I have a penchant for slightly unique and arcane bodies of knowledge.
One such book was procured while visiting my family in Sarnia, during a return trip at a little 50’s diner/antique shop off the highway. It’s amazing to see how we can be creatures of habit without even knowing it; driving back from Sarnia on a more recent trip and searching for someplace to eat inadvertantly led us to the exact same diner, a humourous realization when we finally got there.
Mingled amongst all the flea market detritus, I found this 1961 edition of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Instructional Manual Of Naval Cookery. It’s totally a trip, and probably the most entertaining book I own, and it only cost me $8!
Inside it’s dusty, slightly soiled jacket, (in a purely military fashion) it contains instructions and tips for cooking with rations, ways to bolster morale through food, and other hilarious nuggets of wisdom.
What initially drew me to this book (other than nostalgia) was the detailed diagrams for butchering meat. There are pages and pages worth of pictures on how to break down beef and lamb, but when you get to the pork section, you are met with an addendum stating that all naval pork is bought and stored pre-butchered. What gives?
In addition to that, there’s also a healthy section on how to bake bread, and a bizarre one page tutorial for preparing sandwich pinwheels. Who knew the Canadian Navy was quite so fancy, eh?
In all seriousness though, it really is interesting to get a viewpoint into what life at sea must have been like in the 1960’s. Though admittedly spartan, the pinwheel sandwich and other small flourishes in the menu planning chapters prove that life was not all bad while working for the navy. Quel surprise!
Until next time…
Tags: Books, butchery, cookbooks, Instructional Manual Of Naval Cookery, Royal Canadian Navy
[...] Royal Canadian Navy’s Instructional Manual of Naval Cookery from 1961 is full of fun tips. Apparently knowing how to make sandwich pinwheels was part of the [...]