Alton Brown Cooks Food | Episode 7: All The World's A Soup

0:00 soup is just a way of screwing you out of a meal.

0:05 Or so quipped Jay Leno once supposedly.

0:09 I however do not agree uh with this uh sentiment.

0:16 Um though humble stuff u the word soup comes

0:19 from sop meaning a piece of bread soaked with broth.

0:23 Soup is to my mind the alpha and omega [music] the primordial ooze

0:27 from which all culinary life springs

0:30 and the highest expression of its eventual evolution.

0:33 You know without soups we might not even have restaurants

0:36 as we know them seeing as how the uh the word

0:39 came into use restaurant [music] in 18th century France based

0:43 on restorative which was the common name at the time for soup.

0:48 Uh today, of course, soups can be clear and thin or thick and chunksome.

0:53 Although once you move past a 1:1 chunk liquid ratio,

0:57 you're going [music] into stew territory, which is a subject for another show.

1:01 Um, the best thing about soup besides being, you know,

1:05 comforting and nutritious and all of that jazz

1:08 is that although there are classics,

1:10 okay, and recipes are helpful for those, but if

1:13 you follow a simple and highly flexible formula,

1:16 darn near anything can become soup.

1:19 Okay, my own um supus operandi [gasps] is really a kind of uristic approach

1:26 wherein I combine foods from six categories

1:30 following a typically specific order of operation.

1:33 Now the categories are as follows.

1:35 Aromatics cooked in fat, herbs and or spices, flavorful liquids,

1:42 assorted chunkies, a source of acid and a garnish.

1:47 always.

1:48 Since I add salt to literally everything I cook,

1:50 I'm not even going to mention it as a category.

1:53 Now, let's begin with the aromatics.

2:00 We're going to talk about any bunch

2:02 of little vegetable things or flavorful things

2:05 that can be cooked in fat to provide a flavor base for the soup.

2:10 Now u this can mean chili peppers um any member

2:13 of the onion family including garlic and leaks um carrots risomes like ginger

2:18 grasses like lemongrass um I try to always have three aromatics

2:24 in my soups okay and having been raised culinarily speaking in the European

2:29 tradition I typically reach for a 2:1 um ratio of uh chopped

2:34 onion chopped carrot and chopped celery aka mir pua So common is

2:40 this mixture in my kitchen that I keep small little bags um

2:45 of about two cups total um in my freezer at all times.

2:49 So soup, you know, can literally happen at any

2:52 time and no freezing really doesn't hurt the mirror plot.

2:56 Okay.

2:57 Now, when fabricating, I tend to cut the uh carrots, which are harder,

3:01 into slightly smaller pieces just to help them cook

3:04 at roughly the same rate as the other bits.

3:08 Not that this really [music] matters too terribly much in in soup making,

3:11 though uniform bits do tend to look a little more polished in the final bowl.

3:16 All right, into the pot, right?

3:18 Um along with uh some fat.

3:20 And I'm just going to use avocado oil here.

3:23 Um just there.

3:26 Of course, it's not going to get that hot.

3:27 So, technically, you could use extra virgin olive oil if you wanted.

3:30 I just wouldn't really.

3:33 Sometimes I render little bits of uh bacon or other

3:37 salt fat or whatever in there, but not today.

3:39 Not today.

3:39 So, um I also add a hefty pinch of salt at this point.

3:43 They say it helps to pull moisture out,

3:46 but I really think it's just about building in the flavors

3:49 uh because salt does interact uh with certain flavor compounds.

3:53 Um thus salting throughout the process uh typically results in using less

3:58 [music] salt overall if you were to add it all at the end.

4:01 You get my point.

4:02 Now, we turn the heat to medium low.

4:04 You'll notice I don't preheat the pot because I want to sweat the aromatics.

4:09 Okay?

4:09 I don't want to sauté them.

4:11 Okay?

4:11 Um, [music] sweating softens without browning.

4:14 Sautéing always browns and I don't want that.

4:17 All right.

4:18 Medium low.

4:19 Um, and um, I'm going to let this cook for probably 5 minutes.

4:22 Oh, now is also when you should consider adding dry herbs.

4:30 And uh I'm using um a little bit of oregano, about a teaspoon.

4:36 Oh, it's actually more than that.

4:37 Uh and I always use two herbs at a time

4:40 so that [music] one doesn't just come through.

4:42 You know, they need to be more of a duo.

4:43 So, uh that is oregano and this uh a little bit of thyme,

4:48 which is my favorite for soups, but I'm going light on that.

4:51 Only about half the amount of the uh of the oregano.

4:57 They do need to hydrate a bit, right?

4:59 So adding them at this point makes a lot of sense and they smell good.

5:07 All right, let's uh ponder a flavorful liquid.

5:10 Um, and unfortunately we're not talking about martinis here.

5:13 We're typically talking about a stock or broth um

5:17 in which some other edibles foods um have been cooked.

5:22 Chicken, beef.

5:23 Um, ideally these would be stocks, okay?

