Soup

Soup is a food that is made by boiling meat, vegetables and grains in a pot of water. It was first cooked around 3,000 BC, when the cooking vessels were invented that were able to withstand the high temperatures, that were necessary to boil the water.

Grains, vegetables and meat were put into a huge pot, hung above a fire and the soup simmered until it was done. Soups that were created brought a new taste sensation to the people. No one, before that time, had ever tasted food whose different flavors and aromas were blended together, in one dish. This remained a favorite dish, as each culture developed and perfected the soup to their own tastes.http://www.cheftalk.com/cooking_articles/Food_History/89-History_Of_Soup.html

Western Europe and Turkish styles of making soup overlapped during the Middle Ages. Soups, based on recipes discovered, in Catalonia, Italy, France and England was strikingly similar in ingredients and style. During that time, the broth of the soup was sipped directly from the bowl and passed around to others, seated for the meal. In the fourteenth century, the spoons used by Europeans were made especially for soup. Soup was also now served over toasted bread.

Robert May, a cook who served an apprenticeship in London introduced many different tastes to the culinary world. He added spinach, parsnips, carrots and other exotic ingredients to his soups. Cooks all over the world read his books and the new era of soup began.http://www.cheftalk.com/cooking_articles/Food_History/89-History_Of_Soup.html

Soup was first served more than 5,000 years ago. Before soup could be made, there had to be a suitable container that would be able to handle the flames and cook the food inside. Throughout the years, soup has evolved from the meat, vegetable and grain recipes to include ingredients that are inspired by the individual taste of the preparer. The broths that were served in the Middle Ages were nothing more that the juices from the few ingredients that were added.

During the medieval times in England, a compilation of recipes from the chefs of Richard II contained different soups, that the chef served poured over the bread that was sliced and toasted. In the United States, upper and lower class residents, enjoy soup on the table. The French Revolution caused the citizens to be relocated all around the world and the tastes of France was carried along with the people. Soup continue to evolve and change according to the taste of the preparer.

You can serve soup as a side dish, as the main course and it can be served hot or cold. Soup is best served the way you like it:

• Over toast
• Cold as cucumber soup
• Hot as clam chowder, vegetable soup, or French onion soup.
• Pot Luck, where the soup consist of anything you can get into the pot, is a favorite at parties and family gatherings, in cool evenings during the Fall and Winter.
• Seafood piled onto a pot with spices and a few vegetables, is called gumbo, this is a favorite recipe for chefs in New Orleans, Louisiana.