As I have mentioned, my grandfather, Charles Albert Oxley, served as a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery on the Mesopotamian Front during the Great War. I don't recall that he ever mentioned Maconochie Stew, but he gave me a copy of Over the Top, by Arthur Guy Empey, an American who served in a British infantry regiment on the Western Front. Empey discusses and describes the stew, which was originally commercially produced by the Maconochie Company of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Being easy to make with vegetables foraged or supplied in rations, along with the tinned bully beef (canned corned beef to the Yanks) issued in rations, it came to prepared by the soldiers in the trenches.
Whilst most accounts, including Empey's, discuss how disgusting it was, I think it sounds rather tasty, so I think I'm going to try it when the weather cools off a bit (we have no A/C in our old house and cooking soups or stews is contraindicated this time of year!).
I'll report back on how it was after I've eaten it.
From the Great War YouTube channel.
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