5:25 liquids in which bones and connective tissues have

5:28 been simmered for a long period of time and as such uh will be full of lip

5:33 smacking gelatin which can which delivers a lot of flavor.

5:37 Um now I have homemade I like homemade because

5:41 I've always got bits and pieces of necks and wings

5:44 and backs of chickens as well as old chunks

5:46 of onions and carrots uh to make stock out of.

5:48 But we'll get into stocks in a in another episode.

5:51 Just know that there are some quality commercial versions available.

5:56 So, always keep [music] those around and you'll

5:58 you'll always have soup coming at you.

6:00 Uh broth, by the way, is typically a liquid that meat has been cooked in.

6:05 So, there's usually a lot of flavor,

6:07 but you're not guaranteed to have that gelatin.

6:10 Now, I've got um basically a quart of liquid for each cup of the aromatics.

6:15 But you notice I'm a little light here.

6:17 Um I'm actually almost a cup light.

6:19 Um, so I'm going to add another flavorful liquid in the form of of white wine.

6:26 Maybe as much as a cup.

6:31 That's good.

6:31 Um, the reason that I like cooking with wine so

6:34 much is that I like drinking wine while I cook.

6:38 I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

6:40 You're the one doing the cook.

6:41 There ought to be some more.

6:42 Okay.

6:43 Um, I've got some sizzling here and I

6:45 don't really want to hear too much sizzling.

6:47 So, I'm actually going to turn down the heat.

6:49 Please notice, and this is important, your soup spoon.

6:52 You must have a wooden spoon for your soup.

6:55 This one is very old.

6:56 I've had it for a lot of years.

6:57 I've set it on fire accidentally [music] at least 12 times.

7:01 And I think that that adds a little bit of flavor to the soup.

7:04 So, hearing a little bit of this is okay.

7:07 If you Now, that still sounds a little too hot.

7:09 I don't want browning here,

7:11 unless it's from the [music] burned parts of the spoon.

7:16 Okay, fine.

7:17 We're going to let that completely soften.

7:20 All right, our aromatics are fully sweated.

7:24 Uh, so it's time now to add the flavorful liquid.

7:27 I'm making a big batch of soup.

7:29 So, yes, I'm using two quarts.

7:32 I am now boosting this heat all the way up to medium

7:36 high because I want to bring this flavorful liquid to a simmer.

7:41 Go, go.

7:48 That takes us to our chunkies.

7:51 [music] Not chunks.

7:55 Chunkies is what I call them.

7:56 Always have.

7:57 I use three chunkies um in each and every one of my soups.

8:00 And today uh I'm going to use some leftover

8:03 turkey that I have uh from the uh the holidays.

8:05 This was smoked turkey.

8:06 So that's going to be delicious.

8:08 I like beans um in my soups.

8:10 Uh this is just what do we have here?

8:12 butter beans.

8:14 I could use white I could use any bean that I want to.

8:16 [music] Canoli.

8:17 Um, was that even a bean?

8:20 Canoli beans?

8:20 No, I could use chickpeas.

8:22 I could use white beans.

8:23 I could use kidney beans.

8:24 That's what I was trying to say.

8:26 And I'm going to use whole can.

8:27 I've drained them.

8:28 I've saved the starch water though because I could use it as a thickener.

8:31 I'm also going to use in this um this particular example of soup uh tomatoes.

8:36 I'm going to use whole tomatoes.

8:37 This is not an advertisement for that brand, by the way.

8:39 Um, I like whole because I want to be able

8:41 to chop them up myself and let them break down.

8:43 Uh, so I almost always use canned for that.

8:46 So, aromatics, herbs, we got we've got our flavorful liquid.

8:51 We've got our chunks.

8:52 Now, I want to point out I mentioned acid, right?

8:55 I mentioned acid.

8:55 Well, we've got acid in the tomatoes and we've got acid in the wine.

8:59 So, we've already got some acid.

9:00 As for um a garnish, I'll figure that out later.

9:03 I'm not going to worry about that.

9:04 As soon as I've got bubbles uh breaking [music] the surface,

9:07 I bring forth the uh the chunkies.

9:10 Uh here I have the uh the leftover uh turkey going in.

9:14 Any protein, you don't need protein, okay?

9:16 You don't have to.

9:17 Um I'm adding the uh the beans.

9:20 And you know what?

9:21 I like having a starch in here uh to to help to thicken.

9:25 Um also it gives the uh the soup a bit more heartiness.

9:29 You could use leftover pasta here.

9:31 You could use rice here.

9:32 [music] Wouldn't matter.

9:33 and the tomatoes.

9:34 Now, I don't know that I want all these tomatoes in here,

9:37 so I'm just going to kind of add them one at a time.

9:39 And yes, I'm I'm using a cocktail strainer, a jeulip strainer, in fact,

9:45 which I find to be uh perfect uh for this kind of duty,

9:48 you know, when it's not making martinis.

9:50 Uh so, I'm going to go about six of these.

9:53 And I'm going to hold back.

