"I live on good soup, not on fine words." -Molière
Had “the greatest of all writers of French comedy” known that scientists had taken his lauded soup to the laboratory in order to measure just how good it could be, he might have enjoyed quite a laugh at their expense. My grandmother, and generations of people extending into antiquity, would surely have joined in the mirth. Soup, particularly chicken soup, is easily one of the most universal and ancient of “comfort foods,” as we established last week, and therefore, you too may readily find folly in the group of scientists who cooked up batch after batch of it, ran experiments, and published their findings in the October 2000 issue of the journal Chest in the impressively titled article "Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro" (available online here). Before we adopt Molière’s stance on “fine words,” however, let us allow for the curiosity in all of us, scientists included, who yearn to know the whys and wherefores of even the most unquestioningly accepted bits of wisdom.
- In an article titled “Cold remedies: What works, what doesn’t, what can’t hurt,” where would you guess that the Mayo Clinic staff files chicken soup? Perhaps surprisingly, they include this remedy under the subheading “Cold remedies: What works,” along with water and other fluids, zinc, and humidity. They explain that “generations of parents have spooned chicken soup into their sick children” and that “chicken soup may be soothing because of its possible anti-inflammatory and mucus-thinning effects.” If you take a moment to read Chest’s findings, you may recognize their contribution to the latter part of the Mayo Clinic’s reasoning.
- The article “What to Eat When You Have the Flu,” from the online medical reference WebMD, asserts that “chicken soup is a must with cold-like symptoms” and candidly cites Chest’s study.
- In her post “The Science of Chicken Soup,” NYT Well blogger Tara Parker-Pope presents an overview of the “handful of scientific studies [which] show that chicken soup really could have medicinal value.” While she ultimately qualifies that “none of the research is conclusive,” Parker-Pope reasons with an “it can’t hurt” outlook when she concludes that “at the very least, chicken soup with vegetables contains lots of healthy nutrients, increases hydration and tastes good, too.”
Science, old wives and their tales, health columnists: all widely acknowledge the competency of this classic comfort food, above all others, in comforting (excuse my redundancy), and perhaps even curing, the ailing. All the more conspicuous, then, is this dish made by its absence from many foodie and gourmet blogs. It would be impossible to examine each of the millions that Google and Technorati searches yield, but none of my favorite food bloggers (who shall remain anonymous in this admonishment) have ever given any virtual presence to the chicken soups that they must have prepared and consumed in their lifetimes. As a declared starter cook, and as I’ve freely confessed before, I rely on the online community for a lot of my inspiration and instruction in the kitchen. Imagine my chagrin when, after finishing off a few day's worth of both my mother's and grandmother's chicken soups, I turned to the Internet for what I had hoped would be a well-rounded array of recipes, techniques, and stories—but instead found faceless, so-to-speak, recipes on generic websites, scientific studies, and medical advice.
The above-mentioned websites and research article added scientific merit to what was till then common sense to me, while OChef.com taught me "The Nuances of Stock, Broth, and Consommé.” The Home Cooking section of About.com overwhelmed me with their list of chicken soup recipes, none of which I felt the least compelled to try in my surly, sickly mood. I was forced to give up my streak of independent, yet virtual community-enabled, cooking when my mother and grandmother heard of my dilemma and supplied me with a fresh batch and their traditional recipe with ever-loving, mother-knows-best smiles.
All a very educational experience I assure you, and yet, but for my mother and grandmother's intervention, all lacking that special touch, at times heart-warming, at times indulgent, with which food bloggers infuse the oft taken-for-granted preparation and consumption of food.
All of which brings me to suspect that, for all my quoting Molière, I may just live off of fine words after all.
Turning full-circle to my past posts on the glamorization of the food writing world, why do you think that modern writers shun traditional comfort foods? Why is it that there are countless posts on specialty soups and chicken dish variations, but rarely any on the humble chicken soup? How do the most sugar-coated (no pun intended) of these virtual realities, where people ostensibly make and eat these fancy dishes on a daily basis, affect their audience, who always comment “I can’t wait to try this” or “This looks great!” while perhaps never going out of their way to actually make them?
