FRENCH ONION SOUP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

French Onion Soup
Plate of french onion soup.
Origin information
Country of origin :	France
Creator(s) of the dish :	Multiple claims
Dish information
Main ingredient(s) :	Onion Beef broth Croutons Cheese
Variations :	Vegan Versions

French onion soup is an onion and beef broth based soup traditionally served with croutons and cheese as toppings. Although ancient in origin, this dish underwent a resurgence of popularity in the 1960s due to the growth of French cooking in the United States.^[1]

History

Onion soups have been popular at least as far back as Roman times. They were, throughout history, seen as food for the poor people, as onions were plentiful and easy to grow. The modern version of this soup originates in France in the 17^th century,^[1] made from dry bread or croutons, beef broth, and caramelized onions. It is often broiled in a ramekin traditionally with gruyère melted on top. The crouton on top is reminiscent of ancient sops (see "Early history" section of soup).

Legend has it that the soup was created by King Louis XV of France. Late one night, he discovered he only had onions, butter and champagne at his hunting lodge, so he mixed them together to create the first French onion soup.^[2] Alternate stories attribute the creation to King Louis XIV.^[3]

Julia Child's last meal was French Onion Soup. She died peacefully in her sleep of kidney failure soon after.

Preparation

The rich flavor of the base is not due just to the broth, but to the caramelized onions.^[4] Caramelization, in this case, is the procedure in which the onions are cooked slowly until the melting sugars approach burning temperature, becoming brown. This can be accomplished within half an hour, but many chefs and cooks allow for hours of cooking to bring out the complex flavors of the onions' sugars. In the final stages of cooking, cognac or sherry is often used to enhance the caramelized onion flavor and to deglaze the pan.^[5]

The base is usually topped with the crouton,^[5] which will be very dry and crusty to allow it to withstand lying on the soup surface while baked or broiled with a good melting cheese on top. The soup is then served in the bowl or ramekin in which it was broiled or baked.

Variations

Variations of the basic recipe include:

• Preparation without cheese for vegans^[6]
• Using vegetable stock or water (instead of beef stock) for vegans or vegetarians^[6]
• Brown broth meats like necks or tails to render fat for the onions and add their own flavor and body to the dish.

SOUP

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth.

Romanian potato soup

Traditionally, soups are classified into two broad groups: clear soups and thick soups. The established French classifications of clear soups are bouillon and consommé. Thick soups are classified depending upon the type of thickening agent used: purées are vegetable soups thickened with starch; bisques are made from puréed shellfish thickened with cream; cream soups are thickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter and cream. Other ingredients commonly used to thicken soups and broths include rice, flour, and grain.

One of the first types of soups can be dated to about 6000 BC.^[1] Boiling was not a common cooking technique until the invention of waterproof containers (which probably came in the form of pouches made of clay or animal skin) about 9,000 years ago.

History

William-Adolphe Bouguereau Soup

The word soup originates from "sop", a dish originally consisting of a soup or thick stew which was soaked up with pieces of bread. The modern meaning of sop has been limited to just the bread intended to be dipped.

The word restaurant was first used in France in the 16th century, to describe a highly concentrated, inexpensive soup, sold by street vendors called restaurer, that was advertised as an antidote to physical exhaustion. In 1765, a Parisian entrepreneur opened a shop specializing in restaurers. This prompted the use of the modern word restaurant to describe the shops.

In America, the first colonial cookbook was published by William Parks in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1742, based on Eliza Smith's The Compleat Housewife; or Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion and it included several recipes for soups and bisques. A 1772 cookbook, The Frugal Housewife, contained an entire chapter on the topic. English cooking dominated early colonial cooking; but as new immigrants arrived from other countries, other national soups gained popularity. In particular, German immigrants living in Pennsylvania were famous for their potato soups. In 1794, Jean Baptiste Gilbert Payplat dis Julien, a refugee from the French Revolution, opened an eating establishment in Boston called Restorator, and became known as "The Prince of Soups." The first American cooking pamphlet dedicated to soup recipes was written in 1882 by Emma Ewing: Soups and Soup Making.

Portable soup was devised in the 18th century by boiling seasoned meat until a thick, resinous syrup was left that could be dried and stored for months at a time. The Japanese miso is an example of a concentrated soup paste.

