The perpetual stew vs the historian

The concept of the perpetual stew

There’s a concept throughout history known as the “forever soup” or “perpetual stew”. This is a term that describes a stew or soup that has been continuously cooking for a long period of time without ever washing the pot its in. The oldest forever soup around today is considered to be 50 years old and sits in Bangkok, but historically there are legends of soups for way way longer.

The legendary stew of Medieval France

The longest forever soup hails from Medieval France. Legend has it that the soup was continuously bubbling away from 1500 all the way up to 1945 during the Nazi occupation of France. That means the soup served medieval peasants before the Napoleonic wars, French revolution, and pre-dates King Louis XIV. Throughout France’s epic historical period, the soup served the poor and needy and became the stuff of legends. There are quotes about it going back that describe the kinds of food in the stew. Hare, sausage, pork, cabbage, as the flavors of game blended together the soup created a flavour worthy of legends. It remained a vital lifeline of the French spirit rooted in culinary excellence and tradition; only to be thwarted by the biggest war in the world’s history. As France’s empire rose and fell, complete dedication to the stew was unwavering. A community was built around it that exemplified all that food is about: connection and community.

Then came the historians …

You see, during medieval France, meat was quite expensive for the poor and to be able to get exotic meats like hare was a real luxury that the poor could rarely afford. Also, France is a Catholic republic where meat was actually forbidden for many days of the week. During lent, meat was completely forbidden for a whole 40 day period, every year.

Then there’s the issue of keeping the soup alive. Today, that’s pretty straight forward as we have gas plugged into every household, but in medieval times it would require a lot of firewood. So much firewood that it would take an entire forest to keep the cauldron alive for so long, it would not make sense to do this for one stew.

Houses also regularly burnt down in medieval France, so the fact that this soup survived in the same place for almost half a century is very very very unlikely. That’s before mentioning the fact that fires were banned at night in most of France during the same period.

Why this story matters

Sorry to dampen the flame, but there’s a reason I’ve included this in a testing blog.

You see, when I described the concept of the legendary stew of Perpignan, a part of you wanted it to be true.I tried to paint a picture and told a story and used emotive language to pull you in and hopefully get you invested. Then when the truth came along, it felt like a bucket of water was thrown over your flame. It felt disheartening.

The tester as historian

This is what it’s like when you critique someone’s work or ideas. It’s delicate, charged with emotion, riddled with bias, and it’s not easy. As a tester, you are the historian, sprinkling truth (or sometimes doubt) into someone’s best work. This is why you have to balance being a tester with being a friendly person, a good colleague, a ray of sunshine, a class clown. Sometimes, you have to know when to turn off the inner tester as well.