I daresay you wonder how we go on about our cooking. When we were in
column we had a cook for every sub-section. Every evening, or when
we arrived at our billet, rations were drawn. A sub-section of forty
men would draw about eight to twelve pounds of cheese, nine or ten
pounds of bacon, about one and a half to two pounds of tea, two to
three pounds of sugar, and, if there was bread, about sixteen loaves,
each weighing about two pounds, or two 56 lb. boxes of biscuits, forty
tins of bully beef, or twenty-eight pounds of fresh meat. I cooked for
three weeks, and I can assure you it is no joke to be cook to forty
men and not know much about the work. I will give an idea of a day’s
work as cook. We had as a rule _réveillé_ at 3 A.M. or 4 A.M. I would
get up half an hour earlier and start the fire. The water would boil
within twenty minutes, and I put the tea and sugar in. The men would
afterwards use the fire themselves for frying. Directly breakfast was
over I filled the dixies again and kept them ready for dinner. Some of
the fellows would come in and would peel potatoes and carrots. I cut
the meat up, or, if there was no fresh meat, I opened tins of bully
beef as a substitute. I put this on the fire two or three hours before
dinner so as to ensure it being done properly. In the afternoon rations
were drawn. I had to cut them up, and it wants some judgment to cut a
small piece of bacon or cheese for forty hungry men. But it was always
done somehow. Tea was ready from four to five o’clock. Milk was got
where possible, in addition to eggs and butter. I was fed up with it
after three weeks and handed it over. It is different in the battery
I am in here. The corporal draws the rations and cuts them up. We
generally have bacon for breakfast. We fry it in our saucepan together
and soak the bread in the fat; it goes down good: _Gunner Southern,
Royal Horse Artillery_.