Book of Soups: More Than 100 Recipes for Perfect Soups

Soup is the most heart-warming dish to create that soothes the soul and warms the body -- and is also easy to make. This beautifully and fully illustrated new book from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is great for novice cooks as well as experienced at-home chefs. It begins with an introduction about what you will need from ingredients and equipment to explanations of various consistencies, flavors and seasonings as well as cooking and storing your delectable soups. I enjoy broths and like to create healthy, hearty, soul-warming soups (p. 29). Clear vegetable soup packs a hearty crunch with added carrots, celery and turnips (or add your own favorites). Health advocates will find many exceptional soups, such as tomato and sweet pepper soup (p. 36) or Soto Ayam (Indonesian chicken, noodle and potato soup). Cream soups (p. 99), particularly Cheddar Cheese Soup (not cooked), will be delicious for my cheese lover husband.

`The Culinary Institute of America BOOK OF SOUPS' by, you guessed it, the staff of the Culinary Institute of America is the one book you SHOULD own on making soups. And, if there are other books on soups which you like, you should own this book as well, since it's instruction on general techniques for soup making surpass the material in the nine other recent soup books I have read. This is not to say this book can replace all other soup books. This book is strong on basic techniques and excellent recipes for classic soups such as Vichyssoise, Clam Chowder, Chicken Noodle soup, Cream of Tomato soup, Borscht, Egg Drop Soup, French Onion Soup, Stracciatella / Egg Drop Soup, Black Bean soup, and on and on and on, with the cover advertising 100 different recipes. This doesn't mean that if I want a special chowder, I won't go to Jasper White's book '50 Chowders', since all the recipes I have made from White's book have been simply out of this world good. It also doesn't mean I won't go to my little book of vegetarian soups by Paulette Mitchell or to other little books of soups by Michael Congdon and by the New York staff of `Daily Soup' or even the `Twelve Months of Monastery Soups', since I may be especially interested in a vegetarian soup, a thick full meal soup, or an especially light soup for July, since all of these are good soup books. I will also still go to Daniel Boulud or Tyler Florence for their chestnut soup recipes, even though the CIA includes a recipe for chestnut soup. But, I will pay very close attention to the CIA's chapter on creamed soups before I make chestnut soup again. The only real competition for literary soup supremacy is James Peterson's `Splendid Soups'. Peterson has several more recipes than the CIA and has a different organization based on ingredients rather than technique. And, Peterson deals in much more depth with the selection of good ingredients and their preparation than does the CIA. If you love soup, you really need both books, but if you can only afford or have the space for one, the CIA book is preferable, as it's list price is lower and its discussion of techniques is more portable to recipes in other books. The CIA has done several books on various subjects in addition to their main textbook, which is now in edition eight or nine. And, I generally find the titles oriented to amateur cooks such as their `Cooking at Home' and `Gourmet Food in Minutes' titles to be less friendly to amateur cooks than books from people who specialize in this subject such as Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, and Martha Stewart's staff. It seems they never quite forget to take off their toques and really see things from the home cook's point of view. None of that is true with this book. This may be due to the highly specialized subject, plus the effective scaling down of techniques the CIA authors has done. A common problem with recipes from restaurant cooks is that they are scaled to make eight to twelve servings. This book does not have

I cook extenstively and own a wealth of cookbooks but when I want to make a failsafe recipe, this is THE ONE. Not one dud to date (there is no other cookbook I can say that about). Always worth the effort. If you only buy one cookbook, make this it, you'll never be sorry.

Let's face it: most cookbooks have maybe two or three recipes you incorporate into your repertoire. I must admit the Culinary Institute of America imprimatur put me off (I'm a *cook*, not a chef, and I associate the CIA with the Arugula Heresy and the California Cuisine Abomination). This, along with Beard on Bread, the original troika of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Marcella Hazan, and various Louisiana and Chinese cookbooks has definitely got a permanent place on my shelves. I've tried 10 recipes so far from the various categories (Broths, Hearty Soups, Cream Soups, Pureed Soups, Bisques & Chowders, Cold Soups) and not only haven't found a dud, but have been brought to food overjoy. I admit that I've chosen with an eye to avoiding stuff I don't like (like split pea, which traumatized me as a child, or puree of carrot & orange, which simply sounds vile to me, rather than intriguing -- the California Cuisine Abomination again).With a Cuisinart or similar appliance, none of these things are very hard, especially if you keep stocks around. If you don't, buy a package of stock at your grocery store, which I do when I don't have the time to roast and simmer. I've seen more specialized books (there's one very good one devoted to chowders, whose name escapes me right now), but this is the best general-soup book I've used.

I've wanted to learn how to cook great soups for several years, but most recipes have inadequate explanations or are too "basic." Not so this one. Since I got it four weeks ago, I've tried eight of the recipes; each was incredible. Moreover, the explanations at the beginings of each chapter helped me to understand why things are done in certain ways, enabling me to deviate from the recipes with confidence (and success). I've loved the hearty soups so far, and can't wait for summer to try some of the cold soups. Enjoy!! (One caveat, these recipes tend to take at least two hours the first time they are tried, so are not for a meal on the run.)