Liam Fox

Welcome you to our Cooking Series about Soups, Stews and Chilies. You are handing the book “Chowders 365 Volume 1”

CONSIDER IT your comfort in a bowl. Offering an affordable way to keep yourself healthy are soups, stews, and chilies. However, they provide so much more than the sum of their ingredients. No two soups are alike, as each one bears the trademark flavors of its ingredients, extracted while it’s being prepared. Also, every version of a stew, chili, or soup recipe is a result of the cook’s mood, whim, and loving, skillful hands.

An excellent recipe yields an equally great dish. But the recipe isn’t the only thing that affects the quality of a resulting dish. Multiple factors like a flavorful leftover pot roast, an aromatic bunch of basil, and a bumper crop of fresh zucchini are what make any slow-simmered medley of ingredients a truly unique, awe-inspiring masterpiece.

Anthropologists argue about the origin of the first ever pot of stew or soup. Some of them believe that it started with the Neanderthals who softened their foods in water in a hollowed piece of bark. Others talk about the new evidence of European and African tribes learning to cook plants and meat together in animals’ sealed stomach cavities, as well as South Americans using hollowed turtle shells as their containers for stew and soup. Meanwhile, purists assert that the first real stews and soups began around 10,000 B.C. when ceramic pots were used in South America where peppers were added to chilies.

Stews and soups were referenced in the oldest surviving cookbooks such as those dating to the 3rd century. In the Middle Ages, chicken soup was used to treat diseases. Ancient American accounts of food attribute the origins of recipes and soup traditions to the French, German, and English influences. Native American influences were also evident, particularly their use of wild greens and tree nuts. History recorded from the colonial period clearly shows that through the years, soup has been regarded as a dish that fostered a sense of community, which involved sharing and generosity among members.

During the Great Depression, soup became everyone’s lifesaver. Charitable groups and churches started to build makeshift dining halls in 1929 to feed people with bread and hot soup. Soon, soup kitchens appeared across America, with a majority of towns and cities serving chicken soups and bean soups. The Volunteers of America ran most of these soup kitchens, while others were organized by non-profit organizations and local governments. Even Al Capone started a soup kitchen in his hometown in Chicago.

Satisfaction and nourishment are the two reasons people of today value these early dishes as much as our forefathers did. Also, eating soups, stews, and chilies is a convenient way to share great times with our loved ones, experience other cultures through the flavors of their cuisines, and improve our culinary knowledge and skills. Their varieties all over the world—like a delicate bowl of broth with a wonderful smell of ginger, a rich and spicy Thai coconut chicken soup, and a filling Louisiana gumbo—are limited only by the collective imagination of cooks.

“Chowders 365 Volume 1”covers a wide range of both traditional and unconventional chowders. It will also help you come up with your own unique recipes. Just keep this in mind: relax and enjoy the experience. Chowders are certainly forgiving dishes. Whatever dish you’ll make will surely be appreciated by your loved ones.

You also see more different types of soup, stew and chili recipes such as:

* Beef Soup

* Mexican Soup

* Soups, Stews and Chilis

* Slow Cooker Soups, Stews and Chilis

* Italian Soup

* ...

Thank you for choosing “Chowders 365 Volume 1”. I really hope that each book in the series will be always your best friend in your little kitchen.

Let’s live happily and cook yourself every day!

Enjoy the book,