Soups

Preparation

1. Bland

   Step 1

   Bouillons and extracts of beef or chicken are a mainstay here. For vegetarians, widely available vegetable bouillon is an excellent flavoring. But consider also yeast extracts like Marmite. Following is a list of common herbs and spices and some of their best uses in soups. You can use fresh herbs if you have them, but dried herbs are fine, too.

   Step 2

   allspice (whole): pea, ham, vegetable, beef, and tomato soups (remove allspice berries before serving)

   Step 3

   basil: tomato, turtle, and spinach soups and minestrone (1/2 teaspoon per 4 servings)

   Step 4

   bay leaf: vegetable and tomato soups and minestrone

   Step 5

   chervil: tomato and spinach soups

   Step 6

   cumin: a dash in creamed chicken, fish, and pea soups

   Step 7

   juniper berries: use about 1 per serving in vegetable, beef, lamb, and oxtail soups

   Step 8

   mace: 1 or 2 blades (or pinches, if it’s ground) in 4 cups of consommé stock

   Step 9

   marjoram: spinach, clam, turtle, and onion soups (1/2 teaspoon per 4 servings)

   Step 10

   oregano: tomato, bean, corn, and pea soups

   Step 11

   paprika (hot): in modest quantities for tomato, bean, and pea soups

   Step 12

   rosemary: chicken, pea, spinach, potato, and fish soups

   Step 13

   sage: creamed soups and chowders

   Step 14

   savory: fish, consommé, lentil, bean, tomato, and vegetable soups

   Step 15

   sesame seed: creamed soups (sprinkle on before serving)

   Step 16

   tarragon: tomato, vegetable, and seafood soups

   Step 17

   thyme: chicken, onion, potato, tomato, and seafood soups, gumbo, and borscht (stir in 1/2 teaspoon 10 minutes before serving)

   Step 18

   Also consider leaving the soup alone and putting something interesting in the bowls, such as flavored croutons, a dollop of sour cream, crème fraîche (see creme fraiche), decorative swirls of tomato paste, sherry, or curry powder. See also Not Enough.

2. Bouillon Cloudy

   Step 19

   Add eggshells. Please remove them before serving. Or add egg whites. To remove them (if you want to), strain through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or colander.

3. Fatty or greasy

   Step 20

   If you have the time, refrigerate the soup. The fat will solidify on the top. Remove it and reheat the soup.

   Step 21

   You can float a grease collector on the top. Lettuce leaves, blotting paper, and paper towels all make good grease collectors.

   Step 22

   Another fast technique is to make a “grease magnet” by wrapping a few ice cubes in a terry cloth towel. Run this over the surface of the soup and the fat will cling to it. A ladleful of ice cubes will have the same effect

4. Light

   Step 23

   Commercial soup colorings are available, but some people think they have a telltale aroma. Depending on the kind of soup, you can darken it using tomato skins, tomato paste, soy sauce (taste to make sure you’re not oversalting it, though), or even food coloring. In fact, if you’re overly concerned about your soup being too light, you may want to keep a supply of brown icing color, which is available as a gel or a paste in stores that stock a good selection of baking supplies.

   Step 24

   You can also try adding a tablespoon of caramelized sugar. This works well with soups that feature cabbage. If you think you’ve overdone it and can detect a sweet taste, add a tablespoon or two of vinegar. The result will be a much more complex and interestingly flavored soup.

5. Not enough

   Step 25

   Rather than adding more liquid, consider making it spicier, thus servable in smaller portions. Use, for example, hot sauce or taco sauce in tomato- or chicken-based soups; aioli (garlic mayonnaise) in fishy soups; or curry powder in many soups. Also consider making it richer for the same reason, adding, for instance, a roux and heavy cream.

6. Salty

   Step 26

   The surest solution is to increase the quantity of the liquid without increasing the quantity of the salt. But if this isn’t practical, try one of the following techniques:

   Step 27

   Add tomatoes. If it is the right kind of soup, add a can of tomatoes. They are sufficiently bland to use up a lot of the saltiness.

   Step 28

   Add a few pinches of brown sugar. It won’t desalt the soup, but it may help cover up the salty taste without sweetening the soup.

   Step 29

   Add a squeeze of lemon juice, which can counteract saltiness.

   Step 30

   Use potatoes. Add a thinly sliced raw potato to the soup, leaving it in until the slices become translucent. The potato may absorb some of the salt from the liquid.

   Step 31

   There are skeptics who ask, “If it is possible to remove the salt from liquid easily, why aren’t we desalting the oceans?” To this we reply, “Because it would require 488,391,000,000,000 tons of sliced potatoes.”

7. Too much

   Step 32

   Contrary to almost everyone else’s opinion, leftover soup can be kept quite a long time without freezing it, if you’re willing to work at it. Almost any soup will keep in a covered pot in the refrigerator for a week. If you have a great soup that you want to keep for longer but don’t want to freeze, take it out of the refrigerator and heat it to boiling every couple of days; it will last even longer. But if it’s really that great, why aren’t you eating it?

8. Too thin

   Step 33

   First, see the section on sauces, Too Thin for several useful hints. Thickeners peculiar to soups include these:

   Step 34

   Mashed potatoes or potato flakes (which also have a tendency to absorb seasonings, so check for taste after adding).

   Step 35

   Some of the soup’s own ingredients (e.g., vegetables, beans, or lentils) ground up in a blender or food processor. (These should be additional ingredients, but in a pinch may be filched from the soup.)

   Step 36

   A mixture of 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/4 cup sherry, stirred in shortly before serving.

   Step 37

   For each original cup of liquid, 1 teaspoon barley or rice or 2 teaspoons flour (first dissolved in enough cold water to make a runny mixture, then stirred into the soup) stirred in during the last hour of cooking.

   Step 38

   One egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon cream or sherry, mixed with a small amount of hot soup, and then stirred into the rest just before serving.

   Step 39

   Stale bread (especially if you can float a heaping tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on top, too).

   Step 40

   For long-cooking soups, a handful of oatmeal or barley flakes.

   Step 41

   For pea and bean soups, 1 teaspoon vinegar. (It will thicken the soup without affecting the taste.)