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Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth.

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.

One of the first types of soups can be dated to about 6000 BC. Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers (which probably came in the form of pouches made of clay or animal skin) about 9,000 years ago.

History

The word soup originates from "sop", a dish originally consisting of a soup or thick stew which was soaked up with pieces of bread. The modern meaning of sop has been limited to just the bread intended to be dipped.

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 The 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.

Commercial soup

Commercial soup became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century, and today a great variety of canned and dried soups are on the market. Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist with the Campbell Soup Company invented condensed soup in 1897. Today, Campbell's Tomato, Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle soups are three of the most popular soups in America. Americans consume approximately 2.5 billion bowls of these three soups alone each year. Canned Italian-style soups, such as minestrone are also popular.

Canned soup can be condensed, in which case it is prepared by adding water (or sometimes milk), or it can be ready-to-eat, meaning that it only needs to be warmed. Canned soup can be prepared by heating in a pan or in the microwave. The soups are often used as a simple base for homemade soups, with the consumer adding anything from a few vegetables to eggs, cream and pasta.

Condensing soup allowed the soup to be packed into a smaller can and sold at lower prices than other canned soups. The soup is usually doubled in volume by adding "a can full" of water or milk (about 10 ounces).

In recent years, the canned soup market has exploded with so-called "ready-to-eat" soups, which require no additional water to make. Microwaveable bowls have expanded the ready-to-eat canned soup market even more. The plastic microwaveable bowls offer convenience in the workplace and are popular lunch items.

Oriental-style soup mixes containing ramen noodles are marketed as an inexpensive instant lunch, requiring only hot water for preparation. Vegetable, chicken base, potato, pasta and cheese soups are also available in dry mix form, ready to be served by adding hot water.

Nutritional developments

• Salt - In response to concern over the health effects of excessive salt intake soup manufacturers have introduced reduced-salt versions of popular soups.
• Trans fat - Concern over coronary heart disease has led soup manufacturers to eliminate trans fats from their soups.

Types of soup

Dessert soups

• Ginataan, Filipino soup made from coconut milk, milk, fruits and tapioca pearls, served hot or cold.
• Oshiruko, a Japanese azuki bean soup
• Tong sui, a collective term for Chinese sweet soups.
• Fruit soups (see below)

Fruit soups

Fruit soups are served warm or cold depending on the recipe. Many recipes are for cold soups served when fruit is in season during hot weather. Some like Norwegian fruktsuppe may be served warm and rely on dried fruit such as raisins and prunes and so could be made in any season. Fruit soups may include milk or cream, sweet or savoury dumplings, spices, or alcoholic beverages such as brandy or champagne. Cherry soup is made with table wine and/or port.

Cold fruit soups are common in Scandinavian, Baltic and Eastern European cuisines while hot fruit soups with meat appear in Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Chinese cuisines. Cold fruit soups include krentjebrij.

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. The exception is cold fruit soups that are savory rather than (or in addition to) sweet. Examples:

• Winter melon soup is a Chinese soup, usually with a chicken stock base. It is a savory soup, often including other vegetables and mushrooms. Technically, the winter melon is a fruit, since it is a seed bearing body, but in practical use, it is a vegetable. Winter melon soup is often presented as a whole winter melon, filled with stock, vegetables and meat, that has been steamed for hours. The skin is decoratively cut, so that what is presented is a decorative centerpiece, smaller than a medicine ball, larger than a soccer ball, filled with soup. The flesh of the melon is scooped out with the soup.

• Gazpacho (from Spain) is a savory soup based on tomato, a New World fruit.

Cold soups

Cold soups are a particular variation on the traditional soup, wherein the temperature when served is kept at or below room temperature. They may be sweet or savory. In summer, sweet cold soups can form part of a dessert tray.

Asian soups

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 are eaten and drunk as much for their flavour as well as for their health benefits.