Commercial soup

Packets of soup

Commercial soup became popular with the invention of canning in the 19th century, and today a great variety of canned and dried soups are on the market. Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist with the Campbell Soup Company invented condensed soup in 1897.^[2] Today, Campbell's Tomato, Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Noodle soups are three of the most popular soups in America. Americans consume approximately 2.5 billion bowls of these three soups alone each year.^[2] Canned Italian-style soups, such as minestrone are also popular. Oriental-style soup mixes containing ramen noodles are marketed as an inexpensive instant lunch, requiring only hot water for preparation.^[3] Vegetable, chicken base, potato, pasta and cheese soups are also available in dry mix form, ready to be served by adding hot water.

Nutritional developments

• Salt - In response to concern over the health effects of excessive salt intake soup manufacturers have introduced reduced-salt versions of popular soups.^[4]
• Trans fat - Concern over coronary heart disease has led soup manufacturers to eliminate trans fats from their soups.

Vegetable beef barley soup

Types of soup

Dessert soups

• Ginataan, Filipino soup made from coconut milk, milk, fruits and tapioca pearls, served hot or cold.
• Oshiruko, a Japanese azuki bean soup
• Tong sui, a collective term for Chinese sweet soups.
• Fruit soups (see below)

[edit] Fruit soups

Fruit soups are served warm or cold depending on the recipe. Many recipes are for cold soups served when fruit is in season during hot weather. Some like Norwegian fruktsuppe may be served warm and rely on dried fruit such as raisins and prunes and so could be made in any season. Fruit soups may include milk or cream, sweet or savoury dumplings, spices, or alcoholic beverages such as brandy or champagne. Cherry soup is made with table wine and/or port.

Cold fruit soups are common in Scandinavian, Baltic and Eastern European cuisines while hot fruit soups with meat appear in Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Chinese cuisines. Cold fruit soups include krentjebrij.

Fruit soups are uncommon or absent in the cuisines of the Americas, Africa and Western Europe. They are also not seen in Japan, Southeast Asia or Oceania. The exception is cold fruit soups that are savory rather than (or in addition to) sweet. Examples:

• Winter melon soup is a Chinese soup, usually with a chicken stock base. It is a savory soup, often including other vegetables and mushrooms. Technically, the winter melon is a fruit, since it is a seed bearing body, but in practical use, it is a vegetable. Winter melon soup is often presented as a whole winter melon, filled with stock, vegetables and meat, that has been steamed for hours. The skin is decoratively cut, so that what is presented is a decorative centerpiece, smaller than a medicine ball, larger than a soccer ball, filled with soup. The flesh of the melon is scooped out with the soup.

• Gazpacho (from Spain) is a savory soup based on tomato, a New World fruit.

Cold soups

Cold soups are a particular variation on the traditional soup, wherein the temperature when served is kept at or below room temperature. They may be sweet or savory. In summer, sweet cold soups can form part of a dessert tray.

Asian soups

Main article: Asian soup

A feature of East Asian soups not normally found in Western cuisine is the use of tofu in soups. Many traditional East Asian soups are typically broths, clear soups, or starch thickened soups. Many soups are eaten and drunk as much for their flavour as well as for their health benefits.

