We weren’t great soup drinkers at home, when I was a child. The occasional tin of tomato soup was about it… except when we had a chicken for Sunday lunch; then all the leftovers of skin and bone and gel and gravy were put in a saucepan to simmer for several hours. The resulting stock was skimmed of fat, seasoned, thickened slightly if necessary, and became soup. In later life, when my dad was living near a rhyne (drainage dyke) he would throw everything left over from soup making except the lager bones into the rhyne and watch the various creatures enjoy an unexpected treat. These were mostly ducks and fish but on one occasion there was a mink who used to visit. Mink are obviously not native to Britain but they had been released into the wild by animal liberation activists who never considered the damage the predatory creatures would cause to native wild life.
We had a French friend come and live with us for six months, and to our surprise, knowing the culinary reputation of the french, she was disgusted by the smell of the simmering stock – my mum would wait until she was out before she made it, and had all the windows open while it was cooking! I think once it was soup she enjoyed it! While my son was a hard-up student, he would use the left overs from friends’ take-aways and make soup, he said the best was spare rib bone soup!
I’m sure everyone has their own way of making chicken soup, and there are dozens of more exotic versions available; everyone has their own preference for whether to add stock cubes, or diced vegetables (left-overs or ‘new’) or pasta or rice, and how much to thicken it and with what, whether to add left over stuffing or leave it out… We just skim the stock and have it as it is – or use it in another dish such as a chicken casserole.
There are chicken soupy smells drifting up the stairs… I had better go and check it’s not boiling over!
Lois Elsden 
We always put pasta in our chicken soup usually cappellettis or tortellinis along with carrots and celery and a hint of garlic. It puts meat on your bones and gets you ready to shovel 5ft of snow in the driveway. Yummy yum yum.
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My mother-in-law always made croutons, which she called ‘sippets’ and I quite often make them… pasta is nice, it goes very soft and as you say yummy yum yum!
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Don’t let the pasta go soft. Cook it first and add to the soup just before serving. If there is any leftover soup then separate the pasta and keep it in a container of it’s own to add to the soup again at the next serving.Oh Solo Mio.
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You ought to be writing a cookery column!
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We just got The Great British Bake-Off show here in Canada and my wife and I love it. I always root for Ruby but I really don’t like to see any of them get chopped. I liked the one about custard tarts as they were my favorite as a kid. Can’t find them in the colonies.Sigh!
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Isn’t it great?!! The show with Ruby is from a couple of years ago – brilliant contestants! I really liked Kimberley… I won’t tell you who won though!! I quite enjoy looking at Paul Hollywood… 😉
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