Rumford's Soup (''Rumfordsche Suppe'', also called economy soup) was an early effort in scientific

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemistry, biochemical and physiology, physiological process by which an organism uses food and water to support its life. The intake of these substances provides organisms with nutrients (divided into Macronutrient, macro- ...

. It was invented by

Benjamin Thompson Colonel (United Kingdom), Colonel Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 175321 August 1814), was an American-born British military officer, scientist and inventor. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, he sup ...

Reichsgraf Imperial Count (, ) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. During the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly (Imperial immediacy, immediately) from the emperor, rather th ...

von Rumford, circa 1800 and consumed in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and greater

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, where he was employed as an advisor to Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. It was used as a ration for the poor, for Bavarian workhouses and military workhouses, and prisoners. Count Rumford has been credited in many instances for "establishing the first real

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center is a place where food is offered to Hunger, hungry and homeless people, usually for no price, cost, or sometimes at a below-market price (such as coin Donation, donations). Frequently located in Low i ...

." 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. ISSN 0043-7425 Rumford's soup was a common base for inexpensive military rations in Central Europe for much of the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Ingredients

Rumford's soup contained equal parts of

pearl barley Pearl barley, or pearled barley, is barley that has been processed to remove its fibrous outer hull and polished to remove some or all of the bran Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting o ...

or barley meal and dried peas, vegetables, four parts potato, salt according to need, and sour beer, slowly boiled until thick. The use of potatoes came into use in later versions of the soup. It was typically eaten with bread. It has been stated that Rumford's recipe called for the bread to be served uncooked, and "added just before serving the soup." One account describes the soup as being poured atop the bread just prior to serving. Rumford noted that the barley served to significantly thicken the soup and provide a richness to it, and he considered the cereal grain as "the rice of Great Britain." Some versions were composed of cereals, minor amounts of meat and other ingredients. Not noted as particularly tasty, it is palatable with long, slow cooking.

Nutrition

Rumford's Soup was designed to provide a high degree of nutrition at minimal expense. It has been estimated that the soup provided one-third of a person's minimal (daily) nutritional requirements. 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 Vitamins are organic molecules (or a set of closely related molecules called vitamers) that are essential to an organism in small quantities for proper metabolic function. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism in suff ...

and

trace elements __NOTOC__ A trace element is a chemical element of a minute quantity, a trace amount, especially used in referring to a micronutrient, but is also used to refer to minor elements in the composition of a rock, or other chemical substance. In nutri ...

was unknown, but Rumford's soup was sometimes supplemented with corn or

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

which supplied adequate

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...

and

vitamin D Vitamin D is a group of structurally related, fat-soluble compounds responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, along with numerous other biological functions. In humans, the most important compo ...

In popular culture

The soup is occasionally served today to illustrate the past, such as at the "Oide Wiesn" historical section of the

Oktoberfest Oktoberfest (; ) is the world's largest , featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October. The annual event attracts more than seven milli ...

celebrations in Munich, meant to recreate Oktoberfest in the "olden days".

Ingredients

Nutrition

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading