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Soup is a savoury liquid food that is made by boiling 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 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.
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Potage or pottage
"Potage" (connoting the contents of the cooking pot) denotes a soup where meat and vegetables are boiled together with water until it forms a thick soup. In Medieval and Early Modern Europe, the peasant diet consisted almost solely of potage.
Early history
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.
Thin soups became popular in Europe during the 17th century, when the spoon was invented. The spoon was designed to accommodate the new fashion of wearing large, stiff ruffles around the neck.
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
Commercial soup became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century.
Vegetable beef barley soupDessert soups
- Ginataan, Filipino soup made from coconut milk, milk, fruits and tapioca pearls, served cold.
- Oshiruko, a Japanese azuki bean soup
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 'frukt suppe' 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
A feature of East Asian soups not normally found in Western cuisine is the use of tofu in soups.
- Egg drop soup is a light Chinese soup.
- Miso soup is a light broth containing miso. It is usually served at breakfast in Japan and sometimes includes tofu, mushrooms, seaweed, or green onions.
- Pho is a Vietnamese staple noodle soup
- Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup that comes in several varieties
- Saimin is Hawaiian fresh, soft, undried egg noodles in bonito fish or shrimp broth with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean and Portuguese influences
- Thukpa is Tibetan noodle soup, that is more or less the staple (along with Butter Tea and Tsampa)
- Udon soup has thick, soft noodles in a light broth. There are many varieties with different noodles and toppings.
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)
- Callaloo - A thick, creamy soup made with okra and, often, crab meat from Trinidad and Tobago
- Clam chowder - A milkbased soup with Clams,potatoes and onions from New England,USA
- Cock-a-leekie - Leek and potato soup made with chicken stock, in Scotland
- Fanesca - A traditional cod soup from Ecuador
- Gazpacho - A cold vegetable soup from Spain
- Lentil soup -
- 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
- Solyanka - A cabbage soup from Russia
- Tarator - A Bulgarian cold soup made from yogurt and cucumbers
- Waterzooi - A Belgian fish soup
- Caldo verde - A Portuguese minced cabbage soup
- Vichyssoise - A French cold purée soup with potatoes, leeks, and cream.
Soup as a figure of speech
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.
Soup in popular culture
- 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.
Soup in other languages
- Polish - Zupa, example Zupa ogorkowa
- Dutch - Soep, example Bonensoep
- Portuguese - Sopa or caldo, example Caldo verde
- Swedish - Soppa, example Nässelsoppa
- Hungarian - Leves, example Bableves
- Hebrew - Marak, מרק
See also
- Tureen - A large soup dish
Literary reference
- 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 ion (1988). New York: Crown Publishers ISBN 0609609718
- Morton, Mark. Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (2004). Toronto: Insomniac Press ISBN 1894663667
External links
- Solley, Patricia G. (1997) Soupsong. Retrieved January 8, 2004.
- International bibliography about soups 1