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 Soup stood at the origins of cooking, and the invention of pottery is considered the moment of its birth.
In fact, before that there were all sorts of sophisticated predecessor dishes, fish and meat. Herbs or wild vegetables were cooked in their own juice or in water in pits lined with hot stones, in shells or in turtle shells, in the organs of killed wild animals. However, all of these natural vessels were so short-lived or difficult to make that they could not become the basis for everyday cooking.
This only changed when the first earthen pot was hung over a fire or placed directly in a flame and proved to be waterproof and heat-resistant. It was at this time that a new era of cooking began, as now it became possible to easily cook indigestible raw cereal grains, which previously had to be soaked, crushed, softened and "baked" on hot stones.
Were these soups delicious, no one knows, but how can you not like hearty meat broth with all kinds of ingredients?
Even more delicate - especially for eaters of that time - was the question of how they ate these soups; after all, the then instrument set consisted of only five fingers. Although nature presented a choice, such as a coconut rind or a skull lid that was turned into a spoon with a long bone or twig, even these aids were rare and short-lived. In addition: the one who can cook soup can cook porridge, and porridge is nourishing and nutritious. It can be soaked and cooled, packaged, thereby providing yourself with provisions for a long hunt.
The recipes of that time have not reached us. We owe the exact knowledge of the culinary customs of prehistoric times to the finds in the places of ancient settlements and burials, in which food was often put on the way to the other world. Another source is the discoveries that are being made by modern expeditions, studying the last people on Earth, still living at a primitive level.
In any case, we can say for sure that the soup, from which, in fact, the cooking began, for many millennia remained a "foster" for high-class cuisine.
When Homer sings about "deliciously cooked lunch," he is referring to the vast amount of grilled meat and the river of wine. The only soup we know from antiquity is the "black soup" of the Spartans, food for tough men and those who were preparing to become them.
"Black soup"
Even more undemanding than that of the Athenians was the Spartan table. The modesty of the menu was for them an attribute of a "heroic way of life." A typical dish for them was black soup made from pork boiled in blood and seasoned with salt and vinegar.
They joked about the stingy Spartan table in the Ancient World. One sybarite who attended a public reception is said to have explained the courage of the Spartans after eating: "A sane man would rather die than be content with such a poor meal."
Likewise, in the memoirs from Ancient Rome, as, for example, in the cookbook of Apicius, soup is not assigned any role, and it seems that this was so until the very Middle Ages. At the palace receptions of European kings and princes, abundant drinks were especially appreciated, and not modest dishes, as Rabelais describes them.
But at the same time we must not forget that oral and written evidence that has come down to us, in many areas of the way of life only of the ruling classes: gods and heroes, patricians, knights and the rich.
Therefore, we can assume that the soup still has a longer history than it seems at first glance.Poverty and hunger, times of war and hardship, which in those centuries happened on our continent much more often than today, certainly did not do without flour, bread, beetroot soups and broths.
In the kitchen of the poor in the early 19th century, "simple" soups were prepared. The idea of soup kitchens and Rumford soup is attributed to the Earl of Rumford, after whom the dish is named. This man was an American physicist titled in England, who at the end of the 18th century came to Munich, became a military and police minister there, brought potatoes to Bavaria and, among other things, invented an economical stove.
Rumford soups, "a jumble of the cheapest and most nutritious vegetables that don't even need meat," according to the Reichsanzeiger newspaper in 1803, was not invented by the Earl of Rumford, but only revived. This dish was known as monastery soup in the Middle Ages. Rumford soup recipes are still printed in many cookbooks to this day.
"Barley, milled and refined cereals, peas and a new folk food, namely, potatoes were heated and stirred for hours, seasoned with vinegar and salt, then served on the table with a piece of bread. The courtiers were greatly surprised at how much water all this porridge could absorb, before getting ready, but later everyone realized how satisfying water can be; but plants, which in the end also fed on water, could prove it. "
Meanwhile, the rich also discovered soups, delicious stews made from oysters and eel, mushrooms and asparagus, from pigeon and chicken, often with the addition of cream and yolk, decorated with brains and cheese croutons.
It is to these soups that we owe the bias that soup contributes to obesity, and later this even led to the abandonment of soups altogether.
As with everything, here you need to find a middle ground. Between the "soup of the poor" and "royal potage" there is a huge number of dishes that have long been invented and tested by folk cuisine. Soups: borscht and hodgepodge, bouillabaisse and french onion soup, pavese soup, minestra and Polish beetroot soup, German national dishes such as pea soup with lard, oxtail soup, numerous varieties of potato soup.
Mironova E.A.
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