OT - Nagging doubts re tomato soup - was, Re: SC - Americansugar consumption

[Philip & Susan Troy]

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> Eee-ew! Tomato soup!?!?! Yuck!!! I'm a child of the '50s and
> Campbell's Tomato Soup was nasty, nasty, nasty even then. I can only
> assume that it is far nastier now than ever before. And you guys
> (Balthazar and Adamantius) call yourselves professional chefs??? Hah!

Yes, I hear the little white toque made for an especially difficult
delivery. It's bad enough the doctors were deeply concerned about
spontaneous c-sections, accompanied by juvenile cries of "Bam!"
 
> If you're craving canned tomato soup, the health food store has some
> that is semi-tol'able - i'll have to check the name. I think it is
> Nancy's. Made of organic tomatoes, no gums, no modified food
> starches, no high fructose corn syrup, etc.

I think you are missing the point, perhaps. Taste has, in many cases,
particularly where childhood is concerned, nothing at all to do with
quality. Why, I even have a dim recollection of disliking Scotch whisky.
Q.E.D. I don' know about Balthazar, Queecksdraw, but I don't crave
canned tomato soup, I just noted that the product (which is now
available in large glass jars) _looks_ different from the product as I
remember it from, perhaps, 30 years ago, which is probably the last time
I actually tried it. Okay, maybe 25. Anyway, it used to red, now it is
dinstinctly pink. Thass all I know.

Actually, in fairness, the last time I made tomato soup in the fairly
standard Escoffier manner, as in, this is how you make soup, take your
main ingredient and do this with it, which therefore naturally applies
to numerous different soups, it included a straw-colored butter roux,
chicken stock, a little mirepoix, and ripe tomatoes (peeled and seeded).
Probably some parsley and chervil added before service. I seem to recall
the finished product being not necessarily like the canned stuff, but
not so dissimilar that it was not obviously a close relative. 

The only obvious source of vileness I can recall from exposure to canned
tomato soup as a child (obviously not necessarily an accurate view,
although perhaps neither is yours) was an excess of salt. 

> >Balthazar of Blackmoor
> >(suddenly craving saltines...)
> 
> Yeah, saltines... only bleached white flour product i eat...

Do tell ;  ) . Let me understand this. You eat _no_ bleached white flour
products except saltines? Hmmmmm. Why even go that far? Or are we not
counting the occasional commercially-made chocolate-chip cookie, or equivalent?

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com