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Driving Myself Batty

K

KYHeirloomer

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OK, as y'all know, I'm involved in a project re: cold soups.

Soup is one of those things. We all know what it is, right? But do we. I looked up the definition. There are several minor variations, but, in general, this is it:

"Soup: (n) A liquid food prepared from meat, fish, or vegetable stock combined with other ingredients and often containing solid pieces."

Seems straight forward enough. But then......

By this definition, isn't gravy actually soup?
And how do puree's fit in?
At what point does a dish stop being soup and become stew? And does anyone beside Rachael Ray include that third category stoup?

Hey, Kevin: You remember the chowder discussion on the other site? This is even worse.
 
Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, broth until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth.

Chowder got it's name from the pot in which it was cook called a CHAUDRON (a pot). All it is - is a variety of soup thickened with flour and has milk/cream, etc. in it.

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in water or other water-based liquid, typically by simmering, and that are often served without being drained.

Gravy is and English sauce often from the juices that run naturally from meats or vegetables during cooking.

Puree (and more rarely) mash are general terms for food, usually vegetables or legumes, that have been ground, pressed and/or strained to the consistency of a soft paste or thick liquid. (mashed potatoes, applesauce, bisques, hummus, etc.)

Puree overlaps dishes with similar consistencies - thick soups, creams, gravies, etc.

Many foods overlap others and of course there is always "everyone's opinion" - and anytime someone else will come up with another term meaning the very same thing as something else.

I sure wouldn't lose any sleep over this.

Welcome to the wonder world of cooking!
 
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Brook, Brook, Brook... why do you do this to me?

Did you stay up all night thinking up a way to baffle me so early in the morning? (hee-hee!) To top it off, I got 4 hours of sleep, and Dad & the Baptist wife just called and expect me to show-up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to church and then Sunday dinner afterwards. And I'm thinking "Where was this invitation last night when we talked at 7:00PM before I decided to stay up 'till all hours w/ friends playing cards?" Yikes! I tell ya what, KYH... I'll order soup today after church, instead of salad at the little buffet-joint we go to and see if an answer to your question magically presents itself... Hey it could happen! Ha! Until then... I got one hour to get pretty and I tell ya- it's gonna take every minute of that hour this morning, so I best get a move on!
 
Soups???? Two basic categories - clear and thick. BROAD GROUPS. I wouldn't lose sleep over bouillon, consomme', purees, bisques, veloutes, etc.

A cold soup is a soup that is served at or below room temperature.

And now - which thread should I use for sewing this - the dark blue, denim blue, Egyptian blue, Dodger blue, cornflower blue, midnight blue, marine blue, or more of a gray-based with a blue tone??????? Sounds silly to me - but that is about how much worry I would put into someone's definition or soup, puree, gravy, etc.
 
One can go crazy if they get to OCD with culinary definitions. I mean, before I throw my burger on the grill, is it a burger or steak tartar?
 
Jafo232 said:
One can go crazy if they get to OCD with culinary definitions. I mean, before I throw my burger on the grill, is it a burger or steak tartar?
Click to expand...


O - I love it!
No - How much time should I put into deciding on the color blue for thread??? hmmmm

It's all so silly!
 
Hey - why don't we just re-write all the cookbooks and totally destroy all their index categories???? No one would find anything!

Let's see - burgers under steak tartare, mashed potatoes under purees, hummus under purees, - oooooooh the fun it would be! LOL
 
And now if you will all excuse me - I have a bigger decision to make than the blue thread! What a dillemma I have!

Should I color coordinate my underwear today to match my blue tee and blue capris?? Gosh I just don't know what to do....................

Decisions, decisions, decisions...........so many sleepless nights over all this!!!

LOL
 
Well, Mama, if you don't wear underwear it's never a problem, n'est ce pas. ;)

Now then, if you really want to change the books, here's where to start:

Every cookbook and cooking magazine that includes a soup-like dish made from butternut squash and cream calls it Butternut Bisque---except around Thanksgiving, when it's pumpkin bisque.

But virtually every definition given for "bisque" says it includes seafood.

Therefore.........
 
And the funny thing about all this - it's going to get worse before it gets better!

And I just love all the dreamt of names for (for instance) chocolate cakes. I have seen the same recipe with 18 or more different names for one particular cake. And the best part is - they are ALL ORIGINAL! LOL (using a cake mix yet!)
 
My understanding, Jafo, is that those have to do with percentages. If it's going to be more than 50% sunny, then they report is as partly cloudy. If more than 50% cloudy it will be partly sunny.

The idea that they can actually predict which it will be leaves me more than partly nonbelieving.

The real problem with culinary definitions is this. Most of us either don't know the technical names for what we do. Or we ignore them, and use collequial meanings.

Sometimes it doesn't matter on any sort of practical level. I mean, do you really care whether something is a brunois, a dice, or a cube? The technique is the same, and the end result is defined merely by final size. If I tell you to chop something into a small dice, that's close enough.

But this trend also leads to things like: "Saute in a little juice......" If you cook something in juice it is, depending, either steaming, poaching, boiling, or simmering. With a tight cover it could even be braising. But it most emphatically is not sauteing.

If we all persist in following this dumbing down of culinary terms, pretty soon they won't mean anything. And our ability to communicate will also become nonexistent.
 
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