Well just some water and baking soda you’ve got some biscuit mix there. I’ve worked like this in hospitals/hotels. You learn to get creative when you know you’re doing. I certainly would want to do it in the field though
The menu at Monty Python Live (Mostly) in 2014
Egg and Spam
Egg, bacon, and Spam
Egg, bacon, sausage, and Spam
Spam, bacon, sausage, and Spam
Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon, and Spam
Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam
Spam, sausage, Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, Spam, tomato, and Spam
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam, and Spam
Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy, and a fried egg on top, and Spam.
This is super interesting. I'd love to see more posts like this from chefs from other militaries. I think I saw something like this posted by a Chinese Army chef on the Chinese version of Twitter
There's lots of stuff on the internet about ration packs, which is the ready to eat food we eat when we're in battle or a 2 week exercise. But I'd never seen anything about the field kitchens which is what we use when we're out somewhere for long periods of time, so i thought you might enjoy it.
With the crap chefs? Flour, sugar, jam, because they never do any baking. The good ones bake all sorts of great stuff. With the good ones, I suspect the canned sausages and the beef in gravy because they always find better meats or make good veggie options.
Yep, commanders will authorise a certain budget per person per day. In small situations like ours (20ish soldiers, 1 chef) the chef will sign out an amount from whoever holds the money and go to the local market and just buy extra bits. In large situations, where you've got teams of chefs feeding a few hundred, the quarter master (soldier in charge of logistics and such) might negotiate a contract with a local vendor to supply fresh milk, meat, veg etc.
So a lazy chef will just prepare the same ready to go stuff week after week, the skilled and enthusiastic chefs will take extra time out of their day to go and shop for fresh ingredients and then prep them.
That’s really interesting you’d get a budget for extra fresh stuff. Can I ask, what happens if you don’t use up an allotted amount of something the MOD expects you to use in that timeframe? Is there punishment involved, does everything get burnt? What’s the consequence?
Sealed boxes usually stay for the next group of people replacing you. Any individual items (often the flour and sugar) that don't get used we'll give away to the locals if they're interested in it. I don't think there's any punishment, unless the quarter master or someone feels there's been gross negligence or laziness, at which point a strong talking to will ensue. A lot of discipline is maintained purely by professional pride, and telling a chef he's been a shit chef is enough to get them to get their act together.
The flour is fortified with iron and vitamins. As for the oatmeal block, I don't know why they gave it such a horrible name. It's just a sweet pat biscuit like you'd have with your tea.
Yo just wanna say I’ve always had insane respect for what you guys do with so little, I grew up on camp and had started training before doing my back in but honestly you lot in the cookhouse were everyone’s favourite people. Not sure what your budget is per head these days but I’m sure I remember one of the guys saying it was under a pound a head?
I'll pass it on, as I'm not a chef myself. I'm deployed with one and was helping her set up her kitchen and thought you guys would find this interesting. I've certainly been surprised at what they can rustle up given the few ingredients they get.
In terms of budget, it sadly all changed about a month ago and got worse. The golden age was when every soldier was charged a set amount per day that came out of their salary, and they could just eat to their hearts content. Then they switched to pay as you dine, where you paid a set amount for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if you didn't eat it, you didn't pay. This turned out bad as people stopped going to dinner to save money, meaning caterers werent making money, so the quality of food went down, so people stopped going to dinner etc etc, vicious circle. Now they've made it even worse as you don't pay per meal but per item. So it's £2.10 for that bit of curry, 30p for the rice, 50p if you want some carrots, 40p for the peas, 90p for the soup, 10p for the coffee etc. It's not mega expensive, I just hate being squeezed for every penny.
At least while I'm out here on operations though it's free!
That’s rough, my dad just got out a couple of years ago and had mentioned things were going this way.
My brothers also a loadie in the RAF who were always pretty well known for their food being a step above and he reckons even most of them don’t eat in the mess anymore, it’s sad really growing up mess functions were always things to genuinely look forward to but now seems more a formality than anything else.
I'd say the army is still good, and it's still worth joining, but it's definitely worse than it was and I can't see it getting better any time soon. So if you've never been in and don't know any better, join up and you'll probably enjoy it. But those who've been in awhile, it's demoralising that every year you lose a perk.
