Editing Portable soup (section)

===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In the late sixteenth century, Sir [[Hugh Plat]] wrote, in his unpublished notes, of portable soup as a potential [[military rations]] for the army and navy, describing it as meat broth boiled down to a thick and dry paste which he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}}