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Janet Macdonald

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From Boiled Beef to Chicken Tikka: 500 Years of Feeding the British Army Kindle Edition

by Janet Macdonald (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 15 ratings

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Including recipes, this book “takes a different look at military history but one every bit as relevant as any blood and guts campaign study” (Britain at War).

Janet Macdonald, author of the acclaimed Feeding Nelson’s Navy, now turns her attention to food in the British Army over the past two centuries. Napoleon’s remark “an army marches on its stomach” has become an over-used cliché. It is a simple statement and undoubtedly true, but like many such simple statements, the actuality of what fills that stomach and how it is provided is far more complex.

The more you think about this subject, the more questions come to you. What did the British soldier eat, and how was it cooked? Did it provide a proper diet or were there health problems from vitamin and other deficiencies? Did all ranks eat the same way? Who organised the whole thing? Here then, are the answers to those questions, with some insights into the personalities who made a difference—the unsung heroes of the British military machine.

“A compelling new history of British Army food from the 17th century to the present day.” —Index Magazine

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Janet Macdonald has published books on numerous subjects. Her first book on naval history was Feeding Nelson’s Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era; her second, the British Navy’s Victualling Board, 1793-1815: Management Competence and Incompetence. She took her MA in Maritime History at the Greenwich Maritime Institute, London, and her PhD at King’s College London, where she was awarded a Laughton Scholarship. Her thesis was on the administration of naval victualling. Her most recent books are From Boiled Beef to Chicken Tikka: 500 Years of Feeding the British Army, Sir John Moore: The Making of a Controversial Hero, Horses in the British Army 1750-1850 and Supplying the British Army in the First World War.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00PLVRE9I
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Frontline Books; Illustrated edition (November 30, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 30, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8219 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 340 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #948,378 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #471 in Military Science History
- #484 in Gastronomy History (Kindle Store)
- #1,627 in Gastronomy History (Books)

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HMS Warspite

Armies and their stomachs: How the British Army did it...

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

In this concise but well-written book, historian Janet McDonald takes on the rather daunting task of describing the British Army's mess arrangements from the days of Cromwell and Marlborough down to the present day. The bibliography indicates some prodigious research. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Napoleonic Wars and the two World Wars get the best coverage. The extended stay of the future Duke of Wellington's army in Portugal and Spain provides some of the best examples in support of expeditionary warfare. The many conflicts of Empire get short coverage but contribute to the overall theme of the book.

Inevitably, bully beef and biscuit was all too often the fare of the day for soldiers at the end of the line. However, this reviewer was impressed by the continuing efforts of the British military establishment to do better, especially after the fiasco of the Crimean War. For example, this reviewer had an opportunity to sample the British "compo" ration in the desert in the First Gulf War, which was infinitely tastier than the MRE's then being served up by the U.S. Army, a comparison also noted by the author.

The challenge to any standing military force is to provide a steady supply of nutritious food to troops under any and all conditions of climate, location, and military purpose. Inevitably, this involves adapting transport, cooks, and ways of preserving, preparing and serving food to the circumstances of the next conflict. The very many experiments by the British Army in these evolutions provide insight and many lessons still valid today, and not just for the British military establishment. "From Boiled Beef to Chicken Tikka" is highly recommended as a fascinating survey of a complex but necessary military subject.

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