EXPLORERS’ DIET

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1929, Page 3

EXPLORERS’ DIET

COOKING PROBLEMS Aff 30 BELOW ZERO.

INGENIOUS STOVE.

CONVERTING SNOW INTO SOUP

[Cooking and food problems gonerally with the thermometer 30 to o" degrees below hero have taxed the ingenuity of Commander Byrd and his fellow-explorers in the Antarctic. ■ n iVie following article Russell Owen, special correspondent with the expedition, tells how difficulties have been overcome, and a well-balanced diet u • ranged for all.]

LI T’TLE AMER i(1 A, (A ll taretiej.),

October 1

The most important thing on the trail is food, and the greatest trail problem is to carry enough food so as to give a well-balanced and sufficient ration.

Too often the rations carried by polar explorers have been deficient in quantity or in nutritive value, for exposure and hard work in low temperatures quickly reduce men’s stamina and if their food runs low they wear out quickly. If a tragedy does not result, it : s only after the greatest suffering that they manage to regain their base.

The food for use oil A.the trail hi . members iff the. Byrd! expedition has been selected after a careiitT study of ;tliO; rations used by former expeditions and a careful inquiry as to the value (if -various kinds of concentrated foods It gives each man a daily ration of . about. thirty-six ounces, or app. <l- - 500 calories a day, or 1200 .pounds for six men for ninety days. It consists of - pemmican, biscuits, butter, peanut blitter, bacon, concentrated .soup, oatmeal, sugar, powdered milk, cocoa, malted milk tea, salt, and chocolate.

The pemmican was made in Denmark, and is the same kind as used by Amundsen. The biscuits are in them selves a good ration, as they contain many things. The concentrated soup comes in sausage form, and has. long been the standard form, for the German armies, and has been used before in polar regions. A lemon powder which contains t?ie important vitamin C is also an im- * porta fit part of the diet because of its anti-scorbutic properties. ! '

COOKING PROBLEMS WITH ( ; MERCURY BELOW ZERO.

Thg .meals on'the trail are cooked in a stove which is a modification ol Dr. Nansen’s famous cooker, and which lyas; made by Master Technical Sergeant Victor Czegka. : It ..is called the Nansen-Czegica Cooker, and will eejok a meat for six men. easily. ItTs r built around a Twoburner primus stove which burns gasoline.

It' consists of atcentre Anver, the burners, which is .Riled with snow.'VThe heat passes up the sides of the centre pot between it and a ring pot until stopped by a top pot, which acts as a cover and also contains snow. After hitting the bottom of this top. pot, the heat passes over and down the outside of the-ring Rot and out'at the bottom V)V tile choker! 'Tt' will hold twenty-one ■quarts'; . " V

-''‘‘This 'booker vims' proved very successful When tested in a temperature j of thirty degrees below zero Fahren- ! heit. , in the centre pot was,; melted in sevfen minutes, and began to’ boil at the end of twelve minytes. This represe 11 Led J ahout a third of nf pot of water, hut by the time the water in the centre pot was hot, enought water. had accumulated in the top and ring; pots to be drained off through spigots j and used for filling the centre pot. I

When camp is made for the night the stove is filled with snow and started. When the water in the centra pot lias boiled, the concentrated soup and pemmican are put in and dissolved and heated. This makes a thick nutritious soup.

When that is finished, it is taken off and another centre pot is put in place and more water put into it to make tea. By the time the soup is eaten the tea is ready. Then the first centre pot is put back

and oatmeal is put in it. As soon is it begins to boil it is taken off and

put . into a vacuum jug and' by next/ morning it is thoroughly cooked, saving time and fuel.

A DAY’S ANTARCTIC MENU. At breakfast oatmeal is eaten with milk made from milk powder, and then tea is made and put into the vacuum jug to be used at the noonday meal. The noon lunch consists of a piece ot cold pemmican, a cracker or two, and a piece of chocolate. The evening drink will probably be malted milk or elmlate, instead of tea, most of the time

The hulk of this ration is of course, pemmican, biscuit, tea, and sugar which are the most necessary items the others being added for variety, with the exception of the lemon powder, which has a distinct value. It can' be best used in the tea.

There will lie little change from the soup and oatmeal rations most of the time, although biscuit or bacon can he added to the soup, and the ingenuity of men on the trail in getting a new combination df food sometimes produce surprising results. Almost anything new tastes good after a month or two of the same diet.

Tt is also possible, of course, th it some fresh' seal meat might he taken into the geological base by aeroplane on a base-laying flight.

The coarser food is packed in hags, each of which contains a daily ration

and the lighter foods are packed m hags, eacli of which holds a week’s ration. By packing the food in this way it can be stowed securely in the canvas tanks on the sledges, ana only i, small amount need he taken out caen night for use, thus cutting down the time used in breaking camp in the morning, which has always been » 'tugbear to explorers. |