Q&A: Soups, Part One: Thick Soups

[eGCI Team]

Ask your questions about the Thick Soups course on this thread.

[ExtraMSG]

Nice class.

I only know the term veloute in its technical sense. I assume that's a term used more in France or the UK to refer to what we Americans inappropriately call "cream of..." soups? (Inappropriately, because they often have no cream with the trend against fatty soups and towards more flavor of the base itself. Instead, they're primarily just pureed more and more nowadays, I think.)

PS You've got one hell of an impressive set of tomatoes and carrot, if you know what I mean. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Edited May 4, 2004 by ExtraMSG (log)

[Andy Lynes]

I only know the term veloute in its technical sense. I assume that's a term used more in France or the UK to refer to what we Americans inappropriately call "cream of..." soups?

Its common menu-speak in the UK and is probably traceable to the formerly 3 Michelin starred Marco Pierre White. White was very influential in the UK and in addition, his former employees have gone on to open their own places and to mis-apply the term themselves.

[mnebergall]

What is a "groundnut?"

[jackal10]

Groundnut is another name for peanut.

[bloviatrix]

Obviously personal preference plays a role, but at what point is a soup too thick? What is the ideal consistency? (Blovie and I have been arguing about this for about 5 years and I want it settled once and for all)

[Andy Lynes]

I can only speak for myself, but certainly for the recipes I contributed to the course (the Brill and Red Lentil soups), I would be looking for something close to a sauce coating consistancy, so really quite light. But I'm sure there's an arguement that more "rustic" style thick soups could have a heavier, thicker consistancy. Just don't ask me to eat them.

[chefboy2160]

I really do not think there is a rule of thumb for thick soups. A chinese thick soup is cornstarch thickened, as are their sauces are for the most part. Also roux is used as the thickener for many western based soups. Starchy based soups thicken naturaly, and of course you can bypass all of the above if you sieve or puree your soups in a blender using your ingredients. Nape or just to the point of covering the spoon with the soup is the consistency you are looking for.

Keep cooking, Doug...

[iain]

Great lesson. Thanks.

Any idea when the appendix will arrive? I'm looking forward to it.

[Andy Lynes]

Sholsd be very soon. Its compiled and just needs a bit of formatting. I'll get around to it as soon as I can.

[Andy Lynes]

The appendix to this course is now online. Apologies for the delay.