SC - Easy period soups?

[Cindy M. Renfrow]

Hello!

What you're looking for was called "pocket soup, cake soup, portable soup
or veal glue". Jennifer Stead, in "Waste Not, Want Not", has a small
section on this (p. 84). She says recipes for this first appeared in the
17th century. She gives no recipes.  H.G. Muller, in the same book, shows a
b/w picture (p. 112) of such a portable soup cake made in 1771 "from clear
broth prepared from meat and bones" that showed "no marked change in 160
years".  It's a thin square cake that looks vaguely like a tile or piece of
leather, with an arrow marking (line across the center, and 2 lines from
the tip of that line to either side on a diagonal slant) scored on it,
presumably to help cut the cake into sections for rehydration.

Here is a recipe from Charles Carter's 1730 "The Complete Practical Cook..."

To make Pocket Soup
Take two Legs of Veal, first cut off the Knuckles, then cut the rest into
Pieces, and two Necks of Mutton, and stove all four Hours; then season with
Pepper, Salt, Cloves, and Mace, and a Faggot of Thyme, and two Pounds of
good Westphalia Ham; then strain all off clear; then put in your Knuckles
of Veal in a Pot with a Skrew-top, and simmer it two Hours more.  This
Quantity will make one Gallon as strong as Size: Use it as you want it.

Size = "any of varous gelatinous or glutinous preparations made from glue,
starch, etc..."

Ms. Stead notes that pocket soup used for Naval rations was so unpopular
(and presumably so bad in quality) that the sailors had to be flogged to
force them to eat it.

I know I've seen other recipes for this & will keep looking.

Regards,


Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
cindy at thousandeggs.com
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.thousandeggs.com