BS: Tomato soup

Subject: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 03:29 PM

Just made the best tomato soup i ever made, I threw in what ever I felt would work. Now I could not recreate it if I tried. Wish now I wrote it down

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 03:35 PM

I know I had whole tomatos canned tomatos some red wine, some mushrooms, some cream some butter some basil a dash of something spicy and.. Dang if I know

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 03:45 PM

I am not one of them but I understand that many women can isolate ingredients by aroma- try your wife on it!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 04:48 PM

Gee, it sounds delicious, Dan. I never thought of tomato soup coming from anywhere but a can. I have had ties to Sacramento since 1970, and moved there in 1981 - the city has the nickname "Sacatomato," because so many tomatoes are grown here in the Sacramento River Delta. During the harvest season, tomatoes are transported in big hopper trucks, filled to overflowing with beautiful canning tomatoes. The freeway ramps often have piles of tomatoes, left by trucks that took the turn too fast.

The Campbell's Soup Company plant shut down a couple years ago. It had a water tower painted to look like a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup. But now that Campbell's deserted us, I'm considering getting my tomato soup fix in other ways. Yours sounds good.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 05:13 PM

Tomato soup has never really been my favourite but there was one my mother made once that I did enjoy.

Again, I haven't a clue what the recipe was. The only thing I can say was it was made a year when we had an excess of the plum tomato, Roma VF - it might have been the first year I tried a plum.

Campbells soup... I really like their condensed cream of mushroom.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 05:34 PM

"I really like their condensed cream of mushroom."

I use that with cooked ground beef, milk with a dusting of nutmeg to make spaghetti sauce as a change from tomato sauce, etc. Sometimes I add fresh mushrooms if they're a reasonable price. But as you allude to, Jon, the soup's gotta be Campbell's.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 05:58 PM

I live with 2 vegetarians so the mince would be out but something spaghetti using this soup as a base for the sauce is something I think we will try.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 06:06 PM

Use al dente cooked carrots instead of meat. That works, and if the vegetarians can use a bit of butter, with the milk sauce or a very light cream, so much the better. I prefer to use the nut of the nutmeg and grate it onto the finished dish. YMMV, but it can be a different pasta sauce for a change :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 06:53 PM

Thanks "#". I'm sure we'll come up with something and I'm quite fond of nutmeg. Wandering even further, I love bread sauce - just the simple cook with an onion with cloves stuck in at and to finish it off, top with grated nutmeg. Only seem to have it at Christmas though.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 05 Mar 15 - 08:02 PM

Joe give it a try i added a couple teaspoons of sugar to tame the acid it was amazing especially with the sliced mushrooms

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Musket
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 05:45 AM

There are very few processed foods that can hold themselves against home made, but Heinz Tomato Soup hits the comfort spot for me.

To be fair, I haven't tasted it when in The US, and I find a number of things that are the same don't taste the same. But the UK Heinz, from their factory just off the M6 in Lancashire make wonderful tomato soup.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 06:21 AM

Have to agree about Heinz, it seems to have kept the same taste over the years unlike a lot of other "new improved formula" products which end up ruined!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 07:43 AM

Of the Heinz ones, their vegatable soup suits my own tastes.

Home made,e made soups. Mums celery soup for one is delightful. Then there is one using stilton cheese...

I (UK) don't have the US/UK experience on possible differences.

At least not usually. Years ago I was sent some maple syrup by another person here. If memory is correct, it was B grade and had been produced in Vermont. It wasn't just sweet as I'd expect but it was full of flavour. In a daft sort of way I suppose, you could almost taste the tree!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 09:57 AM

It might be a stretch calling this tomato soup, but it is tomato-ey. Veggies look away now. This is by far the finest soup I've ever made. It comes from Gino D'Acampo.

Fry half a pound of diced pancetta or chopped streaky bacon (not smoked) in olive oil. After a few minutes, add a pound and a half of sliced onions or shallots (I love banana shallots and use them instead of onions all the time these days). When the onions have softened nicely, add at least two and a half pints of your finest chicken stock and a 440ml can of chopped tomatoes. Maybe a few more toms than that or maybe a slug of sundried tomato paste in addition. Season. Simmer for 40 minutes. Check seasoning again. Easy with the salt because the bacon contains some.

Serve this in big bowls with some fresh Parmesan shavings on top and some crusty bread to accompany. If you have fresh basil sprinkle some baby leaves on top. If you have only dried basil throw it straight in the bin and do without. Fit for a king.

