The Joy of Field Rations

Somebody recently drew my attention to this blog, and it is neat;  The Joy of Field Rations.

Now, most people wouldn't regard field rations as joyful, but they'd sort of be missing the point of the blog if they didn't look beyond the title.  The blog isn't really about compressed rations, like C Rations, K Rations, or the dreaded Armor Rations.  It's about Army food served in the field. And not just the American Army, but all armies.  Most of the entries are actually about the rations of foreign armies.

It's really interesting, particularly in light of the theoretical focus of this blog, as its also a look into food habits and field food of earlier eras.  Now, nobody would claim that, in the case of most armies, that armies in the field routinely ate well.  But what could be done, and therefore was done, is interesting.  So, while we know about hard tack and bad bacon for the U.S. Army, those who have studied the topic also know that this is an incomplete picture.  This blog presents a much more complete picture.

Many of the entries are really interesting.  For example, here's one for Beef Pot Pie, but with biscuits for the crust. This recipe dates to the 1940s, but given its nature, I suspect it was probably a much older one that was still around.  I really like pot pies, and this one is cooked in a dutch oven.  I've made pot pies with pie crust in dutch ovens, but it would never have occurred to me to try this.  I may give it a try.  I note that there's some similar recipes for British meat pies.

More in keeping with the time period we're trying to focus on here, here's one for Beef Hash.  I don't know if I've never had beef hash (although this recipe will work for pork or corned beef, according to the blogger), but I love corned beef has.  Problem is, I very rarely ever have it. And by rarely, I probably mean once ever five years or so. Again, this is another recipe I'll have to try.  I'm surprised to find it as a U.S. Army recipe, but I probably ought not to be, given as its something made from scraps.

Army menus, even early on, were more varied than most suspect, and I've seen a recipe for Army chile dating back to the 19th Century.  The recipe isn't that much different from generic ones now, except that it was pretty much a complete do it yourself type of deal, rather than "dump in canned beans now", type of affair.  I really like chile, and make it quite often, but mine does feature the "dump in canned beans now" type of procedure.  Anyhow, one thing this blog helps illustrate is the variety in Army cookbooks, even quite a ways back.  For instance, here's a recipe for El Rancho stew, which apparently is still in the Army cookbook, but which has evolved considerably since its 1917 appearance.

There are a lot of bread recipes on the blog, which probably isn't surprising, given how much of a staple bread is.  And I must say, they look good.  Sheepherders bread is the only type of bread I've ever tried to cook in the sticks, and its easy to do.  Some of these are probably tougher, but they look good.  For example, there's this field recipe from 1916 for a yeast bread.  It looks good.  Here's another, meant to be cooked in a mess tin.  And regarding breads, here's one for coffee cakes.  Given that its' from 1941, this shouldn't surprise me, but it does.  I'd think of this as more of a mess hall item, and I wonder if it was.

Anyhow, this is an interesting effort, and I hope the blogger keeps it up. It's surprisingly varied too, with German, British and Russian entries, in addition to US ones, so far.