How much work, really?

If you discount mistakes (letting it get frozen, forgetting it on the stove)*, was the cabbage soup really such a lot a work? I mean, stocks are foundational cooking. I make them all the time.

Let me reframe the question: If we separate out the stock-making (which I believe was the purpose of the soup in Lesson #2) from the soup-making, it's not such a big deal. In fact, the cabbage-and-leek soup was intentionally chosen because it was so easy to make in its final form.

Okay, I just remembered the 27 steps to prepare the cabbage. Hmmm.

Still, my point is, the lesson was the stock (I think?). The soup was intended to be easy. And perhaps the lesson was also that with a great stock, even a simple soup can taste really good. But we are all reasonably trained cooks, so these basic lessons are not truly aimed at us. Making stock is not a surprise, nor that homemade offers great flavor.

By the way, the food critics -- urr, children -- ate and actually loved the plain boiled stock-cooked chicken, reheated with no other seasoning. Neither of them usually prefers homemade to frozen prepared breaded nuggets. Who would know they required French cooking?


*Not meaning to pick on Peaceable -- I have myself carefully strained all the vegetables out of a stock, letting the liquid flavor pour out down the sink drain.