In the past it was possible to buy "soup fish" in fish markets. These were normally the ugly, sea-bottom fish, together with a few odd shellfish and eels that did not provide large amounts of nice white fillet but which imparted amazing flavour to broths. I regularly bought soup fish, which were cheap and rejected by most shoppers, from the fish market, long-departed, in Bristol. These I stewed with tomatoes, fennel and saffron (often more expensive than the fish themselves), orange peel and potatoes. This made a wonderful feast which I can barely reproduce, now living in Cambridge. You would never dream that we are an island race. Iit is a constant astonishment that, so close to the coast, we cannot get a plentiful supply of good fresh fish. All over southern Europe these ugly fish still appear, staples of such dishes as bouillabaisse and Portuguese cataplanas and cozidos. Rick Stein has been banging on about this for years, and teaching even the most timid what to do when confronted with a gleaming, translucent fresh fish - the trouble is they are still not available for most of us in England.

The production of true sourdough loaf is a lengthy process, involving starters and fermentation of three sets of dough. San Francisco sourdough is a very good example of how sourdough bread should be made. Sourdough may be made with either white or rye flours and both have good keeping qualities.