Freeze-thaw clarified stock or juice
A liquid set with a little gelatin, frozen solid, then thawed through cloth in the refrigerator so that clear liquid drips out and the cloudy gel stays behind.
Traditional method
Portable soup
Dried portable soup · Soup cakes · Concentrated portable soup
Meat stock simmered, strained and reduced until a gelatin-rich mass sets, then dried into solid cakes that dissolve in water; a concentrated provision of the early modern naval period.
What it is
Portable soup is a concentrated meat stock that has been dried into a solid cake. Meat and connective tissue, sometimes with vegetables or spices, were simmered for a long time, strained and reduced until the liquid set as a gelatin-rich mass. That mass was dried into cakes small enough to carry.
The product is not a fermented food. Its keeping depends on the removal of water from a concentrated stock, which is why a moist stock is not the same stored product.
Sources for this section
Naval provisioning
The record places portable soup in early modern Europe, especially in eighteenth-century naval provisioning. A compact cake of stock could be carried on a voyage and dissolved in water when a meal was needed.
The source describes eighteenth-century recipes that promised very long shelf lives. Those are historical claims about the product, not a guarantee for a modern one.
Sources for this section
How concentration and drying preserve
Reducing the stock removes much of the water and leaves a concentrated, gelatin-rich mass that sets firm. Drying the set mass reduces the remaining moisture further, so the cake is stable in a way the liquid stock was not.
The concentration and the drying are the steps the record names as preserving; the sources do not describe any other preserving treatment.
Sources for this section
Limits of the record and modern use
The sources give no temperatures, times or moisture targets, and they do not establish a shelf life. A modern demonstration of the method should stop at a refrigerated or frozen stock concentrate, which is the form the evidence supports.
Modern stock cubes and meat extracts are related commercial products; the sources compare them but do not treat them as the same process.
Sources for this section
History
Portable soup was meat stock concentrated and dried into solid cakes that could later be dissolved in water. The source records its use in eighteenth-century naval provisioning. The preserving steps were concentration and dehydration; a moist gelatinous stock by itself was not the equivalent stored product.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Meat with connective tissueSimmered until the stock is rich in gelatin.
Amount not stated
Vegetables or spices (optional)Added in some versions.
Amount not stated
Sometimes; the sources do not give quantities.Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Concentrated stock held at ambient temperature
A concentrated stock can support spoilage if handled or stored without control. The sources record the historical product but not conditions that make storage safe.
Hazard sourceStop a modern demonstration at a refrigerated or frozen stock concentrate; do not treat the dried cake as validated for ambient storage.
Control sourceThe sources record historical practice only. They are not a tested home method.
- Simmer the meat and connective tissue, with vegetables or spices where the recipe uses them.
- Strain the stock.
- Reduce the stock until a concentrated, gelatin-rich mass sets.
- Dry the set mass into portable cakes.
- To use, dissolve a cake in water.
Places
Europe
Historical attestation · Region evidenceThe source documents eighteenth-century naval provisioning; it does not establish one place of invention.
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Sources
History · Method
https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/companion/P000055b.htmlMeat stock concentrated and dried into solid cakes that were dissolved later in water
Eighteenth-century naval provisioning
Concentration and dehydration were the preserving steps; a moist gelatinous stock was not the stored product
Cited in: What it is; Naval provisioning; How concentration and drying preserve; Limits of the record and modern use