Cookery books used to have adverts in them, usually in the front and back covers, and in my 1912 edition of Mrs Beeton, there is an interesting selection. One of them is for Edwards’ Desiccated Soup which of course we know as dried soup, cup-a-soup, ready-soup etc.
I suppose we tend to think of dried soup as a convenience for our busy life-styles, easy to make for a snatched lunch-break; for poorer people in the nineteenth century, who didn’t have the resources and probably the time to make soup as the cooks in the middle and upper class kitchen would for their households, having something which would be hot and tasty and maybe even offering a little nourishment would be most appreciated. The soup is advertised as a base for other dishes, as in the advert in my Mrs Beeton :
This advert is encouraging people to use left-overs, to not be wasteful, to make tasty dishes from not much, from ‘those “small pieces” left over from yesterday’.
In another advertisement I’ve seen there is a fuller explanation: ‘A dry preparation of Extract of Beef and Vegetables; a delicious, nourishing and economical basin of SOUP in a few minutes; a ground work for all Brown Soups, a preparation for gravy and an invaluable adjunct to Irish Stew.’ This advert goes on to declaim that it is the best and cheapest article of diet ever introduced to the public. it is also, apparently highly recommended by the medical profession.
The factory was in Romford, in Chadwell Heath. near the amazingly named Whalebone Lane. Although there was a family called Edwards named on the census in 1911, living in Whalebone Lane, they are not the factory Edwards family…. maybe the factory wasn’t owned by a Mr Edwards, maybe it was just a name…
One interesting little fact… Edwards Desiccated Soup gets mentioned in Ulysses, by James Joyce!
Lois Elsden 
It is also mentioned on Season 4 Episode 1 of the Poirot series (ABC Murders). Fun article. I’m a big fan of the first half of the 20th century.
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Me too, Joe! So intriguingly different and yet so familiar!
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That is literally why and how I ended up here looking for verification that that soup existed at one time! Watching the ABC murders! Inspector Japp getting his grocery list from his wife… LOL!
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Inspector Japp, what a treasure! I think Philip Jackson is such a good actor, he crops up in all sorts of different TV programmes, never a star but always a great support.
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I so remember being sent to the grocer for a packet of Edwards powder for my mums stews back in the 50s and 60s.
she was quite put out when they were discontinued.
cracking stew with scrag end and dumplings
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The flavour of these cuts was wonderful wasn’t it?! I guess a lot of beasts are too young now to have the flavour they did in the old days.
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health and safety nonsense did away with scrag ends.
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… and so many other things, Ken! And now all the tasty cheap stuff still available has been taken up by fancy chefs and costs the earth!
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Living in Somerset you should be able to find decent food sources.
I can recommend the Butcher in Kimber Farm shop on the Bruton/Warminster road.
He’ll do you any cut you want from their own farm animals.
Last visit I got rose veal escalopes and a mutton chump chop; leg of mutton available.
No Halal nonsense either.
Now and again they do a demo of how to butcher a whole lamb.
A good baker based in Bruton as well.
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Thanks Ken… maybe Warminster deserves a visit – have never been there! Mutton… mmmm, years since I had any real mutton from a butcher!
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In newspaper advert for 1871 – Fredk King & Son own Edwards Soup and the address given as follows: By Royal Letters Patent
“FREDK KING and Son., Sole Maunfacturers, 140 Leadenhall Street London.
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Oh thank you! I like them being “sole manufacturers! “
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I have a recipe book called Thrifty Cookery inherited from a great aunt advertising EDS
soups,gravy. Address given Eddes House, Romford, Essex. Would be interested to hear more about the company. Patriciacharnick@gmail.com
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Hi Patricia, I’ve tried to email you but the address doesn’t seem to work.
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