Soups

Once man had succeeded in making fireproof containers (saucepans), soup would probably have been the very first episode in the long-running British cookery show. Diet no longer had to consist of individual foods such as grains or seeds, leaves or berries, or a hunk of meat charred over flames. Now these ingredients could be mixed and cooked in water to achieve different flavours and textures. Soup was originally known as ‘pottage’, a name that stuck for hundreds of years. The principal early vegetables or ‘potherbs’ used were leeks and kale, but after the Roman occupation of Britain, many new ingredients became available, including onions, cabbages and pulses such as beans and peas.