404 Of Food. 



tered into the composition of a portion weighing twenty 

 ounces. 



But this will not appear incredible to those who know 

 that one single spoonful of salop, weighing less than 

 one quarter of an ounce, put into a pint of boiling water, 

 forms the thickest and most nourishing soup that can 

 be taken ; and that the quantity of solid matter which 

 enters into the composition of another very nutritive 

 food, hartshorn jelly, is not much more considerable. 



The barley in my soup seems to act much the same 

 part as the salop in this famous restorative ; and no sub- 

 stitute that I could ever find for it, among all the variety 

 of corn and pulse of the growth of Europe, ever pro- 

 duced half the effect, that is to say, half the nourish- 

 ment at the same expense. Barley may therefore be 

 considered as the rice of Great Britain. 



It requires, it is true, a great deal of boiling; but 

 when it is properly managed it thickens a vast quantity 

 of water, and, as I suppose, prepares it for decompo- 

 sition. It also gives the soup into which it enters as an 

 ingredient a degree of richness which nothing else can 

 give. It has little or no taste in itself, but when mixed 

 with other ingredients which are savoury it renders 

 them peculiarly grateful to the palate.* 



It is a maxim as ancient I believe as the time of Hip- 

 pocrates, that " whatever pleases the palate nourishes ; " 

 and I have often had reason to think it perfectly just. 

 Could it be clearly ascertained and demonstrated, it 



* The preparation of water is, in many cases, an object of more importance 

 than is generally imagined, particularly when it is made use of as a vehicle for 

 conveying agreeable tastes. In making punch, for instance, if the water used be 

 previously boiled two or three hours with a handful of rice, the punch made of 

 it will be incomparably better that is to say, more full and luscious upon the 

 palate than when the water is not prepared. 



