History
Portable soup is held to have been invented by Mrs Dubois, a London tradeswoman. Together with William Cookworthy, she won a contract to manufacture it for the Royal Navy in 1756. However, the existence of portable soups (called "bouillons en tablettes" in French) is thus mentioned, as early as 1690, in Antoine Furetière's Dictionnaire universel, under the article Tablette: "On a veu 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.") Considering "Mrs Dubois"'s French last name, it is likelier that she carried an invention from her native country to England, and developed it there.
The naval authorities hoped that portable soup would prevent scurvy among their crews. Therefore they allotted a daily ration to each sailor beginning in the 1750s. Captain Cook was convinced of its efficacy and carried it on both his South-Seas voyages.
Lewis and Clark on their 1804–1806 expedition into the territory of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase carried portable soup. According to his letter from Fredericktown, Ohio on April 15, 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". Lewis carried it with him overland to the embarkation point on the Ohio River.
However, 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 favor of canned meats, by a process invented in France in 1806.
A similar product, portable gelatin, was developed by American inventor Peter Cooper in 1845, as a staple meal or dessert for families.
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