IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES TO BE USED AS FOOD
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Montague Nelson, of Dowgate Hill, in the City
65
of London, and John Robert Johnson, of Red Lion Square, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES TO BE USED AS FOOD."
Sealed the 2nd May 1879, and dated the 16th November 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Montague Nelson
and John Robert Johnson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 16th November 1878.
EDWARD MONTAGUE NELSON, of Dowgate Hill, in the City of London, and JOHN
ROBERT JOHNSON, of Red Lion Square, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES TO BE USED
AS FOOD."
Our Invention consists of certain improvements in the treatment of animal and
vegetable substances, by which these are more effectually preserved for future use,
more readily and easily prepared for the table, and at the same time rendered more
portable.
Our first improvement consists in the treatment of gelatinous animal or vegetable
extracts to be used as human food. It has been usual to concentrate such extracts
and place them in hermetically sealed tins or corked bottles, and sometimes as
regards some of them to carry the evaporation further and convert them into cakes
or tablets which are dissolved again with difficulty when required for use.
Now by our improvement we treat all such animal and vegetable extracts when
of a gelatinous nature exactly as if they were pure gelatine; that is, after concen-
trating them to the state of jelly we pour the liquor as a very thin layer upon a
smooth slab of glass or other material, and we dry the solidified jelly in thin sheets
on nets, as is well understood in the manufacture of gelatine. When the sheets of
the gelatine like substance are quite dry we cut it up into thin shreds or other state
of fine division to facilitate its re-dissolution.

page_text: If the meat extract has been so prepared that it contains the albumen of the
flesh in a soluble state (true beef tea) we carefully regulate the heat during evapo-
ration so as not to coagulate and render insoluble the valuable albumen.
We apply this system of concentration, desiccation, and division,-
1. To the meat extracts and gelatinous mixtures known to form soups, bouillon,
gravies, and glazes of the French and English cooks.
2. To the sweetened and flavoured animal or vegetable (Irish and other seaweed)
jellies to form blanc manger, creams, and other preparations.
3. To the sweetened and acidified jellies, animal or vegetable, to form table
jellies, using lemon, orange, and other flavours.
4. To the similar compounds to form liqueur punches.
5. To the ingredients which yield the thickened sauces of the English cooks and
the "Espagnole," "Coulis," or "Veloutés" of the French chef.
6. To currant and other fruit jellies so well known, and in those made by the
addition of animal and vegetable jelly or gelatine to fruit juices.
7. To the thickened purées of vegetables, and to those of edible fruits.
In some cases if the paste be too thick to be poured upon the slab we mix with
it a portion of solution of animal or vegetable gelatine, and we treat the mixture
as before, or we mix sufficient solution of dextrine with the reduced purée to enable
the mass to cohere in sheets. Or we roll out the paste into sheets with or without
the addition of starch or fecula, cooked or uncooked, and after drying we cut up
these sheets into threads, as before stated. Or we add sufficient farinaceous matter
so that when dry the mass may be reduced to powder.
And, lastly. We apply our new system to all culinary preparations which admit
of the treatment, so that the solid elements of such compound may be combined,
and may be kept in a solid form without injury, and which may be converted into
the preparation required for the table by the simple addition of the liquid consti-
tuents with or without heat.
· Our second improvement consists in a new process or processes for giving to solid
gelatine or gelatinous compounds in their sheets or shreds entirely new properties,
such as those of taste or flavour, colour or tint, sweetness or acidity, and new
physical, chemical, or medicinal qualities.
We find that if to finely divided gelatine we add an essential oil and agitate the
mass such oil only rests upon the surface of the gelatine, and soon evaporates when
exposed to air not having penetrated into the interior of the mass, even if the oil
be greatly diluted with spirit of wine.
We find however that if instead of an essential oil we use a distilled water in
which the essential oil is dissolved, or even an emulsion of the oil made with
albumen or mucilage, sufficiently diluted, the aqueous fluid readily penetrates the
gelatine or gelatinous compound carrying the essential oil with it to form an
homogeneous mass.
Any substance which dissolves in water naturally penetrates the gelatine still
more readily than the oil in emulsion, so that any soluble dye or other chemical
substance can be used with which to impregnate the gelatine.
