Doorstep's Souper Bowl Sunday Simply souper Just souper!

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jan 22, 2003 by Linda Laird Capital-Journal

Soup -- by any name -- fills the senses with good feelings

Tips for soups

Should vegetables be fresh and crisp when making soup?

No, the soft ones that no longer are young but not rotten will make for the best flavor and consistency in soups. Leftover vegetables and tough stems may be used by pureeing them first.

How can fat be removed from soups and stews?

Refrigerate overnight so fat congeals on top and can be lifted off easily. If soup must be served after preparation, then skim fat off with a shallow ladle or skimmer.

Drop a few ice cubes into the liquid and stir. The fat will cling to the cubes. Remove the cubes after a few seconds. Place a few lettuce leaves or sheets of paper toweling on the surface. The fat will cling to them.

Clear soups may be blotted with strips of unwaxed brown paper by floating the strips on the surface and then carefully lifting them out.

Why is the fat difficult to remove?

If soup boils rapidly, the fat will emulsify with the stock and be difficult to remove, making the soup greasy when served.

How can I stretch the soup?

Stretch soups by adding a pasta, rice, barley or beans. Cook pasta separately so it won't overcook and be mushy.

How I can cut back on the saltiness?

Excess saltiness can be handled by gently cooking with a halved, peeled potato, then removing the potato or adding a can of peeled tomatoes or a small amount of brown sugar.

Are there any other tricks to remember?

Oven roasting soup ingredients allows sugars to caramelize enhancing flavors.

Which potatoes go best with chowder?

Red potatoes are best.

Source: "The Kitchen Answerbook" by Hank Rubin (Capital Books Inc., $22.95)

The Capital-Journal

This year's Super Bowl football game Sunday is a BIG game for sports lovers everywhere. That same day is also Doorstep's Souper Bowl Sunday --- a day set aside to help the needy in Topeka.

Congregants at Doorstep Inc. churches will take cans of soup and boxes of crackers to church with them and place them in specially marked containers. These cans will be gathered across Topeka and taken to the Doorstep Foodbank to augment dwindling supplies of food.

Everyone is invited to participate in one of the three soup or chili luncheons at Doorstep churches around Topeka serving from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Churches --- where you can get soup or chili, crackers, a drink and a dessert for $4 a person --- are First Christian Church, S.W.19th and Gage Boulevard; Faith Lutheran, S.W. 19th and Gage Boulevard; and First Baptist Church, S.W. 30th and McVicar.

For more information, call Doorstep at 357-5341.

By Linda Laird

The Capital-Journal

Nothing is better on a cold day than a hot, piping bowl of soup filling the kitchen with wonderful aromas.

It is soup's aroma that can bring the appetite up to speed.

Soup usually has nice color with a variety of vegetables and meat in the broth. The taste often takes us back to memories of our grandmother's kitchen or a family gathering around the stove.

Soup has a different mouth feel --- touch comes in here --- with a variety of textures that change (melt in your mouth) as we eat.

Dr. Marcia Levin Pelchat, of the Monell Senses Center in Philadelphia, said soup also empties from the stomach more slowly, offering us a fuller feeling for longer.

Pelchat said the Monell Senses Center is a nonprofit research center that does testing for many universities and food corporations, including all of the nation's major soup companies.

She said her organization has been involved in the updating of Campbell's Classic Condensed Soups --- a first in a number of years.

Sensory perceptions research was used to create soups with truer flavors, tastier ingredients and brighter, clearer broth than before. Plus more vegetables, pasta, beef or other ingredients were added.

Going down the soup aisle at any grocery store offers a multitude of possibilities --- soups to eat after warming, soups to add water and heat and soup-making kits that are the basics of a soup or a meal.

And they all call for the use of all our senses.

Our sense of smell, Levin said, is what makes soup the most satisfying.

Soup --- like a fast-food hamburger --- may seem more satisfying to our appetites than other foods of equal or greater nutritional value.

"Foods that are more aromatic and flavorful tend to make us feel we are more satisfied," she said. "Even if a food has the same numbers and types of calories, we will be more satisfied if the food is more aromatic, colorful and flavorful."

She said it is common as people age to lose some of their sense of smell, which is important to our sense of taste.

"That's how we can tell the difference between lamb and beef is from smell, not taste," she said.

Soup comes from the French word "soupe," meaning a liquid food with meat, fish or vegetable stock as a base, but in most kitchens, it often contains whatever happens to be in the refrigerator or pantry.

This means there isn't any set recipe for soup.

It may be clear or thickened and often contains pieces of solid food from bread slices to meat to pasta, fish, vegetables, as well as salt, pepper and herbs.