A historical journey of Luxembourg's beloved green bean soup

As the warm spoon touches your lips the savory sweet comfort of home is felt throughout one's body. Maybe moments of watching your mother at the stove cooking come to mind. Or maybe it was your grandmother or dad who was the Bouneschlupp chief in the house. Whoever it was in your memories. That person knew how to bring a bit of heaven down to settle on the kitchen table before you. This creamy-green-bean-goodness-in-a-pot is SO good.

Just as everyone's grandparent has her special recipe, so do the grandmothers of Luxembourg. Nevertheless, Ketty Thull (1905–1987) wrote the books Luxembourger Kochbuch (1946) and Koch, Back & Dessertbuch (1980). They provide recipes for Bouneschlupp with yellow or green beans, potato, onions, smoked bacon, savory or bay leaf, water with bouillon, butter, flour, salt, and pepper. This is topped with creme fresh.

Then in the 1980s, Bouneschlupp took the Western world by storm. I'm not joking. How did this happen? First, Bouneschlupp made appearances in travel guides. For instance, Paul Margue in his book Luxembourg mentions the foods that distinguish the Duchy. This included Bouneschlupp. The book stated that it was a soup with cut green beans with no equivalent in France. This is interesting because foods are often adopted from one region to another. So, now we know that this soup did not come from France.

However, it was likely the Bouneschlupp's appearance in the December 12th, 1986 edition of the famous food magazine Bon Appétit (Page 26) that propelled the soup onto the world stage. Bon Appétit called the soup Bouneschlupp (Green Bean Soup). It is the name 'Green Bean Soup' by which the world knows this Luxembourgish delight.

This was followed by world travel books in the 1990s that recommended that when in Luxembourg try the Bouneschlupp. For example, Foder's Complete Guide to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (1995), Culinary Luxembourg: Country, People & Cuisine (1997) and Christmas! Traditions, Celebrations and Food Across Europe (1999).

Now, I have dug through documents to see how far back in time this Luxembourgish bowl-of-heaven has been eaten as a family favorite. In Luxembourgish documents, most soup names end in 'zopp' (soup). One 19th Century book gave us e.g.Ënnenzopp (onion soup), Gromperenzopp (potato soup), and Fleeschzopp (meat soup).

Even porridge made from oats is named Hoiwermiehlszopp. The name for Bouneschlupp comes from 'Gréng Boun' (green bean) and possibly the Luxembourgish word for sip (schlupp). This name is unique.

Why the difference in names? Why not bounezopp? For foods that end with zopp the broth is consistent and without firm chunks of veggies or meat. Speculatively, the name Bouneschlupp may have been preferred due to people using a spoon to consume the beans and potatoes and then having to lift the bowl to finish sipping the remaining broth… being SO good! They didn't want to leave a drop in the bowl.

We can often estimate when a food was either invented or introduced to a nation by looking at the ingredients. Green beans and potatoes are the two main ingredients with onion, butter, flour, and salt. It is served with a smoky Mettwurscht sausage on top. Therefore, while a smoky Mettwurscht sausage likely existed in the Middle Ages, we know that modern Bouneschlupp did not.

While onions were readily available in Luxembourg due to a large supply from the town of Rodenmacheren, Junglinster, by 1606, potatoes were not. Bouneschlupp had to be invented after Christopher Columbus traveled around the world. According to the 1847 dictionary Lexicon der Luxemburger Umgangssprache, potatoes were being gardened in Holland in the 16th Century and were introduced to Ireland in 1623.

Then the potato "gradually became more widespread. In Germany it was grown more and more in gardens from 1750 onwards and in the open field from 1780 onwards, and since then its cultivation has increased from year to year." Based on this potatoes would have had to be grown only in gardens prior to the 1780s, and not farmed until then.

Lastly… green beans are also from America. Whereas, broad beans and fava are European. The term green beans mean both the traditional green bean we know but also any young green pod from another bean plant. Green beans were primarily a garden vegetable, until 1881 when a canning factory in Beaufort under the company name Henri and Jean-Pierre Even came along.

It's the green beans that give us the clue as to how Luxembourg got it's green bean soup and why Ketty Thull is so important. I dug through a handful of cookbooks from the 18th century.

Whether it was an English cookbook from 1702, a French cookbook from the 1720s or an early Germanic regional cookbook, they all state that green beans were to be placed in a sauce pan, with butter, flour, and soup broth and then simmered. Thull states that the beans in her soup were to be processed the same way except that…

The French and English then boiled off the broth, added egg whites, and served them as an omelette. In Germanic regions, the recipes said to boiled off the broth and served them with pork or beef or herring.

However, Thull was making a soup. How do we bridge this gap from English omelettes and German side dishes to Thull's soup?

In the dictionary of Food and Drink in three languages by Paul Martin Blüher (1893) we see a variety of bean soups. This included a puree-soup of green beans, soup of green beans with marrow-dumplings, and German vegetable soup with Bavarian Kohlraben and green beans and sliced kidney. Two other soups were a clear soup of sliced string-bean and also string-bean soup, Grüne Bohnen Suppe.

However, this Grüne Bohnen Suppe is not Bouneschlupp. The cookbook, Supp', Gemüs' und Fleisch ein Kochbuch für bürgerliche Haushaltungen (1858) provides a recipe for the German version. It explains how this soup was made with green beans in a saucepan with butter and flour like Ketty Thull's recipe. It even had cream like Thull's version. But no potatoes or onions are mentioned. Nor the herbs.

"Green, tender beans are cut into very fine cubes and steamed in a piece of fresh butter until soft, gradually adding a little water or meat stock. When they are soft, mix flour with meat stock as desired, pour this into the soup, season with a little salt and pepper, dilute with water or meat stock as desired, and bring to a boil. A little cream also tastes very good in this soup."

Before I suggest where the famous Bouneschlupp originates from let's look at one more document.

The 1847 dictionary Lexicon der Luxemburger Umgangssprache identifies several soups including Ënnenzopp and Gromperenzop. There is even a beerzopp with egg, but Bouneschlupp is not included. The evidence thus far implies that Bouneschlupp is not a pre-industrialisation food. This soup could not be made year-round without jarred or canned green beans.

With this in mind, we may need to reframe how we think of Ketty Thull. Thull is more than Betty Crocker could be, Crocker was a fictional character made up to sell food products. Thull was a creative chef who also gave Luxembourg its first cookbook, plus many more. Thull not only captured Luxembourgish culture in words and measuring jugs. She gave something unmeasurable… Bouneschlupp.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• Yellow or green beans
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Smoked bacon
• Savory or bay leaf
• Water with bouillon
• Butter
• Flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Crème fraîche (for topping)

Instructions:

1) Cut green beans and potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
2) In a saucepan, melt butter and sauté onions until translucent.
3) Add the cut green beans and potatoes, cooking for a few minutes.
4) Pour in the water with bouillon and bring to a boil.
5) Season with salt, pepper, and herbs (savory or bay leaf). 
6) In a small bowl, mix flour with a bit of water or broth to create a slurry.
7) Gradually add the slurry to the soup to thicken it.
8) Once the vegetables are tender, remove from heat and stir in crème fraîche.
9) Serve hot, optionally garnished with pieces of smoked bacon.