Saturday afternoon Tyler Thomas of The American hosted a cooking demonstration at the library and showed those in attendance the secret to making the perfect soup.

Thomas began by explaining making soup is similar to building on a bunch of layers. Those interested first decide on a base for the soup. There are a few different options such as French mirepoix, which has onion, celery and carrot or Cajun and Creole mirepoix, which has onions, celery and bell peppers.

Once the base is decided, the meat can begin being prepped. Saturday’s meat was tenderloin. Thomas prepared the tenderloin to medium/medium rare and set it aside, while he began chopping vegetables. Thomas reminds viewers to save the juices from the meat, though in order to give it the most flavor possible.

Thomas explained that soup is best when all the vegetables are evenly chopped.

“Texture is important,” he said. “Chop size and consistency are important. You don’t want to end up with one huge vegetable and one small one when you are eating your soup.”

He then added hot, clarified butter, which helps get rid of the milk fats. Thomas said it is fine if some of the butter burns, because it gives off a flavor such as, hazelnut caramel flavor.

Following the adding of the butter, he added the mushrooms, which soak up most of the butter, so he reminded everyone to continue to add a flavor compounder every time they add a new layer. In Saturday’s case, Thomas was using Worcestershire to bring out the flavor of the beef, but gave suggestions such as crushed or pureed tomato, white or red wine, lemon or homemade demi-glace.

Once the vegetables were added, along with the mushrooms Thomas added stock and flour to the soup to give it a thickness. Thomas had prepared a special homemade stock from Grady Ranch grass fed beef bones that he received for his birthday, but he said chicken stock or vegetable stock is always an option available.

For those who may be making a seafood soup, he suggested using a fish or shellfish stock.

Thomas then added a few remaining ingredients such as the roasted potatoes he had pre made into the soup. He said he made them with seasoning and a little extra virgin olive oil to give them some flavor, before adding them to the mix. He then added the tenderloin back into the mix and seasoned to finish.

He finished by adding that while simmering, cooks can always add any seasoning during the final step they deem necessary.

Once the demonstration was over, everyone was treated to the soup created, where the feedback was tremendous.