Soup Basics Soup

Is an important part of every culture’s cuisine; its variations could fill several books (and have! Two good books on soups are Splendid Soups by James Peterson and Soup, A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka). Soup is the most basic of dishes. When meat, fish, vegetables, or grains are cooked in plenty of water, much of the flavor ends up in the water—which is why boiling is rarely a first-choice cooking method. But food’s loss is water’s gain—that flavorful liquid is broth, or stock, the simplest of soups. Originally the word soupe or sops described a hot broth poured on or combined with bread—the bread being the sopping vehicle. Soupe and sops are also the root of the word supper. When I was growing up on a ranch in Colorado, the big meal of the day was lunch. Supper, which was the last meal of the day before bed, was often something “soupy” or “stewy,” a simple one-dish meal that was easily digested. Amy Mintzer, who is my collaborator and confidant on this book, recalls that when she went to summer camp as a girl they also served the big meal at lunch with some kind of soup for dinner. The unimpressed campers called the dinner soup “cream of lunch”!