soup is almost entirely liquid and fast. stews have more "solid"matter and cooked longer.

Porridge is British for USA oatmeal.

Thickness, if it coats the back of a spoon its stew or chowda

What about bisque? Gotta throw that in there too.

My wife's starts out as a soup but by the time she adds all the goodies it usually ends up a stew.

IMO, soup is broth based, stew is thicker. I'll add some flour to soup broth to thicken it and stews are usually cooked longer than soups.

Stew’s and chili the spoon should be able to stand up in.

I put enough crackers in chicken soup for my spoon to stand up in.

Stew is gravy with potatoes and carrots, soup is watery with all kinds of vegetables

cook time

to Stew something means it needs to be cooked a long time aka Stewed a slow long cook till tender.

generally speaking soup is also thinner , but I have some exceptions especially chowders

Soup can generally be cooked in under an hour and Stew will take 90 minutes plus

Chowder vs porridge
Chowder is made with cream and a thickener like flour , potatoes , or some other starch.

Porridge is a cereal based it may have butter and other components , Grits would fall under a porridge as would oat meal , they start as a cereal


black eye peas would fall under stew because it needs the longer cook time you are generally stewing the meat , no cream and the black eye peas do sort of act like a cereal they are not the primary ingredient.

basically a French word for Chowder

chili is a stew , you are stewing the pepper especially if making a chili from the dried peppers and not ground dried peppers

to stew is to break down through heat

Not a fan of soup.....but chowders and stew are fine....

Miss Daisy loves to make "soup", basically a box of chicken broth and some vegetables cooked for 15 minutes or so.....That's not food, lol