Erin Oxtail Soup - 57g

Oxtail has always been the slightly old-fashioned one on the British packet soup shelf. Tomato and chicken get the attention, but oxtail is the one people get oddly loyal about, and it never quite went away.

You can get a bowl of soup anywhere. What people in Canada go looking for is that particular taste: the one from the packet in the cupboard at home, made up on a cold evening without anybody making a fuss about it.

It comes as a flat, light 57g packet that sits in the cupboard for whenever you need it. Make it up with water on the hob as the pack says, and have the bread ready. Thick slices, crusty rolls, it does not matter, as long as there is something for dunking. Some people tip a packet into a stew to give it a bit more depth, and nobody has ever complained.

Erin makes a range of other packet soups, so oxtail tends to end up in the basket with a couple of its cousins. A few packets in the cupboard is never a bad idea.