9:54 I might need the rest of them in the juice later, but we'll wait and see.

9:58 Stir and kind of break up some of those tomatoes.

10:02 Odds are they'll break up on their own.

10:06 Go.

10:08 Give a stir and lid on.

10:13 Heat down just to maintain a simmer.

10:16 I'm going to guess that's going to be about medium low again on this one.

10:21 I'm going to walk away for 30 minutes just to let everything in here

10:26 come together to let the turkey kind of break down a little bit.

10:29 some of the flavors, all the flavors kind of doing in a little intermingling.

10:33 I'll be back.

10:36 It's been half an hour.

10:38 Time to take a look.

10:39 [sighs] There, things have come along nicely.

10:43 However, I noticed that some of my tomatoes uh

10:45 did not pop the way that I had planned.

10:47 Now, I could chase them around with my soup spoon,

10:50 but uh why would I do that when I have a potato masher, which is perfect.

10:54 So, I'm just going to get in there and teach those tomatoes

10:58 whose boss tip that just break those up a little bit.

11:04 [laughter] Now, taste very important.

11:08 I've got a tasting spoon here cuz this is

11:11 the point where we would want to uh adjust the seasoning.

11:13 I am going to drop the heat all the way to its very lowest setting.

11:17 Now, remember, haven't added a lot of salt to this, just the uh the sweat,

11:20 but then there's salt in the tomatoes, there's salt in ingredients, right?

11:31 definitely is going to need salt,

11:33 but I plan on garnishing it uh with a little bit of salt.

11:36 Still, it's going to need more.

11:37 So, I'm going to give it about a teaspoon,

11:40 assuming that I'm going to add a little bit more in my garnish.

11:44 Stir that in.

11:48 Taste again.

11:50 Yes, I'm double dipping.

11:51 Why?

11:52 because this is basically a boiling liquid.

11:54 And number two, I plan on eating all this myself.

11:56 If you're serving to guests, you would just do this when no one's looking.

12:02 Ideal.

12:04 Perfect.

12:04 Now, uh we're ready to uh serve the soup.

12:06 Or of course, you could simply uh lid on and and wait hours uh to serve.

12:12 But uh I'm hungry now.

12:13 I do like a wide bowl so that I can kind of really see the soup.

12:18 It also will cool a little more quickly that way.

12:25 there.

12:25 Now, finishing touches.

12:27 Uh, I'm going to bring a little bit more acidity to the party.

12:30 Remember, I mentioned acidity as one of the prime um ingredient groups,

12:35 and it's where a lot of folks kind of go wrong with soups because as soups cook,

12:39 brightness, acidity tends to reduce.

12:42 Now, we could simply add lemon, right,

12:45 which is a really great source of acidity or or vinegar.

12:48 Um, any number of vinegars would work fine,

12:51 but I have kind of a secret, well, it's not a secret weapon.

12:54 I use a spice called sumac.

12:57 And sumac is a spice that uh was used a lot in the uh the Middle East

13:02 and was originally used uh before there were lemons

13:05 in the Middle [music] East uh to put in things.

13:07 And I like to add that directly to the soup.

13:11 People won't be able they'll be like, "What is that?" They'll be like, "Well,

13:13 the acidity is there like lemon,

13:15 but there's no citrus flavor there from lemon." So, that's perfect.

13:20 I like to do that at the table.

13:21 And a little finishing of salt, which we need, right?

13:25 And I'm going to get that uh from this hunk of uh Pecorino Romano.

13:30 Again, I like to do this at the table

13:32 uh because then people see it happening and they go,

13:34 "Ooh." [music] And they get to watch the cheese

13:36 melt in the soup and that's very sexy.

13:39 And then you kind of tap it before you

13:41 go and everybody thinks that you're like a professional waiter.

13:44 Finally, a garnish.

13:49 Now, I could count the cheese as a garnish certainly,

13:51 but then uh I could also consider croutons to be a garnish.

13:55 And I like croutons because they'll break down

13:57 in the soup and take us back to that original definition.

14:01 Sop.

14:01 I like a little crouton in my soup.

14:03 There we go.

14:04 greenery.

14:05 Sure, if you want, but uh this works perfectly well for me.

14:09 I like watching as the croutons slowly soak in the soup.

14:14 It's something to be contemplated soup.

14:16 I mean, sure, you can look at it as just something to gobble up,

14:18 but take a moment and look around.

14:20 Look at what's going on.

14:21 You've got these beautiful vegetables.

14:23 You've got the little pieces [music] of uh of herbage.

14:26 You've got little bitty bubbles of fat.

14:27 We didn't use much fat at all.

14:30 Just a little bit of the oil, which is now floating around in there.

14:33 I can see [music] the turkey in there.

14:35 And I decide where I get to take my first bite from.

14:37 I want this piece of turkey.

14:38 So, I'm going in, OJ Leno.

14:48 I just feel bad for you.

14:52 I mean, I'm jealous of all the cars, but you could really use some soup.

14:58 See you next time on