Joshuall > wrote:

> I've made a pot of chicken mushroom soup. It came out pretty good, but
> I'd like to make it nice and creamy. Every time I try to cream a soup it
> comes out mostly like milk soup. I guess I really don't know how to cream a
> soup. I've always tried a Rou (sp?)

How to bind a soup depends both on its ingredients (what is there beside
chicken and mushrooms?) and your intentions. Leaving out some creamy
fish and shellfish preparations, "Cream of" soups can be purées,
cullis/coulis, veloutés, or crémes. Purées usually refer to a starchy
vegetable base (are there any starchy vegetables in your soup?), which
is just puréed, as it contains its own thickener. Cullis/coulis have a
base of poultry, or game and can be thickened with rice, or poultry
veloutés, or with lentils or Espagnole (usually in case of game).
Veloutés are supposed to contain butter, flour and a certain liquid,
which means that they are made with roux and consommé. Crémes are
usually made with velouté, but milk is always used instead of consommé
to achieve the correct consistency. Soups can also be thickened with
diced bread fried in butter, with the soup then rubbed through a sieve
or otherwise puréed.

Victor