About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Soup

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOU : Soup

For other uses, see Soup (disambiguation)}}}.

This article is part
of the Cuisine series
Preparation techniques and cooking items
Techniques - Utensils
Weights and measures
Ingredients and types of food
Spices and Herbs
Sauces - Soups - Desserts
Cheese - Pasta - Bread
Other ingredients
Regional cuisines
Asia - Europe - Caribbean
South Asian - Latin America
Mideast - North America - Africa
See also:
Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals

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 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 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 .

Contents

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.

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 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, 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 soup
Enlarge
Vegetable beef barley soup

Dessert soups

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.

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
Enlarge
Romanian potato soup

Soup as a figure of speech

In the English language, the word "soup" has developed several phrasal uses.

Soup in popular culture

Soup in other languages

Potato soup.
Enlarge
Potato soup.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

Literary references

External links

has more about this subject:

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: