---
title: 'Pocket Soup for the 18th Century Traveler'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=YHICMQ1YDm4'
video_id: 'YHICMQ1YDm4'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 1393
---

# Pocket Soup for the 18th Century Traveler

> Source: [Pocket Soup for the 18th Century Traveler](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YHICMQ1YDm4)

## Summary

Pocket soup, also known as portable soup or veal glue, was a precursor to the modern bouillon cube. Popular from the 18th to 19th centuries, it was a concentrated beef broth reduced to a solid, dry slab that could be reconstituted with hot water. It was essential for long journeys by land and sea, used by explorers like Captain Cook and Lewis and Clark.

### Key Points

- **What is pocket soup?** [0:00] — Pocket soup is a concentrated, dried broth that can be reconstituted to make soup. It was also called portable soup or veal glue.
- **Oldest known recipe** [1:05] — Lady Anne Blencowe's 1694 recipe provides the oldest known instructions. It requires boiling a leg of veal for hours to extract collagen, then reducing the broth to a gelatinous glue.
- **Boiling instructions from old recipes** [3:43] — Historical cookbooks instruct to boil the meat until it is 'good for nothing' (Hannah Glasse), 'has lost its virtue' (William Gelleroy), or is 'to rags' (William Bird).
- **Straining and reducing the broth** [7:03] — After boiling, the broth is strained and the fat removed to prevent rancidity. It then must be reduced slowly (14 hours in a slow cooker) until it becomes a thick, gelatinous mass.
- **Historical use: Cook and Lewis** [10:52] — Captain James Cook brought portable soup on his Endeavour expedition as an anti-scorbutic (though it didn't prevent scurvy). Meriwether Lewis ordered 200 pounds for the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- **Decline of portable soup** [15:52] — Sir Gilbert Blane's 1815 study showed portable soup had no effect on scurvy, leading to its decline in the British Navy. The bouillon cube later replaced it entirely.

