Setting the Table
Soups, stews, and chilies are the refuge of cash-strapped hosts. So does it really matter how these one-pot wonders are presented? Well, yes and no. If you're having a big, casual dinner party with family or close friends, it's perfectly okay to allow guests to serve their own chili from a pot on the stove. But it's also fine — and not at all pretentious — to ladle the chili into a low, inexpensive pottery bowl, sprinkle the top with chopped cilantro and cheese, and set the bowl on a colorful placemat or a fan of folded $1 bandanas. Guests can still serve themselves, but no one has to run back and forth to the kitchen, interrupting the conversation.
There are also dishes and utensils that are designed to accommodate certain types of recipes.
Soup Bowls, Mugs, and Porringers
Wide, low, rimmed soup bowls are the best option if you're only going to own one type of bowl. These dishes, also known as soup plates, usually hold a twelve-ounce serving. They're serviceable for smooth soups, but work particularly well for chunky soups, gumbos, chilies, and stews because the ingredients are spread over a large area. This allows guests to see what they're eating and leaves room for adding garnishes. The rim gives spoons a place to rest and keeps spills to a minimum. This size and shape also gives an appearance of abundance, which is important for main-dish soups and stews.
Double-handled, delicate cream-soup bowls are rarely included in standard place settings these days. But if you find a set you like in an antique or thrift shop, buy them. These little jewels are the perfect vessel for first-coarse bisques and veloutés. Oh, and while you're shopping antiques, look for pewter or silver porringers. These shallow, metal, one-handled bowls were the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century version of a soup or porridge bowl. Households held their porringers dear, and while you probably won't want to serve soup in yours, they're interesting conversation pieces and useful for holding croutons, nuts, and other garnishes.
For a fun splurge, buy kitschy, colorful soup mugs. These oversized coffee cups — with tops a little wider than most coffee mugs — are essential for casual entertaining where guests will be supping on chili or chowder while mingling. They're also useful for cooks who occasionally like to curl up on the couch with a bowl of chicken soup and watch TV.
Any soup served on a table — that is, not in a ladle-and-carry soup mug — should have an under plate to catch spills and keep the hot bowl from sitting directly on the table. When serving Cioppino or another dish with seafood shells, you might want to add saucers for discarded shells.
Proper Flatware
Most households have place spoons included in their stainless or sterling flatware sets. Place spoons look just like teaspoons, only bigger. These have been used as all-purpose soup and stew spoons and work perfectly well — except for children who need smaller utensils.
Soup-specific spoons, sometimes called cream soup spoons, are only a little larger than teaspoons and have a perfectly round bowl. The same spoon in a larger size can be found in some silver patterns, and these are considered gumbo or chowder spoons.
Some Asian cultures avoid eating with metal utensils, believing the cold metal is unpleasant and imparts a metallic taste to the food. Purists use ceramic or plastic spoons with Asian soups. These are easy to find at import stores and can be a fun, authentic addition to a table setting.
Pairing wines with first-course soups isn't as tricky as it might seem. The classic pairings for broths and cream soups is a dry sherry or Madeira. If that seems a bit heavy, consider serving a dry, sparkling white wine with your bisque, chowder, or tortellini in broth. Heartier soups like vegetable beef and chicken and sausage gumbo need something with a little more body, like a light Pinot Noir or Merlot.
Since bread of some sort should be part of your soup course or stew entrée, a knife should always be included in the flatware service. Seafood forks must be available if your offering includes shellfish still in the shell, and standard forks — as well as spoons — should be part of the table setting for any stew served over a starch such as rice or couscous.
Tureens
Soup tureens come in as many whimsical, fanciful, and beautiful designs as cookie jars. These covered ceramic or earthenware dishes keep soup warm and bring it to the table in style. Prices range from $10 for plain white tureens to thousands of dollars for antique silver.
Smart hosts invest in one or two heat-safe tureens that can go into the oven to keep a soup or stew warm, if need be, before bringing it to the table. Shop for a low, wide-mouthed tureen with a notch for a silver or ceramic serving ladle. Your tureen should serve at least six people.
