This month: Cooking Under the Sea!
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-JT
Did you find any submarine recipes that called for cabbage and lots of beans?
I heard about ‘shit on a shingle’ from mother, an army wife in the fifties. Unimpressed, she was, but she was a farm girl during the depression. She and Grammaw both turned out fine chow for this growing boy...
Navy beans are good but the confined space could be a lingering problem.
Geez, we didn’t have any of that cuisine in the Army.
We always like to visit military museums , ships etc. Here is a you tube of a submarine. Talk about close quarters everywhere! The kitchen was very small, but extremely well organized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOPeD1N4MbM
Our ex submarine friend always likes to make this easy recipe from his days under the sea.
Chicken a la ‘Spago of the Deep’
This recipe from the USS Los Angeles was formulated for 100 servings, which is the typical cooking task facing the submarine’s mess specialists. It has been reduced in size for home cooking.
CHINESE FIVE-SPICE CHICKEN
6-1/2 pounds chicken pieces
1-1/3 cups soy sauce
2/3 cup chopped onions
3 minced garlic cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Rinse and drain chicken pieces. Combine soy sauce with onions, garlic and ginger; mix well. Pour over chicken and marinate 30 minutes, turning frequently. Drain. Place chicken on lightly greased sheet pans, skin side up.
Combine cinnamon, cloves and pepper. Sprinkle over chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until cooked through. Serves 10.
Approximate nutritional analysis per serving (chicken breast with skin): 435 calories, 22 g total fat, 6 g saturated fat, 150 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,000 mg sodium*.
After a couple months out, you want to kiss the guy that grew radishes in the bilge, after 2 weeks the fresh veg is gone.
Problem on the boat is its like a food truck in the galley, and stuff has to be anchored down, but they load out some good chow.
My husband loves creamed chipped beef, but I rarely think to buy dried beef. I’ll have to get some next time I’m shopping. I put a tiny bit of finely minced onion in mine, sometimes.
I’ve been searching for a good “Chicken Enchilada” recipe. Hope someone can help.
Food quality has considerable importance not just in submarines but also in Naval and Merchant Marine vessels. My father, a Kings Point graduate and an officer in the USN and in the Merchant Marine, several times resolved crew morale and conduct issues by diplomatically getting the cook and kitchen crew to change how they prepared and served meals.
The great thing about SOS is once you learn to make the cream sauce you have many options of ingredients to switch it up. Just check the salt and seasoning levels.
Try diced up hard boiled eggs, either by themselves or with meat. Chopped up crispy bacon would be good.
My mom used canned tuna and served with canned green beans.
Use chicken and add a few vegs and it could be like pot pie or chicken ala king depending on which vegs are used.
Use leftover ham and frozen peas. Good over toast or pasta. ( I hate peas but can tolerate a small amount of frozen.)
Use hard salami. I actually use this instead of the jarred beef for cheese balls and dips. I cut into small pieces then put in my small food chopper. I make a version with dill pickles instead of messing with wrapping pickles in ham and cream cheese.
The best time to buy the jar beef is around November when they usually have a display, coupons and recipe cards.
I believe mylife served on a sub! So I’m sending him an SOS.
This article lists some of the daily menus. Food sounded fantastic especially when one of the cooks was a prior pastry chef!
When he served,our ex submarine friend said food was simply awesome.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-18-fi-submarine18-story.html