## Transcript

This is a bowl of soup,
or at least it could be because this is what in the 18th and 19th century they called pocket soup
or portable soup or veal glue.
And it was the preferred way to transport soup for expeditions by land and on the ships of the British Navy.
So thank you to Bombas for sponsoring 
this video as I boil down a bunch of beef to make a little square of soup
this time on Tasting History.
So the exact origin of pocket or portable soup 
which is kind of the precursor to the bouillon cube  
is alas lost to history. But one of the first written mentions of it comes from Sir Hugh Plat 
who sometime in the late 16th century wrote that 
it could be made from
"neats feet and leg of beef... boiled to a great stiffness."
Nearly a century later, a French dictionary called it
"Tablette" and described it as a "broth to carry in your pocket."
As for a proper recipe, the oldest that I could find came from 1694 in a book of handwritten recipes from
Lady Anne Blencowe. Though she doesn't call it pocket soup, nor portable soup,
but rather gives instructions "To make veal glue.
Take a leg of vale and when the fat is cut clean off, make a very strong broth of it
and strain it through a fine sieve that it may be clear.
When this is done, put the broth into a flat broad stew pan that will hold it all,
and set it on a high chaffindish dish of charcoal and stir it continually about that it may neither burn nor boil
the whole time it is on the fire, which must be about seven hours...  
[Then let it get] quite cold; then you may take it 
out and wrap it in flannel and afterward in paper  
and it will keep many years."
There are some other instructions. It's actually a really really long recipe but that's the general gist of it.
Now, it's a very simple recipe, but it takes a long time and you do kind of have to keep a close eye on it.
Also, Lady Blencowe says to use a leg of veal, but  
you don't have to use a leg of veal 'cus most of the other recipes from around this period say that you can use any kind of beef.
So, that's what I'm using. Specifically, 15 pounds or 7 kilograms beef shank with the bone.
And that bone is actually what's really, really important because while a lot of the flavor will come from the meat itself,
what we really need is the collagen that comes from the bone and the tendons and the sinew and everything kind of
connecting the meat to the bone. Also,  
I chose 15 lbs of beef because that's what would 
fit in the largest pot that I have.
But if you have a bigger pot, you can have more. And if you 
have a smaller pot, then you should have less.  
So begin by putting the meat in the largest pot 
that you have and then cover it with water  
and set it over a high heat. And before the water 
starts to boil, a foam will start to rise to the top.
And you want to clear as much of that off as possible.
Once you clear it, more will come. And you want to just keep clearing it off, something they called scumming,
until you have scummed as much as you can.
Then once the water comes to a boil, reduce it to a medium heat so that it's just simmering
and set the lid on the pot with just a little crack to let out some steam. And then you wait.
You wait for a long time, like 8 to 12 hours.
You want to try not to add any more water in. But if it does get too low, you can add a little bit. But really, as it boils,
the meat will just start to kind of fall to the bottom, and it takes up less room in the pot.  
And you can kind of move it around to help this along.
What you're looking for is for the meat to be boiled beyond belief until it is just not even really meat anymore.  
There are some really good descriptions from old recipes that tell you what exactly you're looking for.
Like Hannah Glasse says to boil it until "the meat is good for nothing".
William Gelleroy said until "the meat has lost its virtue".
And William Bird gives the most vivid description saying to boil "the meat to rags till all the goodness be out."
Boil the meat until it looks like rags.
So, you want it to look like that pair of socks that has been washed like 50 times and is just absolutely falling apart. 
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And now, let's check in on our boiling meat.
So after 8 to 12 hours, the meat should be cooked to oblivion, and that is exactly what you want.
And then you have to remove all of the pulverized 
protein along with the bone
and any other bits that have fallen to the bottom. I have this wonderful pot within a pot that made this really easy.
But you can just pick pieces out one at a time. And then what you should be left with is a very meaty smelling broth, like
super concentrated beef broth. Though in some of the old recipes,  
they actually add other ingredients to kind of 
give even more flavor to this broth.
Like in 1747, Hannah Glasse suggests using "twelve anchovies, an ounce of mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves,
an ounce of whole pepper, black and white together, six large onions, a little bundle of thyme, sweet marjoram,  
and winter-savory, the dry hard crust of a two 
penny loaf."
The thing is, while this is going to add a lot of other flavor,
it locks those flavors into the broth and then into the portable soup,  
which is going to be condensed down even further. So, a lot of recipes at the time say
to not do this because if you ever want a soup that doesn't have anchovey flavor, you're out of luck. So,  
I'm going to go with them and say that just 
the beef is the best way to go.
And while you do want all of that beefy flavor, you don't want 
any of that beefy fat because any fat that's left  
does run the risk of becoming rancid. And so, 
this portable soup won't last for years on end,  
which is kind of the goal. So, you want to let 
it cool completely. You can even put it in the fridge if you want.
And then the fat will firm up and float to the top.
And it's really easy to just remove the whole thing.
Then, the original recipe says to strain this broth through a fine sieve. And many of the recipes actually say to use a cloth.
So, that is what I did.
I just ladled a bit of the broth through some cheesecloth and that made sure that every bit of meat and fat were gone.
Now the next part is really where you have to plan 
ahead because it's going to take a whole day
and you want to make sure that you don't 
burn it because if you burn the broth at all,  
you've ruined it all and you have to start way 
back with another 15 pounds of beef.
So, what you're looking to do is steam all of this broth all the way down where there's just collagen left.
And back in the day, they would do this by setting 
it next to or on a stove that didn't have a fire  
going underneath it at the time. But modern stoves have difficulty staying at such low temperatures  
