Military rations throughout history

From what I understand it's easier to oversoak lentils than it is beans which leads to food poisoning

huh, i've never heard that. i've never even soaked lentils. they're done in about an hour even if you just dump them in the water straight from the bag.

>salt was harder to come by back then, wasn't it?
Yes, salt was very hard to come by, and since everybody needed salt for food preservation it had to be traded everywhere. In medieval times transport, especially overland was difficult slow and expensive and a trade network, the so called salt roads, where built. This made salt maybe not the most valuable commodity, but for sure the most traded one.

>Salt is rare xd is a meme
wrong, if you are not at the coast it is a rare commodity hence it was traded over such far distances. Theres dozens of towns who got rich because they had a salt spring. Thats not only true for Europe, African trade routes often where also about salt in the first place.

I wouldn't know, I'm a spaniard coastee

Club med huh? Well for example there is the Via Salaria in Italy, dating to 400 BC or earlier. It controlled the salt trade and likely was the reason Rome was founded where it was founded.

No. Galician. Northwest.

Ok then, Salt was not exported from the Bay of biscay until the 15th century, then it flooded the markets in northern Europe and put entire cities out of competition. It also caused a power shift in the Hanse and the redirection of major trade routes.
Before that time it was simply not possible to harvest and transport Atlantic salt to the markets in quantity.

The salt was needed to preserve food, mostly fish, and make it a tradeable commodity.

How much did soldiers fucking fart on this diet? Could you imagine what a forced march would smell like?

>Salt is rare xd is a meme
>Yes, salt was very hard to come by
Which is it?

I mean surely it was expensive and a commodity, but not rare. And it was probably used by moving armies to preserve food.

Both, Salt producing areas are rare but not the commodity itself seeing as it was widely traded

It's not that it's rare, it's that it was important and expensive and came from key places.

The problem is how to get your salt if you are a farmer in the middle of Europe. You absolutely need salt for food preservation and cooking and away from the coast salt is not abundant. They used salt springs, evaporated the water in iron pans and sold the salt for good money. Then trade kicks in, you need to transport said sail 100 miles, no roads, no engines, just mules, high criminality, towns that tax you for passing trough, towns that fore you to sell part of your merchandise and so on.
It ends up with salt trade and salt industry being the most important factors in early European economy.

>but not rare.
No it wasn't it was the most important commodity moved, both by volume and value at the time. of course a bag of spices is more expensive than a bag of salt, doesn't change the fact that the salt economy was key for medieval Europe.

Yes, I agree?
It was not rare, just critical, therefore expensive.

Depending on the era, most armies would give their troops bread or salted meat. Crackers/Biscuits are the perfect marching/movement foods you can give an Army on the move, look up hardtacks. Most Militaries by the 18th Century had started issuing their infantry hardtack for long and arduous marches. As for Beans, Armies probably broke them out when ever they set up camp or had established a front line since they would have time to sit down and cook it up.

A bit of anecdotal evidence, when I was active duty I used to save all the crackers and wheat snack bread from the MREs and would eat them when ever I was on patrol bit by bit. They dry your mouth out a bit but its nothing a sip of water can't fix, I'd also take those little packs of cheese spread and eat those when on the move.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5JrN9DrVI

>food for armies on the march,
Food for marching armies has been traditionally provided by sympathetic peasants on the marching routes, often they gave the army all they had, food, daughters, valuables.

I believe broad beans were most common, they were used in the nitrogen fixing phase of crop rotation like peas and lentils. They just need a quick boil.

thats a modern invention, like 18th century. before that armies didn't drew special rations but just ate what everybody else had.

>provided by sympathetic peasants

The army paid them, landowners and peasants alike would sell their corn for inflated prices.

yeah, i'm familiar with hardtacks and steve too. what a lad that guy is. thanks for the input. nothing like some good ol' carbs to get you going

sure, especially on enemy territory...not
plundering and foraging were the primary choice of supply for an army. Paying the locals is a rare occurrence.

