Preparation of Portable Soup-Bread. Page: 1 of 2
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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
GAIL BORDEN, JR., OF GALVESTON, TEXAS.
PREPARATION OF PORTABLE SOUP-BREAD.
Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,066, dated February 5, 1850.To all whom it mIay concern:
Be it known that I, GAIL BORDEN, Jr., of
Galveston, in the county of Galveston and
Stateof Texas, have invented a: new and useful
Improvement in the manufacture of a Portable
Desiccated Soup-Bread; and I do hereby de-
clare that the following is a full, clear, and ex-
act description.
The nature of my invention consists in ex-
tracting the nutritious parts of flesh or animal
meat of every description and combining this
concentrated extract with flour or vegetable
meal, and baking the two substances in an
oven, thereby forming a portable desiccated
soup-bread containing a large amount of the
most important alimentary substance in a very
small bulk and convenient form, well adapted
to seafaring purposes, travelers, hospitals, and
also for family use, which will save the trouble
and expense of much cooking.
To enable others skilled in the art to make
and use my invention, I will proceed to describe
its manufacture or the process of making the
same.
I take the flesh of a fat animal orof any kind
of good eatable fowl, fish, &c., and extract all
the nutritious parts out of it for the purpose of
mixing it with the meal or vegetable flour. In
order to extract the nutritious parts of the
flesh, I mascerate it with heat or steam until
its nutritious or alimentary properties are com-
pletely separated from the bony and fleshy
parts, and are contained in the broth or soup.
I then strain this through strainers of wire and
cloth as the best means of obtaining the clear
extract, which is further defecated by settling.
This broth, being reduced or evaporated by
boiling to a consistence liable to burn or scorch,
I afterward place into another vessel of boil-
ing liquid. (It may be either water, or in the
kettle boiling the meat for a succeeding batch.)
The extract is thus reduced by evaporation un-
til it attains to a state of spissitude about the
consistencyof thick molasses; orthebetter way
is to evaporate the broth or soup by means of
steam in a pan or tub,with a steam-pipe coiled
in the bottom, and by the vacuum process, af-
ter the manner of making clarified sugar from
the juice of the cane. During this operation
the fat or oily part that rises to the top of the
liquid is carefully skimmed off, and does notform any part of the manufactured article.
Will the animal extract reduced to the con-
sistency described I mix good flour, meal, or
an extract of vegetables made into meal, until
a dough is formed sufficiently stiff to be rolled
into a convenient sheet or webb and cut into
pieces by a common cracker-machine suitable
for baking. By mixing the flour or meal with
the animal extract in a hot state, the dough
becomes stiffer when cold, therefore more con-
venient to handle or work, and more animal
extract can be combined with the flour or meal
than by employing the said extract when cold.
Thus more animal nutriment will be combined
with a certain or specified quantity of the flour
or meal. I bake the dough, as heretofore de-
scribed, in a baker's oven properly heated for
that purpose. I have not used, nor do I con-
fine myself to any standard; but I prefer to
use the oven after a batch of common bread
has been baked in it. I allow it to bake slowly
until it becomes dry-about the common bis-
cuit or cracknel dryness. The excellence of
this portable desiccated soup-bread depends
upon the quantity of animal substance used in
its manufacture. The extract should be re-
duced by the process of boiling or evaporation
by steam to about one-eleventh the weight of
the flesh or animal substance thatis firstplaced
in the vessel to macerate.
The bread thus made may be ground into
meal, for greater convenience for cooking, and
packed, either in the cake or meal, into small
tight bags of gutta-percha or other material,
such as varnished cotton cloth, for the purpose
of keeping out air, water, and moisture. At
present I am keeping the bread, both in cakes
and ground, in cases of tin and other vessels
hermetically sealed, and in air-tight bags, for
shipping and other purposes. When open it
requires to be kept secure from the changes of
the atmosphere. It will keep on shipboard
during long voyages in warm climates for a
great length of time. To make soup of it, and
the bread made fine, add sufficient cold water
to form a thin batter, in which let it stand five
or ten minutes. Then add more water (boil-
ing water is best) and boil it, stirring fre-
quently during the process. The bread be-
comes macerated or decomposed in ten to fif-
teen minutes' boiling. One ounce will make
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Borden, Gail, Jr. Preparation of Portable Soup-Bread., patent, February 5, 1850; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth165030/m1/1/?rotate=270: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.