for such long periods of time. So, I suggest 
putting it into a crock pot
and then setting it onto the lowest setting possible just so that it's steaming, but so that it's not simmering.
In all, it took about 14 hours for me to get this down to where I needed it. But by hour four,  
I could actually feel it working. And when I 
say feel it, I mean literally the consistency changes.
When you stir it with a spoon, there will be this gelatinous goop on the end of the spoon,
and that is what we want. Eventually, the whole darn pot will just be that gelatinous goop.
That is the veal glue. But since that takes all day, literally sometimes more,  
I figure I have more than enough time to tell you 
a little bit about the history of pocket soup.
While we may not know who the first person 
to make pocket or portable soup was,  
we do know when it started to really become 
popular, and that was at the beginning of the 18th century
because that's when you start to see it in a lot of cookbooks meant to make this stuff at home.
Essentially, you would make up a batch before you went on a long journey.  
And it must have been fairly common because it is one of the few dishes that is actually called out
in an early advertisement for 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy' in 1747. It says,  
"This Book is not designed to reach professed 
Cooks, but to instruct the young and ignorant.  
It begins with roast and boiled of all sorts...Also 
how to make the fine pocket or portable soups for traveling,
which if gentlemen have with them they may always have... either veal broth, strong soups,
or fine sauce for any made dish, and may be carried to the Indies and back again."
And you'll note that it says it is not for professed cooks that is professional cooks
but rather for the young and ignorant like me-
the middle-aged and ignorant I guess. >_>
Anyway a few years later it would become the domain of the professed or professional cooks 
when a tavern keeper in London named Elizabeth Dubois began making it and advertised it as
"useful on journeys or at sea" and "not disagreeable to chew when hunting."
So, first of all, yes, she said to chew when hunting, meaning that you could make a soup or a broth out of it by dissolving it in hot water,  
like a boullion cube, but you could also just put 
it in your mouth and like just let it dissolve, I guess,
which doesn't sound terribly appetizing, but I think I'm going to have to try that at the end of the episode.
The second thing that she says is that it is for the Navy and that was the impetus
for her getting a Navy contract in 1756 to manufacture large amounts of her portable soup  
which is what the Royal Navy called it.
One of the biggest proponents of this stuff was none other than Captain James Cook,
who on his travels mapped much of New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands
and was the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands.
And then a few years later in 1779, the inhabitants of said islands clubbed him to death.
11 years before that in 1768 he set sail on the Endeavor.
And with him were ample amounts of fresh food like pigs and poultry,  
as well as an 18 month supply of preserved foods 
like hard tack,
[clack clack]
salt pork, and portable soup. And the portable soup was one of the things that they brought with them to stave off scurvy.
"Sauerkraut, mustard, vinegar, wheat, inspissated orange and lemon juices,
saloup, portable soup, sugar, molasses, vegetables...
These were of such infinite service to the people in preserving them from a scorbutic taint,
that the use of the malt was almost entirely precluded."
Of course, malt doesn't stave off scurvy, nor did most of those other foods. In fact,
pretty much just the sauerkraut and then the orange and lemon juices did. But
Cook didn't know that and so he really insisted on people drinking this portable soup which was often served as a breakfast
like mixed with oatmeal and sometimes on occasion with celery.
"Saturday, October 28th, 1769...
As I intend to sail in the morning some hands were employed picking of celery to take to sea with us,
this is found here in great plenty and I have caused it to be boiled with portable soup and oatmeal every morning for the people's breakfast,
and this I designed to continue as long as it will last or any is to be got,
because I look upon it to be very wholesome and a great anti-scorbutic."
While in England it became a staple of the naval diet, in America it became a staple of
the foods that people would bring with them on their long journeys into the interior of the continent.
It was purchased in bulk for perhaps the most famous of these journeys which headed all the way west
when Merriweather Lewis wrote in 1803,
"Sir... the object of my visit to [Philadelphia] is principally to provide the articles necessary for my intended expedition in the western country.
Portable soup, in my opinion, forms one of the most essential articles in this preparation,
and... I have taken the liberty to request that you will procure 200 pounds of it for me...
Your friend and obedient, humble servant, Merriweather Lewis."
I'm going to start signing off my emails like that. Your friend and obedient, humble servant, Max Miller.
Just sounds dignified.
Now, Merriweather Lewis said that he was expecting to pay $1 a pound for the portable soup.
But if he could get all 200 pounds, he was willing to go to $250 for the lot.
Unfortunately for old Merriweather, they couldn't get 200 pounds. It ended up only being 193 pounds  
and it ended up costing $289.50 or $1.50 
per pound.
This Louis and Clark packed into 32 canisters and brought it with them on their journey west.
The thing is, while portable soup may be, you know, useful, it's not actually the most delicious way to have a soup, I guess.
And so, it was reserved only if they really couldn't 
find any other food to eat.
And they did require a lot of food to eat. 
As William Clark wrote in his journal, "We eat an immensity of food.
It requires 4 deer, or an elk in a deer, or one 
buffalo to supply us plentifully 24 hours."
Now it wasn't just Lewis and Clark eating all of this food because they had a whole team with them.  
There was, of course, Sacagawea along with 30 to 40 other people depending on where they were. Now,  
they had plenty of food for most part. When they were traveling the plains, they could do hunting, they could do gathering,
but about 18 months into their journey, they were crossing the Bitterroot Mountains
in what is now Idaho and Montana, and there was no food to be had.  
So, it was time for portable soup.
"Captain Lewis gave out some portable soup, which he had along, to be used in cases of necessity.
