Improvements in Vegetable Compositions, suitable for the Preparation of Soups, Puddings, and the like, and in the Method of Making the same.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Feb., 1899-Accepted, 15th Apr., 1899
[Communicated from abroad by MERRELL-SOULE COMPANY, a Corporation existing
under the Laws of the State of New York, and having its principal place of
business at the City of Syracuse, in the State of New York, United States
of America, Manufacturers.]
Improvements in Vegetable Compositions, suitable for the Preparation
of Soups, Puddings, and the like, and in the Method of Making the
same.
1, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
-
This invention has for its object to place vegetables, fruits and so forth upon
the market in the form of a powder or meal which combines readily with water,
milk or soup stock, and which is ready for use in preparing soups, puddings,
jams, sauces, pies and the like without requiring any further cooking or boiling.
In preparing tomato powder according to this invention, ripe tomatoes, after
having been washed, are cooked, steamed or stewed, preferably until they are
reduced to about one-half of their original volume; the skins and seeds are then
removed by straining the stewed mass; then starch, flour, gluten, or some other
starchy or glutinous substance, is added to the strained pulp in about the pro-
portion of from 10 to 15 per cent, of the weight of the raw tomatoes. The moist
mixture is then thoroughly dried, preferably by means of a well known drying
machine which contains one or more rotating hollow cylinders heated by steam,
upon the outer surface of which the mixture of pulp and starch is dried, and
scrapers by which the dried material is removed from the cylinders. The dry
material is delivered from this machine in the form of thin sheets or flakes, more
or less broken up, and if necessary is then further reduced to a powder or meal,
preferably in a tumbling machine of ordinary construction; and bolted or sifted.
The starch which is added to the moist cooked pulp absorbs moisture there-
from, whereby the starch cells are swelled and the starch becomes thoroughly
incorporated with the pulp. During the subsequent drying the heat expels the
moisture from the starch cells and causes the same to burst, leaving the starch
in the most effective condition for absorbing moisture quickly and communi-
cating it to the vegetable substance.
The final product is a dry powder or meal in which the starch is thoroughly
combined with the green cooked vegetable pulp and which absorbs moisture at
once.
In using this powder in the preparation of soup it is mixed with water, milk
or soup stock, or a mixture of the same, in about the proportion of 2½ ounces of
the powder to 1 quart of liquid. The mixture is then heated, preferably to the
boiling point, when it is ready for use, forming a creamy soup of uniform con-
sistency and excellent flavour.

page_text: In the manufacture of canned tomatoes a large amount of the liquid con-
stituents of the tomato is wasted because too thin for use in canning. This liquid
can be added to the tomatoes in cooking or stewing the same and before adding
the starch, and can so be utilized.
In preparing celery powder according to this invention the celery is picked
apart, washed and freed from the green leaves and roots. It is then cut into
short pieces and boiled, cooked or steamed, in an open kettle for about thirty-
five minutes, or under steam pressure for a correspondingly shorter time. 'T'ne
boiled celery is then reduced to a pulpy condition by grinding or crushing.
Starch, Hour, gluten or some other starchy or glutinous material is then added
to the pulp, preferably in about the proportion of from 10 to 15 per cent. of the
weight of the raw celery. The mixture then dried, reduced to a powder or
meal, and bolted or sifted, as above described with reference to the preparation
of tomato powder.
Powder of celeriac which is a species of parsley otherwise known as turnip
rooted celery, and asparagus powder can be prepared in substantially the same
way.
In preparing maize or Indian corn powder according to this invention the green
corn is cut from the cob as in preparing the corn for canning. The corn is then
boiled, cooked or steamed and reduced to a pulp by grinding or crushing.
Starch or analogous material is then added, preferably in about the proportion
of from 4 to 6 per cent. of the weigh of the green corn removed from the cob.
The mixture is then dried, ground or crushed and bolted or sifted, as above
described. The skins need not be removed before drying the mixture, because
they are tough and coarse, and are readily separated in the final bolting or
sifting.
In preparing powders suitable for puddings, jams, sauces, pies and the like,
the fruit, whether apples, cranberries, raspberries, pumpkin, or whatever fruit
or vegetable ingredient is desired, is cooked, steamied, or stewed, and mixed with
starch in about the proportion stated and then dried, pulverized and bolted or
sifted, as described.
The vegetable ingredients of these powders possess a fine natural flavour and
as they are cooked the powder is ready for immediate use for the preparation of
a soup, pudding, sauce, pie or jain upon the addition of the necessary water or
other liquid to the powder and heating, so that a palatable dish can be pre-
pared from these powders in a few minutes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. The herein described vegetable powder or meal consisting of cooked, steamed
or stewed green vegetable substance combined with starch or analogous material.
2. The herein described method of preparing vegetable powder or meal, which
consists in cooking, steaming or stewing the green vegetable substance and re-
ducing the same to a pulp, adding starch or analogous material to the moist
pulp and drying the mixture.
Dated this 15th day of February 1899
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.