how war changes the way we eat

[wargarden]

how war changes the way we eat
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/f ... way-we-eat

[earthmaiden]

Anyone who describes Henry VIII as a 'fun and successful guy' goes down rather low in my estimation!

The trials of war and unashamed greed of some leaders is pretty well documented already. Some names like 'dead man's leg' are quite macabre really. There was a name for corned beef hash which I can't remember.

[scullion]

a good read, that spends a lot of pages on the food eaten (or lack of) by some of the french soldiers in the franco prussian war, is one of the rougon macquart cycle books called 'la débâcle'.

[wargarden]

don't forget SOS(shit on a shingle ): creamed chipped beef on toast

[earthmaiden]

Creamed chipped beef is a new one on me! I presume it needs milk but ok if you have access to extra milk powder maybe.

[scullion]

never heard of it.
i had to look it up - and am not surprised that i hadn't heard of it - never been party to american army food.
it seems to be a sort of spam, made with beef but dried and finely sliced. maybe a form of pemmican?

[earthmaiden]

You've made me look now! I thought it was just mince but see originally it was dried which makes sense as a food to store for hard times.

I quite like the look of the creamed dish now - but would have taken a lot of wartime rations to make here with the meat and milk!

[wargarden]

given it was USA military not civilian UK use
recipe no ration required.

[StokeySue]

The lovely Dr Annie Gray has a new book out that to some extent goes into it., Victory in the Kitchen, looking at the life of Churchill’s cook



If anyone gets the chance to hear her speak about it live do go, she could easily have a second career as a stand up comedian

[miss mouse]

Churchill had his rations hugely expanded according to a fairly recent magazine article.

[earthmaiden]

Why doesn't that surprise me?

The book looks just up my street.

[StokeySue]

There was also quite a lot of stuff that was not rationed - for example the tea ration was 2oz per week but real coffee, though expensive, was always available if you could afford it

[miss mouse]

Restaurants if you had the money. The British Restaurantsestaurants were quite interesting. Grand parents used to mutter darkly about 'the black market'.

[scullion]

[earthmaiden]

[miss mouse]

No, sorry, V poor typing, no blackmarket scandal related to British restaurants as far as I know, being wealthy enough to use restaurants was a separate point. That is interesting re Co-Op stores, do you know any more about it?

[wargarden]

miss mouse there were people who were fined for illegal trading and blackmarket suppliers
during rationing. they made a big deal in newspapers about them.

[miss mouse]

And a lot more made a lot of money. There was also a great deal of looting of bombed premises. An awful lot of sentimental tosh was written. Plus a lot of lies, including the 'We were feeding Europe' after the war, not true, the US called in the Lend Lease debt and the UK was bankrupt so no money to buy imported food.