Is Cereal a Soup? My Case for yes!

There is a debate in the office of whether or not cereal is a soup. To be frank, I've never even thought about it until I was introduced to the debate with a recent job and career shift working as admin support for a legal team. Lawyers do love to debate and I decided to get into the mix. Below is my morning research on the topic which I intend to present as evidence for consideration early next week. Let me know if you think I nailed it.

Cereal. A plant-based product that is ground and mixed with other ingredients such as sugar, salt and/or water and then- typically- pressure-cooked to a hardened and sometimes flaky state. Cereal, in the above form, was invented in the United States by James Caleb Jackson in 1863. Jackson ran a “medical sanitarium” in western New York (Severson, K- A Short History of Cereal, NY Times 2/2016) ?and created the food believing that it would cure his patients (if we can call holding someone against their will a “patient”) of “intemperance and masturbation” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Caleb_Jackson). This was also a way for Jackson to save money on expensive meats as he was running one of the largest asylums known with 20,000 patients at one point.?

Soup has a broad and unhelpful definition as to whether or not cereal can be a soup. Let us turn towards the origins of the word soup. According to wikipedia the word soup comes from the French word soupe meaning “soup”, “broth” which comes through Vulgar Latin suppa (bread soaked in broth) from a Germanic source also producing the word “sop”- a piece of bread used to soak of up soup or a thick stew. This is particularly helpful here when we understand that those that were rich did not have to soak their bread in liquid to be able to eat it, which is why someone would eat “sop”- their bread was too hard to chew. This was primarily a poor person problem.?

There are early records of soup being consumed and even sop. Sop is in the King James Version of the bible referenced in the Last Supper and soups have been used for easy digestion of grains. According to foodtimeline.org (https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsoups.html) soups were primarily served to invalids (originating from the latin term invalidus, “in”- not and “validus”-strong). Since soups had some origins as a means for invalids to digest grains due to poor health it is well known that grains are regional and vary from climate to climate. In the absence of “traditional” grains that are thought of in America or in lieu of grains there are rices and even corn (maize which is a grain).?

We know that dry cereal was originally created as a product to serve those that are unable to care for themselves (the disabled) and, to an arguably larger degree, to save money. Soups also have been widely known as an economical family fare and according to the Encyclopedia of Food Culture:

"Soup. A soup is a broth that is infused with flavor. It may be thick and crystal clear like a consomme, voluptuously smooth and creamy like a creamed soup, or so chunky with meat, fish, grains, and/or vegetables it is just this side of stew. A soup may be the first of several courses, intended just to whet the appetite; it may be one of many dishes served at the same time; or it may be a hearty meal in a bowl. The bottom line is that in order to be soup, it must be enough of a liquid preparation that eventually one gets around to sipping it, or eating it with a spoon."---(p. 297). [2003] Encyclopedia of Food Culture, Solomon H. Katz, editor-in-Chief [Thomson Gale:New York] Volume 3

Not all soups contain broth though. Cold dessert soups, such as Fruit Soup (yes, that’s a thing) never touch heat and are widely accepted as a soup. Another cold soup is gazpacho. Gazpacho is never heated at any point and is consumed cold.?

Cereal, which even as a porridge, is eaten with a spoon and eventually one gets around to sipping it unless consuming the milk is not within the desires of the consumer. One last point here is that cereal and soups were created out of economic necessity in some form and primarily for those that are poor, though in Jackson’s case he simply wanted to save money and thus treated disabled and poor people, well, poorly. Those that are poor since time immemorial have had to get creative to survive and use what is available. Cereal does not always have to be consumed with milk but whether it is with milk or water or even wine, since it is a liquid that has a grain within it and comes in varying degrees of thickness and types of grains, the liquid is, in fact, being infused with the flavor of the chosen grain- thus, cereal can be a soup.

I rest my case.

-ruth