Tasteful Inventions: Gail Borden: Portable Soup-Bread

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Gail Borden: Portable Soup-Bread

After six years of experimenting, on February 5, 1850, Gail Borden received U.S. Patent #7,066 titled "Preparation of Portable Soup-Bread." In essence, it was a traveling meat biscuit packed with protein.

When Gail Borden, a surveyor and land agent at Galveston in the recently annexed state of Texas, heard of the starvation of the Donner Party and the hunger of the others who were trying to cross the continent, he was stirred to invent a way of making food more potable. The Americans, the Democratic Experience by Daniel Joseph Boorstin; available @google books
Unfortunately, I can't get to posting about the trials and tribulations of Borden's first patent. However, Jana @ Time Travel Kitchen, not only explores Borden's invention, she also includes a modern version of Borden's Meat Biscuit recipe for those who dare...
Don't worry, it looks much more appetizing than this:

10 comments:

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

Cool info post :-)
Portable Soup bread sounds good!

~~louise~~ said...

Thanks for visiting Sugar. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit.

Anonymous said...

How interesting! I've never heard of portable soup-bread, but I'm intrigued!

xx,
Tammy

~~louise~~ said...

Thanks for visiting Tammy. I'm so glad you found it interesting.

Shanae Branham said...

Wow! I really enjoyed this post. I am glad I stopped by today. By the way, I have a contest giveaway on my blog you might find fun. Take a look. triumphandtears.blogspot.com

~~louise~~ said...

Shanae: I'm delighted you enjoyed it. The contest sounds intriguing...

Tiffanee said...

Very interesting!! Is this like the first cracker?? You have got me intrigued!! Thanks for the great information!!

~~louise~~ said...

Hi Tiffanee,
Thanks for visiting. Borden's portable Soup-bread wasn't the "first" cracker but it sure was a lifesaver!!!

Catherine said...

Dear Louise, Thank you for visiting my blog and for adding me to your side bar and for taking the time to leave a comment.
I think you have the most interesting blog! I love reading and learning the history behind your posts. Thank you again. Blessings. Catherine

~~louise~~ said...

Hi Catherine,

I've been so neglectful of this blog but I do have a post planned here in the next week or so.

I really enjoy visiting your blog too, although I don't always leave a comment. I hope you will join us for the picnic game this year. I think you will like it.

I'll be posting about it at my Months of Edible Celebrations blog late tomorrow night.

Thank you so much for your kind words, Catherine...