POLL: Soup tureens: neccessity, novelty or nuisance?

[Jenise]

I'm making a hearty squash soup for tonight's main course using a blue zuri squash, a squash I've never cooked before though I've used reds several times. Anyway, just now, thinking about how to serve it, I thought how nice it would be to have a soup tureen to serve it in so that serving seconds didn't require an extra trip to the kitchen. Then I thought, NO, last thing I need is one more infrequently used item to find storage for.

Do others have them?

We received a very beautiful soup tureen as a wedding present and it still sits in the attic in the original box, never used. I always wanted to get it out, but it just never seemed to happen. Hmmmm... Thanksgiving is next month. Last January, while visiting my in Texas, we went to a very nice restaurant in San Antonio. Our soup was severed tableside in a tureen. The waiter garnished our bowls with croûtons prior to filling them. I thought it was quite elegant.

I wanted one for a period of time and looked at many of them. I finally found a beautiful, white, and very elegant tureen and knew it was a fit for my house. Then I got to thinking about how I serve my soup for company. Hmmm....why do I need this big tureen that I am going to have to store? It was too pretty to push back into a closet. How many times do I serve soup to company to justify the cost? I serve soup to Gene and I, lots of times, especially in winter, but we don't need a tureen for two of us. So my decision was not to purchase it. Do I regret it? No!
First of all, I would have to warm the tureen before putting in my hot soup. How would I do that...put it into the oven? Maybe. Then you have to be able to handle it and the lid. Too many nuisance things came up in my "con" list, so I am glad for my decision. Good luck with yours.
Since I have Le Cruset pieces, I can serve soup directly from the vessel which is already hot. My big red dutch oven looks great on the table!

My grandmother gave me one almost 40 years ago. I've used it once or twice. The ladle is long since broken. Pity!

Not sure how to answer the poll. Yes I have one. I could do without it but use it much more as a decorative device rather than its intended use. I agree with the sentiment that one should think twice about an item with few uses or one simply taking up space most of the year. Multitasking is my mantra. A beautiful tureen for serving soup a few times a year is OK but if you can also use it for a display of seasonal vegetables/greens/flowers/utensils/serving other liquids-lassi/sangria, upside down as a base for an antipasto platter -all the better. I try to find a use for it so I don't have to store it. It's a creative challenge - I would rather use something in a novel way than it's designated one. The joke in our house is, "oh, another put-me-together?"

Our soup tureen is a fairly (perhaps 50 years) old piece of stoneware, which although from now defunct local L.A. producer Metlox, is still a statement piece to us. We pull it out with matching bowl for dinners of six of more whenever there's a fish stew or big potage. We use it several times during year and since it's a memento from my parents' home, we've grown accustomed to using it to provoke new soup ideas for upcoming dinners.

I have one that was a wedding gift from my first marriage. It is beautiful, but I don't think I have ever used it. I'm with Karen, when I serve soup to company I usually dish it out from the kitchen, and have some Le Crueset anyway, which is nice for serving at the table. The terine sits atop the highest shelf in my pantry. (I need a step ladder to get up there.)
Christina mentions some great, creative ideas. I may just have to get up there and bring it down for some of those uses. I especially love the idea for the raised antipasti platter. Thanks Christina!

[Jenise]

Our soup tureen is a fairly (perhaps 50 years) old piece of stoneware, which although from now defunct local L.A. producer Metlox, is still a statement piece to us. We pull it out with matching bowl for dinners of six of more whenever there's a fish stew or big potage. We use it several times during year and since it's a memento from my parents' home, we've grown accustomed to using it to provoke new soup ideas for upcoming dinners.

You must be the single "wouldn't be without it" voter so far. And you make a great point: apparently, most of us don't serve "potages" when entertaining. Bob and I eat many of them throughout the year, but when I serve soup to company, it's in the fall or winter as a small non-filling third layer, an amuse portion really but one that adds a warming/welcoming homey touch in advance of a cool first course. And since those are small, there's no loss in bringing those to the table already dished and garnished.

Speaking of tureens, Ines hasn't weighed in yet but I'll bet she has one because, first of all, it would so suit her decor to serve out of one. But one year, for our wine group's Christmas dinner, I remember a spectacular service of a pumpkin soup in which a giant hollow-ed out pumpkin served as the tureen. Beautiful!

We like soup (SWMBO is into making it) and should use our tureen more often. I'll resolve to do that.

Doing soup this weekend - but French onion soup would be hard to serve from a tureen....

[Jenise]

We like soup (SWMBO is into making it) and should use our tureen more often. I'll resolve to do that.

Doing soup this weekend - but French onion soup would be hard to serve from a tureen....

Your home is a lot like Ines'--it demands you own a tureen.

