3 Reasons to Love French Potage (Bean Soup)

It’s just bean soup. But it is so much more than that. Chef Pierre Descreux’s childhood is buried in the depths of this dish. I can taste it. I can see him as a child sitting at the kitchen table while his mother or his grandmother simmers this pot of legumes on the stove. I can see him working in his handwriting manual, doing his math work, reading a book–until she finally sets a thick earthy bowl before him, a hunk of bread on the side.

Why include potage?

There are plenty of great recipes from the Tour de Argent. Yet Price seems to waste precious page space on bean freaking soup. It’s simple. It’s rustic. It requires little skill. Surely Descreux handed this off to one of the kitchen boys. But I realized, entertaining someone at the table is more than just laying a beautiful plate under their nose. It’s the story of the chef’s relationship with ingredients, with terroir, with his city and his profession and his kitchen. Of course, my extrapolation is wildly cavalier but I submit that this humble potage may have been the foundational dish for this chef’s entire career.

Yes, that is a mirepoix in the potage

The Treasury was written for American cooks of the 60s. As a rule, American cooks were women, homemakers, and due to the lack of access to exotic ingredients, not very adventurous. Immigrants (meaning everyone) brought their ingredients with them and grew their special herbs and vegetables in their tiny backyards or in pots on the landing. But your average American basically cooked meat and potatoes. America ate the Irish/German/English/Scottish hit parade.

Is a flavor base even in there?

So Price doesn’t talk about the great flavor bases and instead of just saying use a mirepoix, he breaks it down. However, his breakdown is instructive if you’ve never used a mirepoix. Or any other flavor base. It’s not only about the ingredients, it’s about the ratio.

A flavor base is the foundational taste of a cuisine. A cook knows these ingredients by heart. But it’s not just about the ingredients–it’s about the ratio. The French flavor base is three ingredients in a 2-1 ratio:

  • 2 onions
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 celery stalk

These are diced and sautèd to form the base for nearly every French dish. You’ll recognize this ratio if you’ve ever made gumbo. It’s the holy trinity:

  • 2 onions
  • 1 bell pepper
  • 1 celery stalk
is an award-winning author and columnist from Chicago. His latest book is The Full English, a humorous travel memoir. His previous book, Death By Children, was IndieFab's 2013 Humor Book of the Year. Bull is the founder and senior writer for Creative Writer PRO, smokes Ace Prime Travelers, and is gumbo capable.

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