Rumford's soup is not noted as particularly tasty, but is palatable with long, slow cooking.

Thus, Rumford's soup was close to the optimum solution to the problem of cheap, nutritious food according to the knowledge of the day.

Rumford's soup was a common base for inexpensive military rations in Central Europe for much of the nineteenth and twentieth century.

As a result, Rumford's soup was often supplemented by corn or herring to supply Vitamin C and Vitamin D.

Rumford's soup is low-fat, with high protein and carbohydrate content - protein from the dried peas, complex carbohydrates from the potato and barley, and simple carbohydrates from the beer.