Episode 202 · May 9, 2026
Since Fire and Water
Coalson asks about 'soup to nuts'. The hosts debate nuts and bolts, the industrial revolution and prohibition; it turns out to refer to the order of courses in a meal and echoes a Roman 'eggs to apples'.
“Maybe we're calling things nuts that aren't really nuts. Don't call me nuts.” (05:18)
Questions
Where does 'soup to nuts' come from? (00:31)
Our guess
The first and last courses of a meal (Joey), or nuts and bolts / industrial revolution (Harper, Coalson)
The first and last courses of a meal (Joey), or nuts and bolts / industrial revolution (Harper, Coalson)
Reveal the answer
The answer
Soup is the first course and nuts the last; the Roman 'ab ovo usque ad mala' (eggs to apples) is a predecessor. The specific phrase 'soup to nuts' is American, from the early 1900s.
Soup is the first course and nuts the last; the Roman 'ab ovo usque ad mala' (eggs to apples) is a predecessor. The specific phrase 'soup to nuts' is American, from the early 1900s.
Verdict right
Transcript (auto-generated)
[00:00] Coalson, do you want to under Google for us? [00:04] Oh, we do under Google rules. [00:17] That was the play of super excited told us we had to. [00:23] So we signed up for it. [00:25] In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you. [00:31] I don't really do anybody have else. [00:35] I got one. [00:36] Nice. [00:37] I was looking at my list and we had been to this around doing earlier, but the phrase soup to nuts. [00:48] We went all the way from soup to nuts. [00:50] It's the whole. [00:52] Shebang. [00:53] Kitten gaboodle or the whole process. [00:56] You're saying it's the whole process. [00:58] It's it's it's we. [01:00] What did we do? [01:01] How do we do a soup to nuts? [01:03] When do you use this phrase? [01:07] I think of it as like, you know. [01:11] Yeah, a whole process thing like we. [01:14] We have control of this whole operation from soup to nuts. [01:18] Yeah. [01:19] OK. [01:20] Is that what you guys think of it as or. [01:23] Yeah. [01:24] When you want to when you want to just describe something. [01:29] In totality, you know, from beginning to end. [01:32] Alpha and Omega. [01:35] Like. [01:37] Coalson, your Lord is is, you know, the soup and the nuts, right? [01:44] Sure. [01:45] So so in this. [01:48] The way that you're describing this soup would be the beginning of the process and nuts would be the end. [01:54] Is that is that what you're saying? [01:56] Yes. [02:00] Or it's like this is the breadth of things that we have. [02:04] Like we have everything from. [02:07] Like if you're thinking about at a grocery store, we have everything from soup to nuts. [02:14] Like and all of the things in between. [02:17] OK, that's it's it's interesting that those are the parameters. [02:23] Right. [02:24] And then everything else is in between. [02:25] I mean, I suppose that's why you're asking this question. [02:27] I was wondering, though, whether this was not edible nuts, but like nuts and bolts. [02:36] Sure. [02:37] Yeah. [02:38] No, that's that's a good. [02:39] But then why soup or does this go back to souped up cars? [02:47] Yeah. [02:49] Like super dupe. [02:51] Mm hmm. [02:54] You know, or what about like some sort of a stew of things, a soup of. [03:03] You know, I don't know ideas instead of a soup to eat. [03:08] OK, OK, so we go all the way from idea to the nuts and bolts of things like the actual product. [03:17] At the end of the assembly line. [03:20] That's what I'm going with because I don't really eat nuts with soup and those don't make sense to me connected. [03:28] They're not they're not connected on the food in the food world, really. [03:32] Sure. [03:33] I don't. [03:35] I remember having reference to ideas as a soup. [03:40] I remember