I'll tell you what is rubbish: soups. Well not all soups obviously, but there is a certain kind of emperor’s clothes cookery book with ludicrous recipes, where soups are particularly vulnerable. As with a child's design and technology homework, like parents we are expected to feign approval.
Curried Parsnip SoupThere isn't much scope for inventing soups because people have been doing it for a very long time. The ones that work have stood; the ones that work really well have become the classics; and the ones that don't work have rightly been consigned to the compost heap. But the latter is too good for the soup recipes in some of these effete cuisine-style cookery books, usually with ludicrous titles like Taste of Dreams. The scope for novel soups lies in combining ingredients from disparate sources that have simply not come together before. The obvious example is Curried Parsnip Soup as popularized by Jane Grigson in the 1970s and still popular with restaurateurs forty years on. Clearly it is possible to create a new classic, but most recipes fall well short and seem to say "this soup is complete rubbish, but please bear with me because I made it up". The epitome of the bad can be found in the New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups, where some of the recipes could easily be by Letitia Cropley. That book is particularly nauseating for its preambles to each recipe. Find a copy and read some of them, but have a sick bucket handy. The worst is for Jason Stead’s Courgette and Brie Soup about how it was invented by a twelve year old. Nurse! Fetch the screens.
Another problem that soups fall victim to is pretentious names. There is just no excuse for Sweet Potato Chowder, Vegetable Potage or Broad Bean Skilly.
So what makes a good soup? There is no simple formula because there are multiple purposes. Some soups are designed to function as a meal in themselves. They should be hearty and nutritionally balanced, and the obvious example is Italian Pasta and Bean Soup, Pasta e Fagioli. Leek and Potato Soup also comes to mind served with plenty of bread, and Scotch Broth similarly. Some are intended as tasty appetizers, and good examples are Beef Consommé and French Onion Soup.
What makes a bad soup? One way of going wrong is to use ingredients that simply do not complement. The Book of Soups mentioned above has Roasted Garlic, Turnip and Chervil Soup, which they claim was inspired by a desire to do something with a turnip. Don’t tempt me. Another way to go wrong is to take a perfectly good dish and make it into a soup. That same book has Turkey and Cranberry Soup and also Brussels Sprout and Chestnut Soup. You’re probably wondering by now if I’ve simply got it in for the New Covent Garden Soup Company. Not so. Some of its recipes are fine, but it really does have the best examples I’ve seen of how not to do it. They can take an ingredient that many love, and turn it into something disgusting. Chocolate Soup anybody?
The final bee in my soup bonnet is temperature. The UK is not the Southern Mediterranean, and it is almost never appropriate to serve soup cold. Please do not offer me cold Leek and Potato Soup (Vichyssoise) or cold Tomato Soup (Gazpacho), or Iced Cucumber and Yoghurt Soup. Please refrain from Chilled Spinach Soup with Almonds. Give me instead Leek and Potato Soup, or Ham and Lentil. Treat me to Crab Bisque, or Cauliflower and Roquefort.
Curried Parsnip Soup
Another problem that soups fall victim to is pretentious names. There is just no excuse for Sweet Potato Chowder, Vegetable Potage or Broad Bean Skilly.
So what makes a good soup? There is no simple formula because there are multiple purposes. Some soups are designed to function as a meal in themselves. They should be hearty and nutritionally balanced, and the obvious example is Italian Pasta and Bean Soup, Pasta e Fagioli. Leek and Potato Soup also comes to mind served with plenty of bread, and Scotch Broth similarly. Some are intended as tasty appetizers, and good examples are Beef Consommé and French Onion Soup.
What makes a bad soup? One way of going wrong is to use ingredients that simply do not complement. The Book of Soups mentioned above has Roasted Garlic, Turnip and Chervil Soup, which they claim was inspired by a desire to do something with a turnip. Don’t tempt me. Another way to go wrong is to take a perfectly good dish and make it into a soup. That same book has Turkey and Cranberry Soup and also Brussels Sprout and Chestnut Soup. You’re probably wondering by now if I’ve simply got it in for the New Covent Garden Soup Company. Not so. Some of its recipes are fine, but it really does have the best examples I’ve seen of how not to do it. They can take an ingredient that many love, and turn it into something disgusting. Chocolate Soup anybody?
The final bee in my soup bonnet is temperature. The UK is not the Southern Mediterranean, and it is almost never appropriate to serve soup cold. Please do not offer me cold Leek and Potato Soup (Vichyssoise) or cold Tomato Soup (Gazpacho), or Iced Cucumber and Yoghurt Soup. Please refrain from Chilled Spinach Soup with Almonds. Give me instead Leek and Potato Soup, or Ham and Lentil. Treat me to Crab Bisque, or Cauliflower and Roquefort.