Not every unit is blessed to own a gulashkanone. Our unit is trying to do more period meals in the field, and I was just wondering what some others do for food at events. Not just what you usually serve, but ideas and advice you might have for preparing, storing, and serving it.
Fritz
Preparing Meals in the Field
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PanzerLehr1944
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Dare Furor
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
Odessa hosts, Fusilier Bn 272, have a "stew cannon." Maybe THE AWFUL EGG can shed some light on the topic.
Dare Furor
<uuuUkuuu>
Dare Furor
<uuuUkuuu>
Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
I recently purchased the Feldkoch manual from John Baum of http://www.GermanManuals.com who BTW posts here as jbaum.
Although tailored for large numbers, the recipes are a very interesting and somewhat depressing peek into the day to day life of the Landser. Especially when it is considered that these meals would be delivered and hot on good days.
Beyond that, although not a reenactor myself I have done a great deal of tin can camping. Consider all that you have in your kit. There is likely enough there for several days.
For larger groups, perhaps invest in a larger pot and a larger coffee pot.
Be scrupulous about cleanliness and storage of perishable food. Nothing ruins a day like the Tijuana foxtrot.
Although tailored for large numbers, the recipes are a very interesting and somewhat depressing peek into the day to day life of the Landser. Especially when it is considered that these meals would be delivered and hot on good days.
Beyond that, although not a reenactor myself I have done a great deal of tin can camping. Consider all that you have in your kit. There is likely enough there for several days.
For larger groups, perhaps invest in a larger pot and a larger coffee pot.
Be scrupulous about cleanliness and storage of perishable food. Nothing ruins a day like the Tijuana foxtrot.
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THE AWFUL EGG
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
AH!!!!!! PREPARING MEALS IN THE FIELD. VERY DIFFICULT TO DO IT SAFE. AT OUR EVENT, IF ANYTHING NEEDS REFRIGERATION, WE USE THE RESTAURANT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL ENTRANCE TO THE ODESSA EVENT. FOOD POISONING FOR 500-700 RE-ENACTORS AND VENDORS WOULD NOT BE A HAPPY ENDING TO A SUCCESSFUL EVENT.
THAT SAID, WE USED TO DO OPEN FIRE COOKING WHEN I WAS THRUST WITH THE WONDEROUS TASK OF PREPARING MEALS FOR THAT AMOUNT OF PEOPLE. PREVIOUSLY, I HAD ONLY COOKED FOR A TYPICAL FAMILY BARBEQUE, SO FOR ME TO FEED ODESSA AND LIVE TO TELL ABOUT IT...I GET A PAT ON THE BOTTOM ! LOL.
THE ORIGINAL MENU AS I TOOK CONTROL WAS BEANS, WEINERS, SAUERKRAUT, PASTA AND APPLE SAUCE. AS THE YEARS WENT BY I BECAME DISGUSTED WITH THESE AMERICAN STYLED MEALS AND DECIDED TO DO THE EUROPEAN STYLE FIELD SOUP CONSISTING OF WHAT MIGHT BE FOUND LOCALLY IN VILLAGES. AS I SAID BEFORE, THIS WAS DONE ON A DANGEROUS OPEN FIRE WITH LOTS OF SPLASHING HOT WATER ALSO PUTTING THE FIRE OUT. WE FINALLY OBTAINED A GOULASHKANONE FROM MARKUS SCHNEIDER OF 15Pz IN CANADA AND THE REST IS HISTORY. BEFORE IT TOOK MYSELF AND SIX CREW 8 HOURS OF BALL BUSTING WORK TO GET THE MEAL SERVED...NOW FROM STARTING THE FIRE TO SERVING TAKES 2 HOURS AND THREE PEOPLE ! ALSO THIS THING USES VERY LITTLE WOOD COMPARED TO THE LOGS WE USED ON THE OPEN FIRE TROUGH. WE USED TO FIGHT BOTH THE AXIS AND ALLIES FOR OUR QUOTA OF WOOD!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GETTING ONE OF THESE COOKING WONDERS IF COOKING FOR LARGE GROUPS. 3Pz USES ONE JUST TO FEED THEIR GRUPPE !
THAT SAID, WE USED TO DO OPEN FIRE COOKING WHEN I WAS THRUST WITH THE WONDEROUS TASK OF PREPARING MEALS FOR THAT AMOUNT OF PEOPLE. PREVIOUSLY, I HAD ONLY COOKED FOR A TYPICAL FAMILY BARBEQUE, SO FOR ME TO FEED ODESSA AND LIVE TO TELL ABOUT IT...I GET A PAT ON THE BOTTOM ! LOL.
