This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for Feb. 3, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
Last week, two good things happened on the same day, and you had to make a choice, — the East Bernard Catholic Daughters’ Noodle Soup and Chicken Salad Sandwiches Supper and the Wharton Pilot Club’s Chili Supper. Distance was not necessarily a factor, but my wife and I chose noodle soup and chicken salad sandwiches, takeout. All homemade, and it was superb! But so was the Pilot Club’s chili, so said our friends who maneuvered both!
As a young, single teacher, I remember putting all the community soup suppers, chili suppers, sausage suppers, barbecues, etc., on my calendar, because not only were these community meals homemade, they were inexpensive, — very important to a young man with little money just starting a career.
Now that my wife and I are senior citizens, we tend to gravitate toward meals that, in our minds anyway, seem the healthiest. That’s why chicken noodle soup is at the top of our “desirable” list. Not that hamburgers aren’t desirable (they’re my favorite food), but I am afraid nutritionists tend to rate noodle soup higher.
Why, I asked myself last week, do we think of chicken noodle soup as so good for our bodily health?
Phrases I have heard often over the years, like, “Nothing better than Grandma’s noodle soup when you have a cold,” and, “It’s Jewish penicillin,” echo inside my head. This made me wonder if “Jewish penicillin” was akin to “Grandma’s penicillin,” — so I googled the origin of the term. It seems the 12th Century Jewish philosopher and physician, Maimonides, in his book, On the Causes of Symptoms, asserted that chicken noodle soup was known to relieve colds, nourish pregnant women, and cure asthma and leprosy. Maimonides lived long before penicillin was discovered, so I assume the phrase, “Jewish penicillin,” came into use after the 1930’s.
Not trusting 12th Century medical knowledge, I found a contemporary explanation of the benefits of chicken noodle soup. According to Valley Children’s Healthcare, chicken noodle soup is considered beneficial for colds, because warm foods like noodle soup can be a source of comfort when someone, especially a child, is feeling under the weather. The warm, clear broth helps to keep the sufferer hydrated, and can temporarily open nasal passages. Salt, spices, vegetables, chicken, and noodles provide electrolytes, protein, and carbohydrates, though it is important to watch the amount of sodium.
Well, that doesn’t exactly put noodle soup on the level of meds like penicillin, but it does sound healthy. And when did an antibiotic ever cure a cold?
I was introduced early on to the joys and benefits of chicken noodle soup by my Wendish grandmother, and it’s been a favorite ever since. Grandma made her own noodles and raised her own chickens.
Although we who are members of the Texas Wendish Heritage Society, tend to think of Wendish noodles as a symbol of our ethnicity, my research suggests we Wends learned about noodles from the Germans and the Bohemians. I really can’t taste any difference between Texas Wendish noodles and Texas Czech noodles; both are delicious!
Whether they have health benefits or not, I’m a noodle-soup lover; and I’m very happy that the Czech Texans and the Wendish Texans keep these old, wonderful recipes alive!
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Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.