Everything You Need to Know About Soups: Hot and Cold

A famous quote from the equally well-known French gourmand, Grimod De La Reymiere, goes: “Let the soup be so devised that it sets the tone of the whole meal, in the same manner as an overture announces the subject of an opera.”

Often in meals, soups are served as a first course. Depending on the amount of meat, fish, and vegetables, they could be served as a main course. Basically, soups are liquids which can be very thin or quite thick depending upon what they contain and are classified according to their thickness or to the principal liquid or other ingredients they contain. Here are the six classifications of soups:

1. Bisques. These are heavy-cream soups containing shellfish.
2. Chowders. These are thick soups or stews usually containing seafood, potatoes, and milk or cream.
3. Cream soups. These are thickened with a thin veloute’ Bechamel or white sauce.
4. Potages. These are broths heavy with ingredients, such as gumbo, chicken noodles, or vegetables.
5. Purees. These are thickened with cooked vegetables or fish passed through a sieve or comminuted by some other device such as a blender.
6. Stocks or Broths. These include their derived bouillions and consommes.

Hot Soups

Basic soups are similar to basic or mother sauces in that dozens of variations can be made from the fundamental item. Garnishes added to soups also change their character and call for a new name.

Since cream soups contain milk or cream, there is always the possibility that the milk will curdle. Curdling can be caused by high or extended heat or by the presence of excessive acid or salt. A stable cream soup is made by sauteing vegetables until tender, adding flour to make a roux, and then adding pulped vegetables and stock. This is then blended into rich milk.

Chowder is a heavy soup usually including diced onions, potatoes, bacon or salt pork, and seasoning. The main seasoning agent in chowders may be clams, beans, corn, fish, or tomato. The liquid in the chowder is usually thin, but the quantity of ingredients which are added makes the soup thick and heavy.

French onion soup can be made heavy with onions and even heavier by the addition of large crouton covered with toasted Parmesan cheese. Gumbo soup is made heavy by the addition of shellfish, okra (gumbo), tomato, and rice. Such heavy soups are frequently called potages or peasant soups. Some soups are so heavy as to be more like stews than soups. For example, Boullabaise from Marseilles, France is a stew/soup containing 6 or 7 types of fish.