Why Was Army Food So Bad? 2,000 Years of Military Rations

Why was army food so bad for 2,000 years? Private Why bit into a Civil War hardtack cracker to find out. He is now missing a tooth. From Roman buccellatum (bread baked twice) to Ming China's bread necklaces, Mongol milk paste, Royal Navy biscuits full of weevils, the first tin cans (and the can opener that came 48 years later), Valley Forge firecake, Civil War hardtack, Prussian pea sausage, pemmican, bully beef, Spam and the modern MRE, this is the history of military rations, and the one enemy every army had to beat first: time. Which army ration would you try? Tell us in the comments! Chapters: 0:00 The Tooth Breaker: hardtack 1:09 The Real Enemy Was Time 2:05 Rome: Bread Baked Twice 2:58 Asia: Necklaces, Ropes and Milk Paste 4:25 At Sea: Biscuits With Passengers 5:39 France and Russia: The Can and the Long Winter 7:41 America: Firecake and Hardtack 9:10 Germany and Canada: Instant Soup and Pemmican 10:42 The World Wars: Bully Beef and the "Second Front" 11:39 Today: The MRE, and the Answer Sources: U.S. National Park Service (Manassas), Quote Investigator, Imperium Romanum, China Daily, Marco Polo "The Travels", Royal Museums Greenwich, Just Collecting, Wikipedia (Nicolas Appert, French invasion of Russia, Erbswurst, Bully beef, MRE), America Comes Alive, World History Encyclopedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Russia Beyond, Defense Logistics Agency. #militaryhistory #foodhistory #history #hardtack #mre #militaryrations #ww2 #civilwar #ancientrome #napoleon #animatedhistory #privatewhy