Portable Soup

Portable Soup

Portable soup seems to have lots of discussion on it contents, after doing some research this is what I found documented.

In the book "Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery" by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns -ISBN 0-679-45450-0 on page 10 (half way down the page).

"Besides these crash courses in science, Lewis spent his time in Philadelphia acquiring supplies-and going through most of the $2,500 Congress had appropriated. He bought compasses, quadrants, a telescope, and a chronometer (costing $250) needed to calculate longitude. For the camp supplies, he purchased 150 yards of cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets; pliers, chisels, handsaws, hatchets, and whetstones; an iron corn mill and two dozen tablespoons; mosquito curtains, 10-1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing lines, 12 pounds of soap-and 193 pounds of "portable soup", a thick paste concocted by boiling down beef, eggs, and vegetables, to be used if no other food was available on the trail."

"The Journal of Lewis & Clark" by DeVoto, "Lewis & Clark; Pioneering Naturalists" by Cutright, "Lewis & Clark's Return" by Nasatir, "Lewis & Clark & the Image of the American Northwest" by John Allen, "An American Journey - Lewis & Clark" by Thorp and "Lewis & Clark's Plans & Preparations" by Jones.

"In all of these books I found only two of them that made reference to "portable soup", those being "An American Journey - Lewis & Clark" by Thorp and "Lewis & Clark's Plans & Preparations" by Jones.

With the answer to your question according to these sources are:

1. "An American Journey - Lewis & Clark" - [150 pounds (68kg) of "portable soup" - a dried or condensed soup - as emergency rations, ....]

2. "Lewis & Clark's Plans & Preparations" - [carried a "portable soup", a paste concocted by boiling down meat, bird eggs, and foraged vegetables,].

I will still look at the "Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" by Arno now that you have started my interests again after
leaving the subject lie for several years. I will also check my files when I still owned "Clark & Sons Mercantile"

"One of the best research books on this time period is straight from the horses mouth; "Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book" by Edwin Morris Betts - published by the American Philosophical Society 1944, covers from 1766 - 1824."

As a last resource I looked in "Only One Man Died" [Medical Aspects of the Lewis & Clark Expedition] by Eldon G. Chuinard, M.D. Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield, Wash. [23] Now I have hit pay dirt for the term "portable soup", no wonder I could not find it's substance, Lewis only listed the amount and how it was carried, he or Clark DID NOT give any list of the substance or recipe to make this item. Seems what others have written is what the military of the time used under the direction of "Nurses and Orderly Men". "An important purchase also made by Isabel Wheelen for Lewis was "193 lb.. of Portable Soup." This portable soup was contained in lead canisters [24] and may have been either a dry powder or a thick liquid substance.

There is no known record to the portable soups used by armed forces at the time. Cutbush describes the preparation of a portable soup, or "Tablettes de bouillon (Under Direction to Nurses and Orderly Men for the Preparation of the diet, &c. for the sick.)":

"Take calves' feet, 4; the lean part of a rump of beef 12 pounds; fillet of veal 3 pounds; leg of mutton 10 pounds. These are to be boiled in a
sufficient quantity of water and the scum taken off. When the meat becomes very tender, the liquor is to be separated from it by expression; and when cold, the fat must be carefully taken off. The jelly-like substance must then be dissolved over the fire and clarified with five or six whites of eggs. It is then to be salted to the taste and boiled down to the consistency of paste, when it is poured out on a marble table and cut into pieces, either round or square, and dried in a stove room. Then perfectly hard, they should be put up in close vessels of tine or glass. Powered rice, beans, peas, barley, celery, with any grateful aromatice may be added; but for the use of the sick it should be made plain. It may be simply made either of beef, mutton, or veal". [25]

Lewis wrote from Fredricktown on April 15, 1803, to General William Irvine regarding the preparation of portable soup for the Expedition. [26] The soup was prepared by Francois Baillet, cook at 21 North Ninth street, Philadelphia, who presented a bill on May 30, 1803, for 193 pounds of Portable soup in the amount of #289.50. [27] The soup was ready in plenty of time and Lewis receipted for it [28] and took it with him overland to Pittsburgh, where he was to embark on the Ohio River. DeVoto [29] called the portable soup an army experimental iron ration. hardly a correct description; iron was contained in the meat...


[23] Chuinard "Only One Man Died", pp. 160-161.
[24] Lewis specifically mentions the portable soup being contained in "canisters" in his note of Sept. 18,1805; also in his list of supplies he
includes "32 cannisters of P. Soup," Thwaites, Journals, vii, p. 239.
[25] Cutbush, "Preserving the Health, pp. 314-15.
[26] Gen. William Irvine (1741-1804) was a physician and supt. of military stores with headquarters in Philadelphia.
[27] Jackson, "Letters", p.28.
[28] "Ibid.", p.82.
[29] DeVoto, "Course of Empire", p.505.

