The Good Life
Should one, with soup?
Pamela Vandyke Price
Soup, as those already alerted to the U and non-U revival will know, is eaten, not drunk, and Lord Curzon said it wasn't a luncheon dish. Some years ago the market research people thought that the British wouldn't consume soup, except for tomato, but this must no longer be true, with vichyssoise perennially with us, concentrated soups doubling as gravies, sauces, stocks, the packet variety enticing us to add dumplings, croutons and garnitures by the dozen and a whole range of soups which are advocated as meals in a mug' or jug or whatever receptacle presents soup in contemporary style. The old-fashioned shallow soup plate certainly chilled the contents and the ditto soup spoon made •ingurgitation difficult even for big mouths such as me. If figures really did show a decline in soup at the British board then I would suggest that this coincided with the banishment of the tureen from the table (with its ladle) and the complications of inhaling soup sideways from a utensil resembling a trowel.
Soup, as the thrifty Euro pean peasant knows, is a great appetite-appeaser and also, at a season when, as Ezra Pound pertinently sang: ' Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, An ague has my ham, Freezeth river, turneth liver,' it gives an impression of warming one. I know that foods take on the temperature of the body as soon as they get inside it, but if they are hot when they enter, they at least give a sensation of raising this. But does one take wine with soup? I have never seen the subject written about, and the generalities — to which I have contributed in my time — are usually to the effect that sherry may be served with clear soup, otherwise nothing else.
However, the addition of something that really is warming can make even an untartedup bought soup much better. To partner cold consomme I don't think drink matters very much; dry white wine, a truly dry sherry or Chambery vermouth will do no harm. With cold vichyssoise or chilled avocado soup, I have had a single small glass of old bottled sherry or dry Marsala.
If you put sherry into a cream of vegetable soup, or, possibly, a game soup, thick or clear, then I think it should be a medium wine, as anything bone dry will bite through the smoothness that is the charm of this kind of soup. And anyway, if you can actually take. the sherry as sherry, there's 'too much wine in it. A teaspoonful of a really good amontillado or old oloroso per portion is, I think about right. Dry vermouth, such as Noilly Prat, does wonders for fish soups, the aromatised wine enhancing the flavour of those containing a mixture of fishes. You can drink a little, well chilled, as an accompaniment. Shellfish soups, in my experience, can take a really dry sherry — unless they have curry powder in them — as well as vermouth.
Sercial Madeira or even the suavely nutty Verdelho is also possible with both fish and meat soups, though again much depends on the seasonings. But Madeira and tawny port, both lightly chilled, can be pleasant accompaniments to the sort of meat soup you want to to help along a little; I wouldn't put them in any soup that contains cream unless you actually have cooked them with the soup before you add the cream, but if you have a two-or three-day-old heel of a decanter, not enough to pass round, this is something that can go into an otherwise homely soup, such as cabbage or carrot (remember, the wine is sweet, so be careful with the seasoning of this already sweet vegetable) and, certainly, if you are experimenting with the Scandinavian fruit soups. I have done this with sweetcorn, frozen pea and spinach soups which of course are fairly thick by nature.
With clear vegetable soups, such as borscht, home-made tomato, onion or mixed vegetables in clear broth, nothing alcoholic adds to the soup itself. A small accompanying glass of chilled spirit such as vodka, schnapps or straight malt (not brandy, it is too fragrant) is something that I have never seen recommended — but which will make the ' pot-luck ' visitor feel specially honoured. And if you make lentil soup and add, for four to six people, a generous glassful of red wine, everyone will think that you have concocted the most timeconsuming type of meat stock.
Incidentally, unless the doctor specifically orders no alcohol, it is surprising how any of these suggestions can revive the appetite of the convalescent who languidly requests, "Just a little soup." Their next order will probably be for steak.
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