Traditional regional soups

• Ajiaco - A chicken soup from Colombia
• Avgolemono - A Greek chicken soup with lemon and egg
• Bajajou - A soup of Slovakian origin. Ingredients include boiled cow intestines, chicken egg, onion and rice.
• Bird's nest soup is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
• Borscht - A beet-vegetable soup originally from Ukraine and Russia.
• Bouillabaisse - A fish soup from Marseille (Southern France. Also made in other Mediterranean regions. In Catalonia it is called Bullebesa.
• Bourou-Bourou - A vegetable & pasta soup from the island of Easter Island, Greece
• Bisque - A thick, creamy, highly-seasoned soup, classically of pureed crustaceans, of French origin.
• Canja de Galinha- A Portuguese soup of chicken, rice and lemon.
• Caldo verde - A Portuguese minced cabbage soup
• Callaloo - A thick, creamy soup made with okra and, often, crab meat from Trinidad and Tobago
• Cock-a-leekie - Leek and potato soup made with chicken stock, from Scotland
• Clam chowder - two major types, New England Clam Chowder, made with potatoes and cream, and Manhattan Clam Chowder, made with a tomato base.
• Cullen Skink - A fish soup made with Smoked Haddock, potatoes, onions and cream from Scotland
• Egg drop soup, a savory Chinese soup made from cracking eggs into boiling water or broth.
• Etrog, a fruit soup made up from the citron used in Jewish Ritual at the feast of Succoth, is eaten by Ashkenazi Jews at Tu Bishvat.
• Maryland Crab Soup - A soup made of vegetables, blue crab, and Old Bay Seasoning in a tomato base. From Maryland, USA.
• Faki soupa - A Greek lentil soup, with carrots, olive oil, herbs and possibly tomato sauce or vinegar.
• Fanesca - A traditional cod soup from Ecuador
• Fasolada - Traditional Greek bean soup
• Fufu and Egusi soup - A traditional soup from Nigeria made with vegetables, meat, fish, and balls of ground melon seed
• Goulash- A Hungarian soup of beef, paprika and onion.
• Gumbo - A traditional Creole soup from the American South, thickened with okra pods.
• Íslensk Kjötsúpa - Traditional Icelandic meat soup made with lamb and vegetables.
• Kharcho - A Georgian soup of lamb, rice, vegetables and a highly spiced boullion.
• Lagman - A traditional Uzbek soup of pasta, vegetables, ground lamb and numerous spices.
• Lan Sikik - A Thai soup made with noodle, dried fish and tomato extract.
• Lentil soup - A soup popular in the Middle East and Mediterranean.
• Leek soup - A simple soup made from Leeks popular in Wales during St. David's Day
• Menudo - A traditional Mexican soup with tripe and hominy.
• Minestrone - An Italian vegetable soup
• Miso soup - A Japanese soup made from fish broth and fermented soy
• Mulligatawny Soup - An Anglo-Indian curried soup
• Noodle soup - A very diverse collection
• Patsás - A Greek tripe soup

• Snert - A thick pea soup, eaten in the Netherlands as a winter dish, traditionally served with sliced sausage. Also known as erwtensoep.
• Philadelphia Pepper Pot Soup - A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specialty, traditionally made with tripe.
• Psarosoupa - A Greek fish soup. There are various versions of it and could be made with a variety of fish types.
• Phở- A Vietnamese beef/chicken soup with scallion, welsh onion, cherred ginger, wild coriander (Eryngium foetidum), basil, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and black cardamom.
• Revithia - A Greek chickpea soup
• Scotch Broth
• She-crab soup - from Charleston, South Carolina, a creamy soup made with blue crab meat and crab roe.
• Shchav, a sorrel soup in Polish, Russian and Yiddish cuisines
• Solyanka - A cabbage soup from Russia
• Sour soup (fish soup) - A Vietnamese dish made with rice, fish, various vegetables, and in some cases pineapple.
• Tarator - A Bulgarian cold soup made from yogurt and cucumbers
• Trahana soup, from Greece
• Tomato soup (pomidorowa) - Traditional polish soup made of tomato concentrate
• Vichyssoise - A French-style soup invented by a French chef at the Ritz Hotel in NYC. French cold purée soup with potatoes, leeks, and cream.
• Waterzooi - A Belgian fish soup
• Żurek - A Polish wheat soup with sausages often served in a bowl made of bread.

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.
• "Soup legs" is an informal or slang term used by athletes to describe fatigue or exhaustion.
• "Stone soup" is a popular children's fable.
• Duck soup is a term to describe a task that is particularly easy.
• Word soup refers to any collection of words that is ostensibly incomprehensible.
• Tag soup further refers to poorly coded HTML
• Soup Fire! can be used an expression of surprise.

See also

• Tureen - A large soup dish
• List of soups
• Cold Soup

Literary references

• Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (2002). New York: Free Press ISBN 0-7432-2644-5
• Larousse Gastronomique, Jennifer Harvey Lang, ed. American Edition (1988). New York: Crown Publishers ISBN 0-609-60971-8
• Morton, Mark. Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities (2004). Toronto: Insomniac Press ISBN 1-894663-66-7
• The Mighty Boosh. Soup, Soup, A Tasty Soup, Soup (2005).

References

1. Rastelli, Robert. (January 12, 2005) The Star-Ledger. Soup 101 First, take an onion, and then make something that will warm the soul. Section: Savor; Page 33.
2. ^ Campbell's: Our Company, History
3. About Nissin Foods
4. Hurley, J. and Liebman, B. Soups: The Middle Ground. Nutrition Action December 1997.
5. A TASTE OF PHILADELPHIA; In Hoagieland, They Accept No Substitutes - New York Times

• Soups