“That is really a wonderful discovery, and duck hunters shivering in their blind, on a winter morning, balloonists far up among the clouds, and all persons who need something warm to take away their shaky feeling, but can’t have a fire, find a great boon in those soups.”
“But how can it be self-heating I’d like to know?” asked Ethan, scornfully.
“It is after all very simple,” explained Phil. “The soup is in a second can, and the space between the two is filled with dry quick-lime. When wanted, a small hole is cut in the top of the outer can and some water allowed to pass in. This you see generates a terrific heat, and in a jiffy the soup is made piping hot.”
“Well, did you ever hear the beat of that?” exclaimed Lub, who had stopped his culinary labors long enough to look and listen to what was going on, for it really concerned his department.
“And here we have some desiccated vegetables, looks like,” remarked Ethan, as he pointed to a variety of cans.
“Those are what they call dehydrated vegetables,” explained Phil. “They are potatoes, spinach, onions and cabbage in a concentrated form. One can weighing from four to twelve ounces is equal to from seven to fifteen pounds of the fresh stuff.”
“But how do you use them?” asked Lub, wonderingly, thinking no doubt what a labor saving device this would be for the cook.
“Oh!” Phil told him, “just add the proper amount of water to a small portion, and cook it the same way you would the fresh vegetable. They are used pretty generally in the United States navy, I understand; for it is sometimes hard to get green stuff, and a diet of salt meat is apt to induce scurvy in sailors.”
“Well, I see you have soup tablets,” continued X-Ray Tyson, examining still further, “something that is called trumilk, and another that goes by the name of truegg; do you mean to tell me these are all right, and that you can actually carry eggs along in powder shape?”
“Yes, two of those cans of condensed eggs are equal to four dozen of the fresh variety,” explained Phil. “They say they are fine, scrambled or in omelettes, and that is the way we can use them after our other supply gives out.”