Editing Portable soup (section)

===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>}}