"I can still remember the taste of those Scottish rolls and butter and the warm, tangy tomato soup, a real childhood treat." Man Has a Knife
Yesterday, just to show my somewhat childish passion for my favourite cooks and their books, I rushed to Doncaster to buy Ottolenghi's latest - Comfort, written in conjunction with some of his team and friends, but not quite an OTK production. Well it was a bargain price and there might even have been a signed version and a free tote bag - alas neither of the latter two not that I cared too much about that.
I will look at the whole thing some time in the future, but one recipe, of the few that I have observed so far - this Roasted aubergine, red pepper and tomato soup - had an introduction that began like this:
"Our starting point for this, believe it or not, was a tin of Heinz cream of tomato soup! The classic British tomato soup, smooth and sweet. For anyone who's ever been brought a bowl when unwell and tucked up in bed, the link between the tin and comfort is strong!"
Which made me remember the Heinz cream of tomato soup that I used to eat when young. I don't think it has quite the comfort association for me, but we certainly had it pretty often and I certainly ate it without protest.
Man Has a Knife, whoever that is, also introduces his Heinzy tomato soup with a similar tale of childhood bliss:
"Heinz tomato soup was me and my Mums favourite when I was young. I have very fond memories of coming home from school for lunch break and sometimes, special days, my Mum would have a bowl of Heinz tomato soup ready with a crusty white roll and butter, I loved it!"
And there are plenty of similar tales out there on the net. And plenty of recipes making their own version at home. One even snuck in some sweet potato which her children didn't generally like, but preferred the soup when she put it in. Luke Thomas on The Happy Foodie Website also has a Heinz-style tomato soup which he describes as "a richer, creamier version, but it tastes just the same!"
I'm guessing it didn't quite, and apparently the modern version from Heinz is not the same either. It seems they have cleaned up their act, and reduced the amount of fat, sugar and salt as well as increasing the amount of real tomato in there - and the price of course.
Heinz has now merged with Kraft and is one of the largest food producers in the world. In the UK at least they also seem to have extra power:
"The Heinz campaign is an example of the growing trend among big supermarkets to appoint a single dominant manufacturer to the role of "category manager". A category manager takes charge of a category of product in the supermarket, such as soup or bread, and works closely with retailers on research and marketing of that category for all other suppliers. In return they have access to confidential data from supermarkets' reward cards on customers' spending habits. The competition commission report on supermarkets in 2000 said that this sort of close cooperation might reduce competition." Felicity Lawrence/The Guardian
Might? I have no idea whether the same thing happens here, or indeed whether this is The Guardian Australia. Alarming anyway.
Now Heinz is an American company, but it seems that Cream of tomato soup is really an English thing, although it was originally manufactured in Canada. It first went on sale in Fortnum and Mason's in 1910. This is possibly London's poshest food emporium but back then canned food was a luxury item. I believe the first tin in the headline picture is dated 1910. However after WW1 it was manufactured in London and became hugely popular. It still is.
Those warm childhood memories, possibly shouldn't be revisited however, as our Man Has a Knife, said further along in his introduction to his recipe that:
"I have to admit the last time I had some Heinz tomato soup from a can I thought it was pretty awful, all I could taste was the tin"
Which is possibly why he concocted his own version. Ottolenghi too, may have been inspired by childhood memory, but:
"Realising that if someone wants a tin of Heinz tomato soup they will simply get one, our departure from the original went quite a long way. With its smoky grilled vegetables and sherry vinegar finish, this soup is more reminiscent of the Catalonian dish escalivada than anything that comes in a tin." Ottolenghi Comfort
He does have a second attempt - well first as it appears earlier in his career in conjunction with Ixta Belfrage - Cream of tomato soup with buttered onions and orecchiette which he maintains "tastes like a homemade version of the Heinz classic." And I guess looking at the ingredients, the soup base doesn't really have anything outrageous in it - well a habanero chilli - but that's optional. So maybe it does. Maybe it's really like the multitude of recipes that exist for tarting up a tin of soup by adding things like buttered onions and orecchiette at the end.
So much for the taste-alike recipes, or tarting up a tin recipes. What about recipes using actual tins of tomato soup? Well here we can't go past Chicken tikka masala can we? Legend has it that in Glasgow the first chicken tikka masala was made by adding a tin of soup to some chicken curry that a customer said was too dry. And Heinz have definitely made much of this - the picture on the left is from their website recipe. The picture on the right is of a 'real' chicken tikka masala which, I am guessing, does not involve tins of soup at all.
But what else can you do with a tin of tomato soup. Well it probably doesn't need much imagination to realise that anything that requires a tomato sauce, or indeed chopped tomatoes, can use a tin of tomato soup instead. And there are hundreds of suggestions like that out there.
I did find two that are perhaps worthy of interest however if only in a slightly queasy way. The first was a suggestion to The Guardian by a reader called Stephen Lockyer and goes like this. No picture alas, but maybe this Crispy fish with tomato sauce is close-ish.
Fish fingers in tomato soup
Ingredients (for four people, or two with seconds!)
20 Birds Eye Fish Fingers
2 tins of Heinz Tomato Soup
200g grated cheese
Growing up in a house of six, meals were always a bit like military operations. We could predict which meal would appear on which day, and this was one of our favourites. Years later, I still have the original dish it was served in.
Take the pack of fish fingers and empty them randomly into a fairly shallow dish. Open the tins of soup and pour them over the fish fingers, shaking the dish to spread the soup into all the gaps.
Pop it into the middle of a hot oven and leave for around an hour. This recipe requires no real exactness, which is part of its charm. The two ingredients somehow blend together in the oven, and you end up with what could best be described as a glowing orange casserole.
Despite looking quite artificial, and sounding like a bad joke, this is food from heaven. My brothers and I would eat this quicker than anything else - it has a unique taste, amazing texture and is incredibly moreish. Even now we have this dinner (although not often), and it has even been used as a rite of passage for prospective girlfriends.
Put the cheese on the top five minutes before you serve, and grill it off. Best served at the table, with a stack of buttered bread to soak everything up.
Then weirdest of all, there is Tomato soup cake. It's an American thing that dates back to the 1920s and there are lots of versions of it out there. This one is from The English Kitchen, so the English obviously got on to it as well. Somebody described it as similar to carrot cake, although the lady who proffered this version said she got if from a friend in Canada.
I don't think I shall be rushing out to buy a tin of Heinz cream of tomato soup - or Campbell's tomato soup come to that, but I might try one of the Ottolenghi soups some time.
POSTSCRIPT
September 4
2023 - India and potatoes
2022 - A postscript
2021 - Steak sandwiches
2019 - Nothing
2018 - The method
2016 - A family favourite
The three stars are for the soup - not that I can recall ever having it, but tinned soup, Heinz or the Black Swamp soup were not for me - too poor as a child 😂 and too well catered for later in life! 😄