Most Iconic Ration Food

[santaman2000]

Over on BCUSA there's a thread running about Spam. It's been ruuning for a coulpe of months now. It's been long forgotten in the US that Spam was originally a military ration food item; it certainly isn't in any of the current rations and hasn't been for decades.

Nonetheless it has become an iconic food item among campers/backpackers/canoeists/etc.

So my question is twofold:
1st - What, if any, UK ration from the WWII era would be considered "the" ration food that defines the concept from the era?
2nd - Is that (or any other ration food) so widespread among the civilian market today as Spam

And let me add that if indeed the answer there is also Spam, that in itself would be very interesting.

 

[JonathanD]

Corned beef.

 

[nuggets]

spam no i,m not reporting the post ha ha

 

[udamiano]

What JD said! it got to be corned beef

 

[Retired Member southey]

Bully Beef baby!

shamelessly stolen from wiki!

"In the United Kingdom, corned beef refers to the variety made from finely minced corned beef in a small amount of gelatin (bully beef; from the French bouilli "boiled"), and is sold in distinctive oblong-shaped cans, just as in the U.S. and Canada, or in slices from supermarkets. It is mainly imported from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.[SUP][15][/SUP] Bully beef and biscuits were the main field rations of the British Army from the Boer War to World War II.[SUP][16][/SUP] It is commonly served sliced in a corned beef sandwich. Hash and hotpot, in which potatoes and corned beef are stewed together, are also made. Tinned corned beef is also used in mainland Europe.[SUP][17][/SUP]
The U.S. version of corned beef is known in the U.K. as salt beef, and is available in cities with large Jewish communities"

 

[Toddy]

Kendal mint cake..............do they still put it in rat packs though ?


cheers,
Toddy

 

[tenderfoot]

biscuits brown? i dunno when they got into ratpaks? but for me the us ratpaks tabasco sauce. bully beef is a given.....

 

[rik_uk3]

Without a shadow of a doubt its corned beef for the UK, does not have even a close competitor and still used weekly in millions of homes in the UK. It was the core of rations from WW1 through WW2.

 

[Limaed]

I think Princess still make and sell Bacon Grill which was pretty standard but maybe a bit later (70's / 80's?). That and 'Cheese Possessed'. Pretty grim stuff.

 

[Chasing Rainbows]

Without a shadow of a doubt its corned beef for the UK, does not have even a close competitor and still used weekly in millions of homes in the UK. It was the core of rations from WW1 through WW2.

Yup! Corned beef all the way! It remains popular and (IMO) unlike spam, it's really quite delicious!

A traditional one for Scotland would be porridge left to set and cut into slices.

That said, my favorite ration is good old Scottish tablet. Absolutely jam-packed with easily absorbed energy and requires no preperation. That stuff will propel weary legs up mountains within minutes of being eaten. Beats kendal mint cake hands down!

 

[Chasing Rainbows]

That and 'Cheese Possessed'. Pretty grim stuff.

Check the instructions on the back: "Requires exorcism before consumption"

 

[lannyman8]

again corned beef, bacon grill is awesome though...

 

[Robbi]

what is scottish tablet ?

 

[santaman2000]

Bully Beef baby!

shamelessly stolen from wiki!

"In the United Kingdom, corned beef refers to the variety made from finely minced corned beef in a small amount of gelatin (bully beef; from the French bouilli "boiled"), and is sold in distinctive oblong-shaped cans, just as in the U.S. and Canada, or in slices from supermarkets. It is mainly imported from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.[SUP][15][/SUP] Bully beef and biscuits were the main field rations of the British Army from the Boer War to World War II.[SUP][16][/SUP] It is commonly served sliced in a corned beef sandwich. Hash and hotpot, in which potatoes and corned beef are stewed together, are also made. Tinned corned beef is also used in mainland Europe.[SUP][17][/SUP]
The U.S. version of corned beef is known in the U.K. as salt beef, and is available in cities with large Jewish communities"

Yeah, you're right. The tinned version is widely available here too. My Mom and aunts used to make hash frequently with it (ironicly a rather nasty version of hash was in the original MREs) When you say "the American version", are you referring to the whole corned beef briskets that need to be cooked and sliced? If so. it's popularity here was also through introduction from the Jewish communities.

 

[Chasing Rainbows]

what is scottish tablet ?

sugar, butter and condensed milk made into easy to carry blocks. Here's the recipe: http://www.scruss.com/tablet.html

I'd say my mum makes it better than an internet recipe but I strongly reccomend it as travel food.

 

[rik_uk3]

sugar, butter and condensed milk made into easy to carry blocks. Here's the recipe: http://www.scruss.com/tablet.html

I'd say my mum makes it better than an internet recipe but I strongly reccomend it as travel food.

ICONIC BRITISH ARMED FORCES WW2 rations please.......... don't drift off topic lads. UK rations did change over the course of the war and if lucky our lads traded stuff for K rations from the Americans but corned beer was used long after the war too and inclusive.

 

[Retired Member southey]

How about the sometimes great sometimes terrible Garibaldi?

 

[Ichneumon]

Whilst Corned beef was undoubtly a WW2 staple it was not uniquely a WW2 phenomenon.

My candidate is Soya Links. A soya sausage shipped over from the USA in VAST quantities and issued as rations to British service personnel everywhere. Ask any old WW2 vet about them and you'll get a powerful reaction - a mixture of nostalia and hatred!

Apparantly they tasted bland and of nothing much - like chewing cardboard. Not surprisingly they never made it on to shop shelves and went extinct straight after the war.

BTW: It is not easy to search for this info on the Internet as the search engines prefer to throw up references to 'Soya linked to cancer' etc. But references are there if you look.

ATB

Paul

 

[rik_uk3]

Not really iconic though? Palethorpes tinned sausage would ring more of a bell I would think AKA 'snorkers'.

 

[Paul72]

again corned beef, bacon grill is awesome though...

I hoped somebody would mention bacon grill, I loved that! I've had a version on sale in the shops but it's just not the same