Famous Frontline Rations

Manconochie Stew and Hard Bread

1. Anzac Biscuits

Cookies sent to troops in Gallipoli from kitchens back home. Originally called “Soldier's Biscuits” and renamed Anzac for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps after the famous landing at Gallipoli. They contained no butter or eggs and kept well.

2. Corn Willy

A hash made from tinned corned beef fried with potatoes and onions by American mess sergeants.

3. Ersatz Coffee

Small packets of coffee were cut with chicory and distributed to German troops throughout the war after Kaiser Wilhelm's wife (Kaiserin Augusta Viktoria) created "morale boxes " for the soldiers. The amount was enough to make half a mess-tinful.

4. Hard Bread (aka Hardtack)

Bread made as hard and dry as possible that needed to be softened in water or coffee.

5. Slum

Short for slumgullion, a thin stew made by American mess sergeants, consisting of meat, water, tomatoes, onions. Sometimes thickened up with crumbled hardtack.

6. Maconochie

A canned meat stew or a thin soup of sliced turnips and carrots made by Maconochie Brothers in Aberdeen for the British Army. Most soldiers hated it unless they were nearly starving.

7. Monkey Meat and Bully Beef

Monkey meat was a peculiar-tasting canned beef from Madagascar, rumored by Doughboys to be made from monkeys. Bully beef was British canned corned beef. Either of these were often mixed with vegetables to create stew or goulash.

"Old Bill" Examining His Jam 

8. Tommy Tickler's Plum and Apple Jam

"Tickler" was slang for jam but also for handmade grenades made from old jam tins and packed with nails, glass, and explosives.

9. Tommy's Iron Ration

British ration pack, consisting of a tin of beef (bully beef or corned beef), two packs of biscuits (3 ounces each), an ounce of meat extract (Bovril or OXO), a pack of tea (5/8 ounce) , salt, (1/2 ounce), and sugar (2 ounces).

10. Trench Pudding

A Tommy dessert made from crumbled hard bread, tinned condensed milk, jam, and water, cooked and stirred over the fire until it had a glue-like consistency.

These French Officers Seem Pleased with Their Rations

11. Wine, Rum, and Beer

The French soldier's morale was affected by his wine ration, which varied through the war. British soldiers were rationed two ounces of rum or a pint of porter daily. Germans received a pint of beer, half a pint of wine, and a quarter pint of spirits. Canadians got allotments of Jamaican rum.