Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/107

The cost of this soup he estimates as follows:

	d.
Five pounds barley-meal, at 11/2d. per pound, or 5s. 6d. per bushel	71/2
Five pounds Indian corn, at 11/4d. per pound	61/4
Four red-herrings	3
Vinegar	1
Salt	1
Pepper and sweet-herbs	2
	183/4

This makes sixty-four portions, which thus cost rather less than one third of a penny each. As prices were higher then than now, it comes down to a little more than one farthing, or one third of a penny, as stated, when cost of preparation in making on a large scale is included. I have not yet tried this soup. In reference to the others specified in my last, I should add that I found it advantageous to use a double vessel—a water-bath constructed on the glue-pot principle. Such vessels are sold under the name of "milk-scalders."

The reason of this is, that with our ordinary fireplaces the heat is so great that the liability to char the bottom of the thick porridge is a source of trouble. Rumford's fireplaces were so skillfully constructed, and used with just as much wood-fuel as was required to do the work demanded, and thus this difficulty scarcely existed. I have little doubt that one of the reasons why the thin broth of our workhouses and prisons takes the place of his thick soup is, that the liquid stuff demands no skill nor attention from the officials who superintend and the cooks who prepare it. Their convenience is, of course, sacred.

The feeding of the Bavarian soldiers is stated in detail in Volume I of "Rumford's Essays." Space will permit me only to take one example, and that I must condense. It is from an official report on experiments made "in obedience to the orders of Lieutenant-General Count Rumford, by Sergeant Wickelhof's mess, in the first company of the First (or Elector's own) Regiment of Grenadiers at Munich."

June 10, 1795.—Bill of Fare.

Boiled beef, with soup and bread dumplings.

DETAILS OF THE EXPENSE.

First, for the boiled beef and the soup.

	lbs.	loths.	Kreutzers.
	2	0 beef	16
	0	1 sweet-herbs	1
	0	01/4 pepper	01/2
	0	6 salt	01/2
	1	141/2 ammunition bread cut fine	27/8
	9	20 water	0
Total.	13	10 Cost	207/8

The Bavarian pound is a little less than

1/4

pound avoirdupois, and is divided into 32 loths.