watching. [03:42] What was it? [03:43] Talk soup. [03:45] Talk soup. [03:46] Yeah. [03:47] Show. [03:48] Joel McLean. [03:49] Michael. [03:50] Oh, yeah. [03:51] Michael. [03:55] Yeah. [03:56] Is that where this comes from? [03:57] This is Joel. [03:59] The soup potentially. [04:01] Yeah. [04:06] Sidebar. [04:08] By the way, Coalson, I've made some good soups that you know, you put some nuts in there and puree them. [04:15] It gives a little more. [04:16] Oh, sure. [04:17] Yeah. [04:18] Just a little more. [04:20] A little more thickness, you know. [04:23] No, I like that. [04:24] Nobody does that besides vegetarians. [04:27] So nobody. [04:29] Well, I was nobody's like sprinkles nuts on a soup. [04:35] Right. [04:37] Crackers. [04:38] You do a pepita on a. [04:41] Oh, I do love a pepita. [04:43] But it's not a squash soup or something. [04:46] That's a seed, right? [04:47] Not a nut. [04:50] I mean, technically. [04:51] Yes. [04:54] I guess nuts are seeds. [04:55] Yeah. [04:56] All right. [04:57] Fair enough. [04:58] I think there is a distinction actually. [04:59] OK. [05:01] But like an acorn is a nut and a seed because it would make a tree. [05:07] I don't know. [05:09] I forget how you define what the definition of a nut is, but there's [05:13] something about like. [05:15] All of the things that we call nuts are not actually nuts. [05:18] Like, oh, like peanuts are not nuts. [05:20] Yeah. [05:21] They're goons. [05:22] Yes. Right. [05:23] And I don't know what. [05:24] Mushrooms or something. [05:25] I don't know. [05:26] Right. [05:28] Sure. [05:29] Sure. [05:31] Maybe that's it. [05:32] Maybe we're calling things nuts that aren't really nuts. [05:38] Don't call me nuts. [05:41] So like, you know, it's soup to seeds, really. [05:45] We're just calling, you know. [05:47] So it's the primordial soup. [05:49] Yeah. [05:50] Mm hmm. [05:51] That's what I'm going with. [05:52] Hmm. [05:54] When do we think that? [05:55] So yeah. [05:56] When do we think this came around? [05:58] When did when did they invent soup? [06:06] I think this was shortly after hot water was in. [06:10] I mean, I feel like there's this. [06:13] I feel like there's a stew before there's a soup. [06:15] Right. [06:16] You only want heart heartier. [06:19] Well, actually, I don't know. [06:20] You're probably right. [06:21] Things. It's just hot water. [06:22] You didn't have when things are. [06:24] Boiled boiled your bones. [06:26] Yeah. [06:27] Yeah. [06:28] Where soup started. [06:29] Yeah. [06:30] Okay. [06:31] Good stuff. [06:32] Okay. [06:33] So basically the moment you came up with fire. [06:36] And water. [06:37] Probably soup. [06:41] Yeah. [06:43] When did we come up with water? [06:45] I mean, Asheville still hasn't figured that out. [06:50] Got him. [06:52] Okay. [06:53] It seems old oldie to me, but not not like ancient. [06:56] It seems like 1800s. [06:58] Like the like industrial revolution phrase. [07:01] Okay. [07:02] Well, that's why I'm wondering whether it's a you know, it's like, hey, we go to the we go to work. [07:07] We carry our our pale of soup. [07:10] Sure. [07:11] And and yeah, we've got nuts and bolts. [07:15] So we were when we walk in the door, we got our soup. [07:19] And we're going to work. [07:21] Sure. Yeah. [07:22] By the industrial revolution in the machine. [07:25] Yeah. [07:26] What'd you get? [07:29] I like this. [07:30] So you're very pensive over there. [07:32] And I don't know what's. [07:33] Yeah, I'm trying to like. [07:34] You look scared, Joey. [07:35] It's okay. [07:36] Like you don't want to know the answer to this question. [07:39] That's certainly. [07:41] You just are okay with being wrong and you want to be wrong forever. [07:44] Well, what about oh, what about this? [07:46] What about like if you had a meal