Editing Portable soup (section)

==History==
===Hugh Plat===
In the late sixteenth century, Sir [[Hugh Plat]] wrote, in his unpublished notes, of portable soup as a potential [[military rations]] for the army and navy, describing it as meat broth boiled down to a thick and dry paste which he called "gelly". Plat's basic recipe was to boil the feet or legs of beef cattle for a long time to make "a good broath" which was then strained and boiled down to "a strong & stiff gelly". This in turn was dried on clean cloths in a windy place out of the sun, cut with wire into pieces, powdered with flour to stop the pieces from sticking, and stored in wooden boxes.

Made in March, it would "keepe all the yeere" (keep all year). Alternatively, the dry jelly could be "stamped" into shape with a wooden die, like the [[Quince cheese|"Genoa Paste" of quinces]] familiar to Plat and other cooks of the time. He instructed that no sugar or salt should be added to the jelly because such taste would be concentrated by the boiling process, although he speculated that [[saffron]] might add colour, and that [[rosewater]] could also be added at this stage. He wondered whether baked flour or grated bread could be incorporated to make the jelly "serve as bread and meate the better", and whether the addition of [[isinglass]] would make it stiffer. The jelly was variously described by Plat as a "Victual for Warr", "dry gelly carried to the sea", and a food for soldiers on the march. Plat envisaged using this jelly either as the base for soup, or "neat" as a concentrated food. Reconstitution as soup simply involved dissolving a piece of the jelly in hot water to make "good broath", and, because jelly and water alone would be rather bland, adding such flavourings as were available or to taste – sugar, salt, liquorice, aniseed, or other "convenient spice".

Plat emphasised the utility of the jelly as field rations, for "a soldier may satisfie his hunger herwith, whilst hee is in his march". He recommended that a leg of beef or veal be boiled with every 6 or 8 neats' (cows') feet to produce a jelly which would more easily dissolve in the mouth.<ref>British Library, Sloane MS 2244, fol. 29a; Sloane MS 2189, fols 119-119a. See also Malcolm Thick, ''Sir Hugh Plat: the search for useful knowledge in early modern England'' (Totnes, 2010), pp. 126–7.</ref>

The existence of portable soups (called "[[Bouillon (broth)|bouillon]]s en tablettes" in French) is also mentioned, in 1690, in [[Antoine Furetière]]'s ''Dictionnaire universel'', under the article ''Tablette'': "{{Lang|fr|On a vue des consommés reduits en tablettes, ou des bouillons à porter en poche}}". ("We have seen consommés reduced into tablets, or broth to carry in your pocket".){{citation needed|date=August 2017}}

===Mrs Dubois===
As a mass-produced product, portable soup is generally held to have been invented by Mrs Dubois, a [[Tavern#United Kingdom|London tavern keeper]] who, with [[William Cookworthy]], won a contract to manufacture it for the [[Royal Navy]] in 1756. Mrs Dubois was described as "a person of good character and circumstances". She operated from a tavern, at the Golden Head, in Three Kings Court in [[Fleet Street]]. She may have been the widow of a French chef and tavern keeper; but, by 1757, she had a new husband, Edward Bennet, son of a Sheffield knife-grinder. The contract with the navy was alluded to in advertising material long after it had lapsed, Benjamin Piper, successor in the business announced he was "Successor to Messieurs Bennet and Dubois, The original Portable Soup-Makers to His majesty’s Royal Navy" and one Vigor, successor to Piper, used the same rubric on his flyers.<ref>Obituary of Edward Bennet in ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]'', vol. 59 (pt 1) (1789). Yorkshire Archaeological Society, MD335/1/6/4/6.</ref> The naval authorities {{Clarify|date=November 2009}} hoped that portable soup would prevent [[scurvy]] among their crews. They therefore allotted a daily ration to each sailor beginning in the 1750s. [[Captain Cook]] was convinced of its efficacy and carried it on both his [[Pacific Ocean|South Seas]] voyages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cook|first=James|date=1776|title=The Method Taken for Preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the Resolution during Her Late Voyage Round the World. By Captain James Cook, F. R. S. Addressed to Sir John Pringle, Bart. P. R. S.|jstor=106286|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume=66|pages=402–406|doi=10.1098/rstl.1776.0023|bibcode=1776RSPT...66..402C|s2cid=186212653}}</ref>

[[Lewis and Clark]] carried portable soup on their 1804–1806 expedition into the territory of the newly acquired [[Louisiana Purchase]]. According to his letter from [[Fredericktown, Ohio]], on 15 April 1803, Lewis purchased the soup from Francois Baillet, a cook in [[Philadelphia]]. He paid $289.50 for the 193 pounds of portable soup stored in "32 canisters".<ref>{{cite book |title= Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West |last= Ambrose |first= Steven E. |year= 1966 |publisher= Simon & Schuster |location= New York |isbn= 0-684-81107-3 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/undauntedcourag000ambr }}</ref> Lewis carried it with him overland to the embarkation point on the [[Ohio River]].

===Decline===
By 1815, with the publication of physician [[Gilbert Blane]]'s ''On the Comparative Health of the British Navy from 1779 to 1814'', the efficacy of portable soup for promoting the health of sailors was found lacking.  Opinion shifted in favour of [[canning|canned]] meats, a process invented in France in 1806, and the proliferation of [[meat extract]], invented by [[Justus von Liebig]]. 

A similar product, portable [[gelatin]], was developed by American inventor [[Peter Cooper]] in 1845, as a staple meal or dessert for families.

Nevertheless, as late as 1881 portable soup was still being described by the ''[[Household Cyclopedia]]'' as:
{{quote|exceedingly convenient for private families, for by putting one of the cakes in a saucepan with about a quart of water, and a little salt, a basin of good broth may be made in a few minutes.<ref>"Culinary Arts: Plain Cookery", [http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/cookery.html ''Household Cyclopedia''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328030211/http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/cookery.html |date=2013-03-28 }}, 1881.</ref>}}