That will do four people, or two of you twice.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:08 AM

To make my chicken stock I boil the carcass of the Sunday roast in a large pan of water, adding a couple of onions, a couple of carrots and a couple of sticks of celery, all chopped up. Add pepper but not salt. I add a few sprigs of thyme and two fresh bay leaves and some parsley if I have it. If the carcass is a bit small I might cheat and add one chicken stock cube (the Kallo ones are organic), just to man it up a bit. Just simmer that for hours with the lid on then mash it all up a bit and sieve it. I never skim the fat off stock. That's where the flavour is. I'd rather cut down the butter or oil in whatever recipe I'm using the stock in.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:17 AM

I never eat tinned soups or those than come in expensive cartons. I find them all to be disgustingly over-processed and, considering the cost of the ingredients, a total ripoff. And too salty. Making really good soup at home is easy, and you can always make your favourites in bulk and freeze the excess. I think the best ones for freezing are the ones that you've blitzed in the processor.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:29 AM

Pretty much the same here, Steve, but I also add between 4 and 8 cloves. Much as I like the fat that renders into the broth I have to skim it after refrigerating the stock. Old age/golden years aren't all they're cracked up to be :-))

I've been unable to locate a satisfactory stock cube. Here in Canada they seem to be 90% salt bound together with stuff. However, there is a chicken or beef stock out of late made by Mr Campbell that comes in a one liter box, and it's a handy way to increase the stock rendering. The birds like the chicken fat which I 'butter' toast with before tossing it out to them.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:35 AM

Dan, I had a tomato soup years ago that was made with tomato juice and milk. However, the cook added sodium bicarbonate (I think) to prevent the milk from curdling. I do not recall the order things were done in and I'd guess that's crucial because of the milk souring. I'll dick around with it in the next while and let you know what I find out.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:50 AM

I don't think I have used a stock cube since about 1975. Making stock is not just easy, it clears out the freezer and the veg bin in a good way, and makes the house smell great. Like Guest#, I take the fat off; I use stock in too many recipes that have no room in them for extra fat.

I learned to make proper cream of mushroom soup in Grade 8 cookery class, back in the middle sixties. At the time, I thought it was an enormous waste of effort; now it's a treat.

Sodium bicarb shows up in quite a few tomato recipes, but to the best of my knowledge it has no effect on the relationship between tomatoes and milk. In the Grade 8 recipe, which doesn't curdle, the soup is thickened with beurre manié and the cream goes in at the very end.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 10:53 AM

Must have been my bad memory, Charmion.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Musket
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 11:08 AM

You know.. We make all kinds of soups, from scratch and enjoying a lot of our own produce, including our own tomato soup. But I do stand by the fact that Heinz have cracked the code...

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 11:50 AM

Too thick and salty!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Mysha
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 01:10 PM

Hi,

Olddude: Just start with the ingredients you recall and vary from their. Even if you don't rediscover your lost recipe, you may find another, equally good.

Not really my thing, though, tomato soup. But fortunately the thread then mentioned pasta!
Personally, I use peas, rather than carrots. I can see the appeal, though, and may try it sometime.

The one trouble with peas is that for some reason most people seem to believe that peas are inedible if over 4mm in diameter. As a consequence, what is sold over here, labelled as "extra fine peas", is something that almost disappear into your pasta sauce without a trace. What you need instead are not even "fine peas", but "medium peas". Those are good in pasta sauce.

I imagine "large peas" might be as well, but so far I've never found any peas on offer on that half of the scale. Quite weird, really, since that means all peas or on one size of the scale: Either medium or smaller.


Bye,
                                                               Mysha

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 01:11 PM

Hungarian mushroom soup from the Moosewood cookbook. I could eat a few gallons of it. I also agree with #'s opinion on Campbell's Cream of Mushroom.

I never liked tomato soup because the only thing I've experienced has been Campbell's. I think this is what Bat Goddess makes, and I plan on trying it this summer: Fresh Heirloom Tomato Soup from The Splendid Table

I'm now hungry.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Musket
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 01:12 PM

I take it you are referring to the contents of the Anfield Kop sir?

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 01:31 PM

I tempted you and you fell for it! You won't be saying that when they slaughter Rovers on Sunday in t'cup. I can only pray that I get released from the baby-naming ceremony we've been invited to in time to watch the game. I'm being railroaded into wearing a bloody tie for that. Don't think I can remember how to put one on. And pants with a crease. Jaysus, Mrs Steve loves this sort of thing... :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: MikeL2
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 02:31 PM

Hi Dan Hope you're keeping well.

I have been making soups now for many years and like you I just toss in what I have at the time. All the children in the family as well as the adults really love them.

I have on occasions when, after tasting before finishing, I have even added some 2 CupaSoup to give it a bit of substance.

The soup that I make that goes down best with my family is leek and potato.

And I make a very popular Gazpacho in the summer as it is a cold soup. Deliciously refreshing on a warm day....and healthy too.

