Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do you make Brown Windsor Soup!
A: Sounds like the name for a couple of Marx Brothers films, like Duck Soup and Horsefeathers. Ms Bareham "This is the forebear of the ubiquitous "brown soup" that was the standard pre-and post-war bill of fair at boarding houses throughout the British Isles-and largely responsible for giving British soups a bad name. " Uncanny, in 1993 she knew what windsorsoup would turn out like. "Made properly it is rich and sustaining, rather like a liquid stew." Ah that's more like it.

The recipe for Brown Windsor Soup with Horse Radish Dumplings is taken from "A Celebration of Soup", Written by Lindsay Bareham and Michael Joseph Ltd 1993...

Recipe Serves four 25g/1oz butter 1 small onion, finely chopped Green of 1 leek, chopped 1 small carrot, peeled and diced Salt and pepper 350g/12 oz stewing steak, trimmed and diced 1 tbsp. flour 1.4 litres/2 1/2 pints beef stock Bouquet garni with 4 stalks of parsley, 1 spray of thyme, 1/2 a bay leaf and 1 clove of garlic (optional) 1 tbsp. parsley, chopped Melt the butter; stir in the onion and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the leek and carrot. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper, cover and sweat for five minutes.(The soup. Not you). Add the beef and brown it all over. Sift in the flour, stirring and scraping to mix it in well. Pour on a little of the stock, stirring thoroughly to take up the flour and pour on the rest. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, add the "bouquet garni", cover and simmer very slowly, stirring occasionally, for two hours. Remove the remains of the bouquet garni and liquidize the soup, adding a little more stock or water if it is too thick. Taste for seasoning and serve with cooked dumplings and a sprinkling of parsley.

Makes Approx 16-20 marble sized dumplings. 110g/4oz self-raising flour. 1/4 tsp. salt Freshly ground black pepper 50g/2 oz suet 25g/1 oz fresh or preserved grated horseradish, chopped finely 1 small onion or shallot Peeled and minced. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the salt and pepper, and stir in the suet. Mix in the horseradish and onion and stir in just enough cold water to form the mixture into stiff but elastic dough. With floured fingers form the dough into small balls. Drop into lightly boiling broth, cover and test one after 15 minutes.

We are grateful to Dave Nicholson from windsorsoup.co.uk for researching and pointing out this information.