The Cleveland story behind one of your favorite boxes of soup

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) - You always have boxes of Mrs. Weiss' Soup Mix in your cupboard and you're not always exactly sure why, but the soup is a winter staple in Clevelander's diets.

The chicken flavor old fashioned noodle soup is usually priced around $1 to $2 a box. Another noodle variety, kluski, is available in a blue box, too.

The soup mix has a long history in Cleveland that dates back to 1923.

The noodle business was founded by Hungarian immigrants Gaspar and Bertha Weiss who originally sold Bertha's noodles to Cleveland's restaurants, according to Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.

The credit for Mrs. Weiss' soup goes to Bertha and Gaspar's son Albert. He introduced the dry noodle with seasoning packages we're all familiar with today.

he business eventually expanded to a building at 2101 Woodland Ave. in 1937 and it unfortunately burned down in 1961. A new building at that location is currently being used for the Boy Scouts of America Lake Erie Council at Woodland Avenue and East 22nd Street.

After the fire, the company moved to Solon.

Since its inception, the company has continued to profit and grow.

After becoming part of the Hershey Pasta Group in 1993, sales were estimated between $1 million and $4.9 million, according to Case Western Reserve University.

The boxes of soup and varieties of noodles are available at most grocery stores in Northeast Ohio including Giant Eagle and Marc's. Amazon even sells the soup in bulk.

If you've never visited the Mrs. Weiss' website, it also offers a recipe page with Hungarian recipes like chicken paprikash and goulash with kulski noodles and beefy vegetable ha-lush-ka stew.

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