re: Gumbo vs Stew vs Soup...What's the difference?

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A Stew is similar to a soup but a thickening agent (usually a roux or can even be a sluree of water and cornstarch or flour) is used to thicken and add hearty-ness to the soup.

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A gumbo is a type of African stew, that uses a roux in addition to either the leaves of the sassafrass tree (file') or Okra to add additional thickness to it. Also the roux for a gumbo must be the slow cook darker color roux, while a stew can have a blonde roux.

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So, when I cook a cream base soup like a clam chowder or perhaps a corn chowder for example, and begin with a blonde roux it's actually a stew?

I think the difference is found more in what actually you're doing when you stew something.

Stew meat for example is tough, right? You have to slow cook it to break it down and make tender, so you're stewing the meat down. Stewing chicken down for chicken stew is the same process, but it's always about the meat. Braising is most often done in it's own juices with little else but fat. I'd say that braising and stewing meat are more similar than stews and soups are, and I think it gets down to what you're doing in breaking the meat down so it falls apart, and significantly less liquid than a soup.

In a gumbo, that's not necessarily the case. I don't stew my chicken or andouille down. I render it down in fat prior to adding it to my stock/roux that has been cooked to the point where I get the flour taste out of it. I'm not looking for a stringy mess here. Similarly, and even more obvious is when it comes to seafood gumbo. If you stew your shrimp and crab down you're going to end up with a disgusting mess of rubber stringy overcooked shrimp and crab meat that looks like confetti throughout. Instead, we add the shrimp and perhaps loose lump crab meat and pre-cooked claws and claw meat within it at the end so we don't destroy it, so we aren't stewing anything, but rather adding it to the dish after everything has come together nicely, and serve. Similarly, a crawfish or shrimp bisque is done the same way as a seafood gumbo is done, and you don't stew the crawfish or shrimp down. It's more about the flavor of the liquid itself and less about tenderizing tough cuts of meat.

In the same manner we add the meat at the end we do so in other widely accepted soups like Shrimp and Corn soup.

Irish Stew on the other hand is not considered a soup because if you look at the process, it's about stewing the lamb shoulder until it becomes tender. Yes, stock is used to accomplish this dish, but again, it's more about the process of breaking down the meat than it is anything else.

My mother for example likes to add stew meat to her vegetable soup, but in the end it's still a vegetable soup with meat in it rather than a beef stew. When she makes a beef stew, she adds significantly less stock and stews the meat down and adds root vegetables at the end, and pours over rice. The term "Soupy" is not what she's going for when pouring the beef stew over the rice. However, with her vegetable soup that is exactly what she's going for, thus the term soup not stew.

So, I see nothing that indicates anyone stews meat down here as it pertains to a gumbo. Meat is certainly a part of both chicken and seafood gumbo, and slow cooking might be a part of many people's recipes, yet I still see nothing to indicate people stew meat down to make a stew rather than add meat to a soup.

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The question is...what makes shrimp and crab soup different from shrimp and crab "GUMBO"?

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roux. no roux, no gumbo.

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you will find some who swear that the dish must have both okra and filé,

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I disagree with this. It's either a file' gumbo or not.

Stew-made with roux but it is VERY thick & usually has potatoes & carrots (turnips, etc) in it whereas a gumbo does not.

Gumbo-made with a roux but not as thick as a stew

Soup-no roux

So basically the difference between a stew & gumbo is the amount of water added to it, along with a few subtle differences in ingredients.

Since I have no culinary style (according to Stadium Rat), I am uniquely qualified to render an opinion here. Your question can be answered in a South La manner as follows:

Soup = No Roux (as in chicken noodle, tomato soup or soup de jour).

Gumbo = RTT (Roux To Taste and all other 72k items people want to put in it).

Stew = RDTR (Really Damn Thick Roux and all the other 72k items people want to put in it).

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Choc what's your dislike with the closing )

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Closing of what??? Albertsons by ULL???

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Closing of what??? Albertsons by ULL???

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Them there pararantheses symbols you added at the end of each sentence you got up there.