Classification of Soup · Shivesh's Kitchen (2023)

Definition of Soup

Soup is a replenishing, aromatized and a complete meal. Soups play a veryimportant role on the menu and are served as appetizer to stimulate theappetite for the rest of the heavier foods to follow, soups are served as asecond course after the serving of hors d’oeuvres, if hors d’oeuvres is notserved then the soups are served as a first course.

Soup, according to the dictionary, is a liquid food derived from meat,poultry, fish, or vegetables, most of these soups, no matter what their finalingredients may be, are completely based on stock, thus, the quality of thesoup depends on the quality of the stock used in the preparation of the soup.

This is just a definition and there is no hard fast rule that everypreparation has to be in a same way each time, what matter most is thetechniques, ingredients and of course the taste.

History of Soup

The word soup comes from French word “Soupe” (soup, broth), which furthercomes from Latin word’ Suppa” (bread soaked in broth). The origin of soup datesback to about 6000 BC. First commercial soup was consumed in France in the 16^thcentury.

Chef Escoffier’sClassification of Soups

• Clear Soup
• Purees
• Coulis
• Bisques
• Veloute
• Cream Soup
• Special Soup
• Vegetable Soup
• National Soup/Foreign Soup

Modern Classification of Soups

Soups can be divided into three basic categories namely Thick Soups & Thin Soup which is further divided in to Passed Soup, Unpassed Soup and Cold Soup & International Soup which are basically special and famous or national soup from various countries.

1) Thin Soup

Thin soups are all based on a clear, unthickened broth or stock. They may be served plain or garnished with a variety of vegetables and meats.

Thin soup is further divided into two category i.e. Passed or Clear Soup and Unpassed Soup

• Passed or Clear Soup

It as soup which is basically strained after preparation with the help of a strainer or a muslin cloth the specialty of this soup is that it is simple, clear, transparent, flavorful and without any solid ingredients. This can be made from Poultry, Beef, Veal and Vegetables, one of the famous example of passed soup is Consommé

• Unpassed Soup

The properties of this soup is same as of clear soup except for this is not strained and has solid ingredients in it. The preparation method is same and can be prepared from Beef, Veal, Poultry and Vegetables, example for unpassed soup is Broths and Bouillons

2) Thick Soup

Unlike thin soups, thick soups are opaque rather than transparent. They arethickened either by adding a thickening agent, such as a roux, orby puréeing one or more of their ingredients to provide a heavier consistency.The difference between thick soup and unpassed soup is that thick soup isviscous in nature. Thick soups are further classified depending upon thethickening agents used.

1) Cream Soup

This soup is prepared from the puree of vegetables, meat, fish or poultry,the name cream soup is usually given after the main ingredients example Cremede Tomate, which is a cream soup made from Tomato. Cream soup are soupsthickened with roux, beurre manié, liaison, or other thickening agents,plus milk and/or cream.

They are similar to velouté and béchamel sauces, in fact, they may be madeby diluting and flavoring either of these two leading sauces. Milk is sometimesused to dilute the sauce in order to get the correct consistency for sauce.

Quality Standards for Cream Soup

• Thickness- About the consistency of heavy cream. Not too thick.
• Texture- Smooth; no graininess or lumps (except garnish, of course).
• Taste- Distinct flavor of the main ingredient (asparagus in cream of asparagus, etc.).
• No starchy taste from uncooked roux.

Curdling of Cream Soup

Curdling is a common problem with cream soup as it made with cream or milkor both, the cause behind curdling of the soup can be either the aciditycontent of many soup ingredients like tomato or heat of cooking can also be thecause of it.

Roux and other starch thickeners are used to stabilize milk and cream inorder to avoid curdling while making a sauce but soups are relatively thin ascompared with sauce and contain less amount of starch, so the fear of curdlingis always there, therefore precaution should be taken to avoid this.

Following guidelines should be taken to prevent curdling of the sauce-

1) Do not combine milk and simmering soup, stock without the presence of roux or other starch. Do one of the following:

a) Thicken the stock before adding milk.

b) Thicken the milk before adding it to the soup.

