Crackers In Your Soup???

Cafe Society
21

Here’s a compilation of sources on American soup-eating etiquette.

The consensus seems to be that if crackers are served with soup, they may be eaten with soup. Small crackers and croutons can be dropped into the soup whole, whereas large crackers or bread slices are eaten separately rather than dipped or dropped in the soup.

Actually breaking up the crackers or bread with your hands and dumping the pieces ‘n’ crumbs into the soup like you’re imitating a gravel crusher does strike me as a little low class.

22

I only do it for oyster soup, and only use OTC Oyster Crackers. I’ll tell ya, crackin’ OTC’s will wear you out!

23

Croutons and popcorn are even better in soup than crackers are.

24

I’m more prone to using cornbread, myself. It probably is a bit…er, good ol’ boy compared to using store bought crackers or croutons, but I don’t have a problem with that.

25

When I was younger, one of my favorite comfort foods was Campbell’s Chicken noodle with enough Keebler crackers mixed in to make a thick, gloppy paste. Pure bliss… with a week’s worth of sodium in every bowl! :smiley: And most definitely not low class!

I won’t eat crackers in my homemade soup, tho. However, I will dunk homemade bread into the broth. YUM!

26

The only ‘soup’ I have ever crumbled crackers in is chili, and don’t do that regularly. I’d rather dunk a peanut butter sandwich in it!

27

That’s my policy. I only add crackers to tomato soup because there’s usually nothing else in it. Other soups have meat, vegetables, noodles, etc. so there’s no need to add anything else.

28

When I was a kid I ALWAYS put crackers in my soup . . . enough to make them really thick. I remember my mother saying that I was ruining her soup.

Now, as an adult, I make my own soup so thick that I don’t need crackers.

29

I don’t usually do crackers in my soup, but occasionally I like to.

Grandma makes excellent homemade soup, and we all tend to put crackers in it so it’s not a matter of it tasting better, more habit I think.

I’m more likely to dunk the corner of my sandwich or roll into it…

30

I don’t have a strong opinion but now that I’ve had to stop and think about it, yeah I think it’s a little low class. It doesn’t stop me from dipping saltines in some clam chowder or chili, though.

31

Homemade soup with homemade crackers. Mmmmm.

32

I’d think the OP’s question was absurd, but it’s only been about a decade since I learned (vis The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, a truly wonderful book) that Jell-O is considered Lower Class (or at least Middle Class), kitschy, and in bad taste. Pepper mill and MilliCal will never be suspect – they’re not big Jell-O fans, but I do like the stuff.

33

But I’ve been in fancy restaurants where they give you crackers to crumble in your soup. If they’re giving you crackers, they probably don’t care too much either way.

34

It’s only low class in the sense that the highest class soups shouldn’t need it. It seems that, in higher class foods, the chef is supposed to be completely in charge of making the food taste good.

That said, a lot of even high class soups have too much liquid in them. If you get through spooning out all the solids, and there’s still more than a few spoonfuls of liquid left over, that’s too much liquid. It’s either take two hours to scoop it up, use crackers, or what I consider the most uncouth option: drinking it. (Except with Chinese food.)

35

Hmm, my thought is, if you get crackers served with your soup, it ain’t a fancy restaurant. YMMV.

36

OK, makes sense, BigT. That, I can get behind.