English onion soup

The onion, whose flavour is such an essential part of practically every soup, has been used for more than just flavouring in the past - the juice was rubbed on wasp stings as a pain-killer, and, if you could bear the smell it made an excellent hair restorer - it also helped to cure chilblains, catarrh and hangovers. The famous French onion soup, eaten by market porters for breakfast was therefore part food, part cure, but this English version, creamier and milder, is food pure and simple.</