FOOD IN THE TRENCHES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1916, Page 5

FOOD IN THE TRENCHES.

SOME GOOD DISHES. One of tho essential things that men who go to (he front should know it what to do with the food when it is handed out. Supposing the ration is bully beef, biscuits, rice, onions, and 'raisins sugar and ten, bacon, and jam. The clever "trencher" will mince up the bully beef, ecen if he has no mincer, add a little ground biscuit (which he grinds himself) and wild thyme (found all over Eastern Europe). This composition is rolled into rissoles, with the addition of some extracts from the daily ration of bacon, and when fried up a very appetising meal is available. After the main "feed" has been disposed of there come the sweets. With the rice go the raisins. Most of those strange to the ways of the East devour the raisins on sigflt, but whaifc the man of experience does is to stew them, thereby getting tho full value of the fruit. Tho raisin, after simmering for a few minutes, develops into a fullbrother to the succulent grape, A little cinnamon and cloves added make a meal such as one would get in his own home, or, at least, it tastes like that in the trenches. Men hero may scoff at tho suggestion of including a little cinnamon and cloves in their kit, but they will find that its absence makes all the difference to the meal.

j A welcome change to tlie ordinary bully beef stew is tho "curried beef" prepared by tho old soldier. He takes the precaution to see that in his kit are a few ounces of curry powder, thai take up really no room. All that haa to be done is' to add a teaspbonful of curry powder to this dixie of stew, and he will imagine he is back amonggt the eating-houses of New Zealand. For making porridge, a good idea is to secure a tin lid of any description, and punch it full of holes with nails. On this, the soldier grates bipcuits until lie has a coarse meal. Sprinkle this into boiling water until tho consistency ol porridge is obtained. As the* biscuit has already been twice cooked it is ready for eating almost at once. The addition of jam, which is part of the ration, makes the dish one of tho beet. Another excellent dish relished in the trenches is a kind of a dixio of rice already boiled, covered with a. layer of jam, and then topped with toasted bread, provided that the cook can cbtain the bread.

To make life worth liying jn tho trenches a man has "id use his head" with whatever eating material he becomes possessed of. There are all manner of dishes to be made from ordinary fare, and one can do ft lot with bully beef and biacuiUi