We are very pleased as we get some very favorable comments and feed back from the readerships regarding recipes tied up with the Napoleonic period or its soldiers. A reader commented on the recipe for duck and turnips (EE&L #4) and reported that his wife, unfortunately, did not like turnips and so she could not appreciate the resulting succulent duck. Another reader of Welsh descent commented on the Welsh version of the Beef Soup, which includes adding beer to it (EE&L #6). Some other tried the rabbit recipe (EE&L #9), and enjoyed the delicious resulting dish. Our friend Tanya, who grew up in Maine, commented that her grandmother, a Russian emigrant, raised rabbits but, to avoid any tears from her granddaughter and her brother when she was cooking them, pretended that she was making Coq au vin (rooster or chicken with a red wine sauce). Well, one can fool children only for so long. One day Tanya's grandmother cooked a coq au yin, but this time with chicken, i.e. the way it should be done. Surprise to grandma. . . The kids did not like it as much as when it was made with the rabbits! Well, that is also our opinion. A rabbit in a rich wine sauce as per our recipe of EE&L #9 is a more delicate dish and much better than the classical coq au vin prepared with the same rich wine sauce. By the way the original coq au vin was made with Chambertin, Napoleon's favorite wine and called coq au Chambertin. (If we had a bottle of Chambertin we would drink it and cook the coq with a California Zinfandel...) On the Napoleonic Soldier and Food At HISTORICONN 94, I had the opportunity to speak with several readers and listening to their comments. Several of them pointed out that they wondered if the Napoleonic soldier had the time and the opportunity to worry about improving their everyday diet, etc. Let me answer the above comments with a direct quotation from Military life under Napoleon, "The Memoirs of Captain Elzear Blaze", [1] page 25, we find the following: "Whenever a detachment of conscripts reached the regiment we questioned them as to what their civilian profession had been: when a young man held the glorious title of "cook", we argued as to which of us would get him in our company. A cook is a man of high importance in a bivouac: in fact, it is not so much to have the raw materials as to know what to do with them. An able cook can do all sorts of things: a chicken cooked in a wayside tavern and one which is served to the habitues of the Rocher de Cancale [2] are as different as the moon and the sun. These cooks did not fight: not wanting' to risk their precious lives, we left them behind our battle line. If a captain is killed, his lieutenant takes his place, but how do you replace a good cook?"' Well that is straight from the horse's mouth! But it had not been always that.' way in French service. The cooking of the rations provided by the intendn'~ce militaire was, in theory, during the Revolution and the Consulate, done in each company at the squad (escouade) level. Each squad [3] included about 15 men and a corporal, In that organization, each member of the ordinaire took a turn cooking. But conscription brought a number of men who had some experience in cookie& orbaking and soon itbecame a standard| practice to use their expertise for the good of the service. Hence, cooking, as mentioned in the above quotation, in many regiments, became a company affair. Sometimes companies had more than one cook. For instance, in 1812, the 15th Chasseurs a Cheval had two cooks per company. In all the regiments the cooks, for the reasons outlined in the above quotation, were kept in the rear with the domestics and never participated in combat. So, food was very important indeed to the French soldier and that is confirmed by what follows. [4] It is well known that while on campaign, most of the time, the French soldiers lived off the land: but were they "taking" from the country folks only what they needed? What follows is rather depressing and here is what our friend Captain Blaze has to say (pg. 22): " . . tin rich areas, our foragers brought in twenty times as much food as we could consume: the rest went to waste. The soldier lives from day to day: today, he lacks everything, tomorrow, if he eats well, he forgets yesterday's privations and doesn't worry about tomorrow. Neither does he think of the day to come, of other regiments which will arrive at the area he is leaving, or that, while taking what he needs, it would be wise to leave something for those who will be following him. Not at all! A company of 100 men has already killed two oxen, which is enoughÄbut then they find four cows, six calves, and twelve sheep, and kill them all without pity, so that they can eat their tongues, kidneys, and brains.. Austria is a rich, productive country: at each bivouac we abandoned enough food to nourish a regiment for fourteen days. The soldiers, after having marched all day, spent