e take the trade-list of one of the manufacturers, such as that of
Messrs Hogarth of Aberdeen, and glance through it, we shall find ample
evidence of this. There are nearly twenty kinds of soups selling at
about 2s. per quart-canister. There is the concentrated essence of
beef, much more expensive, because containing the nutriment of so much
more meat; and there are, for invalids, concentrated broths of
intermediate price. There are about a dozen kinds of fish, some fresh
and some dried. There are various kinds of poultry, roast and boiled;
hare, roast and jugged; and venison, hashed and minced. There are
beef, veal, and mutton, all dressed in various ways, and some having
the requisite vegetables canistered with them, at prices varying from
l0d. to 15d. per pound. There are tongues, hams, bacon, kidneys,
tripe, and marrow; and there are cream, milk, and marmalade. Lastly,
there are such vegetables as peas, beans, carrots, turnips, cabbage,
and beet, at 6d. to 1s. per pound-canister. The canisters for all
these various provisions contain from one pound to six pounds each. It
was Messrs Hogarth, we believe, who supplied the preserved meats and
vegetables to the arctic ships under Sir E. Belcher which sailed in
the spring of 1852.
M. Brocchiere, a French manufacturer, has lately extended these
economical processes so far, as to attempt to produce concentrated
food from the blood of cattle. He dries up the liquid or serous
portions of the blood, and forms into a cake, with admixture of other
substances, the coagulable portion, which contains fibrin, the source
of flesh and muscle. Unless a more delicate name could be given to
this preparation, prejudice would have some influence in depriving it
of the chance of fair play. The dry blood is in some cases combined
with a small portion of flour, and made into light dry masses, like
loaves or cakes, to be used as the basis of soups; while in other
cases it is combined with sugar, to make sweet biscuits and bon-bons.
Another kind of preserved animal fluid is the _ozmazome_, prepared by
Messrs Warriner and Soyer. This consists of the nutritious matter or
juice of meat, set free during the operation of boiling down fat for
tallow in Australia; it is afterwards concentrated, and preserved in
the form of sausages. A great amount of nutriment is thus obtained in
a portable form; when boiled with gelatine, it forms a palatable diet,
and it is also used to form a gravy for meat.
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