Of Food. 487 



colour, great care being taken, by stirring it contin- 

 ually, to prevent the meal from being burned to the 

 pan. 



A very small quantity of this roasted meal (perhaps 

 half an ounce in weight would be sufficient), being put 

 into a saucepan and boiled with a pint and a quarter of 

 water, forms a portion of soup, which, when seasoned 

 with salt, pepper, and vinegar, and eaten with bread cut 

 fine and mixed with it at the moment when it is served 

 up, makes a kind of food by no means unpalatable, and 

 which is said to be very wholesome. 



As this soup may be prepared in a very short time, 

 an instant being sufficient for boiling it ; and as the 

 ingredients for making it are very cheap, and may be 

 easily transported, this food is much used in Bavaria 

 by our wood-cutters, who go into the mountains far from 

 any habitations to fell wood. Their provisions for a 

 week (the time they commonly remain in the moun- 

 tains) consist of a large loaf of rye bread (which, as it 

 does not so soon grow dry and stale as wheaten bread, 

 is always preferred to it), a linen bag containing a small 

 quantity of roasted meal, another small bag of salt, 

 and a small wooden box containing some pounded 

 black pepper, with a small frying-pan of hammered 

 iron, about ten or eleven inches in diameter, which 

 serves them both as an utensil for cooking and as a dish 

 for containing the victuals when cooked. They some- 

 times, but not often, take with them a small bottle of 

 vinegar; but black pepper is an ingredient in brown 

 soup which is never omitted. Two table-spoonfuls of 

 roasted meal is quite enough to make a good portion 

 of soup for one person, and the quantity of butter 

 necessary to be used in roasting this quantity of meal 



