The Undegooglables
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Episode 190 · August 24, 2024

Viscosity

A friendly dispute about whether chili is a soup, with the hosts reasoning about roux, reduction and stews.

“Chili is its own effing thing.” (04:37)

Questions

Is chili a soup or a stew? (00:40)

Our guess
A stew, because it's thicker and cooked down rather than liquid-based.
Reveal the answer
The answer
Technically a stew: soup is liquid-based (ingredients submerged), while stew is thicker with just enough liquid to cover the ingredients. Chili is often considered a type of stew, with Tex-Mex origins.
Verdict right

Listen to the episode

Transcript (auto-generated)
[00:05] Oh, we doing under Google rules that was the play of super excited told us we had to
[00:17] We said we signed up for it in the end. It's gonna be better and more true than Google can
[00:26] give you. All right. I've got one more real fast thing. And this isn't something we can
[00:32] Google, but I just it's been on my mind. I got into a bait with with my good friend
[00:40] and Patreon Mike Morrow. And I don't know if there's an online answer to this, but I
[00:47] wanted your guys's opinion. Is is chili a soup? Is chili a soup? More of a stew. Yeah.
[01:01] So what's the difference between a stew and a soup thickness? Yeah, viscosity. Okay. So
[01:13] basically, a soup is is more liquidy. Yep. Like what about a clam chowder? Like that's
[01:21] a soup. So now you're getting borderline. Yes, that's a chowder. It's a chowder. It's a
[01:28] chowder. So what's a soup then? So I mean, a soup doesn't use a roux and is liquid based.
[01:40] So it's just like chicken noodle. Yeah. So it would use a stock, presumably, but not a
[01:47] roux. Okay. And a roux would have flour in it. Is that correct? I generally butter and
[01:54] flour is how you make a roux for thickening purposes. Most commonly, but you can use
[01:59] cornstarch. Good work. Yep. Okay. Chili doesn't use a roux. No, nor do all stews. But
[02:09] chowder does. Right. Stews are normally cooked down. So it's reduced is what you
[02:18] would say to make it thicker. Would that be the difference between a soup and a stew?
[02:26] Yep. The time that it cooks. Okay. All right. Perhaps. Okay. And then chili somehow is a stew
[02:38] because it is reduced. I mean, yeah. And I think it's like it's yeah. I mean, because
[02:50] it's essentially it's almost the ratio of sauce. It's almost like a right. It's almost
[02:55] like a sloppy Joe. Yeah. Or a, you know, spaghetti. Very thick marinara. Yeah. Yeah.
[03:04] Yeah. So you wouldn't consider it a soup, maybe not even a soup. It's a stew. It's
[03:09] just a chili. I mean, on a, if you go to a restaurant and you look on a menu and
[03:15] they have a subsection called soups, I would not be offended if chili was in
[03:20] the soups section. You know what I mean? Because it's a thing that comes in a
[03:24] bowl that you scoop and chili is a, is a very specific kind of dish, right? Like it
[03:30] has its own, you know, its own things that make it what it is. Right. So it's a
[03:36] regional dish, right? So I assume it takes its name from somewhere in central
[03:44] South America or something. Maybe I don't know where to win. We do make up
[03:47] chili. Hmm. And where? Yeah. I like Central America. I like that. That's good.
[03:56] That sounds right. It sounds like a Central American version of a stew. Yeah.
[04:00] That Texas stole. So soup can be, according to all recipes, soup can be
[04:08] completely liquefied or consist of other elements that are, that are fully
[04:11] submerged. Stew meanwhile is typically chuckier. It contains just enough liquid
[04:15] to cover the ingredients. Okay. And what about chili? Chili is its own effing
[04:25] thing. Chili is often considered a type of stew, according to delish.com. Yeah.
[04:37] I'm getting, although many people think chili is its own category, it is
[04:40] technically a stew. Hmm. And its origins are of Tex-Mex. Yeah. That's all right. Yeah.
[04:50] Okay. And so, and did we decide that you, they're basically just saying it's the
[04:59] amount of liquid, but that would be changed by reduction, right? Reducing the
[05:03] liquid would, would make it a stew. So our answer was correct is what I'm saying,
[05:08] right? Correct. Okay. All right. So chili is not a soup. Chili is a stew. Got a
[05:15] clear answer on that one from the internet. Thank you, Google. And thank
[05:21] you for listening to this nonsense. We got to get out here and catch the
[05:26] fourth quarter of this basketball game. So between now and next week, when maybe
[05:34] there will be basketball, I don't know, you can hit us up on Twitter. We are at
[05:39] Undebeatables on facebook.com slash the Undebeatables. We have a website,
[05:44] theundebeatables.com with a contact form there where you could email us shout out
[05:49] at the undebeatables.com. And yeah, if you're at that website, buy a t-shirt. For
[05:59] the architect Donnie Walsh and our once and always Hall of Fame coach Bobby
[06:05] Mr. Klunner. Turn out the lights, the parties. Oh,