Colmans Chicken Supreme Mix - 38g

Colman's packet mixes sit in nearly every British kitchen drawer, somewhere between the gravy granules and the elastic bands. Chicken supreme is the gentle one of the family: comfort food for people who want dinner on the table, not a project.

Here in Canada, people tend to come looking for it after a craving they cannot quite shake. It is the taste of a school-night tea, a student flat, a mum who knew exactly how to stretch one chicken across a whole family. You can make a white sauce from scratch, of course. It just will not taste like that.

Each small sachet makes one pan of sauce, and the method is on the back of the packet. It keeps happily in a cool, dry cupboard, flat and tidy, which makes it easy to stash a few for the nights when the fridge looks bare and patience is thin.

Colman's makes a whole run of these mixes, and their mustard is the other thing British cooks reach for without thinking. Plenty of people pick up a couple of sachets alongside a jar of the mustard and call it a proper shop.