Rumford's Soup Became Military Staple

Around 1800, American-born British scientist and inventor Benjamin Thompson, known as Count Rumford, created Rumford's Soup as an early scientific attempt to produce cheap, nutritious food. Recipes combined barley, dried peas, potatoes, and sour beer, although later versions introduced the potatoes. Thompson used the thick soup to feed poor people, workhouse residents, and prisoners before establishing soup kitchens across several German cities. It remained a common base for inexpensive military rations in Central Europe through much of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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