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Soup (Fr. soup) - liquid dish popular in many countries. A distinctive feature of the soup is primarily the fact that the soup includes at least 50% of the liquid in the second turn (for hot soup) soup is cooking by boiling, in most cases in the water.
The origins of the boiling process have been lost to history. However, Reay Tannahill in his book "Food in History" stated with absolute certainty that the person knew about the boiling long before the invention of pottery (about 6,000 BC). Inventive primitive discovered that bamboo trees, filled with clay, reptile shells, and most importantly the stomachs of dead animals are a great tool for boiling liquid on the fire. When such devices were not at hand, they filled the hole with water and throwing a few hot stones to bring water to a boil.
Soup as a meal in its present sense, was formed no more than 400-500 years ago, with the emergence of a strong, unoxidizable and chemically neutral vessels, which allows to carry out the cooking process. It should be noted that in the East (Ancient China and similar regions) soups appeared earlier, about 100 BC and again - in connection with an earlier occurrence of suitable cookware. This does not mean that earlier people did not enjoy boiling - this method of cooking originated with the advent of pottery and stone vessels. But it should be differentiate a soup, where its components are inseparable parts that create the overall taste, overall composition, and simply cooked food, or a mixture thereof, where the cooking was pursuing a goal of thermal processing of the product. The resulting broth, at least in primitive times, was not used.
With the advent of dishes, familiarity with faience and porcelain and cutlery soup started to get spread, first in southern Europe in the XV-XVI centuries, and became widespread only in XVII-XVIII century. Of course, cooking methods and soup recipes were formed earlier.
To date, there are around 150 types of soups, which are subdivided into more than one thousand species, each species may have several options. The soup can be eaten alone, may be used as a snack or even dessert.