I have tried to capture the Heinz taste for the kids but it is cheaper and better to buy it for them.....and less work.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 03:26 PM

Mike I would love your leek and potato recipe. I can never get it right and every spring I have a bumper crop of leeks growing wild here. Thank my friend

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 03:49 PM

For stock, these days we tend to use the Knorr vegatable stock pots.

We still have a few leeks in the garden. They will probably go into a leek and potato soup.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: jacqui.c
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 04:06 PM

Dan - I know what you mean. I made a tomato soup a while back with fresh, canned and roasted tomatoes. It came out well but I didn't write it down.

I made butternut squash soup a few days ago. I've got a new toy - a soupmaker that cooks and then liquidises all in one.

I put in the squash, with homemade vegetable stock, some dried minced garlic, pepper and dried crushed red pepper. Overdid it on the peppers I think, it's edible for me but I like hot stuff!

There's chicken stock in the fridge now for a chicken soup to be made tomorrow. I'm having to cut right back on fats so will take of the fat from the top.

I must admit, though, that my real comfort food on a cold day is Campbells cream of chicken.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 04:11 PM

I don't see Heinz soup often in the U.S. any more. Heinz is the standard for Ketchup, but not soup. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is married to a Heinz heiress, Teresa Heinz Kerry. She is the widow of Senator Henry John Heinz III. Teresa Heinz is the chair of The Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, disbursing money to various social and environmental causes.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 04:22 PM

I met her Joe beautiful person inside and out.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 04:35 PM

Oh Joe, and maybe me showing my age... Beanz meanz Heinze.

Maybe not in this (UK) hosuehold though. Branston seems the most popular at home these dasys.

There is a jar of Heinz ketchup in the cupboard but when we have a good crop of plum tomatoes. Pip makes her own.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 05:08 PM

Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for tomato soup that I cut out, but haven't made yet. You cut in half and arrange on a baking sheet a bunch of ripe tomatoes and various other vegetables, and roast them before pureeing the lot. It sounded fabulous. If I can find that later I'll transcribe and post it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 05:13 PM

The trouble with all-in-one soup makers is that you put everything in raw. That is not the way to achieve the flavour base needed for a good soup. You need to fry the veg in oil, get it all nice and soft, to release the flavours and aromas before adding the stock. It really is every easy to make soup from scratch.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 05:15 PM

Very easy

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Janie
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 06:21 PM

Not fond of cooked tomatoes as the main ingredient in anything other than creamed tomato soup, and confess a fondness for Campell's canned tomato soup/bisque with grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'm a little younger than Joe, but don't ever remember there being many soups labeled Heinz on the grocery shelf where I grew up or where I have lived - all south of the Mason-Dixon line.

If a little thread drift may be allowed - Snow's Clam Chowder used to be great. My ex-husband told of working at a clam shack/seafood restaurant on Cape Cod in the 1960's that was famous for their clam chowder, which patrons assumed to be restaurant made. One of his prime jobs was to bag and keep concealed the Snow's cans from whence the chowder came. Not easy to find in stores in many places, then or now. But they have been bought out by Bumble Bee, have changed the recipe, and it simply is no better than any other canned New England clam chowder any more.

*sniff*

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 06:58 PM

Hmm Janie, I think my tastes changed over the the years, I'd not do what parents sometimes do and have grilled salad (eg. Ailsa Craig") tomatoes on toast it's not for me. But on a very rare day when I do depart form the family and have a grill/fry up with bacon a can of plum tomatoes is nice.

There was a time when I found cooking things too "tomato-y" for me but that has largely changed. In the summer if things go well, I boil up home grown tomatoes, sweet peppers and aubergine and courgette. It gets frozen an Pip can use it as a base for a meal.

Whatever, maybe for me the best tomato is the salad one you pick from your own vine and maybe eat with cheese in a sandwich,

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Mar 15 - 07:43 PM

So, Stilly, we'll all be at your house for dinner tomorrow night. Did your airport open up yet?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 03:25 AM

For anyone who wants to make their own cream of tomato soup that tastes just like Heinz (I know..) you just heat tomato puree and single cream together on the hob. Season as liked.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 05:07 AM

I must put in a word for salmorejo, a rich, thick Spanish soup that must be served very cold. Makes a great tapas or starter in summer. It's made with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and bread, and, most important, a dash of sherry vinegar. I don't favour those recipes that include almonds. It's traditional to garnish it with chopped hard-boiled egg and chopped Serrano ham. It's pointless trying to make this, as with gazpacho, with anything other than perfectly red-ripe, full-flavoured tomatoes. I first had this on a hot summer's evening sitting outside a bar in Terque, a little village in Andalucia. Gorgeous!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 05:40 AM

I do like tomato soup so it's dissapointing not to get the recipe. Try and make it again and let us know!
In cans I prefer Baxters

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 06:29 AM

the best tomato soup I ever had was in a transport cafe on the A5 near Browhills.
It was Heinz, I am sure but they had thrown in fresh ripe toms cut up and then heated it. Tried it since, never quite the same as the first time (now where have I heard that before?).