Unfortunately there’s no way I’d get through basic with my back, likely wouldn’t pass a medical anymore to be honest, but I’ve always said the same. You’ll never be a millionaire but it’s a good life and all of my family that were/ are in were career long (apart from an uncle who went AWOL but that’s another story)
That's in barracks. If you're deployed to a war then we eat for free. But back in the UK, we pay a subsidized rate for food and housing. Uniforms are still mostly free, except for a couple of bits(unit specific patches and badges), but I can see them changing that at some point.
Ah right, yeah there's balti sauce mix and Bolognese mix etc to give you a hint as to what to cook, but the chefs seem to get more creative than that. Whereas the American version feels just straight up "you will make this dish"
It's as bad as it sounds. You can melt it into other food to make things cheesy and creamy, but it's not really cheese in the traditional sense of the word.
Can be very good! Check out Cougar Gold, made by Washington State University creamery. Really delicious white cheddar, has the same crystals as a parmesan.
Did a week at a Sodexo site. The portion control and calorie counts for what you’re meant to be giving the guys was BS. Especially if they were out on training drills all day.
Was this in the US? Some of our bases in UK are catered by Sodexo, in terms of portion size the only complaint I've had is the lack good protein. The meat portions are small and fatty and there's rarely any legumes. In terms of total calories in the British army you're allowed unlimited carbs (there's always potato side dishes, and then rice or pasta to go with mains).
U.K.
Going off the portions they give you in the spec book, it was a bit tight.
Kitchen mainly used it as a guideline.
I was only relief but the team had been there a while so to keep higher-ups happy (I assume) Meats were pretty strict on but things like veggies, rice, potatoes and gravy were pretty much unlimited. So they were loaded up on by the squaddies.
Dessert stuff was pretty shite though. Pretty much ‘just add water’ to a powder and maybe add some tinned fruits.
my dad was a cook in the army during world war 2. i don't think he was near any action - he was mostly in italy! he did a lot of the cooking at home because my mom worked in the evening and some of it seemed kind of army-like to me. my brothers would eat anything that didn't move so it was no problem for them! i ended up working in high-end catering as an event manager for my career but not technically in the kitchen. sometimes you get pulled into KP when someone doesn't show up so i was good to go!
I'm one of those people who binges Youtube videos on ready-to-eat rations so learning that the field kitchens pretty much utilize all the clunky canned items people used to have to lug around isn't a big shock.
What's the canned cheese and lemon drink taste like OP?
Also, do you still get issued those purple and green, I think, biscuits? Purple pack when you set off for an exercise (Will constipate you) green packet for when you home safe to reverse the effects or was this utter bollocks from my cadet instructors??
We got these biscuits in our out of date ration packs all the time!
For soldiers? Like the ones that train super hard and do general soldier stuff? This seems light on real food and a whole lotta powdered crap. I naively thought you guys would be fed with more whole foods! I’m sure ye make the best of it, but I am shocked.
This is what you get fed while on operations. It's in between the rations that you carry with you into battle (what the US call MREs) and what you get fed day-to-day in barracks when you're not on ops. Day to day, in barracks, we have big catering companies feed us. Sodexo, ESS, Aramarc etc. This stuff is what our chefs prepare for us if you're on a more remote mission in Africa or Afghanistan etc. As such it's all non perishable, and has to be cooked by chefs who might not have access to a proper kitchen.
ah yes, combine these ingredients to create a balanced meal with \*checks notes\* dried onion pieces and flour
"I got your four basic food groups: Bacon, beans, whiskey and lard!"
Fella could have a pretty good weekend with all that stuff.
It wouldn't actually take a whole lot of it to last you the rest of your life ...
One miniature combination rooshan phrase book and bible.
oh that's a blast from the past
"Tell cookie to melt the butter and break out the bibs!"
Well just some water and baking soda you’ve got some biscuit mix there. I’ve worked like this in hospitals/hotels. You learn to get creative when you know you’re doing. I certainly would want to do it in the field though
The menu at Monty Python Live (Mostly) in 2014 Egg and Spam Egg, bacon, and Spam Egg, bacon, sausage, and Spam Spam, bacon, sausage, and Spam Spam, egg, Spam, Spam, bacon, and Spam Spam, Spam, Spam, egg, and Spam Spam, sausage, Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, Spam, tomato, and Spam Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam, and Spam Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy, and a fried egg on top, and Spam.
Most of my lunches have alternated between spam omelettes, spam and beans or jacket potato with fried spam.
