academic paper: read, cook, eat: irish stew from Army and Navy Cooking by E.J. Waterman

This recipe was selected for a few reasons. Firstly, I have two brothers in the military, so understanding and experiencing military food culture has been consistently of interest to me. Secondly, I am from the Midwest, just south of the Wisconsin-Illinois border, from a town that was formerly the Great Lakes Naval Air Station, so the book’s origins being local and related to my own origins provides an air of familiarity. And thirdly, I have Irish roots and am no stranger to Irish stew.
Using this recipe was not so much a joy to make as it was straightforwardly humorous. The recipe is portioned for 100 or 10 men (yes, men), so I scaled it back to portion for five and converted ingredients to metric units for ease of purchasing and measuring. All ingredients were found without any issue from a local butcher, the market, and grocery store. I opted for adding in the cubed potatoes towards the end of the meat-cooking process instead of boiling separately because it seemed easier that way, a sort of “one-pot meal.” The only adjustment that was not made was the inclusion of pastry dough on top to make it a meat pie.
We ate it with brown bread from a local bakery, in bowl dishes with spoons and forks. I will not lie and say it was delicious - it was fine, mostly bland, but the meat was of high quality as were the vegetables, which provided flavor and texture. Some further spices would not have been opposed. I empathize with the soldiers when they call this dish “slum,” as I could see how the color, texture, density, and flavor could be received and interpreted.

Cookbook Analysis: Army and Navy Cooking by E.J. Waterman

Introduction
   
It was a noteworthy year in United States history: the Manhattan Project begins, Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall, the Zoot Suit Riots break out, ABC begins broadcasting, Oklahoma! hits broadway, and the Great Depression officially ends. Between triumph and strife, 1943 marked the midst of ongoing World War II. Among bombings, raids, seiges, and uprisings, there was rationing, a wave of womanly workforce, increased industrialized packaging, and victory gardening, to name a few of the war-related efforts on the domestic food front.

War was not just an “over there” issue, an international affair, as it often seems now; it was also personal, familiar, and very much relevant to the future, especially for draftees. Men faced the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which had just been newly amended a few years prior to be more inclusive. Before, men aged 21 to 35 were included in the draft - now, that included men aged 18 to 64. With probable service in their imminent future, it would be a short time before men would soon realize they too might have to serve. It is here one can see the value and interest in a vocational school for soon-to-be military men: train them in the skills that are needed, square them away for service, and possibly for life. Cue E.J. Waterman and the Wisconsin Schools of Vocational and Adult Education.

As the first state to establish a technical education system in the United States, Wisconsin led the way for institutionalized “industrial” education beginning in 1911. By 1917, it became “vocational” education, eventually including “adult” in the title shortly thereafter. The shift in terminology may have lended to increased enrollment and opened the door for a wider participatory pool; maybe it was timely considering that service of some form became required. This would prove beneficial for the United States in wartime efforts, as “vocational training…reached unprecedented levels as the need for skilled defense labor skyrocketed.” This skilled labor would undoubtedly include cookery. In the spring of 1943, the Manitowoc Vocational School began an “‘army style’ cooking class taught by Waterman,” supplemented by Army and Navy Cooking, a cookbook manual used for the course. Those enrolled would learn valuable, employable skills:

This perspective from Waterman provides insight into the motivation and purpose of offering a course like this. The recipes and context included in the cookbook provide a curious perspective on the relationship between food and military, speak to the industrialization of food and commodities during wartime, and reveal histories, identities, preferences, and cultures.

Food relationships
   
The cookbook’s first page, after opening the bold patriotically-colored cover, is titled “FOOD SOLDIERS LIKE,” which quotes a 1943 Time Magazine article. The data was compiled by Master Sergeant Horace Scherwin and 50 enlisted men, named the Sixth Service Command, in which “...they examined meals served to 2,474,362 men in 500 Army mess halls, measured the contents of countless garbage cans, [and] clocked eating habits.” The results of this research are quite interesting, and occasionally amusing, to the 21st century eater:

Including this information in a cooking manual for vocational training presents a unique perspective about the relationship between food and military.

Firstly, it is observed that the relationship is measured - in minutes, in weight, in percentages, in money. It is mathematically averaged for an incredibly large demographic, which would likely be used for budgeting purposes and report sharing. It also gives a general image and idea of what eating in the military looks like, and serves as an indicator for new military cooks to take into consideration this data. Meals are quick, plentiful, and should be relatively cheap.

