Basic Stocks

Soups and stocks have always had quite an intimate relationship, the soup always needing a helping hand from the other. However, in the strictest culinary terms, the two are completely different. A soup is a finished dish, complete in itself, while stock is used as the base, or as part of, finished dishes, although, once clarified, it almost stands on its own as the ultimate clear soup, consommé.

A stock or broth is water in which meat or fish, plus vegetables, or vegetables alone, have simmered until the water takes on their flavour. This would have been an essential and daily part of British eating after the introduction of cooking pots, when the first pottages – or soups – were created and enjoyed. Very many different vegetable and herb flavourings could be added to make the liquid tastier and more interesting to the palate. As the liquid warmed, it softened the often-tough meats (if any were used), along with grains, whose starches would swell and thicken the liquid. As well as being practical and nourishing, making and eating stocks would have been economical – as it is still – in that tough pieces of meat and bone could be used, as well as trimmings, carcasses and leftovers that might otherwise have been thrown away.