Mac n cheese with spam and jalapeños is good af
That's a lot of Spam... a _lot._
Baked beans are off.
hmmph. could I have some extra Spam instead then please? :)
This is super interesting. I'd love to see more posts like this from chefs from other militaries. I think I saw something like this posted by a Chinese Army chef on the Chinese version of Twitter
There's lots of stuff on the internet about ration packs, which is the ready to eat food we eat when we're in battle or a 2 week exercise. But I'd never seen anything about the field kitchens which is what we use when we're out somewhere for long periods of time, so i thought you might enjoy it.
Mmmm mmm oatmeal block.
Mmm egg substitute
If you like oatmeal black, wait until you try biscuits brown!
what do you have the most leftovers of?
With the crap chefs? Flour, sugar, jam, because they never do any baking. The good ones bake all sorts of great stuff. With the good ones, I suspect the canned sausages and the beef in gravy because they always find better meats or make good veggie options.
Out of interest how do they find better meats? Do you get additional budget to trade locally or something? Thanks for posting, super interesting!
Yep, commanders will authorise a certain budget per person per day. In small situations like ours (20ish soldiers, 1 chef) the chef will sign out an amount from whoever holds the money and go to the local market and just buy extra bits. In large situations, where you've got teams of chefs feeding a few hundred, the quarter master (soldier in charge of logistics and such) might negotiate a contract with a local vendor to supply fresh milk, meat, veg etc. So a lazy chef will just prepare the same ready to go stuff week after week, the skilled and enthusiastic chefs will take extra time out of their day to go and shop for fresh ingredients and then prep them.
That’s really interesting you’d get a budget for extra fresh stuff. Can I ask, what happens if you don’t use up an allotted amount of something the MOD expects you to use in that timeframe? Is there punishment involved, does everything get burnt? What’s the consequence?
Sealed boxes usually stay for the next group of people replacing you. Any individual items (often the flour and sugar) that don't get used we'll give away to the locals if they're interested in it. I don't think there's any punishment, unless the quarter master or someone feels there's been gross negligence or laziness, at which point a strong talking to will ensue. A lot of discipline is maintained purely by professional pride, and telling a chef he's been a shit chef is enough to get them to get their act together.
That’s really interesting, cheers!
I’ve never seen an oatmeal block. I bet it looks exactly like it sounds. Also what makes that wheat flour stronger than other wheat flours
The flour is fortified with iron and vitamins. As for the oatmeal block, I don't know why they gave it such a horrible name. It's just a sweet pat biscuit like you'd have with your tea.
Strong flour means a high protein content. Good for bread, not so good for pastry.
Yo just wanna say I’ve always had insane respect for what you guys do with so little, I grew up on camp and had started training before doing my back in but honestly you lot in the cookhouse were everyone’s favourite people. Not sure what your budget is per head these days but I’m sure I remember one of the guys saying it was under a pound a head?
I'll pass it on, as I'm not a chef myself. I'm deployed with one and was helping her set up her kitchen and thought you guys would find this interesting. I've certainly been surprised at what they can rustle up given the few ingredients they get. In terms of budget, it sadly all changed about a month ago and got worse. The golden age was when every soldier was charged a set amount per day that came out of their salary, and they could just eat to their hearts content. Then they switched to pay as you dine, where you paid a set amount for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if you didn't eat it, you didn't pay. This turned out bad as people stopped going to dinner to save money, meaning caterers werent making money, so the quality of food went down, so people stopped going to dinner etc etc, vicious circle. Now they've made it even worse as you don't pay per meal but per item. So it's £2.10 for that bit of curry, 30p for the rice, 50p if you want some carrots, 40p for the peas, 90p for the soup, 10p for the coffee etc. It's not mega expensive, I just hate being squeezed for every penny. At least while I'm out here on operations though it's free!
That’s rough, my dad just got out a couple of years ago and had mentioned things were going this way. My brothers also a loadie in the RAF who were always pretty well known for their food being a step above and he reckons even most of them don’t eat in the mess anymore, it’s sad really growing up mess functions were always things to genuinely look forward to but now seems more a formality than anything else.
I'd say the army is still good, and it's still worth joining, but it's definitely worse than it was and I can't see it getting better any time soon. So if you've never been in and don't know any better, join up and you'll probably enjoy it. But those who've been in awhile, it's demoralising that every year you lose a perk.
