I was watching an episode of Maude and she indicates to Walter that she knows how low class he is because he crumbles crackers in his soup.
So here’s my question, is this really a mark of low class?
I love crackers in soup.
What do you think?
There are crackers in my soup, but I try to mentally suppress judgments about high/low class or cool/uncool.
So, I can’t comfortably participate in your poll, beyond checking “No Answer.”
I see it as an American thing, rather than a class thing, but that may simply be because I’m an outsider! presumably it’s to imitate croutons?
I would imagine that that is the case; they are reminisicent of the croutons in French Onion soup. Assumably, before that it was crusts of bread or something.
Low class? It might have originally been a solution from the lower classes that couldn’t afford to do either of these, but I don’t think one can consider it “low class” these days.
I do it, BTW, but it depends on the type of soup – I only do it with cream soups (Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken), and not broth soups. I don’t know why.
My answer is identical to Baal’s.
There are crackers in my soup but I have no opinion regarding how classy my crackers are.
Is it low class? Well, one certainly would not be crumbling crackers in one’s soup in a fancy restaurant, but for typical family restaurants, cafeterias, or at home, sure: why not?
So, “I Don’t Care Either Way, But It’s ‘Low Class’” would be my closest answer.
I don’t particularly like crackers in my soup. I don’t think of it as low class, just a normal, middle-American sort of thing.
If I received crackers with my soup in a high-class restaurant, I wouldn’t consider it low-class to crumble them in my soup. But generally they don’t, and I would consider it low-class to bring a pocketful of my own crackers from home and crumble them in my soup.
I can’t imagine anyone doing this to soup that didn’t come out of a can; it’s incomprehensible.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve crumbled my share of Premium Plus into Campbell’s Condensed, but this is part comfort and part utilitarian. However - if your homemade soup is improved by the addition of a fistful of cracker crumbs, you’re doing it wrong.
I used to own a book from Reader’s Digest with anecdotes regarding famous people. There was one regarding soup and crackers that stuck in my mind; a Web search turned up a version of it printed in the Milwaukee Journal in 1977:
Follow the leader
As a boy, Illinois Gov. Henry Horner irritated his grandfather, a stickler for etiquette, with his habit of crushing crackers into his soup.
Time and again, the old man tried to make him understand that this wasn’t done in polite society. Finally, it sank in and Horner gave up this innocent amusement.
Many years pass. Then one day in 1933, Horner and several other governors were invited by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to lunch ar the White House. Soup was served. And crackers, too. Horner delicately munched one ar a time, as he had been taught long before.
He was chatting with the governor on his right, when suddenly on his left he heard a sound which made him freeze. the president of the United States was nonchalantly crushing crackers into his soup!
Horner watched, fascinated. Then, with a glee he did not attempt to control, he followed suit – while under his breath he berated his grandfather for 50 years of needless self-denial.
I wouldn’t swear that the President in the Reader’s Digest version was not Calvin Coolidge.
I always eat crackers in my soup. I don’t consider ti low class at all. I don’t crumble them, either, as I buy mini-saltine crackers. They’re identical to premium saltine crackers, except they’re about 1/4 the size and suitable for putting in your soup whole, like oyster crackers.
Ditto on sometimes putting them in canned soup, if the soup is all I have to eat and I know it won’t fill me up unless there are crackers. Especially Campbell’s tomato soup – if there’s no crackers (or Tostitos corn chips), I might as well have a glass of tomato juice.
But never in homemade soup or in good soup in a restaurant. And not in soup that already has a starch, like noodles or dumplings.
I don’t like crackers in my soup, but I didn’t know there was a class debate surrounding the practice until this thread.
So do I, usually the old standard Saltines. I don’t care if they are low class or not.
I’d never heard before that crackers in soup were considered low class. Sounds like pretentious posturing to me, especially if you’re dealing with canned soup.
No, you wouldn’t crumble crackers in soup at a fancy restaurant, but aren’t condiments in general vanishingly rare at fancy restaurants anyway?
So, it’s not the crackers but the crumbling that’s the issue?
How about those little oyster crackers? Are they okay (no crumbling required)?
Jes’ how high-faluting fancy is you folks, anywho?
I’ve never given a second thought to how classy it is, but rather how hungry I am and whether or not I’m in the mood for crackers. I don’t like my crackers to get soggy, so if I am using them I either dip or crumble one at a time. Oyster crackers are perfect for soups, but since they are too small to make peanut butter crackers with, I buy the saltines. Can’t have any uni-tasking crackers in my pantry. Cracker!
My thoughts, too. Some soups are good with crackers, some not. I don’t crumble oyster crackers, because they don’t need to be crumbled. If I’m give saltines, and the soup is cracker-friendly, then in they go, crumbled. Low class? Never heard that. What if you’re served a little silver bowl with pre-crumbled cracker and a special spoon with which to sprinkle them into the soup?
I’ve had oyster crackers served with soup in high end restaurants.
I like oyster crackers in my New England clam chowder, but otherwise I don’t usually have crackers in my soup. I try to keep the crackers and the other chunks in the chowder separate (i.e., I try not to have a cracker and another chunk in the same spoonful).