Of Food. 401 



of food, when prepared or cooked in different ways, 

 struck me very forcibly ; and I constantly found that 

 the richness or quality of a soup depended more upon 

 a proper choice of the ingredients, and a proper man- 

 agement of the fire in the combination of those ingre- 

 dients, than upon the quantity of solid nutritious matter 

 employed, — much more upon the art and skill of the 

 cook than upon the amount of the sums laid out in 

 the market. 



I found likewise that the nutritiousness of a soup, or 

 its power of satisfying hunger and affording nourish- 

 ment, appeared always to be in proportion to its appar- 

 ent richness or palatableness. 



But what surprised me not a little was the discovery 

 of the very small quantity of solid food which, when 

 properly prepared, will suffice to satisfy hunger and 

 support life and health, and the very trifling expense 

 at which the stoutest and most laborious man may, in 

 any country, be fed. 



After an experience of more than five years in feed- 

 ing the poor at Munich, — during which time every ex- 

 periment was made that could be devised, not only with 

 regard to the choice of the articles used as food, but 

 also in respect to their different combinations and pro- 

 portions, and to the various ways in which they could 

 be prepared or cooked, — it was found that the cheapest^ 

 most savoury^ and most nourishing food that could be 

 provided was a soup composed of pearl barley, pease, 

 potatoes, cuttings of fine wkeaten bread, vinegar, salt, 

 and water, in certain proportions. 



The method of preparing this soup is as follows : The 

 water and the pearl barley are first put together into 

 the boiler and made to boil, the pease are then added, 



VOL. IV. 26 



