Stone Soup

This is one of the most famous stories of Pedro Malasartes, a character from Iberian folk tales who gained equal fame as a master of cunning in Brazil.

They say that Pedro once heard about an old woman who lived on a farm nearby. They said she was so stingy that she wouldn't even feed the dogs. Pedro bet the villagers that the old woman would give him a lot of things, and willingly.

Upon arriving, Pedro set up camp near the farm gate, put a pot of water on the fire, and let it boil. He spent the day stoking the fire, and the old woman, from afar, just watched.

The next day, there he was again, with the pot on the fire and the water boiling. When the old woman approached to see what he was doing, Pedro picked up some stones from the ground, washed them, and threw everything into the pot. He was going to make soup, he explained.

Stone soup? The old woman did the math. If she learned that recipe, how much she would save on the servants' food! Pedro tasted the water and commented that it would be better with an onion. Well, she had an onion. And off she went to get one. When she returned, he was already thinking about the potatoes.

From one thing to another, the carrots, the meat, and even the sausage from the smokehouse ended up in the pot. Pedro kept the meat, the vegetables, and the sausage. For the old woman, he made sure to include stones. She even tried to chew one and almost broke her teeth. When she realized the trick, Pedro was already far away. He had a bet to collect.

The story also circulates with other protagonists. In “Traditional Tales of the Portuguese People,” Teófilo Braga records a version from Porto in which a friar asks a farmer for food at his door and is refused. Announcing that he will make a stone soup, he gradually obtains fat, salt, cabbage, and chorizo. After eating, he saves the stone for another occasion. The character changes, but the cleverness of arousing curiosity to obtain what had previously been denied remains.

And does stone soup really exist? In Almeirim, in the Portuguese Ribatejo, it does, and it sustains. It contains pinto beans, potatoes, pork, chorizo, black pudding, and farinheira sausage. And the stone? In the recipe that the city publicizes, it is thoroughly washed at the bottom of the tureen, when the soup is brought to the table. Whoever sits down to eat already knows the piece and can save their teeth.