The
boiled meat in the army was infamous. It was given the
nickname Harriet Lane, this being the name of a woman hacked to
pieces by a notorious murderer, Henry Wainwright.
Two
kitchens were provided to cook for the 327 soldiers and one large
kitchen and two smaller ones to cook for the 11 officers.
Bread
was an important part of a soldier's diet. Each soldier was
issued as much as 1.5 lb. per day, along with ¾ lb. of meat and 1
lb. of potatoes, 1/3 oz. coffee. 1/6 oz. tea, 2 oz. sugar, ½ oz.
salt and 1/36 oz. pepper. If a soldier wanted vegetables he
would have to buy them or grow them. Detachments were often
given permission for garden plots.
A soldier's wife, on the strength of the
regiment, received half of these rations and children under the age
of 14 received a quarter of these.
After 1857, an extra 3½ pence per man was
allotted for extras, such as coffee, spices, butter, cheese,
biscuits and vegetables. Since cooking space was limited, food
was usually combined into basic stews or soup.
The rotating task of being the company's
cook was undertaken by the single men, who would begin after the
evening meal on Saturday and continue for one week.
They would have an assistant. Other than
the cooking (or more appropriately "boiling"), duties
included cleaning of equipment and cookhouse, issue of meat and
accompanying the Mess Corporal for grocery purchases. Often
the soldiers knew little about cooking and the food was often not of
very good quality.
"It
takes a great deal of dirt to poison sogers." — Soldier,
1860.
Huge ovens were built to cope with the
amounts of bread required daily by the garrison. They were
eight and a half feet long and six feet wide. Each of them
could hold 120 loaves. The flour used was whole wheat.
Soldiers did not starve but they did not
grow fat either: "When a man entered a soldier's life he should
have parted with half his stomach."
Soldiers were also given a ration of
alcohol, as the British Army considered it essential to the morale
of the men. Soldiers were allowed to buy alcohol, but they
were not permitted to keep it in the barracks. Soldiers could
afford little luxuries in their sparse life in the garrison.
Alcohol, because it was relatively cheap, accessible and its effects
were instantly gratifying, became a significant part of a soldier's
life. It also led to many problems.
