Soup and bouilli

Soup and Bouilliin England is a dish of boiled beef and root vegetables based on the traditional French dishpot-au-feu. The name comes from the general method in France of serving pot-au-feu as two courses—la soupe et le bouilli.  In England as in France,bouillireferred to the boiled meat.
Early references to Soup and Bouilli in English are from books byTobias Smollett.  InThe Adventures of Roderick Randompublished in  1748, a meal in Rheims, France, is described  as  "some soup and bouillé, a couple of pullets roasted, and a dish of asparagus",and inThe Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, atHotwellsSpa,  "a mess of broth" made with mutton chops is referred to as "soup and bouilli".
In 1778 inThe Camp (play), by Richard  Sheridan, a waiter at an Inn in Maidstone, Kent, proposes "soup and bouilli" as an entree.
A recipe for Soup and Boullie was included inThe Ladys Assistantby Charlotte Mason in 1773, with the spelling changed to Soup and Bouillie in later editions, and another dish called Bouillie Beef was inThe Experienced English Housekeeperby Elizabeth Raffald in 1778.  In both recipes the soup and the meat were  served as separate dishes.
These recipes were soon copied into other books. With acknowledgements to Mason and Farrald, Mary Cole'sThe Lady's Complete Guideof 1788includes both recipes and Bouillie Beef appears in John Farley's, "The London Art of Cookery" from 1783 and Soup and Bouillie is in the 1789and later editions.The Cook's OraclebyWilliam Kitchinercontained versions of both dishes.
The dish would remain on the menu throughout the 19th century.Alexis Soyerin 1846 extolled its excellenceandGeorge Augustus Salawould write in 1856 in a fictional piece that it was at a restaurant in Paris, in the soup and bully, the Bourgeoise Bouillon Boeuf, that he found "true beef".
Naming her recipe 'Soup and Boullie', Charlotte Mason in 1773 was possibly reflecting the pronunciation of 'bouilli' in England at the time.
Still earlier in 1753  'bully'  was being used especially by those who were ignorant of French manners and customs and disparaged the dish as overcooked and tasteless. In that year in an article byArthur Murphy (writer), George Briton, a condescending Englishman in Paris, wrote "I could by no means live upon their soup and bully",and in "The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom", Sir Stentor Stile, a rich buffoon knight abroad in Paris, complained that he "could get no eatables upon the ruoad, but what they calledbully, which looks like the flesh of Pharaoh's lean kinestewed into rags and tatters".
Although Briton and Stiles were being held up to ridicule, this view was supported in 1825 by FrenchgastronomeJean Anthelme Brillat-Savarinwho wrote that Bouilli is flesh minus its juice ... and has disappeared from truly fashionable dinners (Le bouilli est de la chair moins son jus...et a disparu dans les dîners véritablement soignés)".
In 1838Dudley Costello's coach driver on an excursion to Antwerp and being served little square slices of bouilli explains to his friends "bully means beef with the strength b'iled out on it",and in 1870 a London newspaper, in an article comparing the consumption of meat in England and France, could still write "the poorest englishman esteems "bully beef" as being fit only for the pigs".
The dish had its supporters in England, though in some circles to call it 'bully beef' was a "barbarism",and in 1829Sydney, Lady Morganwould write of her shame and horror when, entertaining "English epicures", an old friend also at the table, amongst other gaffes, calledbouilli,  "bully beef"
The commercial canning of food began in England in 1812.The company was  Donkin, Hall and Gamble, and amongst their first products were canisters of Soup and Bouilli.
By 1813 they were supplying the Royal Navy, and in 1814 Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane recommended that "the Patent Prepared Meats and Soups......., especially the Soup and Bouilli :.....be sent out  here [Bermuda] for the sick on board ships of the squadron",beginning the practice of serving soup and bouilli to the sick and convalescent.
Over the next century preserved Soup and Bouilli in tin canisters would be produced by many manufacturers and become a staple on long sea voyages for crews and passengers. In 1910 it was still the "most used soup".
From 1835, merchant ships sailing from the United Kingdom were required to keep on board a supply of medicines, and from 1845 these were itemised in a schedule, The Scale of Medicines.This became The Scale of Medicines and Medical Stores in the Merchant Shipping Act 1867, and from 1 January 1868 Preserved Soup and Bouilli was included,even thoughThomas Spencer Wellshad noted in the 1861 edition that "the soup and bouilli for the emigrant ships ... is the very worst kind of provisions that could be selected, as ... the captain does not know how much meat he is supplying to his men or passengers".
There also had been an earlier proposal byChristopher Bidenin 1849 to add to the Merchant Shipping Act a requirement for ships to carry a Scale of Provisions which included Soup and Bouilli.
As noted above  it was not only the amount of ingredients that could vary but also the quality, as revealed in 1852 in the Goldners Meats scandal,which resulted in some seamen retaining "an invincible prejudice against preserved meats" from the time when "much of the meat was no better than carrion or the vilest offal".
On long sea voyages passengers, too, developed an antipathy to the dish. It was seen as one of the "ills appertaining to cheap voyaging"and was pitched overboard from the sailing vessel Norman Morison going from London to Vancouver in 1849–50.In theatres and music halls in Australia in 1860, the mention of Soup and Bouilli would raise a laugh from what would have been a mainly immigrant audience.It would still amuse one old colonist in 1912.
William Clark Russell, who spent many years in the merchant navy, wrote of its 'disgusting flavour',and that "canned meat or tins of soup and bouilli ... purchased in the cheapest markets may produce distempers more terrible than the scurvy they are supposed to combat".It was the "most disgusting of the provisions served out to the merchant sailor" and referred to by sailors assoap and bullion.
Once emptied, the tin canisters that were used to preserve Soup and Bouilli and other provisions still had a value. In 1828  "70 Empty preserved meat canisters" were  advertised for sale.On one emigrant ship a tinman was "kept quite busy making into useful cases our empty soup and bouilli cans".They had a practical value as cooking pots, paint pots, eating bowls, drinking cups, to bail leaky boats, as a pot for plants, etc.,  and by the 1850s, 'soup and bouilli tin' or 'bouilli tin' had entered the lexicon as a generic term for these used containers, especially with sailors, ships' passengers and emigrants, who had spent time at sea where soup and bouilli was familiar fare, some examples being:
Soup and bouilli tinwas also employed figuratively. When used metaphorically it alluded to a rough and ready or no-frills construction or operation.
The expression was used by poets and novelists - possibly to add or support a maritime association.