part of the night finding food, then cooking, then eating it. They slept as little as possible, spending their time making hashes, pancakes, and fritters. Since some stomachs are not strong enough to handle sustained eating and drinking, the result was numerous cases of indigestion which filled the hospitals. In the army, abundance is sometimes more damaging than scarcity." All the above is rather disgusting but is established the fact that the French Napoleonic soldiers (and probably also the soldiers of other countries) loved food and that it was an important part of their life, which could be cut short at any time by the fortune (of misfortune) of war. Of course the love of good food does not excuse such waste. But, philosophically speaking, is war not a waste in itself? We should not conclude that loving food and overstuffing was a French exclusivity. Houssaye in his 1814, mentions that the French cavalry caught a small party of Cossacks who were cooking several hams, chicken, etc. in a huge kettle. That was too much food for such a small party but soon fed the hungry French horsemen. The Napoleonic soldier and Mushrooms Mushrooms were and are still abundant in the forests of Europe and especially Germany, where, at least when we were living there back in the 1949-51, the local population practically ignored them... Well not us. We were living on the slopes of the beautiful resort city of Baden-Baden and behind our house was a fairly large forest, where to our surprise on a beautiful autumn day we found an area with literally thousands of pounds of boletus (known as cepes or bolets in France and porcinis in Italy). Some of them were a foot in diameter. We took many of the best and that evening we had cepes a la Provencale and a cepes omelette. For several days we had cepes in every possible way until we finally we had our fill of mushrooms. [6] There are several species of c~pes which are growing only in spring and in autumn, in the USA as well as in Europe. Most are edible and the edible species are easy to recognize. According to the species, the cap is light or dark brown sometimes very darkbrown and Ävery importantÄthe thick static, substantially white orbrown, never has trace of red in the edible species. In addition, the white flesh does not turn green when it comes in contact with the air. Several species of Boletus grow in the USA but are harder to find than in Europe. Well how does that relate to the Napoleonic soldier? The country folks of France and the areas under French control of the period improved their day to day bland diet of bread and the like with the products of the forest (all sorts of game, fish and mushrooms). Consequently, the Napoleonic soldiers coming from the French countryside were well versed in the art of safe mushroom hunting and it was easy to collect them in abundance in the forests since the native population of Eastern Europe had practically no interest in them. [8] There are many species of edible mushrooms beside the boletus that grow in the summer and fall, like the chanterelle, [9] or the morels [10] When I was a child my great-uncle was taking us along for an early morning walk in the meadows where we never missed the opportunity of picking up the fresh succulent roses (or morning dew mushrooms). [11] These roses (can be replace by Portebellos) were promptly cooked eitherby themselves (see recipe below) or in an omelette baveus.[12] We never found these mushrooms in the wild in the USA. Of course, the king of the mushrooms is the morel which is found in the USA in sandy soil during warm weather in May and June. We'll hope to have the opportunity in the future to speak again about morels. How to cook mushrooms Well, there are many ways of preparing mushrooms (we are not speaking here of the ordinary cultivated mushrooms). The Napoleonic soldiers could simply grill the boletus, or other wild edible mushrooms, by making superficial cuts in the domed caps, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and finally brushing them with oil or melted butter before cooking them under the grill at a moderate temperature. That procedure is highly suitable for barbecuing mushroom caps (we usually get the large white mushrooms such as Portebello available in the supermarkets). But there are many more ways of preparing mushrooms. The easiest way is to cook the mushrooms in butter. First, slice the mushrooms in two or several pieces according to their size and season with salt and pepper. Then saute them in a frying pan in butter over a lively heat for a few minutes. They are ready to eat immediately (do not allow them to stand). They are an ideal side dish with a nice barbecued steak. The procedure is suitable for all kinds of mushrooms such as cepes, field mushrooms, portebellos, chanterelles, morels, etc. (Last Sunday I cooked three large mushrooms purchased in the supermarket as above and they were delicious). To the above recipe one can add garlic, onions, etc. according to his taste. But, following is a delicious recipe using the plain white cap mushroom that we find in every supermarket. The recipe is originally from Russia and was certainly used by the Russian officer's cooks. That makes an outstanding mushroom dish that you will be proud of: Mushrooms with Sour Cream: 1 pound of white mushrooms, thinly sliced 1 medium onion, split in half 2 tablespoons of butter 1 cup of sour cream 1 teaspoon of flour 1 teaspoon of grated cheese (Parmesan or swiss cheese) Salt and pepper to taste 1. Place the mushrooms in a deep mixing bowl and pour over them enough boiling water to cover. Let stand about 10 minutes. 