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“Everybody in England was brought up believing in brown Windsor soup,” says Glyn Hughes, author of The Lost Foods of England. “What is really, really strange is
by laputan_machine 5y ago
“Everybody in England was brought up believing in brown Windsor soup,” says Glyn Hughes, author of The Lost Foods of England. “What is really, really strange is how deep this is into the British psyche. Walk up to anyone in the street and ask them about brown Windsor soup, and they’ll say that it was terrible and horrible but everybody ate it in the Victorian era.”
I have never heard of Brown Windsor soup until today. An article that's debunking a myth itself contains a myth.
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoNever heard of it either.
- IshKebab 5y agoMe neither, nor my girlfriend. Seems like they are vastly exaggerating the number of people that have heard of this!
- 692 5y agoI suspect from the fact it was mentioned in the program "Hancock's Half Hour" in the fifties. you probably have to be 70/80+ to know about this. it's totally new to me
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago> you probably have to be 70/80+ to know about this Not necessarily. "Hancock's Half Hour" and "Goon show" episodes were sold on vinyl records at the time (and are still to be found on the big internet retailer on Vinyl, CD and MP3). If the media were in the house, years later, kids would play them for amusement.
- interstice 5y agoI grew up listening to the goon show (parents were fans) and also do not know about brown Windsor soup.
- simonblack 5y agoWas that the "original, lantern-slide type, wireless Goon Show", or some other? :)
- interstice 5y agoDefinitely that one. Would you like a gorilla?
- 692 5y agoabsolutely, I'm also guessing not many people did listen to these new format versions of these shows either. the only time I've ever heard the Goon show or Hancock's Half Hour, has always been whilst listening to the radio (typically 2 or 4) that makes a reference to the shows and plays a few seconds clip Within my limited field of family and friends I would say that people have heard about them, but have not really listened to them
- Symbiote 5y agoAn older relative (must be in his 80s now) had Hancock's Half Hour on cassette tape, and I listened to them while visiting. The funniest one I remember is "The Blood Doner", which turns out was a TV episode (most were just radio). "The Radio Ham" is also good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blood_Donor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blood_Donor / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUvyaNu0uw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUvyaNu0uw [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radio_Ham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radio_Ham
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dcminter 5y agoAnother Brit who's no familiarity with it. I have listened to a few of the Goon show episodes but it didn't ring a bell. I don't think my parents were fans, so perhaps I'd have heard it referenced if they were. On the other hand, I rescued my late mother's recipe books when we cleared their house and I can offer up a recipe for "Brown Stew" if anyone's interested. Still not "Windsor" though.
- cannam 5y ago> I can offer up a recipe for "Brown Stew" if anyone's interested Is that the Good Housekeeping recipe book by any chance? That has a number of brown things, including stew. "SAVOURY SAUCES "Vast as the number of individual savoury sauces may be, most of them can be divided into White (simple or rich), Brown and Egg sauces, plus a group of Miscellaneous ones such as Mint Sauce." Though it is actually a pretty good cookery book in many ways.
- dcminter 5y agoMaybe. It's handwritten, but may well have been transcribed for convenience. She certainly had GH (as did I in a much later edition) I'll see if I can fish it out in the morning.
- kaashif 5y agoOne of the Top Hacker News Posts Is a Hilarious Lie
- agd 5y agoUK native and have never heard of 'brown Windsor soup'.
- lordnacho 5y agoI concur, lived here for a long time and I've noticed stuff like Spotted Dick, Toad-in-the-hole, Haggis, and Faggots (which are a kind of meatball). If I were to point at a dish that was probably more popular in the past it would be fried eel, which you can still find in certain places in London. BWS, never heard of it, family is British and they've not heard of it either.
- andybak 5y agoWeren't eels usually boiled or steamed?
- lordnacho 5y agoI messed up, I meant Jellied Eels.
- philk10 5y agoyeh, which is how you get the liquor they are served with at the Pie, mash and eel shops
- jimmytidey 5y agoFried eels would be too palatable
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y agoI'd say that copious amounts of hard liquor would be the only way to get me to consume any boiled or steamed fish :-)
- jgrahamc 5y agoI'll just add my voice to the growing list of "British people who has never heard of brown windsor soup".
- Latty 5y agoYeah, can confirm as another Brit this is definitely not true—as of the present day at least. Never heard of this.
- have_faith 5y agoDitto, never heard of it.
- meheleventyone 5y agoYup, never heard of it.
- speedbird 5y agoSame. Nearly 60. Familiar with plenty of less than appealing “traditional” Brit food but never heard of this.
- lokar 5y agoIt made an appearance in the 2021 series around the world in 80 days https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_80_Days_(2021_TV_series) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_80_Days_...
- DonaldFisk 5y agoI'm Scottish, in my sixties, and can remember seeing brown Windsor soup on menus, almost certainly while on holiday in England with my family when I was young, so 1960s or early 1970s. I can't remember if I ever tried it though. I'm in my sixties. A web search turns up this pre-decimalization advertisement: https://englandspuzzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Batchelors-Windsor-Soup.jpg https://englandspuzzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Batche... . Just plain "Windsor soup", but dark (dare I say brown?), and so clearly not the Francatelli recipe mentioned in the article. It's also on a 1926 menu in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, shown here: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/brownwindsorsoup.htm http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/brownwindsorsoup.htm . Binns was a department store in Sunderland, England. So it definitely existed, but appears to have fallen out of fashion decades ago.