SC - TI Article - Support Kitchen

[Morgan Cain]

> Actually, the article was not trash so much as being inappropriate for TI,
> IMO. While the idea of a field kitchen is commendable (and I am sure that
> there are houses that do a wonderful job feeding the fighters at Pennsic)
, I
> am still of the opinion that TI articles should be geared toward period
> solutions and not geared toward modern solutions. The facts are that
armies
> were fed during period and they were fed with period food. The picture of
the
> Italian Military Field kitchen that appears on Cindy Renfrow's site is an
> example of a period solution to feeding armies.

Good points, Ras, but you are the only one to state this clearly.  Everybody
else seems to be decrying the article as a whole, and I am afraid there will
be several letters offered up saying how horrible the support kitchen idea
is and that nobody should follow the article -- despite the fact that it has
been working, on a major scale, for many years.

And face it, for all of you persons highly successful at feeding period
foods to an army of 80 or so after battles at all major wars -- where were
YOUR articles?  If you think that TI should be focusing on the period
instead of nonperiod, then perhaps one of you should have written the
article instead.

You *can* look at the article from the standpoint that the 14th-Century
armies were fed 14th-Century food, and the 20th-Century armies are fed
20th-Century food, but I'm sure that is below the standards of most of the
people on this list.  It certainly sounds that way, but nobody has given
much information (or I missed it in my skimming) of period recipes you have
made and fed to a large army under circumstances similar to those described
in the article.

As I recall, at one time they did try fresh chicken soup, and it was not
well-received by the fighters.  They really preferred the dry stuff (less
oil, more salt?), which is vastly easier to transport and create daily under
distant-war circumstances.

I did try to look through Cindy Renfrow's webpage (www.thousandeggs.com) and
did not find the field kitchen.  Which is the link?  I would like to see
whether it is just the equipment or if it includes recipes that have worked
in feeding the army.

Concerning Twinkies, I admit I have not seen them distributed, but I have
not been at the support kitchen all the time.  What I remember seeing are
fighter bisquits, jerky, dried fruit, pickles, pretzels, and oranges, plus
the soup and beverages.  Maybe the Twinkies happened once; I should think
they are too expensive to serve all the time.  I'm not trying to defend the
support kitchen (although it seems that way) but I would like to point out
that many of the objections people have are being blown out of proportion.

I would also be interested in hearing what people HAVE DONE to feed
fighters, instead of "what I would like to do," which is the gist of most of
the messages I have read on this topic.

                                                ---= Morgan


===============================================
To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to
be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final
blow, the coup de Grace for the painter as well as for the picture.
- - Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)