It seems every family has the Cabinet of Unused Things. Part closet, part Bermuda Triangle it’s where we put those wedding gifts and family heirlooms that we love but are just too scared to use. I sympathize being nervous about the food dehydrator and the avocado cuber but the soup tureen can be saved from a life of dust. The largest of the serving pieces, this vessel can function as more than a planter for the back porch, it can actually be used for family dinners.

     I know what you’re thinking: in a world where it’s hard enough to get everyone around the dinner table (much less eat their greens) why would we bother with a soup tureen? The word “tureen” was not even an actual word and it is believed it was originally a misspelling of “terrine”, a French word that means “a large, circular earthenware dish”. What had once been just a regular communal bowl turned into the show-stopper of the meal in the era of Louis XIV. Tureens have come in a riot of colors and styles over the years, first starting as pewter and silver and then eventually going to ceramic. They’re easy to find in most antique stores if you don’t already have one and new ones can be bought in any price range.

     Other countries have their own version of the soup tureen. South Korea has a kind they call a “dolsot” pot that encourages everyone to serve themselves out of a big dish in the middle of the table. It’s ironic that now the soup tureen can alienate people for being too big and showy; it was actually created to do just the opposite. There is an intimacy and comfort out of a big pot of something that everyone shares.

     The tureen can be used for more than soups, too. Any course you serve with a ladle or serving spoon you can use a tureen for including kid-approved dishes of macaroni and cheese and fruit salad. In a pinch a tureen can also do double-duty as a vase for large-blossomed flowers. If the tureen has survived for hundreds of years, surely it is adaptable enough to work into a 21st-century meal.

     I’m still teaching myself about the goodness and simplicity of a tureen. I used to envision myself gliding around my table at a dinner party, lovingly ladling delicious stews into my guests’ bowls. They would “ooo” and “ahh” over my fabulous dinner-party skills along with my delicately painted tureen. As pretty a picture as that is, the more realistic version includes dogs underfoot and my tendency to trip over air when holding something heavy. As homemakers, we want our homes and meals to be wonderful. Yet we want simplicity and things that aren’t too fancy to be homey. It’s a delicate balance and what worked at our Grandmother’s table won’t necessarily work at ours.

     Modern homemaking is about keeping that mix of old and new, and the tureen doesn’t have to be confined to the china-hutch for the bulk of the year. You can bring it out for Monday night meatballs or Wednesday night chili. It could be a nice change of pace for the family to see that they are “special enough” to warrant using one of the “good” pieces of china. So ladies, drag that tureen out from behind the snack caddy in the closet and try it out. You might upgrade dinner from a meal into an event.