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Comment by laputan_machine | Hacker News Reader

“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.

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I 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

> 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.

I grew up listening to the goon show (parents were fans) and also do not know about brown Windsor soup.

Was that the "original, lantern-slide type, wireless Goon Show", or some other?

Definitely that one. Would you like a gorilla?

absolutely, 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

An 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEUvyaNu0uw

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radio_Ham

I'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/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 . Binns was a department store in Sunderland, England.

So it definitely existed, but appears to have fallen out of fashion decades ago.

Another 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.

> 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.

Maybe. 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.

I 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.

Weren't eels usually boiled or steamed?

I messed up, I meant Jellied Eels.

yeh, which is how you get the liquor they are served with at the Pie, mash and eel shops

Fried eels would be too palatable

I'd say that copious amounts of hard liquor would be the only way to get me to consume any boiled or steamed fish :-)

I'll just add my voice to the growing list of "British people who has never heard of brown windsor soup".

It 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_...

Same. Nearly 60. Familiar with plenty of less than appealing “traditional” Brit food but never heard of this.

One of the Top Hacker News Posts Is a Hilarious Lie

Yeah, can confirm as another Brit this is definitely not true—as of the present day at least. Never heard of this.

Never heard of it either.

Me neither, nor my girlfriend. Seems like they are vastly exaggerating the number of people that have heard of this!

UK native and have never heard of 'brown Windsor soup'.

Ditto, never heard of it.

Yup, never heard of it.

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