Re: Best or Favorite Mess kits
Part 3 from posting #50
A great deal of time is spent reading directions and experimenting with methods of heating the contents of cans of “M & V” (meat and vegetable stew), “Steak & Kidney Pudding” (a can lined with thick dough and filled with a solidified concoction posing as chopped beef and kidney), “Sultana Pudding” (resembling a dried-out fruit cake that can be sliced and eaten cold with slices of canned cheddar), and “Treacle Pudding” (a caramel-coated creation that is especially pleasant when warmed up). One thing you quickly learn is that if the contents of a can requires heating to be really palatable, then it must be heated through and through – something not easily accomplished in the case of the “Steak and Kidney Pudding,” due, you suspect, to the efficient insulation provided by the thick mass of dough lining the tin and surrounding the glutinous mess within.
It won’t be long before repetition destroys all enjoyment of these rations, but so far Compo meals have been in some ways superior to many past meals developed by the cooks from fresh rations. A notable exception was breakfast the first morning: pre-cooked bacon. Cold, it plopped out of the can in a sickly white, cylindrical blob. Heated, it turned into liquid grease, which when poured off left a pitiful residue of red strings representing the lean meat that had streaked the fused rashers.
In each box there are two tins of “Boiled Sweets” (hard candies that contain no sugar), small slabs of very hard and remarkably tasteless chocolate (one per man per day), and two tins of cigarettes, one flat and one round, allowing seven cigarettes per man per day.
But, unquestionably, the feature of Compo rations destined to be remembered beyond all others is Compo tea: tea made from tea leaves already mixed with powdered milk and powdered sugar,. Directions say to “sprinkle powder on heated water and bring to the boil, stirring well, three heaped teaspoons to one pint of water.”
Every possible variation in the preparation of this tea is being tried, but so far it always ends up the same way. While still too hot to drink, it is a good-looking cup of strong tea. Even when it becomes just cool enough to be sipped gingerly, it is still a good-tasting cup of tea, if you like you tea strong and sweet. But let it cool enough to be quaffed and enjoyed, and your lips will be coated with a sticky scum that forms across the surface, which if left undisturbed will become a leathery membrane that can be wound around your finger and flipped away like something made of gutta-percha.”
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