Traditional regional soups

Swiss soup

• Ajiaco - A chicken soup from Colombia
• Avgolemono - A Greek chicken soup with lemon and egg
• Bajajou - A soup of Slovakian origin. Ingredients include boiled cow intestines, chicken egg, onion and rice.
• Bird's nest soup is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
• Borscht - A beet-vegetable soup originally from Ukraine and Russia.
• Bouillabaisse - A fish soup from Marseille (Southern France. Also made in other Mediterranean regions. In Catalonia it is called Bullebesa.
• Bourou-Bourou - A vegetable & pasta soup from the island of Easter Island, Greece
• Bisque - A thick, creamy, highly-seasoned soup, classically of pureed crustaceans, of French origin.
• Canja de Galinha- A Portuguese soup of chicken, rice and lemon.
• Caldo verde - A Portuguese minced cabbage soup
• Callaloo - A thick, creamy soup made with okra and, often, crab meat from Trinidad and Tobago
• Cock-a-leekie - Leek and potato soup made with chicken stock, from Scotland
• Clam chowder - two major types, New England Clam Chowder, made with potatoes and cream, and Manhattan Clam Chowder, made with a tomato base.
• Cullen Skink - A fish soup made with Smoked Haddock, potatoes, onions and cream from Scotland
• Egg drop soup, a savory Chinese soup made from cracking eggs into boiling water or broth.
• Etrog, a fruit soup made up from the citron used in Jewish Ritual at the feast of Succoth, is eaten by Ashkenazi Jews at Tu Bishvat.
• Maryland Crab Soup - A soup made of vegetables, blue crab, and Old Bay Seasoning in a tomato base. From Maryland, USA.
• Faki soupa - A Greek lentil soup, with carrots, olive oil, herbs and possibly tomato sauce or vinegar.
• Fanesca - A traditional cod soup from Ecuador
• Fasolada - Traditional Greek bean soup
• Fufu and Egusi soup - A traditional soup from Nigeria made with vegetables, meat, fish, and balls of ground melon seed
• Goulash- A Hungarian soup of beef, paprika and onion.
• Gumbo - A traditional Creole soup from the American South, thickened with okra pods.
• Íslensk Kjötsúpa - Traditional Icelandic meat soup made with lamb and vegetables.
• Kharcho - A Georgian soup of lamb, rice, vegetables and a highly spiced boullion.
• Lagman - A traditional Uzbek soup of pasta, vegetables, ground lamb and numerous spices.
• Lan Sikik - A Thai soup made with noodle, dried fish and tomato extract.
• Lentil soup - A soup popular in the Middle East and Mediterranean.
• Leek soup - A simple soup made from Leeks popular in Wales during St. David's Day
• Menudo - A traditional Mexican soup with tripe and hominy.
• Minestrone - An Italian vegetable soup
• Miso soup - A Japanese soup made from fish broth and fermented soy
• Mulligatawny Soup - An Anglo-Indian curried soup
• Noodle soup - A very diverse collection
• Patsás - A Greek tripe soup

A thick pea soup garnished with a tortilla fragment

• Snert - A thick pea soup, eaten in the Netherlands as a winter dish, traditionally served with sliced sausage. Also known as erwtensoep.
• Philadelphia Pepper Pot Soup - A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specialty, traditionally made with tripe.^[5]
• Psarosoupa - A Greek fish soup. There are various versions of it and could be made with a variety of fish types.
• Phở- A Vietnamese beef/chicken soup with scallion, welsh onion, cherred ginger, wild coriander (Eryngium foetidum), basil, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and black cardamom.
• Revithia - A Greek chickpea soup
• Scotch Broth
• She-crab soup - from Charleston, South Carolina, a creamy soup made with blue crab meat and crab roe.
• Shchav, a sorrel soup in Polish, Russian and Yiddish cuisines
• Solyanka - A cabbage soup from Russia
• Sour soup (fish soup) - A Vietnamese dish made with rice, fish, various vegetables, and in some cases pineapple.
• Tarator - A Bulgarian cold soup made from yogurt and cucumbers
• Trahana soup, from Greece
• Tomato soup (pomidorowa) - Traditional polish soup made of tomato concentrate
• Vichyssoise - A French-style soup invented by a French chef at the Ritz Hotel in NYC. French cold purée soup with potatoes, leeks, and cream.
• Waterzooi - A Belgian fish soup
• Żurek - A Polish wheat soup with sausages often served in a bowl made of bread.

LIST OF SOUPS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A list of different types of soup/stew.

Stocks

• Brown Veal
• White Beef
• Fumet
• Chicken
• White Veal
• Fish

Broths

A flavored liquid usually derived from simmering a food or vegetable for a period of time in a stock.

Consommés

A crystal clear broth or stock that is full of flavor, aroma, and body.

