimes referred to as "
Jewish penicillin" (a reference to the
stereotypical fondness of American Jews for chicken soup).
Commercial soup became popular with the invention of
canning in the
19th century.
 |
Vegetable beef barley soup |
Dessert soups
*
Ginataan, Filipino soup made from
coconut milk, milk, fruits and
tapioca pearls, served cold.
*
Oshiruko, a Japanese
azuki bean soup
* Cool Strawberry Soup, a cool creamy mix of strawberries & cream
Fruit soups
Fruit soups are served hot or cold depending on the recipe. Many recipes are for cold soups served when fruit was in season during hot weather. Some like
Norwegian 'fruktsuppe' may be served hot and rely on dried fruit such as
raisins and
prunes and so could be made in any season. Fruit soups may include milk, sweet or savoury dumplings,
spices, or
alcoholic beverages like brandy or champagne.
Cold fruit soups are most common in Scandinavian, Baltic and Eastern European cuisines while hot fruit soups with meat appear in Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Chinese cuisines. Fruit soups are uncommon or absent in the cuisines of the Americas, Africa and Western Europe. They are also not seen in Japan, Southeast Asia or Oceania.
*
Winter melon soup is a Chinese dish that is not particularly sweet, as this melon is low in natural sugars.
*
Sour soup (
fish soup) is a
Vietnamese dish made with rice, fish, various vegetables, and in some cases
pineapple.
Asian soups
Main article: Asian soup
A feature of East Asian soups not normally found in Western cuisine is the use of
tofu in soups. Many traditional East Asian soups are typically broths,
clear soups, or
starch thickened soups. Many soups were eaten and drunk as much for their flavour as well as for their heath benefits.
Traditional regional soups
 |
Romanian potato soup |
*
Avgolemono - A
Greek chicken soup with
lemon and
egg*
Borscht - A
beet soup from
Eastern Europe*
Bouillabaisse - A
fish soup from
Marseille (Southern
France)
*
Caldo verde - A
Portuguese minced
cabbage soup
*
Callaloo - A thick, creamy soup made with
okra and, often,
crab meat from
Trinidad and Tobago*
Clam chowder - A
milk-based soup with
clams,
potatoes, and
onions from
New England,
USA*
Cock-a-leekie -
Leek and
potato soup made with
chicken stock, in
Scotland*
La Sopa de Pene - Colloquially referred to as "cock soup", the soup is primarily made by boiling a bull's
penis. Usually seasoned with
white pepper and traditionally topped with
soft cheeses. Eaten in
Ecuador during summer and early autumn. The soup is usually eaten for boys who are going through a
coming of age ceremony.
*
Maryland Crab Soup - A soup made of vegetables,
blue crab, and
Old Bay Seasoning. From
Maryland,
USA.
*
Fanesca - A traditional
cod soup from
Ecuador*
Fufu and
Egusi soup - A traditional soup from
Ghana made with vegetables, meat, fish, and balls of wheat gluten
*
Gazpacho - A cold
vegetable soup from
Spain*
Goulash- A
hungarian soup of
beef,
paprika and
onion.
*
Lentil soup -
*
Menudo - A traditional
Mexican soup with
tripe and
hominy.
*
Minestrone - An
Italian vegetable soup
*
Mulligatawny Soup - An
Anglo-Indian curried soup
*
Scotch Broth*
Snert - A thick
pea soup, eaten in the
Netherlands as a
winter dish
*
Shchav, a
sorrel soup in Polish, Russian and Yiddish cuisines
*
Solyanka - A
cabbage soup from
Russia*
Tarator - A Bulgarian cold soup made from
yogurt and
cucumbers
*
Vichyssoise - A
French cold purée soup with
potatoes,
leeks, and
cream.
*
Waterzooi - A
Belgian fish soup
In the English language, the word "soup" has developed several phrasal uses.
*
Alphabet soup is a term often used to describe a large amount of acronyms used by an administration, and has its roots in a common tomato-based soup containing pasta shaped in the letters of the
alphabet.
*
Primordial soup is a term used to describe the organic mixture leading to the development of life.
* A
soup kitchen is a place that serves prepared food of any kind to the homeless.
*
Pea soup describes a thick or dense fog.
* "
Stone soup" is a popular children's fable.
*
Duck soup is a term to describe a task that is paticularily easy
* Shrimp Gumbo is a kind of soup as spoken of by Benjamin Buford Blue
*
Andy Warhol is well known for his signature cans of
Campbell Soup.
* The
Soup Nazi was a memorable character and episode in the popular
comedy television series Seinfeld.
* The
Soup Dragon was a character in the UK children's television series
The Clangers, after whom the rock group
The Soup Dragons was named.
* The main characters of the BBC's
The Mighty Boosh have a very healthy interest in soup. Especially
Miso, the Oriental Prince in the Land of Soup.
*The
Dead Kennedys have a song called "
Soup is Good Food."
*
Tureen - A large soup dish
*
List of soups*Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe.
Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (2002). New York: Free Press ISBN 0743226445
Larousse Gastronomique, Jennifer Harvey Lang, ed. American Edition (1988). New York: Crown Publishers ISBN 0609609718
*Morton, Mark.
Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (2004). Toronto: Insomniac Press ISBN 1894663667
*Solley, Patricia G. (1997)
Soupsong. Retrieved January 8, 2004.
* International bibliography about soups [
1]