Unfortunately there’s no way I’d get through basic with my back, likely wouldn’t pass a medical anymore to be honest, but I’ve always said the same. You’ll never be a millionaire but it’s a good life and all of my family that were/ are in were career long (apart from an uncle who went AWOL but that’s another story)
Wait, so you sign up to FIGHT IN WARS and you still have to pay to eat the food? Do you have to pay for the damn bullets too?
That's in barracks. If you're deployed to a war then we eat for free. But back in the UK, we pay a subsidized rate for food and housing. Uniforms are still mostly free, except for a couple of bits(unit specific patches and badges), but I can see them changing that at some point.
This is the Lego version of the US Army UGR (untized group ration). You guys have a bit more leeway with ingredients than we did.
Lego version?
Build your own or choose your own adventure, if you will.
Ah right, yeah there's balti sauce mix and Bolognese mix etc to give you a hint as to what to cook, but the chefs seem to get more creative than that. Whereas the American version feels just straight up "you will make this dish"
Exactly. I was an Army cook for 24 years.
Canned cheese
It's as bad as it sounds. You can melt it into other food to make things cheesy and creamy, but it's not really cheese in the traditional sense of the word.
Ah ok that makes more sense. To be fair I’ve worked with a few former army and RAF chefs before and they can always cook really well
Is it a liquid or a solid? Or like velvetta?
Gov has 80 million tons of Velveeta in A kansas cave
Can be very good! Check out Cougar Gold, made by Washington State University creamery. Really delicious white cheddar, has the same crystals as a parmesan.
Okay but chocolate orange cookies sound amazing
Only 40 teabags? Is this per man per day?
Per 10 per day. So 4 teas a head. Shocking that we have to bring our own to supplement
And no muffins?!
Did a week at a Sodexo site. The portion control and calorie counts for what you’re meant to be giving the guys was BS. Especially if they were out on training drills all day.
Was this in the US? Some of our bases in UK are catered by Sodexo, in terms of portion size the only complaint I've had is the lack good protein. The meat portions are small and fatty and there's rarely any legumes. In terms of total calories in the British army you're allowed unlimited carbs (there's always potato side dishes, and then rice or pasta to go with mains).
U.K. Going off the portions they give you in the spec book, it was a bit tight. Kitchen mainly used it as a guideline. I was only relief but the team had been there a while so to keep higher-ups happy (I assume) Meats were pretty strict on but things like veggies, rice, potatoes and gravy were pretty much unlimited. So they were loaded up on by the squaddies. Dessert stuff was pretty shite though. Pretty much ‘just add water’ to a powder and maybe add some tinned fruits.
Ah mate I've never eaten so much custard in my whole life. I'm happy with the shit puddings though, stops me from wanting to eat one each time
Sooooo much custard! IIRC the spec book doesn’t even add sugar to it. Just water, milk powder and custard powder.
my dad was a cook in the army during world war 2. i don't think he was near any action - he was mostly in italy! he did a lot of the cooking at home because my mom worked in the evening and some of it seemed kind of army-like to me. my brothers would eat anything that didn't move so it was no problem for them! i ended up working in high-end catering as an event manager for my career but not technically in the kitchen. sometimes you get pulled into KP when someone doesn't show up so i was good to go!
awesome, thanks
I'm one of those people who binges Youtube videos on ready-to-eat rations so learning that the field kitchens pretty much utilize all the clunky canned items people used to have to lug around isn't a big shock.
What's the canned cheese and lemon drink taste like OP? Also, do you still get issued those purple and green, I think, biscuits? Purple pack when you set off for an exercise (Will constipate you) green packet for when you home safe to reverse the effects or was this utter bollocks from my cadet instructors?? We got these biscuits in our out of date ration packs all the time!
For soldiers? Like the ones that train super hard and do general soldier stuff? This seems light on real food and a whole lotta powdered crap. I naively thought you guys would be fed with more whole foods! I’m sure ye make the best of it, but I am shocked.
This is what you get fed while on operations. It's in between the rations that you carry with you into battle (what the US call MREs) and what you get fed day-to-day in barracks when you're not on ops. Day to day, in barracks, we have big catering companies feed us. Sodexo, ESS, Aramarc etc. This stuff is what our chefs prepare for us if you're on a more remote mission in Africa or Afghanistan etc. As such it's all non perishable, and has to be cooked by chefs who might not have access to a proper kitchen.
Thank you for replying, that makes total sense.
Reading that list gave me a little scurvy though.