Noodle soups

• Fuhn, Chinese rice noodles in broth, usually beef, chicken or custom broth
• Log-log, Filipino egg noodle soup (regional variants include Kinalas, Batchoy)
• Mian, Chinese egg noodles in broth, usually beef, chicken or custom broth
• Phở, Vietnamese staple noodle soup
• Ramen, Japanese fresh or dried noodles in broth
• Saimin, Hawaiian fresh, soft, undried egg noodles in bonito fish or shrimp broth with Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Korean and Portuguese influences

Potages

Other broths

• Avgolemono - Greek soup made of lemon juice, rice, and egg yolk
• Bourou-Bourou - A vegetable and pasta soup from the island of Corfu, Greece
• Chicken noodle soup - Broth with pieces of chicken and noodles
• French onion soup: Broth made with onions and beef. Often topped with croutons and cheese.
• Psarosoupa - A Greek fish soup. There are various versions of it and could be made with a variety of fish types.
• Scotch Broth - mutton, barley and various vegetables
• Tinola: Broth popular in the Philippines made with pieces of chicken, sliced green papayas.

Bisques

Heavy cream soups, with shellfish or puree of vegetables, fruits, or fish.

• Lobster bisque
• Crab bisque
• Tomato bisque
• Chestnut bisque
• Squash bisque
• Cream of Crab Soup

Chowders

Thick soups usually containing seafood and potatoes, milk and cream

• Clam chowder
• Corn chowder
• Chupe

Clear

• Stock

Cream

Thickened with a white sauce. Although they can be consumed on their own, they often come in condensed form and can be used to create a variety of meat and pasta dishes.

• Cream of tomato soup
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Cream of broccoli soup
• Cream of celery soup
• Cream of chicken soup
• Cream of potato soup

Pureed

Coulis

Originally meat juices, now thick purees

Stews

Large chunks of meat or vegetables left in the liquid

• Faki soupa - A Greek lentil soup, with carrots, olive oil, herbs and possibly tomato sauce or vinegar.
• Fasolada - Traditional Greek bean soup
• Fish soup - (Hungarian halászlé)
• Kimchi jjigae - (Korean) kimchi stew
• Sundubu jjigae - (Korean) mild tofu stew with spicy seasoning
• Lobster Stew - cream-based soup with chunks of lobster
• Mulligan Stew - made with whatever is to hand
• Patsás - A Greek tripe soup
• Revithia - A Greek chickpea soup
• Samgyetang - (Korean) chicken ginseng soup made with glutinous rice, jujubes, chestnuts, garlic, and ginger
• Tarhana soup - from Greece
• Minestrone - (Italian) vegetable soup, with noodles
• Chamin & Cholent - (Israel) a vegetarian or kosher meat stew prepared in honor of the Shabbat

Cold (chilled)

Some soups are served only cold, and other soups can optionally be served cold

• Vichyssoise - (French-American) creamy potato and leek soup, served with chives
• Borscht - (Slavic) beet soup
• Gazpacho - (Spanish) pureed tomato and vegetable soup
• Naengmyeon - (Korean) buckwheat noodles in a tangy iced beef broth, raw julienned vegetables, a slice of a Korean pear, and often a boiled egg and/or cold beef

Dessert soups

• Ginataan, Filipino soup made from coconut milk, milk, fruits and tapioca pearls, served cold.

Not organized yet

• Beer soup - (European) medieval breakfast soup poured over bread
• Bouillabaisse - (French) fish soup
• Cioppino - (Italian-American) fish stew with tomatoes and a variety of fish and shellfish
• Philadelphia Pepper Pot - beef tripe pepper soup
• Pozole - (Mexican) thick, hearty soup made of pork or chicken meat and broth, hominy, onion, garlic, dried chiles and cilantro
• Menudo (Mexican) tripe, calf's feet, chiles, hominy and seasonings
• Cazuela - (South American) and (Spanish) soup, composed of a clear broth, rice, potato, squash or pumpkin, corn and chicken or beef. It combines native and introduced ingredients.
• Pasta Fagioli - (Italian)
• Miso soup (Japanese) fish stock soup, with seasonal vegetables

BAKED BEANS

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baked beans and scrambled egg on toast.

Baked beans is a dish consisting of beans baked (or, despite the name, usually stewed) in a sauce.