2. In a saucepan, cook the onion in butter, withoutbrowning. Stir the onion until wilted and translucent. 3. Drain mushrooms and add them to the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, five, to ten minutes over low heat. 4. Blend the sour cream and flour and stir into the mushroom mixture. Add the cheese and continue to cook, stirring, over low heat until the sauce is piping hot. Do not boil the sauce. 5. Serve immediately (with a nice steak, etc). Mushroom Omelette: But one of our preferred ways to use mushrooms is to prepare a mushroom omelette, which, I am sure was done by many Napoleonic soldiers as they had easy access to eggs. The tastiest mushroom omelette is made with boletus, which one can purchase dry. Here is the very simple recipe I use, which is a variation of the above mushrooms inbutter. (Of course other mushrooms may be substituted). 6 eggs 1 1/2 oz. dried boletus (sometimes called porcinis) or better one 1/4 lbs of fresh boletus if you have the good fortune to find them. butter (1 1/2 teaspoons) garlic (optional) Parsley (optional) 1. Soak the dry boletus in lukewarm water for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Discard the water (be sure to rinse them several times to eliminate sand and small stones that are too often found in dry mushrooms). 2. Dry them up with a paper towel. 3. Beat the eggs moderately and at the last moment. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Add the butter to the frying pan over a moderate fire. 5. Fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes. (add the garlic and parsley if you choose to do so. Personally I prefer it without garlic and parsley) 6. Add the eggs and fold together so the eggs cook evenly. Cook until the eggs are slightly runny. A good omelette (what the French call an omelette boveuse) should not be dry but slightly runny (of course, you can adjust the runniness to your own taste). 7. To serve fold the omelette in two. (Six eggs should be enough for a breakfast for two people) Bon appetit... Source: Misc. personal notes, etc. Larousse Gastronomic, etc. Footnotes [1] Military Life Under Napoleon: The Memoirs of Captain Elzear Blaze, translated by Colonel John R Elting, The Emperor's Press, Chicago. The work provides a wealth of information on the different aspects of the life of the French Napoleonic soldier (and officers). Highly recommended. [2] A famous Parisian restaurant. [3]A squad formed an ordinaire, hence the expression manger n l'ordinnire, still used today in the French army, to describe a soldier eating the regular | army food. Each squad was equipped with a marmite (camp kettle), a bidon (large canteen) etc. [4] For more detailed information, I recommend the reading of the chapter "Bivouacs and Marauders" in Military Life Under Napoleon. [5] It may be surprising to many readers that tongues, kidneys, and brains were (and are still) considered delicacy by the French (and other nationalities as well). [6] The German family with which we were sharing the house (and with whom we became very good friends) refused to share our enthusiasm for the cepes in spite of our obvious survival. [7] The art of mushroom hunting is still widely practiced today, but by now no longer for survival but as a quest for delicate foods. Wild mushrooms are tastier than the farm grown species. [8] That was also true for snails and frogs. But that is another story. [9] In the USA, the chanterelle bygrophorus (Hygrophorus miniatus) is found from June to September in clusters, in bogs or on dry hilltops. [10] Morels is one of the best and tastier mushrooms grown in Europe and in the USA. It is a very expensive mushroom and difficult to find fresh. Usually an ounce of dry morels ranges between $12 and $15. It makes fabulous sauces (see EE&L #11 for Ham with a cream sauce and morels.) [11] This type of mushroom is of the same species as the ordinary cultivated white mushroom. It's also called field mushrooms, etc. Similar mushrooms are now available fresh in supermarkets. [12] Omelette baveuse means a slightly runny omelette. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 13 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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