Episode 6: Officers Food

This episode was so much fun to make.  Officers always got the best food, namely because they could afford to have their own sent over, they also often had a chef, dependant on their rank and stature.  This is one of the few episodes to have alcohol in it, again to replicate the idea of an officer’s indulgence.  The Welsh Rare Bit was so tasty that it makes my mouth water even now.  The rum omelette, however, was a disaster.  It absolutely would not light, and it tasted like rubber rum.  My advice: drop the eggs and just drink the rum!

 

Making the Welsh Rare Bit With Ale

♣ 1 Loaf of Bread – To be toasted one side when served

♣ 1 tablespoon of Butter

♣ 1/2 lb of Cheese

♣ Some grains of Cayenne

♣ 1 egg

♣ 1/2 cup of Ale

♣ 1/2 teaspoon of Mustard

♣ 1/3 tsp of Salt –

 

Mix your egg, salt and cayenne – Melt your butter and then cheese in a pan – Add your ale to either the melted cheese or to the egg mix – Cook on a medium heat whilst stirring until it thickens – Serve on a slice of bread, toasted on one side

 

Making the Rum Omelette

♣ 5 Eggs

♣ A Sherry Glass of Rum

♣ A tablespoon of Caster Sugar

♣ A knob of butter for cooking –

 

Mix your eggs, rum and sugar until ‘Frothy’ – Melt your butter add the mixture to a frying pan on low heat – Cook for around 3 minutes or until it thickens – Serve with extra sugar and rum on top, set alight (if you can manage it)

 

Note on the lit rum – Rum given to soldiers during the war had a significantly higher alcohol content, therefore, was more likely to burn. Watch more about this in the upcoming Drinking Under Fire short on Spirits. And you are done!

Thanks for watching and enjoy the fancy food, chin chin!!

 

References: B. Luck (ed.) The Belgian Cookbook 1915 Edition Digital Version, (New York, IndyPublish.com, 2009), loc, 859. Janet McKenzie Hill, Salads, Sandwiches, and Chafing dish Dainties, (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1909), p. 302. IWM, 11006 Private Papers of (then Second Lieutenant) Captain G H Greenwell MC TD, p.47. IWM, 11765, Private Papers of Lieutenant Lindsay, letter to his Mother 22/05/1915. Lieutenant- Colonel W. Beveridge, ‘Some Essential Factors in the Construction of Field Service and Expeditionary Rations’, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, Vol. XXIII (1914), p.385 TNA, WO 374/16740, Private Papers of (then Lieutenant) Captain Harold William Cronin, Letter dated 03/10/1915.

Additional reading: A. Clayton, Paths of Glory, The French Army 1914-18, (London: Cassell Military Paperback, 2005). A. Robertshaw, Feeding Tommy, Battlefield Recipes from the First World War, (Gloucestershire, 2013) R. Duffett. The Stomach for Fighting: Food and the Soldiers of the Great War (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012). D. Winter, Death’s Men: Soldiers of The Great War (London, 2014). Captain G.H. Greenwell, An Infant In Arms, (London, Lovat Dickson & Thompson,1935)

Additional Images sourced from: https://www.scoopnest.com/user/prchov… http://beyondthetrenches.co.uk/the-st… http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWn… http://www.army.mod.uk/firstworldwarr… https://www.worldwar1postcards.com/so…