Traditional cuisines of many regions claim such recipes as typical specialities, for example:

• Jersey bean crock
• Boston baked beans
• Guernsey Bean Jar
• Cassoulet
• Feijoada
• Fassolia
• New England baked beans
• Quebec-style baked beans are often prepared with maple syrup.
• Bean-hole beans, traditionally from Northern New England and Quebec, cooked in a covered fire pit in the ground for up to two days
• British cuisine claims beans on toast as a teatime favourite, and baked beans may form part of a full English breakfast
• Beans cooked in barbecue sauce (or a similarly flavoured sauce) are a traditional side-dish in a United States barbecue.
• "Franks & beans", a recipe wherein hot dogs are cut up and cooked in the same sauce as the baked beans. Also referred to as "Beanee Weenee", the brand name under which it is sold by Van Camp's.
• Elia's Brand baked beans (as seen in Lidl)

Most commercial canned baked beans such as Heinz are made from haricot beans, also known as Boston Beans or Navy Beans, a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, and sold in a sauce. In the United Kingdom, tomato sauce is most commonly used. A similar dish is Pork and Beans.

The popularity of baked beans may be due to the fact they are cheap to make and buy. British supermarkets may sell store brand baked beans for less than twenty pence a tinned can although some premium organic brands may be as expensive as £1.50.Baked beans are a classic example of a "loss leader", a product sold by supermarkets for an abnormally low price, often less than cost. This is done because some products are thought by marketeers to be widely used as benchmarks by consumers to judge how cheap a supermarket is, or simply to boost the sales of complementary products. Another example of a typical loss leader is white sliced bread. Baked beans have recently begun appearing in conjunction with other foods, such as a filler inside sausages, as a sidedish with bacon, or as a pizza topping.

History

New and old versions of the Heinz brand

According to alternative traditions, sailors brought cassoulet from the south of France, or the regional bean stew recipes from northern France and the Channel Islands.

Most probably, a number of regional bean recipes coalesced and cross-fertilised in North America and ultimately gave rise to the baked bean culinary tradition familiar today.

The Heinz company markets their product in the UK under the name "Baked Beanz", in reference to a 1960s advertisement campaign which used the slogan "Beanz Meanz Heinz". The 'strapline' for this campaign is likely to have emerged from an earlier market research report authored by Professor Gerald Goodhardt. The principal finding of that market research report was that consumers associated the Heinz brand with baked beans, and little else. Goodhardt concluded that "to most buyers, the name Heinz means Beans". This finding was subsequently adopted by Heinz' advertising agency.

Regional variations

In the United Kingdom, Heinz is the top selling brand of baked beans. There are substantial differences between the Heinz baked beans sold in the UK and the nearest equivalent US product (Heinz Premium Vegetarian Beans). The US beans contain brown sugar where the British beans do not, and the US product contains 14g of sugar per tin compared to 7g for the British version (equating to 140 vs 90 calories). The US beans have a mushier texture and are darker in colour than their UK counterpart. For several years, the UK Heinz Baked Beans have been available in the US, either in different sized cans than those sold in the UK or in a 385 gram can (the same can as the 415 gram can in the UK) with an "export" label with American English spelling and the word "baked" dropped from the title on the label. These are sold in many US specialty stores. In July 2008 Heinz announced they would be dropping the word "baked" and changing the 's' at the end of beans to a 'z' on UK packaging, thus replacing "Heinz Baked Beans" with "Heinz Beanz".

Heinz Beans were first sold in the UK in the upmarket Fortnum & Mason store in London as an exotic import at a high price. Although they are now a staple food, and arguably a downmarket one, the store continues the tradition of selling Heinz Beans among its more expensive wares.

In the United States, Bush's is the top producer of baked beans, and the company produces several flavours. Most of these products are in a very sweet sauce with little tang. By comparison, home-made baked beans are considerably tangier.

In New England baked beans usually are sweetened with maple syrup, and are traditionally cooked with salt pork in a beanpot in a brick oven for a full day. A popular and widely available brand of New England or Boston baked beans is B&M's Original Baked Beans.

In southern states along the eastern seaboard of the US, the beans become tangier usually due to the addition of yellow mustard. Ground beef also becomes common alongside bacon in these beans. They take on a flavor similar to Cowboy Beans, a similar popular dish.

In Poland, with addition of bacon these are known as Breton Beans (fasolka po bretonsku).

Many unusual dishes are made with baked beans including "cold bean sandwiches". These are slices of bread topped with beans and melted cheese.

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