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Maconochie

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Maconochie
Photographed in the Musée Somme 1916 of Albert (Somme), France.
TypeStew
Place of originScotland
Created byMaconochie Company
Main ingredientsTurnips, carrots, potatoes

Maconochie was a stew of sliced turnips, carrots and potatoes in a thin broth, named for the Aberdeen Maconochie Company that produced it. It was a widely used food ration for British soldiers in the field during the Boer War[1] and in front-line trenches during World War I. There was also a French version called Maconóochie.

Though the stew was tolerable, most soldiers detested it. As one soldier put it, "warmed in the tin, Maconochie was edible; cold, it was a man-killer." Others complained about how the potatoes appeared to be unidentifiable black lumps. A reporter once described the stew as "an inferior grade of garbage".

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Maurice Harold Grant, History of the war in South Africa, 1899-1902., Vol.4. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1910. See for example the table "Summary of Supplies Sent by the Natal District for General French's Force, Garrisons, &c., Despatched from Newcastle and Volksrust for Piet Relief and from De Jager's Drift for Vryheid." pg. 567.