Secondly, an observation can be made about the scenario in which the soldiers are eating: if he can smoke, he eats more; if he is with his officer, he eats more; if he was on the range instead of in the barracks, he eats more. Weather and time of day are also factors that contribute towards the relationship between soldiers and food. Additionally, the note about absenteeism reveals that the value of provided meals is affected by outside factors, such as anxiety, eating elsewhere, or illness. These might be further points to discuss in vocational training and might even be addressed depending on site-specific deployments. For example, a cook deployed to the South Pacific would need to take into consideration a variety of factors for food consumption such as climate and temperature, level of conflict nearby, daily activities, and military leave, which would have differed from a cook deployed to Europe. While it is often perceived that food experiences are individual, the dynamic that the military provides reminds that generalized, mass-produced data and one-size-fits-all mentality contributes to food relationships as well, and even reflects grand social and economic changes, especially the industrialization of food production.

Industrialization of foods

Food that was standardized was typically an entirely different substance. What has given food its unique place in our day-to-day lives are its sensual characteristics—the sweet juiciness of a ripe plum, the smelly creaminess of aged cheese, the snappiness of fresh green beans, the earthy dampness of mushrooms, or the deep umami of beef stew. The smell, taste, texture, and even the sound of plants and animals, seem the very essence of our experience in eating and drinking. And yet, to a nation at war, the sensual pleasures of food fall way down the list of priorities in procuring food for millions of soldiers all over the world, for years on end.

The need to feed the millions of enlisted military personnel was undoubtedly a challenging feat for the United States government, but it didn’t happen without the presence of patriotically involved businesses and universities. What would create our modern day “middle of the store,” the endless towering aisles of processed, “time-insensitive” foods, was born from the relationship between government financial support and the private food industry - universities were not excluded, either. Funding plus resources plus intelligence equals innovation, at least that was the talk, talk that would later be used to advertise to time-strapped homemakers, asset-limited households, and large-service industries such as schools and universities. It is difficult to omit considering the military as a major contributor to the industrialization of foodstuffs, initially for their personnel and eventually as a model for private companies to build from until today’s 21st century.

This cookbook for the vocational school includes only a few recipes, all of which include fresh ingredients. Many military recipes today continue to prepare similarly fresh culinary preparations, though they aren’t without their use of dehydrated ingredients and bakery mixes. The visibility of industrialization today is far more apparent than in 1943, perhaps as it was just the beginning of the national push towards standardization. Now, one can trade Skittles for Nerds in issued MREs, find Stouffer’s frozen family meals in the grocery of the Navy Exchanges, and choose from a variety of fast food chains on base for any meal in a day. Industrialization has changed food socially, politically, and historically. As a precursor to the larger and later push for rationing, packaged goods, and war budget-friendly constraints, this 1943 cookbook gives us a historical account of the recipes, preferences, and attitudes of food at the time of war.

Documenting history

As a historical text, this cookbook tells quite a bit although it is only four pages in this particular archive from UWM. It especially reveals hints and references to the Quartermaster division of the Army. Responsible for quartering and equipping military personnel, operations cover transportation supply lines to bakery production to daily provisions, among other duties. It is not surprising then that this division completed the specialized research included in the beginning of the cookbook, referenced in first section and later referenced in section five. That information provided by the specialized research would have pertained greatly to the development and growth of the Quartermaster division and its interests. Moreover, it would have relevance to the attendees and eventual draftees of this vocational course as they would most likely serve under this division and may need to be familiar with some names like “Major General Edmund B. Gregory”, “Lt. Col. W. R. MacKinnon, Q.M.C. Commandant”, “Master Sergeant Horace Scherwin”, “Fort Sheridan, Illinois”, and “The Sixth Service Command”, in addition to learning about food consumption habits, rationing, and expectations for food service. The inclusion of these names dates the cookbook, transforming it from a culinary reference document to a historical source that can provide a snapshot of the time, interest, and role in military history.

One specific instance of this is included in the introductory pages of the cookbook, where there lies a hint of politicism. In what appears as an appeal and an assurance of faith, the author mentions that, “General Gregory is doing all in his power to give men more of the food they like and eliminate waste.” This line is powerful because it addresses the wants and desires of the average soldier, putting in writing that they are cared for, while assuring higher commands of the mindfulness of this division and General Gregory and the associated duties. Further assurance is made when the author references the “grand job in the training of cooks, bakers, and mess sergeants at Fort Sheridan, Illinois and in their other camps to give the men proper food.” This quotes the success of a specific military base for this training, yet again it could be reassuring higher authorities of the work being completed in this division as well as serving as a form of accountability and trust in those named.