>Paying the locals is a rare occurrence.
It really depends on the context, it was all the rage for colonial campaigns and Romans because they had shit the natives didn't and could make a very unfair bargain with

"The Roman army had the best commissariat and arrangements for feeding in the ancient world. It was an important agent in transmitting the Roman way of life to the provinces, and in doing so it revolutionized the economy and provided new foods. Its demands caused native populations to increase food production from subsistence farming to an agriculture that produced surpluses. On the march, it was supplied with rations of wheat and other foods, and when established in the forts it could expect regular supplies. The army created a network of contacts and an efficient transport system and it constructed roads, which allowed goods to be moved quickly throughout the empire as well as locally from fort to fort and country to town. Standard food would consist of bread, bacon, cheese, vegetables, and the lowest quality of wine. For these commodities, a fixed amount was deducted from a soldier's pay. Emperor Hadrian followed the example of his troops and in camp ate the basic food of bacon, cheese, and sour wine. A soldier could supplement these rations by buying supplies elsewhere, bu the army also supplied extra food, incluing liquamen, salt, and olive oil. The last was more than a food, for it could be used to oil joints on armor, as a lubricant for the body, and for lighting. Special rations would be issued at festivals and other occasions. Nevertheless, a camp commandant had to make sure that sufficient supplies for fuel and food must be provided at all times...Bread was a basic commodity, fresh loaves provided daily in camps or forts. Unlike Greek soldiers, the Romans did not eat barley bread. To eat this was regarded as a disgrace...Meat--beef, pork, goat, and mutton--was provided by the commissariat or by hunting wild boar, deer, hare, and fowl... Soldiers encamped near the seacoast included fish in their diet...Food could be supplemented in other ways. It might be bought from passing traders or from a shop in a vici that had been established around the camps..."

It is in case an ambush on the supply trains is successful that the legionary carries up to a week's supply of food in his pack. This is apart from the dreaded hard tack which remains once the legionary has explored the possibilities offered by his boots and shield cover as alternative diet options. In the field the conontubernium has to feed itself. Food comes from two sources. The Comissariat. Perhaps one of the most distinctive features of a Roman army in the field is how much effort has been made to ensure tht food supplies are available for the army as it progresses. Stockpiles. The general in charge will have ensured that before te first legionary sets a toe over the provincial border to enemy territory, huge stockpiles of grain and meat have been laide by to feed him all the way to his destination. Food on the march. As the philosophical quartermaster will tell you, the true purpose of lifeis to keep meat fresh. Therefore he might lay on a herd of cattle to follow the legion, providing a supply of food that transports itself, stays fresh, and also provides a handy source of rawhide, sinew ad glue. Packed meals. The legion mainly supplies the men with grain and cured meat. The grain is ground in hand mills that are carried on the mule of the contubernium, and can be baked into crude cakes, or ito a mela resembling thick porridge. A lazy troop, or one with a lot on its plate...might simply boil the grain and eat that. Forage parties. Therefore the addition of fresh beef, pork or mutton, or an unexpected dollop of vegetable fare, is extremely welcome. This food comes from the land the army is passing through...So this is there the auxiliaries earn their keep, as they work in forage parties, seeking out where the villagers have stashed their herds and bringing them back to camp to provide the soldiers with fresh meat. Other parties spread out from the line of march pillaging orchards and farmlands and coming back with fresh fruit and vegetables"

>the dreaded hard tack which remains once the legionary has explored the possibilities offered by his boots and shield cover as alternative diet options
that's pretty cheeky for a historical text

The Romans foraged during the 5 years of the Gallic Wars. A lot of that was foraging the Gauls and Germanics larders but some of it was hunting and foraging etc.

Lentils don't require any of those things. Everything you greentexted is a trait of the common bean, phaseolus vulgaris, which is a New World crop. Greeks and Romans ate lentils and fava beans, which have much quicker cooking times and don't require soaking.

Who soaks lentils though? Whole lentils are soft enough to eat after 40 minutes of cooking

Depends on the beans famalam. Remember most beans we eat nowadays are from the americas, and they need a lot of soaking and boiling to render them non toxic.

Before the 1500s however the only beans in the old world are broad beans (Mediterranean) and soy and adzuki beans in the far east (a few more species in india and africa too)

These beans require a lot less preparation, and broad beans only upset your stomach of you have favism, which, depending on your armies origin could be a factor.

This.
Salts value cane not from it being rare, but cause it’s a bitch to transport any distance.

Yeah I think it's an English mistranslation. "broad beans" aren't called bean in Latin languages.