The Role of Soups in Cuisine
The Role of Soups in Cuisine
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A soup can be described as a liquid product that can be derived from a number of sources. Soups have a renewed popularity because of a number of reasons. People nowadays are more health conscious and soups can be both low in calories and nutritious at the same time. Soups make for a much lighter meal and are great for those with digestion problems.
There are three basic categories of soups: clear soups, thick soups and specialty soups.Types of Soups | Description of the soup |
1.) Clear |
- examples are broth, bouillon, and consomme. |
a) broth |
- flavored liquid produced by simmering meats and vegetables. |
b) bouillon |
- meat, vegetables, fish or poultry are simmered in water, strained and clarified the resulting product is called bouillon. |
c) consomme |
- flavorful clarified broth. |
2. Thick |
- can be thickened in two ways |
a) cream soup |
- a thickened soup with added milk or cream e.g. cream of mushroom soup |
b) chowder
|
- thick soup made with fish or shellfish, milk, and possibly vegetables such as potatoes |
c) bisque
|
- a cream soup with shellfish or a mixture of pureed fish and vegetables. Contains cream |
d) potage
|
- a general term for soup. Often interpreted as a hearty soup. |
e) pureed
|
- one or more ingredients are pureed e.g. tomato. |
3. Specialty Soups
|
- don't fit any of the above categories. - may be unique because of the ingredients or the fact that the soup may be native to a particular country e.g. pumpkin soup, gazpacho, birds nest soup. |
The Role of Soups in Cuisine
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