“An army moves on its stomach.” Feeding the troops has been a problem as long as we’ve had wars. France tried to figure out the problem in 1796 with a contest and in 1810 a canning process was developed. Technically, it worked, but for practical reasons – each can, made of wrought iron, had to be made by hand, the process for canning took six hours, and the cans were soldered with lead which made the soldiers sick – it didn’t work. There were many canning companies in Europe in the late 1800’s. In fact, due to the cost of commercial canning, the food was a favorite novelty of the middle and upper classes in England. Well, this caught my attention: On this day, 1912, the world’s first canning company to specifically serve Britain’s navy was opened. The Macanochie’s Company produced three different meals – all yummy. We got their stew (one chunk of fatty meat, some vegetables and water), ‘soup’ (a few sliced turnips and carrots in non-seasoned water) and something called “Bully Beef” which was lower in quality than most dog foods of today. One soldier said, “Warmed in the tin it was barely edible, but served cold it was a man-killer.” Each package also contained a biscuit, using the term loosely. It would literally break teeth if not soaked in some liquid. This crap continued through the first several years of WWi until the soldiers started complaining through letters back home. The quality improved somewhat (hey, they even added pork and beans), but by 1917, there was a serious shortage of canned foods so the British government gave the boys cigarettes and amphetamines to kill their appetites. There is some good news. The company finally improved the quality of the food significantly – AFTER the war.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 06:51:54 +0000
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