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https://theconversation.com/good-soup-is-one-of-the-prime-ingredients-of-good-living-a-condensed-history-of-soup-from-cave-to-can-205656>
"Hot soup on a cold day brings warmth and comfort so simple that we don’t think
too much about its origins. But its long history runs from the Stone Age and
antiquity through to modernity, encompassing the birth of the restaurant,
advances in chemistry, and a famous pop art icon.
The basic nature of soup has a fundamental appeal that feels primordial –
because it is.
Archaeologists speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals,
boiling animal bones to extract fat essential for their diet and drinking the
broth. Without the fats, their high intake of lean animal meats could have led
to protein poisoning, so stone age soup was an important complement to primeval
nutrition.
The fundamental benefit of these bone broths is confirmed by archaeological
discoveries around the world, ranging from a gelatin broth in Egypt’s Giza
plateau, to Shaanxi Province in China.
The widespread distribution of archaeological finds is a reminder soup not only
has a long history, but is also a global food.
Today, our idea of soup is more refined, but the classic combination of stock
and bread is embedded in the Latin root of the verb
suppāre, meaning “to
soak”.
As a noun,
suppa became
soupe in Old French, meaning bread soaked in broth,
and
sowpes in Middle English. This pairing was also an economical way of
reclaiming stale bread and thickening a thin broth. Wealthier households might
have toasted fresh bread for the dish, but less prosperous diners used up stale
bread that was too hard to chew unless softened in the hot liquid."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
