How to Feed an Army: Recipes and Lore from the Front Lines
An army travels on its stomach, or so the saying goes. What's remarkable is that the American military was able to travel anywhere when fueled by some of the recipes in Lewin and Huff's compilation of actual dishes served to troops in wartime. Covering everything from jerky eaten during the plains wars of the nineteenth century through Beets in Orange Lemon Sauce, currently being served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lewin and Huff have created the definitive overview of military food preparation. Recipes are scaled for an army (between 60 -100 servings), as well as an army of ten, allowing the cook to choose just how many pounds of canned salmon to buy when making Salmon Cakes. The majority of the recipes are simple and to-the-point, with few accoutrements such as spices and seasoning; although, as tastes have changed and procurement techniques have improved, military dishes like Crunchy Vegetable Burritos would not look out of place in a civilian cookbook. The book is packed with propaganda posters, cartoons and trivia about such essential tools as the "John Wayne," a portable can opener with multiple uses, first issued in 1942, that's still in use to this day. Military historians or veterans with a longing for Scalloped Noodles or French Fried Tomatoes will definitely want to seek this one out.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.