I heard on a dieting type documentary recently that there is a very good reason why soup is filling. Something that explained why I prefer half a tin at one sitting. (or did I mean slurping?)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: MikeL2
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 10:31 AM

Hi Dan

<" Mike I would love your leek and potato recipe >"

I will give you my way of making the soup, but as I said earlier I tend to "play it by ear.

Ingredients - 4 Portions: 1 lb Potatoes - 2 medium carrots - 1. medium white onion - 1 Small red onion - 2 large leeks - Fresh Herbs as available or tablespoon of dried mixed herbs - pint of chicken or vegetable stock. Use salt and pepper to taste.

Method -: Dice the potatoes and carrots into small cubes. Chop the leeks into 2inch pieces and cut lengthwise (wash thoroughly ).

Fry the vegetables lightly - I use butter and olive oil - I fry for about 4 minutes.

Meanwhile heat the stock and throw in the herbs in a large pan.

Add in the fried vegetables and use water as necessary and simmer for for 45 minutes and the let it stand until it goes cool.

Blitz the soup until you get the consistency that suits you. Sometimes I have it chunky but most times I do it smooth....the family like it this way.

Hope this helps Dan. You will have to do a little experimenting to get the right contents to suit your taste.

You can leave out the frying stage if you want it healthy. Steve is right this gives the most taste but IMHO it is not significantly different.

As regards Soup makers. I have one and I find that if you let the finished soup stand for a couple of hours and then heat it up in a saucepan by adding a knob of butter and a dessert spoon full of vegetable oil there's not much difference.

Please try it Dan and let me know how you go on.

Kind Regards

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: MikeL2
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 10:42 AM

Hi

The discussion about tomato soup reminds me of when my wife's sister invited us to dinner. She had also invited our favourite niece and her new boyfriend.( They were in their twenties ).

Barbara is an excellent cook and goes " the extra mile" when cooking, especially at dinner parties.

For starters she did her "special" homemade tomato soup.

The boyfriend had a couple of spoons and then started looking at it and didn't have any more.

My Sister-in-law asked him if he didn't like tomato soup. He said he did but he only liked Heinz tinned soup.

He was never invited again......tee hee

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 07 Mar 15 - 02:21 PM

Mike thank you my friend

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Musket
Date: 08 Mar 15 - 04:04 AM

Beanz means fartz

We get Branston these days because their low salt and sugar ones aren't as watery as Heinz.

Heinz inhabit our pantry in terms of tomato soup and ketchup. That said, we have more of our own tomato soup than tinned. Tinned is when I am home alone and being lazy.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Mar 15 - 04:29 PM

Himself is out of town doing a two-week Court Martial, so I'm eating my way through a large batch of minestrone.

Take a pound of small white beans, put them in cold salted water, and boil them until they are cooked. While that's going on, shred the leaves of a pound and a half of kale, and dice two stalks of celery, a large carrot and a large yellow onion. Mince several cloves of garlic, and cut four rashers (slices) of smoked bacon into lardons.

When the beans are tender, strain them. Take a large soup pot and fry the lardons in the bottom until they have rendered up their grease; then add the garlic, onion and celery. Cook for a while, until the onion is translucent. Add the carrots and the beans. Then pour in about half a large tin of diced tomatoes (~14 fluid ounces) and up to two litres of beef stock.

Bring all that to a boil and cook until the carrots are tender. Then add the kale, stir it down, and bring it back up to the boil. Finish with some chopped basil, rather a lot of pepper and some salt if you think it necessary.

Tomatoes and chickpeas are the only vegetables I buy in tins. Yes, I am a snob.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: olddude
Date: 08 Mar 15 - 04:53 PM

I make it that way also, it is wonderful

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato soup
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Mar 15 - 05:24 PM

I have no hesitation using canned beans in soups. Napolina cannellini beans are brilliant, and cheap. Mentioning using kale in soup reminded me of one of the best of all Italian soups, ribollita. A fantastic soup for anyone, including veggies. I start with chunky soffritto: chopped carrots, onions and celery in olive oil. When the veg is soft I chuck in canned tomatoes, some sundried tomato paste, a bit of white wine, veg stock and beans. Tons of beans. And seasoning, of course. After a bit of simmering I throw in an impossibly large amount of chopped cavolo nero and let it cook for about ten minutes. What you do next is crucial: you need some ciabatta or other crusty white bread, which you toast then rub with very garlicky olive oil. Put the bread into bowls and ladle the soup on top. You'll live forever.

All the better if you make the ribollita the day before. Ribollita means "reboiled".