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Alphabet pasta, also referred to as alfabeto and alphabetti spaghetti in the UK, is a pasta that has been mechanically cut or pressed into the letters of the alphabet. It is often served in an alphabet soup, sold in a can of condensed broth. Another variation, Alphagetti, consists of letter-shaped pasta in a marinara or
Pasta-shapes
- an illustrated guide at Food-Info.net
Alphabet Soup is 150 Years Old - This Is How We Started Spelling With Our Food
at Trivia Happy Types of pasta {{ingredient-stub
Alphabet pasta, also referred to as alfabeto and alphabetti spaghetti in the UK, is a pasta that has been mechanically cut or pressed into the letters of the alphabet. It is often served in an alphabet soup, sold in a can of condensed broth. Another variation, Alphagetti, consists of letter-shaped pasta in a marinara or spaghetti sauce
Tomato sauce (also known as ''salsa roja'' in Spanish or ''salsa di pomodoro'' in Italian) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish, rather than as a condiment. Tomato sauces are c ...
.
It is not clear who invented alphabet soup, or when. As early as 1877, Paris grocers sold "...small bits of macaroni, for use in soup, which are stamped with... the letters of the alphabet." and Paris restaurants served "...delicious soups made of macaroni or vermicelli cut up into the shape of letters of the alphabet..." In 1883, The Chicago Herald Cooking School cookbook provide a recipe for soup calling for a small pasta such as "alphabet pastes of the same material as macaroni stamped in letters". In January 1900 it was on the menu at New York City's Au Lion d'Or. In 1908, Wilbur Wright was served alphabet soup in Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
, France.
Also unclear is whether the soup or the linguistic term for an overabundance of acronyms or abbreviations came first; food historian Janet Clarkson notes that "the first reference I have found so far to the metaphorical alphabet soup also occurs in 1883, in a quotation by the originator of Life magazine, John Ames Mitchell, referring to teaching his son the alphabet soup (the ABCs) of business."
One common American brand of condensed-style alphabet soup is the Campbell's
Campbell Soup Company, doing business as Campbell's, is an American processed food and snack company. The company is most closely associated with its flagship canned soup products; however, through mergers and acquisitions, it has grown to become ...
brand. This soup, like its competitors, is marketed towards parents for its educational value.
A similar product, Alphabetti Spaghetti, was sold by the H. J. Heinz Company for 60 years before being discontinued in 1990. Like Campbell's alphabet soup, it contains alphabet pasta canned in tomato sauce. It was later reintroduced by Heinz in 2005.
See also
*Alpha-Bits
Alpha-Bits, also known as Frosted Alpha-Bits, was a brand of breakfast cereal made by Post Consumer Brands, which contained frosted alphabet-shaped multi-grain (whole-grain oat and corn flour) cereal bits. Post Cereals also started producing "Mar ...
* List of pasta
* List of pasta dishes
* SpaghettiOs
SpaghettiOs is an American brand of canned ring-shaped pasta pieces that are always in tomato sauce. It is marketed to parents as "less messy" than regular spaghetti. More than 150 million cans of SpaghettiOs are sold each year. They are sold in ...
*
References
External links
Pasta-shapes
- an illustrated guide at Food-Info.net
Alphabet Soup is 150 Years Old - This Is How We Started Spelling With Our Food
at Trivia Happy Types of pasta {{ingredient-stub