CHICKEN SOUP

CHICKEN SOUP. Since prehistoric times, chickens have been mainly kept for their eggs. However, capons and old tough chickens were boiled by a wide variety of groups in Asia, Polynesia, Africa, and Europe. Boiling permitted the fuller use of chicken parts, such as bones, giblets, feet, neck, and pinions. Consumption of the liquid expanded the quantity of food available, added variety to the diet, and extracted nutritional components that otherwise would have been lost.

Broth was considered a restorative in the ancient world. Chicken broth's special identification with health may have been due to the humoral system of medicine. According to the theory, broth had qualities that eased digestion. As thin foods were believed to be easier to digest, broths were specifically recommended for the sick. Also, the color of chicken soup was similar to the human complexion and was consequently considered nourishing. Whatever the cause of the original belief, it survived into the Middle Ages: Chicken broth was commonly believed to be healthful throughout the Mediterranean and Western Europe. Moslems were particularly taken with chicken broth, as were the Jews. For instance, the classical Persian philosopher and physician Avicenna (980–1037) and the Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher Maimonides (1135–1204) regarded chicken soup as beneficial for the ill. This belief survived in Western culinary traditions, particularly those of Jews in Eastern Europe. Jews boiled chickens on Friday. The water in which the chicken was boiled was converted into soup and consumed during the week. Added to the broth were other ingredients, such as carrots, onions, celery, parsnips, kreplach, noodles, and matzoh balls. It was offered to those who were ill as a restorative.

Recipes for using chickens in soups were present in cookery manuscripts and were published in early printed cookbooks, such as Platina's On Right Pleasure and Good Health (1470), which contains a recipe that recommends chicken broth for the old and infirm. Chickens were employed in soup-making in England from the earliest days, and soup recipes containing chicken were regularly published as medical prescriptions.

Europeans introduced chickens into the Americas, and chickens were used in soup-making from the sixteenth century onwards. In the United States, recipes for soups containing chicken were published since 1824. However, the actual term "chicken soup" was not commonly used until the late nineteenth century. American manufacturers produced and promoted various commercial chicken soups, the most common of which was chicken noodle soup.

Today, chicken soup is particularly associated with Jewish cookery and is popularly known as the "Jewish penicillin." In 1993 Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen compiled a book titled Chicken Soup for the Soul, which built on chicken soup's healthy reputation and set in motion the publications of dozens of "chicken soup" books, including the first cookbooks solely focused on making chicken soup. Some scientific evidence has surfaced to support the belief in the healthful qualities of chicken soup: In addition to protein and vitamins, recent research has suggested that chicken soup does have a naturally occurring peptide that has positive influence on health.

See also Poultry ; Soup ; Stew.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Canfield, Jack, and Mark Victor Hansen, comps. Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart & Rekindle the Spirit. Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, 1993.

Cooper, John. Eat and Be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1993.

Myra, Chanin. Jewish Penicillin: Mother Wonderful's Profusely Illustrated Guide to the Proper Preparation of Chicken Soup. San Francisco: 101 Productions, 1984.

Wilen, Joan, and Lydia Wilen. Chicken Soup and Other Folk Remedies. Rev. ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.

Andrew F. Smith