Institutional catering

"Catering Corps - Death from Within"

copyright © 2004-5 squaddie John

Barracks and Borstal Food

1. 1970s
2. National Service era
3. Slang and nicknames for institutional food
4. 1990s
5. US fantasy prison labor camp
6. Field rations

Barracks and Borstal Food

I've been accused of serving barracks stew and borstal milk pudding. As we noted at the time, the grub, scram, scoff or "food" served on an institutional catering menu varies only slightly between school, borstal, prison and armed forces barracks...

Here are some sample menus to savour, I can truthfully report that all induce a communal tendency to flatulence and dangerously simultaneous rush to dump.

Withdrawal of the "privilege" of dining is one punishment of dubious effectiveness, at least in the short term! There is always the tradtional punishment diet of bread and water or being made to eat field dry rations indoors or simply being forced to eat a bar of soap.

A mate recalls from the same era:

Also do remember Spam fritters . . .two slices of spam with a thick gooey mustard between them battered thickly and deep fried - good punishment food, we weren't in there for the education. Talking of which the actual punishment food was memorable, bread left to get very stale and thin watery orange squash.

From the National Service era in Britain (1940s and 50s)

every day:

Breakfast: mug of tea, porridge with sugar or salt

Lunch (dinner): Spam or corned beef, no gravy, watered sprouts and boiled potatoes.
Semolina or macaroni milk pudding.

Tea: mug of tea, two slices of bread and jam and marg

Slang and nicknames for institutional food

From the 1990's

Memories of a prison labor camp scene done some years ago in the States

I did a prison labor camp scenario back in 1998, with 5 prisoners, their diet consisted solely of "gruel". A one-day supply of gruel for 1 prisoner consisted of 1 package of instant oatmeal, 1 bag of instant brown rice, and 2 slices of multi-grain bread, all boiled together in 2 cups of water. It becomes a gelatinous, goppy mess that tastes somewhat like cardboard, but is fairly healthy (except for a lack of protein -- more about that later).

Prisoners were given luke warm recently made gruel in the evening, about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. Gruel was served in plastic bowls without any utensils, so they had to eat with their fingers and only had 10 minutes to do so. What they didn't finish was refrigerated overnight and served cold the next morning at about 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. for breakfast. If they'd eaten it all the night before, they got nothing in the morning. If they hadn't finished everything the next morning, they got it again that night until it was all finished. During the day, they were allowed to drink as much Gatorade as they wished, to stay well hydrated while working.

The scene only went on for about 3 days (Friday - Sunday), and we realized that the gruel should be reformulated to include protein if we ever did it again -- probably by just including beans or tofu (although tofu is both expensive and very perishable, so beans would be better). At first, they hated the gruel, but since that was all they got, they started looking forward to it.

Field rations http://www.pasols.org/pacrat/menuCR1M.doc

Out in the field there's a different level of hunger and desperation so the grub can be even worse and you're still glad to eat it! Only the chocolate tastes really good!

The WWII Compo ration was a crate containing food for 14 men for one day, there were various menus, identified as A to F see Composite (14 men) Ration pack which includes suggestions for reproducing Compo from readily-available ingredients. Individual combat rations 24-Hour Rations

• The Unauthorized Soldier's Cookbook - Great ideas to help consume your rations
• 1950s army 24-hour individual ration pack menu Biscuits, plain; Biscuits, sweet; preserved meat; ham galantine; vegetable salad; fruit pudding; jam; cheese; chocolate bar; boiled sweets; tea; sugar; milim powder; salt; matches; latrine paper; tin opener
• British Patrol individual ration pack, 1990s, supplied dehydrated in sachets
  • Menu P1 Hot cereal start, soup, potato with beef and herb, rice pudding, plus biscuits, chocolate, tissues, drinks pack
  • Menu P4 Instant oats and apple flakes, soup, chicken with noodles, peach and pineapple pudding, plus biscuits, chocolate, tissues, drinks pack
• Australian Combat Defence Force Combat Rations (One Man) menus A-F at
• Guidance for caterers to the new compulsory nutritional standards for school lunches which came into effect on 1 April 2001[UK]
• Army moves to shape-up rations

Framed by a previous site? Links to escape to

• my HomePage http://www.milism.net
• this page http://www.milism.net/scoff.htm

do not reproduce, copy or reframe: content copyright squaddie John © 2004-5. Page ICRA labelled.