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July 1778. Surgeon General’s War Report - Improving Nutrition for Our Soldiers Dear Fellow Surgeons: Although this is a broadside published for use in the training camps of the British army, it reflects the new ideas about a healthful diet that are also circulating in America. The versatile recipe makes a hearty meat-and-vegetable soup created out of what is in-season and available, enriched with grain and enlivened by a variety of herbs and seasonings. The soup can be made for just a penny a serving, and will be a very wholesome and pleasant food at the tables of the rich, as well as the poor. Please ensure the cooks in your regiment have knowledge of it. A RECEIPT For a CHEAP SOUP for six Persons; Published for the Use of the PRIVATE SOLDIERs and their FAMILIES, encamped on Cox-Heath, near Maidstone, 1778. Take half a Pound of Beef, Mutton or Pork, and cut it into small Pieces, and three Spoonfuls of split Pease, then take three Quarts and one Pint of Water, and put it into a Pot or Saucepan, and put in the Meat that is cut in Pieces and the Pease, and let them boil; then put in three Turnips, three Jerusalem Artichokes, three Potatoes, one Onion, and some Celery, that have been all cut in small Pieces; boil them over a very slow Fire for three hours, then thicken the Soup with half a pint of Oatmeal, or half a pound of Flour, or Ground Rice, and let it boil half an Hour after the Thickening is put in, stirring it half the Time, then season it with Pepper and Salt to the Taste. Pounded Ginger, and All-spice, may be used occasionally in the seasoning; also Thyme, Sives, Onions, Garlic, Rocambole, Savory, and almost any sort of Garden Stuff, or Pot-Herbs, provided they are cut small, for they will dissolve in the Soup while it is stewing; and if the Bones are chopped small and boiled in the Soup, it will much improve it, and thus by varying the above ingredients, a Number of cheap Soups may be made, that will not cost more than a Penny for each Person for a good Meal. N. B. The chief Art in preparing these cheap Foods, is to cut the Ingredients small, and stew them a considerable Time over a slow fire, and thus almost all Sorts of Meat and Garden-stuff will dissolve, and when properly seasoned, be a very wholesome and pleasant food. Your Obedient Servant, Dr. Charles Driscoll, State Surgeon of Virginia ————————————————————— Saving Soldiers - Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War. |