Beyond the context that serves as the introduction, the recipes themselves hold glimpses of historical information and food uses. Lesson No. I and No. II provide cost breakdowns of meals and ingredients - one egg would have been 3 cents, one pound of beef 35 cents, and three pounds of apples at 15 cents at the time. This is a wartime cost comparison that preserves for the record the cost of ingredients at that time. In the Irish stew and pot roast recipes, we can see notes about the making of gravy, a term that is loosely defined in the States but generally covers just about any meat and/or vegetable based sauce made from the cooking and secondary products of a dish. Gravies were and still are an effective way to eliminate food waste and use as much as the food products as possible, both cost saving and resourceful. Finally, all of the recipes include meat of some sort. This is not only a nod to the importance and role of meat being produced for and consumed by the military, but it also speaks directly to the preferences and beliefs around the necessary and preferred diet of military men.

Expressing identities, preferences, and cultures

In the opening pages of this cookbook, we see, accompanied within the data compiled by Master Sergeant Scherwin, a substantial and varied list of preferences among realistic mentions of the abilities of army cooks and bakers. This balance between what is desired and what can be offered is probably the leading cause of the choice of recipes to include in a cookbook such as this. Recipes that “mother” would make would attempt to be both hearty and healthy, of course not forgetting they must also be tasty. And yet, it is telling from these preferences that perhaps the demographic of this research were younger soldiers - hot dogs are rated as the best kind of meat, the average soldier enjoys cocoa and “not too strong” coffee, dry cereals are preferred over cooked ones, and “the most unpopular food of all is kale.” These examples seem juvenile and remind one of what many teenagers may say about food on their tables, both then and now.

Beyond noting food preferences, these recipes also note cultural influence and presences. The inclusion of Irish stew and O’Brien potatoes may not have been present 100 years earlier, but considering the mass exodus of Irish to the United States years prior due to famine, work, and religious exile, it should not be surprising that a recipe like this would eventually end up in a recipe book for service personnel, as many Irish-turned-American descendents enlisted. Brown Betty Pudding, a racially-tinged name for a sort of cobbler, sometime being called Mulatto’s Pudding, is also included in Lesson No. II. The presence of African-American and Black enlisted personnel may have dictated this recipe inclusion in the cookbook. While this cookbook archive only provides a handful of recipes from its pages, one can imagine what other kinds of recipes were included, who they represented, and how they came to appear on these pages.

Thoughts and conclusion

This cookbook, while situationally and historically specific, reveals a larger story of the relationship between the United States military and food. The specificity that might lend to its inherent limit really serves as a type of case study, a particular glimpse into that moment - the material used by a vocational school providing education and skills to soon-to-be enlisted men during the largest war in history. It includes research, preferences, opinions, names, titles, divisions, and directives. The recipes inside reveal histories of migration, influence, and cultural adoption while being clear, concise, and usable for the newly-trained cook. Although it only encompasses a handful of recipes, Army and Navy Cooking gives the reader an opportunity to empathize with both patriotic and realistic sentiments.


works cited:
Historical Timeline, Selective Service System, The United States Government, https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/timeline/.
History, Wisconsin Technical College System, https://www.wtcsystem.edu/about/history/.
Conner, Caroline J. and Bohan, Chara H., "The Second World War's impact on the progressive educational movement: Assessing its role," in Middle and Secondary Education Faculty Publications (ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University, 2014), 6. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=mse_facpub.
E.J. Waterman, “Army and Navy Cooking,” in University of Wisconsin Libraries (Oshkosh, Wisconsin: School of Vocational and Adult Education, 1943). https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A3COGFSFBD6DMG8E.
“Army & Navy: The Army’s Stomach” (Time, February 15 1943). https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,774286,00.html.
Deborah Fitzgerald, “World War II and the Quest for Time-Insensitive Foods” for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (University of Chicago Press Journals), 293. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/709509#_i2.
Departments of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, “Armed Forces Recipe Service” (The United States Government, June 2003). https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCO%20P10110.42B.pdf.
Hannahabaffy, “Brown Betty, Dessert or Racial Epithet?” (Milk + Honey, August 19 2019). https://milkandhoneythebakery.com/brown-betty-dessert-or-racial-epithet/.

written for:
Food History with Daniel Bender, May 30 2022