This mass was made into dumplings, which were boiled half an hour in clear water. Upon taking them out of the water they were found to weigh 5 lbs. 24 loths, giving 15⅓ loths to each portion, costing 1¼ creutzer.
The meat, soup, and dumplings were served all at once, in the same dish, and were all eaten together at dinner. Each member of the mess was also supplied with 10 loths of rye bread, which cost 5/16 of a creutzer. Also with 10 loths of the same for breakfast, another piece of same weight in the afternoon, and another for his supper.
A detailed analysis of this is given, the sum total of which shows that each man received in avoirdupois weight daily:
| lb. | oz. |
| 2 | 234/100 of solids |
| 1 | 284/100 of ‘prepared water’ |
| ———— | |
| 3 | 518/100 total solids and fluids. |
which cost 517/48 creutzers, or twopence sterling, very nearly. Other bills of fare of other messes, officially reported, give about the same. This is exclusive of the cost of fuel, &c., for cooking.
All who are concerned in soup-kitchens or other economic dietaries should carefully study the details supplied in these ‘Essays’ of Count Rumford; they are thoroughly practical, and, although nearly a century old, are highly instructive at the present day. With their aid large basins of good, nutritious soup might be supplied at one penny per basin, leaving a profit for establishment expenses; and if such were obtainable at Billingsgate, Smithfield, Leadenhall, Covent Garden, and other markets in London and the provinces, where poor men are working at early hours on cold mornings, the dram-drinking which prevails so fatally in such places would be more effectually superseded than by any temperance missions, which are limited to mere talking. Such soup is incomparably better than tea or coffee. It should be included in the bill of fare of all the coffee-palaces and such-like establishments.
Since the above appeared in ‘Knowledge,’ I have had much correspondence with ladies and gentlemen who are benevolently exerting themselves in the good work of providing cheap dinners for poor school-children and poor people generally. I may mention particularly the Rev. W. Moore Ede, Rector of Gateshead-on-Tyne, a pioneer in the ‘Penny Dinner’ movement, and who has published a valuable penny tract on the subject, ‘Cheap Food and Cheap Cookery,’ which I recommend to all his fellow-workers. (He supplies distribution copies at 6d. per 100.) His ‘Penny Dinner Cooker,’ now commercially supplied by Messrs. Walker and Emley, Newcastle, overcomes the difficulties I have described in the slow cookery of Rumford’s soup. It is a double vessel on the glue-pot principle, heated by gas.