I made an amazing soup yesterday that my family just LOVED! It was so good, I'm going to make it again Wednesday, my day off. I just have one question. What does it mean to temper? I had to add a bunch of spices and garlic to temper the soup. What does this mean?

Thanks in advance,

Vicki

I'm sorry but I am not sure which soup you mean. I am also not clear about exactly what you meant when you said "I had to add a bunch of spices and garlic to temper the soup?"

Here is what tempering means.

In cooking, tempering is the process of combining two ingredients of radically different temperatures. They are slowly combined so they both gradually rise to the same temperature. Certain recipes require tempering, otherwise the shock of combining the two all at once could run the risk of the mixture curdling, ceasing, lumping, or splitting. Tempering is commonly used when making sauces (adding liquid to roux), or when making ice cream and custards.

When working with chocolate, tempering is a completely different process. It involves stabilizing chocolate by melting it, cooling and then reheating it to specific temperatures, which makes it possible to create chocolates which are glossy and hard.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

Thank you, Dawn. The recipe I used is from the Food Network website called Indian Summer Stew: Butternut Squash, Coconut & Lentil Stew.

Am I allowed to copy & paste the recipe here or are there copyright laws forbidding that? I know it would help to view the recipe.

Thanks in advance,

Vicki

You can add a link; however, I am not sure if it is necessary. I am not sure what the recipe said exactly but it is not really possible to temper in spices and garlic. I would just say that sometimes terms are used incorrectly. Not always because people don't know, it's sometimes just because they sound sexier.

For more on the techniques behind soup making you may want to watch the lessons in the Cooking School on soup making. Cheers!