As the temperature drops, there may be nothing that says “comfort” quite like sipping some hot soup. With every spoonful, you can feel the warmth radiate throughout your body. Whether you are chilled, aching, or just tired, finishing a bowl of soup is like being wrapped in a warm blanket on the inside.
It is fascinating
how this simple sustenance can be both an inexpensive meal and a gourmet dish.
It is fed to prison inmates and soldiers – and also to presidents and kings. It
exudes warmth and comfort to the family yet takes little prep and inexpensive
ingredients. Anyone can handle the straightforward cooking process – cut this,
boil that – and there are hundreds of varieties to please any palette.
It is possible to
question why we “eat” soup instead of “drink” it, since it’s a liquid. The fact
that we don’t put it in a mug is also troublesome. Isn’t soup just a hot drink?
As an important part of the meal, deserving its own course and requiring
separate utensils, soup is far beyond a beverage.
Long ago, soup was
eaten as an accompaniment to bread, which was used to soak up the liquid. When
people started eating the soup on its own, in the 1600s, they adopted the name
we know today, deriving from the Latin verb suppare,
which means “to soak.”
Soups and stews
are very similar; they both consist of a liquid combined with food solids,
simmered until ready to eat. But any cook worth her salt will insist that they
are easily distinguishable from one another (and may be highly offended if you
compliment her incorrectly). Soup is a broth with food cooked in it for flavor;
stew is made of foods cooked in a broth for tenderness. At the end of the day,
the distinction is clear: Soup is enjoyed at the beginning of a meal, while
stew is served as a main course.
From Soup
to Nuts
The phrase “from
soup to nuts” was first used in the 1850s to describe a full-course meal that
included everything from appetizers to dessert. Taken as a joke since the 1930s
(“We serve soup to nuts”), it is now used in the vernacular to refer to
anything completed from beginning to end as in “We will clean this house from
soup to nuts.”
Soup du
Jour
Many members of
royalty were known to love soup. For example, King Henry IV, who ruled France
from 1589 to 1610, would stop at local inns when traveling and request only
soup for his nourishment. This helped give him a reputation for being a ruler
who understood the everyday needs of his people. Queen Victoria, the sovereign
of England from 1837 to 1901, had to have a bowl of soup every day for lunch.
The fact that the elite enjoyed soup so much was actually the reason that
spoons as we know them today were invented.
Until the 14th
century, people just ate the solid parts of soups with their fingers (though
some preferred to spear them with their knives), and the broth was sipped
directly from the bowls. Spoons at that time were shallow, had short handles,
and were not very practical. Modern spoons developed because of changes in
French fashion. The upper class in France loved soup as much as anyone else,
but once they began to wear large lace cuffs and frilly collars, in the 16th
century, they found it challenging to emerge from a meal without dripping soup all
over their posh attire. Consequently, spoons were made to hold more liquid and
their handles were elongated to accommodate the need of the nobility to eat
soup with spilling.
Stone Soup
Boiling
ingredients expanded the number of foods available. Even though many vegetables
are inedible raw, they can be simmered to extract the vitamins they contain.
Similarly, bones, which cannot be eaten, will release their nutrients when
steeped in hot liquids. This increase in nourishment helped people escape
starvation, using sources that had previously been inaccessible. New flavors
were created in pots by combining ingredients that would not have blended
otherwise. Having just a few food items that were not usable on their own (and
perhaps a small stone, according to the famous story), meant that a nutritious
meal could be prepared for the whole family.
Soups were
essential to people traveling great distances, where food supplies would be
scarce. Soldiers, settlers, and cowboys all relied on them for their
sustenance, but as cheap as it was to make, shipping soup great distances was
very expensive. In 1897, John Durrance had the idea to remove the heaviest part
of the soup, the water, so it would be easier to ship. He created a method for
preparing “condensed soup” that could be easily reconstituted later by adding
hot water. This revolutionized the industry, making the nutrients in soup
available to the people who needed them the most.
(To set the record
straight: today’s dried soup cups are not really soup. They are basically salt
packed in styrofoam. Of course, they taste delicious, and it’s fine to eat
them, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that they are actually good for
you.)
Finding ways to
save soup for later is not limited to canning companies. At home, it is very
easy to freeze the leftovers, so you can make a pot and put half of it away for
another week. Planning ahead will make sure that you always have a bowl ready
when you want one. Or, you can share it with your friends, who will appreciate
your thoughtfulness. If you are a teacher, there is nothing like walking into the
faculty lounge to find hot soup waiting for you. Alternatively, you can just
eat the whole potful yourself and not even feel bad about it because it’s just
liquid vegetables. Soup can be your whole meal or an accompaniment; either way,
it is filling and budget-friendly.
Jewish
Penicillin
Americans eat more
than 10 billion bowls of soup every year, their favorite being chicken noodle,
which, it turns out, is actually good for you. Chicken bones contain high
amounts of histidine dipeptides, which act as antioxidants and
anti-inflammatory agents. These protect your body’s cells and reduce swelling
and pain. So, when your grandmother offers you a second helping, it’s in your
best interest to accept. (You also get bonus points for making your grandmother
happy.)
In the 12th
century, the Rambam told his patients to have broth to help them recover from
respiratory illnesses. Now, after hundreds of years of research, scientists
have finally acknowledged that he was right and that eating soup actually does
help after a cold or the flu.
Since soup is
mostly water, it is also an effective means of hydration, which is especially
important when recuperating from an illness. You can eat it even without much
of an appetite, and it will combat inflammation so that you can start to feel
more like yourself.
In a generation when
we consume most of our daily vegetables in the form of pickles and potato
chips, soup is an excellent way of getting a few more essential nutrients and
fiber into our diets (and our children’s) without really noticing. Whether
chunky or fully blended, vegetables add to your bowl’s flavor and value, as
well as prevent the onset of many common diseases. They also help boost your
body’s natural defences to fight off infections and to heal cuts faster.
Chicken
Soup for the Body
Another benefit is
a simple improvement in your eating habits. Soup stimulates digestion, helping
the body process the food we eat faster. Otherwise, our meals sit in our
stomachs, sapping our energy and taking up permanent residence on our
waistlines. It also causes us to feel more full, so we’re less inclined to take
seconds of the main course when we know we shouldn’t.
Considering the
fact that soup is easily digested, it is highly recommended for people who are
not feeling well. The truth is that the restaurant industry is based on the
concept of offering food to “restore” people’s health, so that, in the
beginning, soup was the main item on the menu. Some places even had “forever
soup,” which consisted of a pot simmering in the corner, into which additional
water and ingredients were constantly added. As such, it never ran out and was
always available to whoever was hungry.
Soup’s On!
Soup also speaks
to your inner-most self with valuable life lessons. Its slow simmer teaches
that patience is rewarded, since the full flavor only manifests after it cooks
for a long time. Soup emphasizes the power of planning ahead, encouraging us to
use time when we have it to prepare for days when our time is more limited.
Making a full pot also reminds us that we can always work out ways to share
what we have with others. Another thing it reveals is that there can be a lot
of pleasure in simple things. From soup to nuts, we can fill our winter with
homemade comfort and warmth.
Debbie
Glazer lives in Pikesville with her family and teaches language arts in Bnos
Yisroel High School. She can often be found either writing or reading and loves
to share her passion for the written word with others.
