Soups

Received wisdom has it that in order to make soup, you need to start with stock. But according to the domestic science teacher in the first and only cookery lesson I had at school, this is not so.

We were to make soup. We chopped up some onions, carrots, celery and turnip, and put these in a saucepan with a pint or so of water, some salt and white pepper. I remember the white pepper vividly. It was, of course, the only pepper we knew at the time. And then we boiled and boiled. I took the result home in a thermos flask, knowing that praise would not be heaped on my head for this little creation. Soup was popular at home, but this was not considered soup. Thereafter, I transferred to needlework lessons, and learned to make soup under my mother’s supervision.