THE ORIGINAL MENU AS I TOOK CONTROL WAS BEANS, WEINERS, SAUERKRAUT, PASTA AND APPLE SAUCE. AS THE YEARS WENT BY I BECAME DISGUSTED WITH THESE AMERICAN STYLED MEALS AND DECIDED TO DO THE EUROPEAN STYLE FIELD SOUP CONSISTING OF WHAT MIGHT BE FOUND LOCALLY IN VILLAGES. AS I SAID BEFORE, THIS WAS DONE ON A DANGEROUS OPEN FIRE WITH LOTS OF SPLASHING HOT WATER ALSO PUTTING THE FIRE OUT. WE FINALLY OBTAINED A GOULASHKANONE FROM MARKUS SCHNEIDER OF 15Pz IN CANADA AND THE REST IS HISTORY. BEFORE IT TOOK MYSELF AND SIX CREW 8 HOURS OF BALL BUSTING WORK TO GET THE MEAL SERVED...NOW FROM STARTING THE FIRE TO SERVING TAKES 2 HOURS AND THREE PEOPLE ! ALSO THIS THING USES VERY LITTLE WOOD COMPARED TO THE LOGS WE USED ON THE OPEN FIRE TROUGH. WE USED TO FIGHT BOTH THE AXIS AND ALLIES FOR OUR QUOTA OF WOOD!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND GETTING ONE OF THESE COOKING WONDERS IF COOKING FOR LARGE GROUPS. 3Pz USES ONE JUST TO FEED THEIR GRUPPE !
Last edited by THE AWFUL EGG on 20 May 2008, 02:47, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
GD has had one for years 
... the meals are great and that old favorite.. Sausage Gravy
... the meals are great and that old favorite.. Sausage Gravy -
PanzerLehr1944
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
Thanks for the excellent input. Is someone making repro goulashkanones? I haven't come across any for sale.
Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
There is no reproduction field kitchen available.
What you will prepare for a meal in the field will depend on how authentic you want to be and to a lesser extent, what the scenario is. Fighting troops in the foremost lines would probably not have seen food being prepared. The food would be cooked in a rear area and delivered to places near the fighting positions, where it would be retrieved by men assigned to do this work. The rations were usually delivered in the evening and consisted of bread, spreads, and a warm meal that would be eaten out of the mess kit. Very often, the food was no longer warm by the time it arrived in the hands of the men who would be eating it.
The warm food was prepared by chefs in field kitchens. These chefs used recipes that were clearly laid out in a number of period books and military manuals. Our unit has a field kitchen and fortunately, one of our members has been active in finding these original sources. We only make meals using these original recipes. Often, the meals are rather bland, and less than delicious accouding to our standards. One of the first meals we served was stewed cucumbers, a very unappealing dish to the American palate- almost no one liked it. The meat portion in most of the meals is very small, you will find just a few small pieces of pork in a tin full of potatoes and carrots, for instance. We have recipes for things like Himmel und Erde (boiled apples and potatoes) and noodles with sugar and cinnamon. Our experience with cooking these real period recipes has helped me to understand what it was like for soldiers of the Wehrmacht. An Ostfront veteran once told me that they were thrilled to recieve even pea soup, just to have something with some substance and flavor, and after eating stewed cucumbers, it is easy for me to understand what he meant.
I know some units have field kitchens and they make German recipes, sometimes recipes that are old family recipes for soups and stews or similar. This seems authentic, but in reality it is very different from the fare that was regulation for Wehrmacht soldiers. Although we know that units were sometimes able to obtain extra meat or ingredients from local villages or elsewhere, this was the exception to the rule. Bowls of Goulasch with huge portions of beef, or plates of pork with Sauerkraut, may be delicious German food, but it is not an authentic field kitchen meal for soldiers in wartime.
The food eaten by Wehrmacht soldiers was certainly German food, but not in the way we 21st century American people think of it, with plenty of sausages and meat. Some of the German characteristics common to original recipes include the use of a Mehlschwitze (flour added to hot fat, sometimes with chopped onions) as a sauce or binding agent, the use of fresh chopped herbs, and the flavor ingredients: onion, carrots, celery, parsley, leek, garlic, and horseradish.
Here is a real German Wehrmacht recipe from one of our original books. We prepared this particular dish for the first time at the Gap in January. Although it is entirely without meat, it is a tasty and satisfying dish. The quantities are for a portion for one soldier; multiply the quantities by however many people you need to feed to figure out how much to make. This recipe is ideal for reenactment, for reasons I will explain after the recipe.