Some of the men did not relish this soup, and agreed to kill a colt, which they immediately did, and set about roasting it;
and which appeared to me to be good eating."
But the colt didn't seem to last very long because 
there were so many people eating at it. So,  
the next day, they resorted to that portable soup. 
And for the next 11 days until they got out of the mountains,
that was the mainstay of their diet. So much so that they started with 32 canisters.  
And by the end, they said that they only had a few. 
I guess it was like Pringles.
Once you pop, you can't stop.
Now, 10 years after this expedition, portable soup received a blow
that would eventually render it kind of obsolete.
See, after 60 years of being a compulsory part of the British naval ration, Sir Gilbert Blane published a work called
'Statements of the Comparative Health of the British Navy' in 1815.
This gathered evidence from decades of naval expeditions to determine what did and did not have an effect on scurvy.
And he came to the conclusion that portable soup had none.
The one item that he said did have a considerable 
effect on scurvy was the juice of the oranges, lemons, and limes. 
And so after this, that became the staple of the naval diet
and portable soup pretty much vanished.
But it did still hold a place in the diet of those who were journeying over land.
Because in 1857, Eliza Leslie suggested
"If you have any friends going the overland journey to the Pacific,
a box of portable soup may be a most useful present to them."
But even then, portable soup was losing popularity because of the proliferation of canned goods.
Now, obviously, canned goods are not as easy to carry around. They're heavier, they're bulkier, but they taste a lot better.
Also by this time a more palatable and easier to procure alternative to portable soup  
appeared in the form of Liebig's extract of meat 
as the German organic chemist
Baron Justus von Liebig had perfected the production of beef extract, a sort of beef syrup.
His company in conjunction with Oxo would eventually introduce the boullion cube
which was in many ways the last gasp for portable soup.
By the 20th century, recipes for portable soup were all but gone from cookbooks.
A relic of the past.
And before I become a relic of the past, I think I ought to try this
1694 recipe for portable soup, pocket soup, or veal glue.
Except that it's actually not ready yet because after 14 hours of simmering,
there was just about 3/4 of an inch of meat juice left in the slow cooker. This mostly being collagen.
And at that point, it needs to cool so it can congeal into this, a rubbery slab of condensed meat essence.
Hmmm.
Now here the original recipe says that you want to let it dry on a piece of cloth by turning it over every day and until it's dried.  
But William Byrd's recipe from a few decades 
later says to "Then cut it into small pieces,  
laying them single in the cold that they may dry the sooner."
So that's what I did. I sliced it into little pieces and laid them on a piece of cloth
and then I set a fan to blow on it. I also had to surround these things with little bottles of stuff
because the cat was extremely interested and I had to make a wall.
In all the drying process took about 5 days.
And here we are, veal glue, portable soup or the pocket soup of the 17th through 19th centuries.
Now there are a few ways to enjoy this pocket soup or veal glue.
One would be to use it to make like a sauce as like a base for a sauce or a more complicated stew.
But probably most common was just to dissolve it in hot water  
and then drink it basically as broth. So that's 
what I'm going to do.
I just put it into some boiling water and let it cook for about 30 seconds
and then poured it into this glass so I could just drink it as broth.
It's actually pretty clear. You know, it's a little- a little murky,  
but I think I did pretty good.
Smells like beef broth. So, let's give it a taste.
[Sluuuuurp]
Tastes like beef broth. I mean, it tastes 
exactly like what you'd think it tastes like.
Not terrible. There's nothing gluey to it now that 
it's done. Now,
I did notice that in different recipes it says to use different amounts to reconstitute it.
One says that it needs to be an ounce, which is like
six of these into one cup or a half pint of water.
But the original recipe that I'm using from 1694 actually says
"A piece the bigness of a nutmeg will make half a pint of broth.
The whole leg of veal, unless very large, will not make a piece of glue bigger than your hand.
It is made into broth by pouring hot water on it."
It's crazy that an entire leg of veal will be reduced down into a piece of glue
no bigger than your hand. I got one like that big, so a little bit bigger. So
I don't know. But you know she said a piece of like a nutmeg. So I'm just thinking like one little square. So that's what I used.
Now there is one other way to eat this and that is just to let it dissolve in your mouth.
I don't know if this is going to work but I'm going to try and see if I can get maybe just
part of it to dissolve in my mouth. I don't know if I 
can even bite it. It's-
it's not rock hard, but it's hard. It's like a-
if you let it- left a caramel out for like a year.
[CHOMP]
It's not my teeth cracking.
Ah, let's put the whole thing in.
Oh, it's so beefy.
SO BEEFY.
It's working though.
I can't.
I can't.
I can't, haha.
Oh, it's so beefy. It's so- the 
flavor is like so concentrated.
It's working. This is gross. I'm showing you my chewed food.
It's working. And it would work if I continued. But the-
the- what's happening inside my mouth would not change the more that I chewed it. 
It's just going to be more of the same. So, I'm not going to continue because there's just no point.
This is not the way to eat it.
This- This is the way to have it. Don't just chew on it. You can.
They said you can. It's good to do while hunting, I guess, but I'm not hunting and  
so I'm not going to do it anymore because 
I'm pretty sure it would take me-
take me like 10 minutes and you don't want to watch that and I don't want to do it.
What I am going to do is I am going to save all of the rest of this portable soup that I have made,
and it's supposed to last for a very long time, all the way on a trip to the Indies and back.
So I'm going to keep it and in like a year I'm going to try it again. I think maybe I'll make like
the version that Captain Cook suggested where he mixed it with oatmeal with a little celery.  
There are other versions that mix it with like 
peas, ground peas, like a peas porridge. So,  
meet me back here in a year to to see me eat 
portable soup.
Meet me back here in a week, of course, 'cus you know, I do a video 
every week. But for more portable soup,  
we'll have to wait a year or so. And until then,
I will see you next time on Tasting History.