Speaking of onion soup, I recently made a version wherein I took a portion of the cooked soup and ran it in the blender with additional onions and some grilled bread slices, turning it into a thick puree that I scooped into the center of the bowl and topped with the lighter brothier soup and a small nest of fried leeks. No cheese crouton, which I realize is the whole point of a great onion soup for most people, but the challenge was to serve a lighter version as I'd already made the soup and then discovered a guest had a cheese issue. The result was quite successful and elegant.

Jenise,

I wasn't the "wouldn't do without it" vote, but it feels like we use the tureen "rarely", like maybe eight times a year. Language is funny. The most frequent tureen use is to present a lean stew of game, lamb or beef, a perfectly humble dish that supports our best Rhone, Bordeaux and Barolo dinners.

I'm going to steal your "leek nest" idea sometime soon. It should play nicely into a chicken-leek-spinach soup that Dawn already loves. BTW, our onion soup is already a no-crouton version; we both hate that soggy dough and can cut down on the matching cheese element for health's sake - without it.

I'm doing a mushroom soup in a couple of weeks, but I am topping it with sauteed chanterelles and hazelnut lemon gremolata. That means that it is easier to serve and garnish in the kitchen than at the table, and I think that is one of the reasons people don't use tureens more. In the GOD when Mom would make a simple ungarnished soup, no problem. It was when we started to expect fancy garnishes that just ladling it out at the table maybe dropped in popularity.

I have TWO large soup tureens and I probably use one or the other of them once a year. I think that qualifies as rare use. While I love how it looks to serve out of a tureen, the problem I've noted is that the soup gets cold while sitting in the tureen on the sideboard. I'm a stickler for HOT soups and I haven't solved the problem of keeping the tureen as hot as I'd like.

Jenise, I have served soup and stews out of a pumpkin...I retain the top so I can put the lid on the pumpkin. Makes a great presentation. I love serving soups out of bread bowls, something we especially love with seafood soups, and chowder. Beats a tureen anytime.

[Jenise]

but it feels like we use the tureen "rarely", like maybe eight times a year. Language is funny.

Indeed. I would classify any one-use item I manage to trot out even just four times a year a frequently-enough used item. You get very good use out of yours.

BTW, our onion soup is already a no-crouton version; we both hate that soggy dough and can cut down on the matching cheese element for health's sake - without it.

I love the soggy bread part when it's a properly toasted piece of substantial bread, like sour dough. What I don't like is the thick rubbery raft of cheese that basically is what sells the dish in most restaurants. My own version is much more sedate and healthy.

[Jenise]

I have TWO large soup tureens [/quote}

I knew it!

While I love how it looks to serve out of a tureen, the problem I've noted is that the soup gets cold while sitting in the tureen on the sideboard. I'm a stickler for HOT soups and I haven't solved the problem of keeping the tureen as hot as I'd like.

Is there something like a tea cozy for tureens?

Jenise - sounds like we need to do an 'all tureen' event....

[Jenise]

I'm doing a mushroom soup in a couple of weeks, but I am topping it with sauteed chanterelles and hazelnut lemon gremolata. That means that it is easier to serve and garnish in the kitchen than at the table, and I think that is one of the reasons people don't use tureens more. In the GOD when Mom would make a simple ungarnished soup, no problem. It was when we started to expect fancy garnishes that just ladling it out at the table maybe dropped in popularity.

I'm sure you're right to some extent, at least it would certainly explain why many who own tureens no longer use them often or why some of us aren't compelled to get one. But another explanation is that many (and this would include me) grew up in families that didn't have a tradition of formal home dining or even own the kind of extended china service that would include pieces like soup tureens. We never had one to fall out of use with.

I don't own a dining table big enough for plates, flatware, napkins, candles, salt & pepper, pitchers, water glasses, wine glasses, flowers, decorations, centerpieces AND a tureen!

I have one that was a wedding gift from my first marriage.

Me, too. It lasted a lot longer than that marriage. That was 21 years ago and I've never used it.

I don't own a dining table big enough for plates, flatware, napkins, candles, salt & pepper, pitchers, water glasses, wine glasses, flowers, decorations, centerpieces AND a tureen!

I don't own a dining table. We never used it except to pile mail and junk on, so we surplussed it on eBay and moved the computer desks into the dining room.

I don't own a dining table. We never used it except to pile mail and junk on, so we surplussed it on eBay and moved the computer desks into the dining room.

We have two dining tables. And it is not uncommon for there to be so much in the way of mail, magazines, and school-related notices on them that we have nowhere to put our meals.

Drives me crazy!

We have a tureen or two and we've actually used each within the last ten years. Probably only once each, but still....

[Jenise]

I don't own a dining table big enough for plates, flatware, napkins, candles, salt & pepper, pitchers, water glasses, wine glasses, flowers, decorations, centerpieces AND a tureen!

I don't own a dining table. We never used it except to pile mail and junk on, so we surplussed it on eBay and moved the computer desks into the dining room.

Then where do you eat? And do you never entertain?