The history of soup in human societies
Dr..
Kamal Abdul Malik
January 20, 2023
Food dishes vary, and soup remains a common dish in homes and restaurants in many countries of the world.
The history of soup is as old as the history of cooking.
Since ancient times, the process of combining different ingredients in a large bowl to create healthy, nutritious and easily digestible food has been known.
This made it the perfect choice for rich and poor, Bedouins or urban dwellers, healthy and ill alike.
Soup dishes vary (English soup, or soup as it is known in Egypt and soup according to the Levantine pronunciation), according to tastes and what is available locally from the ingredients, there is American New England soup, Spanish gazpacho, Russian borscht, Italian minestrone, French onions, Japanese miso, and soup Seafood, and let's not forget the favorite lentil soup in our Arab countries, as well as vegetable soup and "the bird's tongue".
The word soup is derived from the Latin word "suppa", which refers to bread soaked in broth.
It became famous in the seventeenth century under its French name “soupe”, and the word is also found in the Proto-Germanic language as “sup”, and in spoken Arabic “shorba”, which means “liquid”, and soon it became the traditional accompanying bread for the soup dish, and the only type of Thick soup was a mixture of grains, or of vegetables and meat cooked in a pot, and it is still the staple food of many peoples, and soup is not always cooked from grains, but may consist of other starchy foods: legumes, chestnuts or root vegetables.
Chowder is the fishermen's stew in France and is common along the coast from north of Bordeaux to Brittany.
Consommé soup is a popular soup in French cuisine.
And gazpacho is actually a Spanish dish.
The word evolved from the Arabic language, as much of the gastronomy in that region was heavily influenced by Middle Eastern recipes and ingredients.
Spanish missionaries introduced this tomato soup to Europe and the world, and after it gained popularity in England and France, English colonists and French settlers introduced it to their colonies around the world.
As for the harira soup, it is considered one of the famous soups in Moroccan cuisine, as it is served alongside various dishes, and it is characterized by the multiplicity of its components such as meat and vegetables, which give it a high nutritional value. It is easy to prepare and does not take long, and many spices can be added to it, such as cinnamon. , and cardamom.
In 1786, it was France that saw the establishment of the first luxury restaurant to serve soup, and it was the French who coined the terms consommé and bouillons for clear soup.
While the culture has its own version of the soup, the popularity of this dish has led to calls for faster ways to get it.
A talented chemist named Dr. John T.
Dorrance is a great idea is Campbell's famous condensed soup.
Then the concept of soups and ready-to-eat foods became prevalent.
In our contemporary world, the culture of prepared foods has grown, so we now see dried soup on supermarket shelves, and stock cubes have become the first type of dried soup. Japan took a step forward and Nissin Foods developed the famous noodle soup that combines a nest of dried noodles and cubes of broth in one package. These little packages are full of flavors and ingredients that provide the perfect quick meal needed in today's world.
The world of soups is very wide and varied.
Enter this world and learn the ways people use their ingredients to make this hot and delicious liquid.
Visiting scholar at Harvard University
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