Thursday, April 25, 2013

Anzac Rations.

On the day that we here in Australia honour the ANZAC heroes who fought and died on the Gallipoli peninsula in World War I, I thought it would be interesting to look at what the Australian contingent received by way of rations.

Military orders stated in April, 1915, “the scale of rations after leaving Egypt [a stopping-point en route to Gallipoli] will be:-”
·         1¼ lbs. Fresh Meat or 1 lb. (nominal) preserved meat.
·         1¼ lbs, Bread or 1 lb. Biscuit or 1 lb. Flour.
·         4 ozs. Bacon.
·         3 ozs. Cheese.
·         2 ozs. Peas, Beans or dried Potatoes.
·         ⅝ ozs. Tea. ¼ lb. Jam.
·         3 ozs. Sugar.
·         ½ oz. Salt, 1/20 oz. Mustard, 1/36 oz. Pepper.
·         1/10 gill Limejuice. at discretion of G.O.C. on recommendation of S.M.O
·         ½ gill Rum. at discretion of G.O.C. on recommendation of S.M.O
·         Tobacco not exceeding 2 ozs per week at discretion of G.O.C. on recommendation of S.M.O
There is no recipe for the day to come from these rations, so instead I give you another Aussie recipe, for the ubiquitous pumpkin this time, from nearly a decade earlier. I hope my American friends particularly enjoy this pie!
Pumpkin Pie (Australian Recipe)
Ingredients: Half-pint of pumpkin pulp,- three-quarter pint of milk, two eggs, 2oz. of sugar, mace, or nutmeg, short crust.
Method:  Take a ripe pumpkin, pare off the skin, halve it, remove the seeds, and cut it into thick slices.  Put it into a lined stewpan or earthenware jar with a small quantity of water, and stew gently until tender. Pass through a fine sieve, measure the pulp, add sugar, yolks of eggs, milk, and a little mace or nutmeg, and lastly the whites of eggs previously whisked to a stiff froth, Have a pie-dish ready, lined round the edges with paste; put in the preparation, cover with paste, and bake in a quick oven. Serve either hot or cold.
The Daily News (Perth, WA,) December 7, 1907

2 comments:

The InTolerant Chef ™ said...

My Dad used to bring home army ration packs in the eighties for us kids to play with. We thought they were awesome! I wonder what the Anzacs would have thought of the tinned cheese, packs of chocolate and sachets of powdered cordial?

The Old Foodie said...

I remember my brother bringing some Aussie ration packs home from Vietnam - I still have the little can-opener from one of them! I have no idea how they compare with American - another post, perhaps?