2) Do not add cold milk or cream to simmering soup. Do one of the following:

a) Heat the milk in a separate saucepan.

b) Temper the milk by gradually adding some of the hot soup to it. Then add it to the rest of the soup.

3) Do not boil soups after milk or cream is added.

2) Veloute Soup

The French word veloute translated into English meansvelvety.This describes the finished texture and appearance of thesoup.The principal thickening element is a blond roux or a veloutesauce, which may be flavored using different stock bases according torequirements.

When preparing meat, poultry, or fish velouté the predominant flavor isdetermined by the stock used.Alternatively when producing aqueousvegetable veloute soups the flavor of the main vegetable predominates.

In order to achieve the velvety finish required, the liaison of egg yolksand cream is added just before service.Once this has been added thesoup must not be boiled again otherwise it will take on a curdled appearance, aresult of egg yolk coagulation.

3) Puree Soup

Purée soups are made by simmering dried or fresh vegetables, especiallyhigh-starch vegetables, in stock or water, then puréeing the soup. Purées arenormally based on starchy ingredients. They may be made from dried legumes(such as split pea soup) or from fresh vegetables with a starchy ingredient,such as potatoes or rice, added. Purées may or may not contain milk or cream.Purees are relatively easy to prepare. Purée soups are not as smooth andrefined as cream soups but are heartier and coarser in texture and character.Techniques vary greatly depending on the ingredients and the desired result.

This type of soup is produced from one of the following:

Vegetables containing a high percentage of starch e.g. pulse vegetables, watery vegetables e.g. celery, leeks onions etc.

Puree soups produced fromstarchy vegetablesneed no otherthickening, agent as starch based vegetables act as self-thickeners.Alternatively, puree soups produced from aqueous vegetables need the assistanceof a starchy food to effect cohesion.The ingredients most commonlyused for this purpose are rice or potatoes.

All the puree soups are passed through the food processor for liquidizing and finally strained through a conical strainer (chinois).Its then reheated for correcting the seasonings and consistency. Puree soup are always garnished with croutons.

4) Chowder Soup

Chowders are chunky, hearty soups made from fish, shellfish, and/orvegetables so full of good things they sometimes are more like stews than soups.Many types of chowder are simply cream soups or purée soups that are not puréedbut left chunky. Like other specialty regional soups, chowders resistcategorization. However, most of them are based on fish or shellfish orvegetables, and most contain potatoes and milk or cream.

Chowder soups originated from America. The name is the corruption of theFrench word ‘CHAUDIERE’ means a heavy pot used by farmers and fishermen to cooksoups and stews.

The best known French Chowder is ‘Bouillabaisse’. It is more like a stew which is an American specialty made with meat, fish, and vegetables along with milk, pork belly, tomato concasse and seasonings. Chowder may be thickened with beurre manie and crackers are added prior to the service of this soup.

5) Bisques Soup

A bisque (bisk) is a cream soup made with shellfish. At one time, bisqueswere thickened with rice, but today they are more frequently thickened withroux. Bisques are made basically like other cream soups, but they seem morecomplex because of the handling of the shellfish and the variety of flavoringingredients often used. Expensive to prepare and rich in taste, they areconsidered luxury soups. The term bisque has come to be used for a greatvariety of soups, primarily because the word sounds nice. Bisque is generallyused for shellfish soups but nevertheless, you will also see the word bisqueapplied to many of the vegetable purée soups and cream soups.

Bisques may be defined as thickened, passed, classical seafood soupsprepared from a base of fish stock flavored with selected shellfish andmirepoix.They are enhanced with wine, brandy and thickened withstarch usually in the form of rice.Due to the delicacy of theirflavor and the high cost of production bisques are best suited to service atdinner.

Linguists say the most likely origin of the word bisque is Biscay, the name of the bay off the coast of southwestern France and northwestern Spain. It is sometimes said the word comes from biscuit, because the soup was once thickened by dried bread, but language experts say there is no evidence for this origin.

