Aliza Green - The Soupmakers Kitchen: How to Save Your Scraps, Prepare a Stock, and Craft the Perfect Pot of Soup

2013 by Quarry Books

Text 2013 Aliza Green

First published in the United States of America in 2013 by

Quarry Books, a member of

Quayside Publishing Group

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Digital edition published in 2013

Digital Edition: 978-1-61058-775-4
Softcover Edition: 978-1-59253-844-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

Design: Sporto

Photography: Steve Legato, stevelegato.com

SOUP, BEAUTIFUL SOUP, is the most basic of cooked foods, the universal cure-all, the best way to use small amounts of food that might otherwise be discarded, and is a dish that can always be stretched to feed one more.

Soupmaking is associated with ancient womens cooking. Men primarily did the fire cookinggrilling and roastingand women did the water cookingsimmering soups and stews. Here, youll follow the circle of soup, savoring suppers that can be sipped while saving money, minimizing waste, and living greener by working with the natural cycle of food from the market and the garden to the kitchen.

The word soup, once also spelled soop, evolved from sop, a word of German origin, meaning a chunk of bread soaked in liquid and eaten without utensils. Soup is closely related to the word sup, so supper was originally a simple meal that could be sipped at the end of the day. French Onion Soup () are modern-day sops or panades.

We can make good soup from almost any group of ingredients if we pay attention to the balance of flavor and contrast of texture and color. The legend of stone soup holds a lesson that from next to nothing, something good can always be made. From liquidwater or brothhot stones, a few humble vegetables such as cabbage or kale, an onion, a handful of grain, a few bits of leftover meat or bones, and seasonings such as fresh herbs or spices, we created an appetizing and nourishing soup. Many people have lost the art of soupmaking, relying on a can, box, or frozen package instead. Packaged soups are high in sodium and may contain preservatives and artificial flavoringsall avoided by making your own.

In Biblical times, legumes (such as chickpeas, fava beans, and lentils) along with grains (such as barley and wheat) formed the basis of simple, rib-sticking gruels and porridges not very different from the Greek Lentil Soup (). Early soups in Europe and the New World were prepared in a cleaned animal hide filled with liquid and heated with hot stones. Later came cauldrons of clay, metal, or wood filled with a hodge podge of ingredients to make a substantial one-pot soup or stew to be sipped or sopped up with bread.

In early medieval kitchens, the cauldron or pot-au-feu (pot on the fire) was never emptiedinstead, soup was ladled out and more food bits were added to make an everlasting soup in a pot that was only cleaned out in preparation for a fast day. In Europe during Renaissance times, most people lived on soup and bread; only the wealthy ate roasted meats. Northern European cultures developed fruit soups made with fresh or dried fruits, such as Chilled Apricot Soup with Star Anise ().

In Arab-influenced Spain, cold saladsoups known as gazpacho developed in which cucumbers, green grapes or tomatoes, onion or garlic, olive oil, and vinegar would be chopped small or mashed up with bread or nuts acting as a thickener and olive oil and vinegar for seasoning. (See Golden Tomato Gazpacho with Smoked Paprika, .)

Todays convenient bouillon cubes and powdered soups may be traced back to fourteenth century Magyar warriors. They boiled dried, salted beef until it was tender, and chopped and dried it into powder. Only hot water was needed to make a meal of this portable soup. By the nineteenth century, travelers such as Lewis and Clark carried highly-reduced pocket soup while exploring the American West.

Though soup may be fixed using all manner of convenience products, serving a simmering pot of soup made from scratch brings people of all ages together, creating aroma and anticipation. It can act as an elegant starter or form the basis for a hearty one-dish meal with some crusty bread. Half the fun of soupmaking is in the prepthe satisfaction of taking simple ingredients, perhaps root vegetables from the farmers market or soaked dried legumes, and transforming them into a steaming pot of fragrant soup. Many soups, especially those made from beans, have better texture the second time around.

We use leftovers and trimmings to make stocks, which become the foundation of the next soup, which provides trimmings for the next stock. But not all soups call for stock. The frugal Tuscan cook makes Acquacotta Maremmana () is based on the cooking liquid with the broth from split yellow lentils.

Broaden your repertoire in the world of soups and youll eat well while making the most of fresh ingredients without waste. Cook up a big pot of soup once a week to have hearty, healthy, delicious homemade fare thats ready in minutes. The recipes in this book make about 1 gallon (4 L) of soup, plenty for today with leftovers for tomorrow or to pack in containers for the freezer. And, what could be better than knowing you have a stock of homemade soup ready to serve after a long day at work?

Investing in basic high-quality tools and pots will make soupmaking easier and more fun for a lifetime of cooking.