165 Is This Enough Food to Feed an Army? & What Were They Thinking?

165 Is This Enough Food to Feed an Army? & What Were They Thinking?

From The History of American Food by Margaret Hardin

April 8, 2026 · 30 min · Season 5

About this episode

This episode explores the challenges of military food planning during the 1800s, particularly in relation to cooking for large groups.

I am a producer on an Emmy Nominated Documentary. Check it out here: Women's Work - The Untold Story of America's Female Farmers The Emmy Nomination!!!!! Why are military staffs so bad at predicting war length? And when they do boy-oh-boy does that mean things are going to go poorly for the people in charge of planning food. It goes even worse, when nobody on staff has cooked Gumbo for 80. Come listen to all the pitfalls facing the people planning for war food in the middle of the the 1800's. But also a whole bunch of links. A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - the source documents for the Donkey Problem The Charge of the Light Brigade - that catchy verse that keeps getting people killed for dumb reasons Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com Threads: @THoAFood Instagram: @THoAFood & some other socials... @THoAFood

People in this episode

Host: Margaret Hardin

Topics covered

  • military food planning
  • historical cooking
  • Gumbo
  • 19th century
  • war logistics
  • female farmers

Keywords

  • military food
  • Gumbo
  • 19th century cooking
  • war logistics
  • female farmers
  • Emmy nomination
  • historical food

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Women's Work - The Untold Story of America's Female Farmers, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, The Charge of the Light Brigade

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