DESICCATED or DRIED SOUPS

There are two main classes of desiccated or dried soups, put up for army, camp and similar purposes--those entirely of meat, and those entirely or principally of vegetables. The former should consist of meat extract obtained by extracting and then condensing the juices of lean meat at a low temperature, the completed product appearing in tablet form or in tubes of paraffin wax, etc. The vegetable soups consist of several varieties of dried vegetables chopped up and mixed with dried flavoring herbs, etc., with sometimes the addition of a certain quantity of gelatine or meat basis. For commissary and export purposes, cubes of compressed dry vegetables are enclosed in jackets of gelatinous soup, both jacket and contents being dissolved in the hot water to be used in making the soup.

All dried articles of this kind should be carefully guarded from moisture.