Cheddar beer soup is a traditional soup originating from Wisconsin. The soup is usually made with a combination of cheddar cheese, beer, butter, onions, carrots, garlic, flour, milk, chicken stock, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. The onions, carrots, and garlic are sautéed in butter and mixed with flour, milk, stock, and beer. The mixture is simmered over low heat until the carrots are tender. The cheese is grated, tossed with cornstarch, and whisked into the blended soup. It's seasoned with salt and pepper, and sometimes garnished with popcorn for a nice visual touch and extra texture. The soup is served immediately but it can also be refrigerated for up to three days.
Potlikker or pot liquor is a traditional dish originating from the American South. It consists of a liquid that's leftover from a meal of field peas, collard greens, beans, pork, or other similar ingredients. The dish is usually served as a broth and it was a staple among the field hands of the South. Although the liquid can be seasoned with smoked turkey, it's believed that the best seasoning is a piece of salt fat pork. Potlikker is traditionally served with the rustic corn pone (or its close cousins cornbread and johnnycake) on the side, which is then dipped into the liquid.
Served every day in the dining room of the United States Senate, Senate bean soup is a dish that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The soup is made with navy beans, onions, and ham hock, while the original version additionally included celery, mashed potatoes, parsley, and garlic.
Although New England clam chowder boasts with its salt pork, mollusk, potato, and onion mixture, New Yorkers have their own Manhattan variety of the dish, a light tomato stew similar to minestrone, filled with carrots, onions, potatoes, celery, and lots of large, chopped chowder clams accompanied by aromatic herbs such as thyme, oregano, and pepper. It is said that the flavor significantly improves after a day, so if making it at home, it's best to let it sit and reheat it the next day. As for its origins, some claim that it was invented in Rhode Island regardless of Manhattan in its name and that the original recipe was inspired by immigrants from Italy or Portugal. Since the dish has tomatoes in it, and they were thought to be suspicious, if not poisonous in New England until the mid-1800s, Manhattan clam chowder would have to date back from at least the period after those years. It differs from the New England version as it doesn't have any milk in it, and the New England version doesn't contain tomatoes, so the dish is sometimes called red chowder, while the New England version is called white chowder. The rivalry between the two is so great that in 1939, a bill was introduced in the state of Maine in order to make it illegal to add tomatoes to the dish. Regardless of the dispute, Manhattan clam chowder is a unique and special stew that must be tried, and it's never bad to have two different versions of a universally loved dish.
The famous American-Italian invention known as wedding soup gets its name from the Italian words minestra, meaning soup, and maritata which means married, referring to the delicious and harmonious union of flavors coming from meat and vegetables in a clear chicken broth. The meats of choice are typically meatballs or sausages, while the greens can be any variation of escarole, chard, cabbage, spinach, broccoli, rabe, chicory, endive, lettuce, or kale. Other variations of the classic Italian wedding soup may also include small pasta—most often of the tiny acini di pepe (lit. peppercorns) variety — but also long noodles, or sometimes even beans. In America, this soup is so popular that it has even been marketed in a canned variety under the name Chickarina.
Saimin is a traditional noodle soup that’s considered the national dish of Hawaii. There are several variations on the dish, but it usually consists of thin noodles in clear broth with fish cakes, scallions, and often char siu pork or ham. Additional ingredients often include shrimp, poultry, and eggs. The noodle soup is always served hot and it’s eaten at any time of day with a spoon or with chopsticks. The leftover dashi broth is drunk from the bowl. Saimin is a result of Hawaii’s Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino culinary influences. Nowadays, the dish can also be bought in stores as a ready-mix instant package because it’s considered the staple comfort food.
The center of every Jewish Seder—Passover meal—is a bowl of chicken broth with large matzah balls. The dish is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, and it is believed that it originated among the Ashkenazi Jews who invented it as an adaptation of Central European bread dumplings (knödels). In Jewish tradition, the large balls are often referred to as kneydl, knaidel, kneidel, or knodel and are made with matzo meal—consisting of ground matzo bread—and rendered chicken fat. Nowadays, matzah ball soup is not exclusively associated with Passover and has become a year-round comfort food that is enjoyed in most Jewish communities.
Vermont corn chowder is a traditional dish made with a milk-based broth, corn, and other vegetables such as onions, peas, potatoes, and cabbage. The dish is usually enriched with strips of bacon and thickened with flour or Vermont cheddar cheese. Chowder can be traced back to the 16th century, when it was considered a poor man's meal. The word chowder is derived from the French word chaudiere, referring to a vessel used by the French fisherman who made hearty fish stews by cooking fish with vegetables and milk. Vermont corn chowder is praised as an ideal dish for late summer evenings when locally grown corn is at its peak.
Turtle soup is a traditional soup originating from Louisiana. This dark soup is so robust that it borders on a stew. It's typically made with turtle meat, a roux of butter and dark flour, sherry, tomatoes, stock, diced hard-boiled eggs, lemon juice, and a variety of herbs and spices such as parsley, paprika, cumin, coriander, and allspice. Once done, the soup is served in individual bowls, often with sherry, lemon wedges, or crusty bread on the side. The turtles used for the soup are alligator snapping turtles, but nowadays they come from farms, not from the wild because commercial collection of this species has been outlawed in Louisiana in 2004.
Following in the footsteps of the classic New England-style clam chowder, Californian clam chowder is a creamy stew containing clams, potatoes, and onions. The key to making it Californian-style is to carefully tuck the chowder inside a sourdough bread bowl, which is the Californian way to enjoy this iconic American dish. Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl is believed to have originated in 1849, in the San Francisco restaurant called Boudin, and has since become the signature dish of the city.
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