This is interesting as to which source is correct, several got the amount the same, as far as to its real content - guess thats up to what book you use as reference.

This should close the matter of "portable soup".

:shake:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

doesn't sound very appetizing but then Mountain House years ago when I was on the A.T. tasted like warm,damp cardboard.

 

doesn't sound very appetizing but then Mountain House years ago when I was on the A.T. tasted like warm,damp cardboard.

I thought I was the only one that didn't like their stuff back then... :v :thumbsup:

 

[ohio ramrod]

Actually one of the reasons you find little reference to the portable soup used by the corps of discovery. Is that the few references in the origional journals mention it as having a bad taste and being eaten only as a last resort. Living in an area with a large Amish population I am fortunate to have a source of a soup mix made up entirely of dried vegatables which when boiled with meat makes a very good soup or stew.

 

[shmrck1]

Ramrod,
Do they have any websites.A lot of them do.
snake-eyes :hmm:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

was in early '70's then. don't know how they are now. there's good soup (dry) mixes available now. and the Hormel brand packaged meals - sort of ala' MRE's but much tastier.
(I realize this isn't muzzler related but figured to post it)

 

Where in Ohio country? My one grandmother was Amish from western PA, I know what your talking about on the soup starter. I'm in Mormom country at this time and their soup starter is pretty bland. :surrender: :grin: I need to get out of this moisture here in Utah and move back to Colorado, its much drier and greener.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Ramrod,
Do they have any websites.A lot of them do.
snake-eyes :hmm:

None of the bulk food stores I frequent have web sites, Most of the Amish furniture shops either do or sell through a shop such as Amish Traditions which does have a web site.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Where in Ohio country? My one grandmother was Amish from western PA, I know what your talking about on the soup starter. I'm in Mormom country at this time and their soup starter is pretty bland. :surrender: :grin: I need to get out of this moisture here in Utah and move back to Colorado, its much drier and greener.

I am from Holmes County which is between Columbus and Cleveland about mid way. I feel that is the ideal area to live. We are a rural area with great deer hunting yet near enough to towns.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Here's an earlier version

The portable provisions I would furnish our foresters withal are glue-broth and rockahominy: one contains the essence of bread, the other of meat. The best way of making the glue-broth is after the following method: Take a leg of beef, veal, venison, or any other young meat, because old meat will not so easily jelly. Pare off all the fat, in which there is no nutriment, and of the lean make a very strong broth, after the usual manner, by boiling the meat to rags till all the goodness be out. After skimming off what fat remains, pour the broth into a wide stew-pan, well tinned, and let it simmer over a gentle even fire, till it come to a thick jelly. Then take it off and set it over boiling water, which is an evener heat, and not so apt to burn the broth to the vessel. Over that let it evaporate, stirring it very often till it be reduced, when cold, into a solid substance like glue. Then cut it into small pieces, laying them single in the cold, that they may dry the sooner. When the pieces are perfectly dry, put them into a canister, and they will be good, if kept dry, a whole East India voyage. This glue is so strong, that two or three drachms, dissolved in boiling water with a little salt, will make half a pint of good broth, and if you should be faint with fasting or fatigue, let a small piece of this glue melt in your mouth, and you will find yourself surprisingly refreshed. One pound of this cookery would keep a man in good heart above a month, and is not only nourishing, but likewise very wholesome. Particularly it is good against fluxes, which woodsmen are very liable to, by lying too near the moist ground, and guzzling too much cold water. But as it will be only used now and then, in times of scarcity, when game is wanting, two pounds of it will be enough for a journey of six months. But this broth will be still more heartening, if you thicken every mess with half a spoonful of rockahominy, which is nothing but Indian corn parched without burning, and reduced to powder. The fire drives out all the watery parts of the corn, leaving the strength of it behind, and this being very dry, becomes much lighter for carriage and less liable to be spoiled by the moist air. Thus half a dozen pounds of this sprightful bread will sustain a man for as many months, provided he husband it well, and always spare it when he meets with venison, which, as I said before, may be very safely eaten without any bread at all. By what I have said, a man need not encumber himself with more than eight or ten pounds of provisions, though he continue half a year in the woods. These and his gun will support him very well during that time, without the least danger of keeping one single fast. And though some of his days may be what the French call jours maigres, yet there will happen no more of those than will be necessary for his health, and to carry off the excesses of the days of plenty, when our travellers will be apt to indulge their lawless appetites too much.

The Westover Manuscripts:
Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina;
A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines.
Written from 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published:
Byrd, William, 1674-1744

Ruffin, Edmund 1794-1865