definition please: stew vs. soup lately i've been running across this problem where a recipe refers to itself as a stew and the final product is more of a soup, and vice versa. the american heritage dictionary (via dictionary.com) gives us this definition for soup:

A liquid food prepared from meat, fish, or vegetable stock combined with various other ingredients and often containing solid pieces.

and then turns around and gives us this one for stew:

A dish cooked by stewing, especially a mixture of meat or fish and vegetables with stock. A mixture likened to this dish

so is it all just a matter of how much time is involved in the cooking process? does cooking something longer, essentially to stew it, define what it is? if so, what am i to make of a quick stew that is soup-like, or a chili that sits more like a stew?

n 1: ground beef and chili peppers or chili powder often with tomatoes and kidney beans [syn: chili con carne]

trust me, i've seen chilis and chili recipes that had NONE of these ingredients in them.

the question is: who gets to define what?  ¶ Tuesday, October 10, 2006