We avail ourselves of this property to give a great variety of tastes and flavours
to the various compounds we have described under our first improvement; for
instance :-
1. To our meat extracts, simple and compound, we give divers flavours by the
juice of onions, eschalots, garlic, the expressed juice of the various. pot herbs, or
infusions and decoctions of the same, simple or mixed. Or we use tinctures of the
dried herbs diluted with water, which may be plain or coloured, with caramel,
burnt onion, or other soluble colouring matter.
2. To simple gelatine we add Liebig's extract, albumen, osmazome, or other
preparation of meat. Or we add the essence of game, mushrooms, or truffles to
give high flavour and the true principles of meat to such gelatine.
3. Or to sweetened gelatine we add emulsions of the essential oils of orange
flower, lemon, orange peel, or otto of roses, and when we use the latter we tint the

page_text: gelatine with a strong infusion of the red rose leaves of the pharmacopia by the
same operation.
We use such flavoured or sweetened gelatines for blancs mangers, creams, and
other sweet preparations. To other portions of such sweetened jelly we add various
essential oils in a solution of gum water to which citric acid has been added in
proper quantity to form table jellies.
We make very superior articles of this nature by using the various essential oils
which are the basis of the liqueurs in vogue, such, for instance, as those which form
maraschino.*
4. We use the same process to colour, flavour, or medicate lozenges. We form
lozenges cut out preferably of thin sheets of sweetened gelatine, and we add a
corresponding essential oil, chemical, or medicinal substance to give new qualities
to the original compound.
Our third improvement is merely a modification of our first. We find that the
highly dried extract of meat when containing the full proportion of albumen and
other extractive matters soluble in cold water is very brittle, and may readily be
reduced to powder. In this state it keeps thoroughly well and dissolves as readily
as our finely cut shreds of such extract.
It is known also that gelatine can be finely divided and reduced to a state of
powder.
Now we can avail ourselves of these facts to produce articles similar to those we
have described under our first improvement, but such articles instead of being
completely blended into one homogeneous mass are merely intimate mixtures of the
several constituents or some of them, but when dissolved equally form the culinary
substances proposed to be kept dry and ready for use, and readily obtained in a
state fit for the table.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edward Montague Nelson and John Robert Johnson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 16th May 1879.
EDWARD MONTAGUE NELSON, of Dowgate Hill, in the City of London, and JOHN
ROBERT JOHNSON, of Red Lion Square, in the County of Middlesex. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES TO BE USED
AS FOOD."
Our Invention consists of certain improvements in the treatment of animal and
vegetable substances, by which they are rendered more agreable to the palato and
more fit for food, and are more effectually preserved for future use, more readily
and easily prepared for the table, and at the same time rendered more portable.
Our first improvement consists in the treatment of gelatinous animal or vegetable
extracts to be used as human food. It has been usual to concentrate such extracts
and place them in hermetically sealed tins or corked bottles, and sometimes as
regards some of them to carry the evaporation further and convert them into cakes
or tablets (portable soup) which are dissolved again with difficulty when required
for use.
Now by our improvement we treat all such animal and vegetable extracts when
of a gelatinous nature exactly as if they were pure gelatine; that is, after concen-
trating them to the state of jelly we pour the liquor as a very thin layer upon a
smooth slab of glass or other material, and we dry the solidified jelly in thin sheets
or nets, as is well understood in the manufacture of gelatine.
When the sheets of the gelatine like substance are quite dry we cut it up into
thin shreds or other state of fine division to facilitate its re-dissolution.
If the meat extract has been so prepared that it contains the albumen of the
flesh in a soluble state (true beef tea) we carefully regulate the heat during evapo-
ration so as not to coagulate and render insoluble the valuable albumen.
We apply this system of concentration, desiccation, and division,―
1. To the meat extracts and gelatinous mixtures known to form soups, bouillon,
gravies, and glazes of the French and English cooks.
2. To the sweetened and flavoured animal or vegetable (Irish and other seaweed)
jellies to form blanc manger, creams, and other preparations.
3. To the sweetened and acidified jellies, animal or vegetable, to form table
jellies, using lemon, orange, and other flavours.
4. To the similar compounds to form liqueur punches.
5. To the ingredients which yield the thickened sauces of the English cooks and
the "Espagnole" coulis or " veloutés" of the French chef.
6. To currant and other fruit jellies so well known, and in those made by the
addition of animal and vegetable jelly or gelatine to fruit juices.
