London Particular

This thick and warming soup was given its name by Charles Dickens and referenced in Bleak House as ‘London Particular’, referring to the brown ‘fog’ from the factories that often used to form a blanket around London, a ‘pea souper’. This could well have been the type of soup that Soyer fed the poor in his Spitalfields soup kitchen, although he may have left out the ham.

I find the most economical way to make this soup is to use the stock from a home-cooked ham or ham hock. Yo