Rumford's Soup (Rumfordsche Suppe, also called economy soup)
As a reformatory measure, the Bavarian government intended to institute workhouses for those on welfare. Rumford's charge was to provide the cheapest possible ration that was still a high-calorie, nutritious food. The soup came to be well known among philanthropic-minded people throughout Germany at the time, and Rumford set up his soup kitchens in many German cities.
Rumford's soup was a common base for inexpensive military rations in Central Europe for much of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Rumford's soup is naturally low-fat, with high protein content from the dried peas, and both complex carbohydrates from the potato and barley and simple carbohydrates from the beer. Given the knowledge of the day, it was close to an optimum solution to the problem of creating cheap, nutritious food. Unfortunately, the need for vitamins and trace elements was unknown, but Rumford's soup was sometimes supplemented with corn or herring
See also
- List of soups
- List of German soups
- Peasant food
References
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Further reading
- Molnár T. B. & Bittera Dóra: A gróf sparheltja (The count's cooking range). Magyar Nemzet, 23 April 2005.