"Yellow peas with fresh vegetables
75 g (2.68 oz) yellow peas
up to 300 g (.66 lbs) fresh vegetables (celery, carrots, leek, green peas)
up to 375 g (.82 lbs) potatoes
5 g (.18 oz) fat
5 g (.18 oz) fresh onions
Season with salt and fresh herbs (marjoram, parsley, chives etc)
Wash and soak the peas on the day before. Set them up in aprox. ¼ l (1.04 cups) of water and let them boil for aprox. 1 hour. Clean the vegetables, peel the potatoes and dice or slice into not too big pieces. Braise the onions in the fat and add the vegetables and potatoes to the peas and boil everything till done. At the end add the chopped herbs. Let the marjoram boil with the food for about 10 to 15 minutes. Season with some pepper."
One of the things that makes this recipe so good for our purposes is that none of the ingredients require refrigeration, so we do not need any farby coolers or anything like that. The dry peas and produce can be stored in cloth or paper bags and unless you are in the field for a week in August they will be fine. The herbs may wilt a little but they are still flavorful.
If you don't have a field kitchen you can still make this meal in a large pot over a fire. You just need a large pot and a frying pan for braising the onions. Or, you could prepare the dish before the event, store it in a food carrier and serve it and eat it cold, it will still taste good and it will be far more authentic than the meaty Americanized dishes that so many reenactors eat.
Chris P.
What you will prepare for a meal in the field will depend on how authentic you want to be and to a lesser extent, what the scenario is. Fighting troops in the foremost lines would probably not have seen food being prepared. The food would be cooked in a rear area and delivered to places near the fighting positions, where it would be retrieved by men assigned to do this work. The rations were usually delivered in the evening and consisted of bread, spreads, and a warm meal that would be eaten out of the mess kit. Very often, the food was no longer warm by the time it arrived in the hands of the men who would be eating it.
The warm food was prepared by chefs in field kitchens. These chefs used recipes that were clearly laid out in a number of period books and military manuals. Our unit has a field kitchen and fortunately, one of our members has been active in finding these original sources. We only make meals using these original recipes. Often, the meals are rather bland, and less than delicious accouding to our standards. One of the first meals we served was stewed cucumbers, a very unappealing dish to the American palate- almost no one liked it. The meat portion in most of the meals is very small, you will find just a few small pieces of pork in a tin full of potatoes and carrots, for instance. We have recipes for things like Himmel und Erde (boiled apples and potatoes) and noodles with sugar and cinnamon. Our experience with cooking these real period recipes has helped me to understand what it was like for soldiers of the Wehrmacht. An Ostfront veteran once told me that they were thrilled to recieve even pea soup, just to have something with some substance and flavor, and after eating stewed cucumbers, it is easy for me to understand what he meant.
I know some units have field kitchens and they make German recipes, sometimes recipes that are old family recipes for soups and stews or similar. This seems authentic, but in reality it is very different from the fare that was regulation for Wehrmacht soldiers. Although we know that units were sometimes able to obtain extra meat or ingredients from local villages or elsewhere, this was the exception to the rule. Bowls of Goulasch with huge portions of beef, or plates of pork with Sauerkraut, may be delicious German food, but it is not an authentic field kitchen meal for soldiers in wartime.
The food eaten by Wehrmacht soldiers was certainly German food, but not in the way we 21st century American people think of it, with plenty of sausages and meat. Some of the German characteristics common to original recipes include the use of a Mehlschwitze (flour added to hot fat, sometimes with chopped onions) as a sauce or binding agent, the use of fresh chopped herbs, and the flavor ingredients: onion, carrots, celery, parsley, leek, garlic, and horseradish.
Here is a real German Wehrmacht recipe from one of our original books. We prepared this particular dish for the first time at the Gap in January. Although it is entirely without meat, it is a tasty and satisfying dish. The quantities are for a portion for one soldier; multiply the quantities by however many people you need to feed to figure out how much to make. This recipe is ideal for reenactment, for reasons I will explain after the recipe.
"Yellow peas with fresh vegetables
75 g (2.68 oz) yellow peas
up to 300 g (.66 lbs) fresh vegetables (celery, carrots, leek, green peas)
up to 375 g (.82 lbs) potatoes
5 g (.18 oz) fat
5 g (.18 oz) fresh onions
Season with salt and fresh herbs (marjoram, parsley, chives etc)
Wash and soak the peas on the day before. Set them up in aprox. ¼ l (1.04 cups) of water and let them boil for aprox. 1 hour. Clean the vegetables, peel the potatoes and dice or slice into not too big pieces. Braise the onions in the fat and add the vegetables and potatoes to the peas and boil everything till done. At the end add the chopped herbs. Let the marjoram boil with the food for about 10 to 15 minutes. Season with some pepper."