3) Cold Soup

Cold soups are those soups which include the natural gelatin’s jellies tomake meat stocks or by addition of gelatin powder or those that are thickenedwith a starch or puree.

Cold consommé madrilène is popular cold soup.

Vichyssoise is a cold soup and a rich cream of potato soup and garnish with choppedchives.

Andalouse gazpacho is a refreshing tomato and cucumber soup with a garnishof thin strips of pimentos, cumin seeds for flavor accompanied with croutons.

Now, it has become a pattern of the parties in the summer to serve coldsoups. So without cold soups the summer menu is incomplete.

4) National/Special Soup

Special soups are those that are made with unusual ingredients and areprepared by a distinctive method. So they are termed as National Soups. Thereare numerous varieties of international soups such as cold, hot, thin or thicketc. international soups are those soups which are originated from thedifferent places and locality within the different countries. These soups arebasically having a great tradition and that’s why they are known by theircountry. They are placed in a different category also their names should appearon the menu in the language of the country of its origins as they havedifferent origins.

Some of famous international soups are below

Service of Soup

• Standard Portion Sizes
• Appetizer portion: 6 to 8 oz (200 to 250 mL)
• Main course portion: 10 to 12 oz (300 to 350 mL)
• Temperature- Serve hot soups hot, inhot cups or bowls and serve cold soups cold, in chilled bowls or even nested ina larger bowl of crushed ice.

Holding for Service

Strangely enough, some chefs who take the greatest care not to overcookmeats or vegetables nevertheless keep a large kettle of soup on the steam tableall day. You can imagine what a vegetable soup is like after four or five hoursat that temperature.

Small-batch cooking applies to soups as well as to other foods. Heat smallbatches frequently to replenish the steam table with fresh soup.

Consommés and some other clear soups can be kept hot for longer periods ifthe vegetable garnish is heated separately and added at service time.

Garnish

Soup garnishes may be divided into three groups.

• Garnishes in the soup
• Toppings
• Accompaniments

Garnishes in the soup.

Major ingredients, such as the vegetables in clear vegetable soup, areoften considered garnishes. This group of garnishes also includes meats,poultry, seafood, pasta products, and grains such as barley or rice. They aretreated as part of the preparation or recipe itself, not as something added on.

Consommés are generally named after their garnish, such as consommébrunoise, which contains vegetables cut into brunoise shape [1⁄8-inch (3-mm)dice].

Vegetable cream soups are usually garnished with carefully cut pieces ofthe vegetable from which they are made. An elegant way to serve soup with asolid garnish is to arrange the garnish attractively in the bottom of a heatedsoup plate. This plate is set before the diner, and then the soup is ladledfrom a tureen by the dining room staff.

Toppings

Clear soups are generally served without toppings to let the attractivenessof the clear broth and the carefully cut vegetables speak for themselves.Occasional exceptions are toppings of chopped parsley or chives.

Thick soups, especially those that are all one color, are often decoratedwith a topping. Toppings should be placed on the soup just before service sothey won’t sink or lose their fresh appearance. Their flavors must beappropriate to the soup. Do not overdo soup toppings. The food should be attractivein itself.

Topping suggestions for thick soups include the following: fresh herbs(parsley, chives), chopped croutons, fine julienne of vegetables, gratedparmesan cheese, sliced almonds, toasted crumbled bacon, grated cheese paprika,sieved egg yolks, flavored butter, chopped or diced egg white, flavored oil,fried herbs, such as parsley, sage, chervil, celery leaves, leek julienne, sourcream, crème fraîche, or whipped cream, either plain or flavored with herbs orspices.

Accompaniments

American soups are traditionally served with crackers. In addition to theusual saltines, other suggestions for crisp accompaniments are, Melba toast,Cheese straws, Corn chips, Whole-grain wafers, Breadsticks, Profiteroles (tinyunsweetened cream-puff shells), etc.

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