7. To the thickened purées of vegetables, and to those of edible fruits.
In some cases if the paste be too thick to be poured upon the slab, or if the
cohesion of the mass be not sufficient we mix with it a portion of solution of
animal or vegetable gelatine, and we treat the mixture as before; or we mix
sufficient solution of gum or dextrine with the reduced purée to enable the mass to
cohere in sheets. Or we roll out the paste into sheets with or without the addition
of gum, gelatine, dextrine, or starch or fecula, cooked or uncooked, and after drying
we cut up these sheets into threads, as before stated. Or we add sufficient
farinaceous matter so that when dry the mass may be reduced to powder.
And, lastly. We apply our new system to all culinary preparations which admit
of the treatment, so that the solid elements of such compound may be combined
and may be kept in a solid form without injury, and which may be converted into
the preparation required for the table by the simple addition of the liquid consti-
tuents with or without heat.

page_text: Our second improvement consists in a new process or processes for giving to solid
gelatine or gelatinous compounds when already in the state of sheets or shreds
entirely new properties, such as those of taste or flavour, colour or tint, sweetness
or acidity, and new physical, chemical, or medicinal qualities without the necessity
for redissolving and recompounding them.
.
We find that if to finely divide gelatine we add an essential oil and agitate the
mass such oil only rests upon the surface of the gelatine, and soon evaporates when
exposed to air not having penetrated into the interior of the mass, even if the oil
be greatly diluted with spirit of wine.
We find however that if instead of an essential oil we use a distilled water in
which the essential oil is dissolved, or even an emulsion of the oil made with
albumen or mucilage sufficiently diluted, the aqueous fluid readily penetrates the
gelatine or gelatinous compound carrying the essential oil with it to form an
homogeneous mass.
Any substance which dissolves in water naturally penetrates the gelatine still
more readily than the oil in emulsion, so that any soluble dye or other chemical
substance can be used with which to impregnate the gelatine or gelatinous
compounds.
We avail ourselves of this property to give a great variety of tastes and flavours
to the various compounds we have described under our first improvement; for
instance :-
1. To our meat extracts, simple and compound, we give divers flavours by the
juice of onions, eschalots, garlic, the expressed juice of the various pot herbs or
infusions and decoctions of the same, simple or mixed. Or we use tinctures of the
dried herbs diluted with water, which may be plain or coloured, with caramel,
burnt onion, or other soluble colouring matter.
2. To simple gelatine we add Liebig's extract, albumen, osmazone, or other
preparation of meat. Or we add the essence of game, mushrooms, or truffles to
give high flavour and the true principles of meat to such gelatine.
3. Or to sweetened gelatine we add emulsions of the essential oils of orange
flower, lemon, orange peel, or otto of roses, and when we use the latter we tint the
gelatine with a strong infusion of the red rose leaves of the pharmacopœnia by the
same operation.
We use such flavoured or sweetened gelatines for blancs mangers, creams, and
other sweet preparations. To other portions of such sweetened jelly we add various
essential oils in a solution of gum water or other menstruum to which citric acid
has been added in proper quantity to form table jellies. We make very superior
articles of this nature by using the various essential oils which are the bases of the
liqueurs in vogue, such, for instance, as those which form maraschino.
4. We use the same process to colour, flavour, or medicate lozenges. We form
lozenges cut out preferably of thin sheets of sweetened gelatine, and we add a
corresponding essential oil or other chemical or medicinal substance to give new
qualities to the original compound.
Our third improvement is merely a modification of our first.
We find that the highly dried extract of meat when containing the full proportion
of albumen and other extractive matters soluble in cold water is very brittle and
may readily be reduced to powder. In this state it keeps thoroughly well, and
dissolves as readily as our finely cut shreds of such extract.
It is known also that gelatine can be finely divided and reduced to a state of
powder.
. Now we can avail ourselves of these facts to produce articles similar to those we
have described under our first improvement, but such articles instead of being in
filaments or shreds are in powder more or less fine, and are either completely
blended into one homogeneous mass, or are merely intimate mixtures of, the several
constituents or some of them in the state of powder, but when dissolved equally
form the culinary substance proposed to be kept dry and ready for use, and readily
obtained in a state fit for the table.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the mode in which
we carry the same into effect we would have it understood that what we claim is,
the improvements in the treatment of animal and vegetable substances for food,
substantially as and for the purposes herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edward Montague Nelson and John Robert
Johnson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.
E. M. NELSON.
(L.S.)
JOHN ROBT. JOHNSON: (L.S.)