One of the things that makes this recipe so good for our purposes is that none of the ingredients require refrigeration, so we do not need any farby coolers or anything like that. The dry peas and produce can be stored in cloth or paper bags and unless you are in the field for a week in August they will be fine. The herbs may wilt a little but they are still flavorful.
If you don't have a field kitchen you can still make this meal in a large pot over a fire. You just need a large pot and a frying pan for braising the onions. Or, you could prepare the dish before the event, store it in a food carrier and serve it and eat it cold, it will still taste good and it will be far more authentic than the meaty Americanized dishes that so many reenactors eat.
Chris P.
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THE AWFUL EGG
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
TO PANZERLEHR1944...THE GOULASHKANONE WE BOUGHT FOR OUR ODESSA EVENT WAS OBTAINED FROM MARKUS SCHNEIDER OF 15 PANZER, NEAR BARRIE ONTARIO, CANADA. IT IS A POSTWAR CZECH MODEL WITH THE ANGULAR FENDERS AS OPPOSED TO THE ROUNDED WARS END ORIGINALS. MOST OF THE PICS DURING THE WAR SHOW THEM WITH WOODEN WAGON WHEEL BUT OURS ARE STEEL VEHICLE TYPES. I LIKE THE FLAT ANGULAR FENDERS AS THIS CAN BE USED AS A SERVING PLATFORM,ETC. 3 PANZER HAS AN ORIGINAL THAT THEY BRING TO OUR EVENT TO FEED THEIR MEN. THEY PAID ABOUT THE SAME AS WE DID. AS ORIGINALS ARE HARDER TO COME BY, WE SNAGGED THIS ONE FROM MARKUS AND WAS USED IN ONE OF ROY SCHEIDER'S (JAWS) LAST MOVIES,"THE POET" THAT WE WERE XTRAS IN. I THINK HE'S GOT ABOUT TEN OF THEM UP FOR GRABS. BARRIE IS THREE HOURS NORTH OF BUFFALO OR AN HOUR NORTH OF TORONTO. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED OR ANYONE ELSE...PM ME AND I'LL SEND YOU A LINK TO CONTACT HIM.
BTW...THEY ARE EXPENSIVE !
THIS IS HOW WE USED TO DO IT...
http://www.odessaevent.com/Pictures/25%20.JPG
THIS IS ALL WE HAVE NOW !
BTW...THEY ARE EXPENSIVE !
THIS IS HOW WE USED TO DO IT...
http://www.odessaevent.com/Pictures/25%20.JPG
THIS IS ALL WE HAVE NOW !
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Van der Waal
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
2nd Panzer Division (HRS) of Chicagoland has an original Field Kitchen.
You can check out pics and some information on the following page:
http://www.2ndpanzerdivision.com/field_kitchen.htm
All the best,
Adam
You can check out pics and some information on the following page:
http://www.2ndpanzerdivision.com/field_kitchen.htm
All the best,
Adam
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THE AWFUL EGG
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
VERY NICE MACHINE ! LUCKY BASTARDS ! YET A 200 LITRE POT SHOULD FEED TWICE AS MANY SOLDATEN AS STATED IN THEIR BIO. I'M SURE THEY WOULD ONLY RECEIVE .5 LITRE OF SOUP PER MANN WITH A PORTION OF BREAD IF AVAILABLE. ANYONE KNOW THE REGULATION FIELD PORTIONS PER MANN ? AS FOOD WAS SCARCE MOST OF THE TIME I'M SURE THEY GOT THE MINIMUM RATIONS.
Last edited by THE AWFUL EGG on 24 May 2008, 04:25, edited 1 time in total.
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Van der Waal
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
No doubt the portions were smaller, but we like to eat and drink heartily. 
We've talked about mixing it up with our main course (we usually roast a pig) so who knows what will happen in the coming years.
All the best,
Adam
We've talked about mixing it up with our main course (we usually roast a pig) so who knows what will happen in the coming years.
All the best,
Adam
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THE AWFUL EGG
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
MAYBE 3Pz WOULD POST A PIC OF THEIRS UNLESS I FIND MY PICS OF THEIRS FIRST FROM ODESSA 2007 !
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jugendkrieger
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Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
Our Field Kitchen
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Last edited by jugendkrieger on 20 May 2008, 14:46, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
I sure would hate to be the poor guy that got stuck on KP duty cleaning those pots on that open fire THE AWFUL EGG posted the link to
Re: Preparing Meals in the Field
jugendkrieger, I can't see your image.