Pungent Puget

Over the past 18 months, Washington State’s Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has issued three citations to Campbell Soup Company subsidiary Stockpot Soups. The citations stem from an overwhelming odor released by Stockpot’s Woodinville plant during the manufacturing of their onion soup.

Inspectors say the smell -- which poses no health risks -- drifts as far as the neighboring Seattle suburb of Redmond. Residents of the town claim the acrid odor is noticeable about four nights a week, and resembles an “oniony, body-odor smell.”

Stockpot Soups was founded in 1981 and sold to Campbell in 1999. The company specializes in refrigerated ready-to-eat and concentrated soups and sauces. The Woodinville plant has yet to comment on the odor. But the Campbell Soups Company, which faces fines of up to $13,000 per citation, has acknowledged the problem and promises to take action.

Cozy up to a hot, steaming, hopefully un-malodorous bowl of soup while you read one of our following selections!

The Daily Soup Cookbook
Edited by Leslie Kaul
More than 200 international recipes are included in this quirky cookbook based on concoctions from the sadly defunct New York City restaurant chain Daily Soup. Like all good cookbooks, Daily Soup features informative chapters on ingredients, cooking utensils, etc. But thoughtful and fun pieces like “Movies to Rent while Eating Your Soup,” “Music to Listen to while Cooking your Soup,” and a healthy devotion to chili keep this scrumptious book from getting too dry and ordinary.

The Best Soup Cookbook
By Joan MacKie and Marilyn Bentz Crowley
With freezing cold weather covering much of the U.S. and keeping people indoors, what better time is there for soup? And what better cookbook to have around than the presumptuously titled Best Soup Cookbook? Luckily, MacKie and Crowley’s yummy volume lives up to its name with more than 125 delicious recipes that run the gamut from hearty to rich to elegant.

Chicken Soup with Rice
By Maurice Sendak
These cute poems about the months of the year and Sendak’s incomparably wonderful art will indelibly etch themselves upon you and your child’s subconscious. Every I hear the phrase “chicken soup with rice,” I can’t help buy think of this book, just as every time I hear or say “I don’t care,” I think of Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue, or when I see an alligator, I think of Alligators All Around.

Jacobson’s Organ: And the Remarkable Nature of Smell
By Lyall Watson
Watson presents convincing evidence that the obscure Jacobson’s Organ -- two small pits located in the nostril long thought to be useless -- is one of the body’s most underrated organs, and of limitless value to the human senses. Through entertaining facts, compelling anecdotes, and informed research about smell, Watson explores how Jacobson’s Organ receives chemical signals called pheremones that activate the areas of the brain concerned with emotion, awareness, and sexual behavior and attraction. A fascinating reminder of how little we know about the human body.

Seattle Then and Now
By James Madison Collins
The successful Then and Now series will captivate any current inhabitant, past resident, or scholar of any U.S. metropolis. Contrasting archival photographs side-by-side with modern photos of the same location, the Then and Now series simply but effectively shows the growth, transformation, and complex evolution of American cities. Other cities in the series include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Chicago, and many more.

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion
Edited by Robert Siegel
Ah, The Onion. The newspaper and website -- which shares its name with a popular soup ingredient -- is one of the funniest outlets of humor to emerge in the last decade and arguably one of the finest humor publications ever. The Onion distinguishes itself with a dark, perceptive, and infinitely hilarious look at global society and culture. This volume purportedly collects the best recent Onion articles, including such classics as “Tenth Circle Added to Rapidly Growing Hell,” “Dolphins Evolve Disposable Thumbs,” "New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks," and “Special Olympics Tee Ball Stand Pitches Perfect Game.”

For Further Reading:

• National Soup Month
• Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving
• Black Tides