and you had like soup? [07:50] Maybe you always had soup as like the first course. [07:54] And nuts were like a dessert. [07:58] Like a just like a digest after dinner. [08:02] Okay. [08:03] Everything at least it's possible thing. [08:05] It's ordered like in the. [08:07] So you have your dinner and then you retire to the. [08:11] To the. [08:12] Lounge to have your cigar and there's some nuts around. [08:15] And cognac. [08:16] Yeah. [08:17] Yeah. [08:18] Yeah. [08:19] From soup to cognac. [08:20] Didn't sound as good. [08:21] Yeah. [08:22] Well, that's what it was until prohibition. [08:25] And then they had to change it. [08:27] Right. [08:28] Right. [08:29] Oh, sure. [08:30] That became code for cognac. [08:36] All right. [08:37] So in. [08:38] So he's going prohibition. [08:40] Our typical. [08:43] Shakespeare. [08:44] Is this a Shakespeare? [08:45] Definitely. [08:46] This is a thousand percent Shakespeare. [08:49] Is it seafaring in any way? [08:53] Is it. [08:54] I feel like. [08:55] I feel like. [08:56] I don't feel like soup is on the boats. [09:00] Yeah. [09:02] Is this is this part primordial soup to the nuts of a horse. [09:09] It's like horse racing. [09:12] I'll pass on that one. [09:15] Hard pass. [09:16] Now I see why you were so afraid. [09:18] Do I. [09:22] No, I'm going to go. [09:23] I'm going to go Shakespeare. [09:24] Joey's going prohibition. [09:27] I'm going industrial revolution. [09:29] I think this is like a. [09:30] Andrew Carnegie phrase or something like that. [09:33] Okay. [09:34] Okay. [09:38] Oh, hell yeah. [09:39] It is exactly what Joey said. [09:42] It was nice. [09:45] First course appetizers are soup. [09:48] Final course sweets, fruits or nuts. [09:53] The phrase comes from the Roman phrase. [09:58] Of oval. [09:59] Uska add mala. [10:02] Because apparently the Romans ate soup and ended with apples. [10:08] Or no. [10:09] They begin with eggs. [10:11] Yeah, that's over. [10:13] Well, why would that be soup nuts? [10:16] I guess that's how stuff evolves. [10:18] Well, you could just change it. [10:22] Like, what would the. [10:25] Like for an American meal, you would say like, uh, from fries to shake. [10:30] Right. [10:31] Okay. [10:32] Timing is a little weird on this. [10:34] It seems like middle of the 20th century. [10:38] So it used to be eggs to apples. [10:40] Thanks to apples and. [10:41] Cottage cheese. [10:44] And then in the mid 20th century. [10:48] I'm seeing there's another one from the soda to. [10:51] The hot. [10:54] There's a website called hot idioms. [10:59] I have to confirm that I'm over 18. [11:01] No, I'm just kidding. [11:08] So it looks like. [11:11] This usage, like specifically soup to nuts is, [11:14] is American and seems to be from. [11:19] You know, in the early 1900s. [11:23] But there's other, like you guys had mentioned, there's others. [11:26] Same meaning. [11:28] Phrases. [11:30] From eggs to apples and things like that, or, or. [11:34] In other cultures. [11:37] Previously. [11:39] Yeah. [11:40] There's, there's also a movie called soup to nuts. [11:44] That the three stitches were in 1930. [11:47] Yeah. And I saw there was a Looney Tunes duck soup to nuts. [11:51] Okay. [11:53] All right. So Joey nailed it. [11:55] Joey nailed it. [11:57] I almost got the timing right. [12:00] And I thought it was nuts and bolts. [12:02] So what do I know? [12:04] And or the nuts of horses. [12:07] And next time I have a dinner party, [12:09] I'm just serving nuts for dessert. [12:11] Yeah. [12:12] That's cheaper than a lot easier than. [12:14] I think it's actually way more expensive. [12:16] Oh yeah. [12:17] Nuts are very expensive. [12:19] Yeah, they are. [12:20] Yeah. [12:21] You're right. That's true. [12:23] But it's easier than making a cake. [12:25] True.