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1 Each chapter in this book is introduced with some instructions pertinent to the soup recipes it contains. What you’ll find here are some general pointers to increase your level of “soup savvy.” This chapter begins with recipes for the essential building block of a great soup—the stock to which you add the flavoring ingredients. You’ll also learn how to make a foolproof béchamel sauce, which is the key to the whole world of cream soups. And then there are some general pointers on fun ways to garnish soups and how to cook them in your slow cooker.
The Importance of LongSimmered Stocks Perhaps you never equated buying commercial stocks—many of which are loaded with sodium—with “convenience food.” But that’s what they are, and starting soups with homemade stock is what makes them great from the get-go. It’s the long-simmered homemade stocks that add the depth of flavor to the soups and sauces enjoyed at fine restaurants. Classically trained chefs have known for centuries what you’re about to learn in this chapter—making stocks is as hard as boiling water and, if you’re judicious and save bits and pieces destined for the garbage when prepping foods to be cooked, they’re almost free.
Those onion and carrot peels, the bottom of celery ribs, the stems from which you’ve stripped the leaves of fresh parsley are all used to flavor stocks. If you take the time to bone your own chicken breasts or cut up your own beef stew meat from a roast, then you have everything you need to make stock. But there are times that you’ll spend money at the supermarket specifically to make stocks. I do it all the time and it’s still less expensive than buying cartons of tasteless salted water. On the subject of salt, please note that I do not add any to these stocks, which gives you the greatest degree of versatility when using them. While you will add salt to soups, there are times when you want to drastically reduce a stock to form a sauce. That’s almost impossible with a salted stock, because as the water evaporates during reduction the salinity rises.
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