The Trench Cook Book 1917: Western Front Recipes from Bully Beef Pie to Trench Tea

Why did trench tea taste of vegetables? What was the single largest componant of a Tommy’s diet? What were ‘iron rations’? Why was ‘Maconochie’ the most despised food at the front? The old adage that ‘an army marches on its stomach’ was never more true than on the Western Front during the First World War. Literally millions of hungry soldiers had to be fed and watered in trenches and behind the lines in France and Belgium and beyond. An army of cooks working in field kitchens relied on their training and official manuals published by the War Office, this book reproduces pages direct from these rare artefacts with an authoritative introduction.