I will have to confess, I love a good stew. It’s the one-potted-ness of it all. One pot! One meal! It’s also the stick-with-it-ness that the stew provides; you know…that rib-sticking kinda meal that just stays with you for a few hours. I do like a good soup too, but there is just something about a stew that does it for me.
Now, I’ve heard a lot of y’all using “stew” to describe a soup…not you in particular but other folks I know (tongue-in-cheek). And it is for your benefit that I share this stew vs soup tale so you can help those poor folks out when they start proudly showing off their “soup” photos and proceed to post all about their wonderful “stew” recipe (I’ve done that before so I ain’t innocent either).
In a way, it’s all soup. The simple definition of “soup” is “a liquid dish, typically made by boiling meat, fish, or vegetables, etc., in stock or water.” (Definition from Oxford Languages) However, when I think of “stew,” I think of “stewing.” This takes the “soup” definition to another level. When we “stew” meats and vegetables in a liquid for a longer-than-soup cooking-time, we are making “stew.” In a stew, the ingredients are only barely covered with a liquid and simmered for a long time in a covered pot. A stew is a soup-like dish that has larger pieces of solid meat and vegetables “stewing” in less liquid than you’d normally find in soups.
The thickness of the liquid is really not the “say-so” of the soup vs stew dilemma. Some soups are thickened with a béchamel sauce or other ingredients like flour or cornstarch. And, in these creamy soups, the pieces of meat and vegetables are much smaller than those cuts and chops in a stew.
Chowders are soups that contain seafood like fish, lobster, or clams (there’s a debate as to the chowder-worthy-ness of “corn chowder” and other non-seafood “chowders). Chowders are creamy and chunky; they are normally created with milk/cream and have larger pieces of meat (seafood meat) and vegetables (potatoes come to mind [but don’t count toward your “5 a day”]). For me, I would say that a chowder is kinda like a stew but instead of broth being the liquid of choice, milk/cream is the base in which the stew-sized meats are cooked.
Additionally, seafood normally does not need the benefit of being cooked low-and-slow. In comparison to a beef stew and where the beef is being stewed in a pot of broth that was thickened by starches or flours, the chowder is not usually cooked as long as the stew. Remember, in a stew we are “stewing” the meats and vegetables.
I love a good tomato soup. Most of the time my tomato soups are slightly thick and have no chunks of meats or vegetables. It is a soup (there is nothing to “stew”). Tomato soup is just that: soup. It’s not tomato bisque.
A bisque is a soup like tomato soup but created with seafood. A bisque is not chunky like a chowder. Cream/milk is used as the liquid base with the ingredients being pureed like the tomato soup.
Though, personally, I consider chili in a class of its own, if I had to put a finger on what “class” to put chili, I would have to say that a chili is a stew that uses smaller pieces of meat (usually ground) and vegetables that are chopped a bit finer than the chunks of veggies in a stew.
One day I will talk about Gumbo…that’s an article all and on its own. You should subscribe to get the updates. And…no worries…I hate spam too.
If there’s a debate and beer involved, I am happy to participate. However, I have seen folks debate the soup vs stew issue like they were talking politics or religion. Me? I don’t care one way or the other what you call what (it’s the Libertarian in me). If you want to create a “Chicken and Rice Bisque Stew,” then I have one request: Send me an invite; I’ll bring the beer!
