In 1889, the Knorr instant-food company bought the license. Knorr, which is today a Unilever brand, discontinued the production of Erbswurst on December 31, 2018.
As for the fuel tablets, during my service in the Bundeswehr, for heating a single serving, we used half a tablet to ensure we didn't need to wait for the rest to fully combust and so that the stove could be packed away faster because it cooled faster.
We got stoves looking a lot like that in '98, but we also got a brick of "hexie" fuel about the size of the stove per day. A 2cm cube was plenty for two meals and two cups of tea.
We got Hexi tablets in the Australian Army as well(I think they still issue them today) and we use to break them up with the butt of the rifle into small parts for the same reason
As a former Bundeswehr, would you comment on my post about the former officer reminiscing about 'panzer platten'? IIRC he wrote something about other troops putting shoe polish on them and setting it on fire to heat water but that he never did that because he actually liked the taste.
When I was in the British Army in the late '80s into the mid '90s, we used those cookers too. They were known as hexamine cookers, or hexieblocks. The cooker was basically the same too. Ours came folded shut with a waxed cardboard box of the hexieblocks inside. At one stage I had literally hundreds of boxes of these things in my shed and used them as firelighters because you always had way more blocks than you could ever use cooking a 24 hour ration pack. Pro tip - once you've brewed your tea, keep the used teabag as they're perfect for scrubbing the soot from the hexieblocks off of your mess tin.
I absolutely agree, those little blocks are great fire starters we got them too (99') in Austria, and we used the tablets for starting the fires in the tent ovens too.
We were using Hexie right up until about 2013/14 if I remember correctly. Then it was replaced with a new type that did exactly the same thing but burned far more cleanly, faster, hotter and with very little smell. Generally a 50% improvement I would say. I also had a large quantity and one day just ended up burning the whole lot (which was foolish).
When serving in the Australian Army during the 90's we had the same stoves & fuel but since we were a Reserve infantry unit we had no mechanical transport generally so dumped the stoves & made an improvised one out of rocks or a small ration can
fun fact: ESBIT is the Backronym for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform"e.g. Erich Schumms fuel in pill-form. Works great, stinks like hell and was also used for fuling toy steam engines.
Actually still part of the German military kit. We carried those in our vehicles. I am very familiar with the kit there. Btw open the stove fully or it can collapse
Yeah I have some experience with the esbet stove, it's been a while but I remember that it should be fully open. Great reminder of some uglier times in my life..cheers K
@@sebastiangorka200 thats why it is a survival ration. Its meant to provide calories for soldiers on the march. It is not intended to be part of a long term diet. MREs tend to operate on a similar principle. Lots of salts and sugars for energy and electrolyte replacement but not a lot of proteins or vitamins. I suppose you can do a pemmican/protein bar but good god does that require you to drink a shit tone of water to process it. And water may or may not be in regular supply and therefore valuable for other things.
in my experience in the Bundeswehr it tends to tilt over more easily, i won't advice to blow out esbit. when cooling down the melted esbit cristalises into HCN. Lighting it back again you can suffer HCN poisoning, leading to brain damage, lung damage, cancer, death. For any history buff: HCN was used in some termination camps in WW2 instead of Zyklon B. Source: my former Feldwebel
When cooking on an Esbit stove you usually heat up a ration and not just water, so you need to stir constantly or your food will get burned quite quickly, as the Esbit is really REALLY hot. And said rations weigh a tad more than 8 ounces plus the mess kit gets very hot as well. All said: it is very prone to tipping over and you do not want to catch a hot mess kit full of very hot content with bare hands (When using the Esbitkocher in the field we usually wore one glove to hold on to the kit) Pro tip: make sure the handle bar is always upright so it stays cool :)
I owned an Esbit when I served in the US Army in Germany in the 80s. Great bit of kit. Small [it fit in a field jacket pocket], incredibly light, and the fuel was readily available... even at gas stations. When I served we were eating the last of the C-rations and the first of the MREs [these did not yet have the heat packs] and being able to dump your food into a canteen cup and heat it up in 15 minutes was DAMNED handy.
Like a surprising number of German product and company names, Esbit is an abbreviation. It originally stands for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform", i.e. Erich Schumm's fuel in tablet shape.
Usually Americans pronouncing German is very hard to listen to but I enjoy hearing you say "Örbswörst" again and again. Great video to showcase these rations from yesteryear
Love the show, Karl! In the mid 80's there was a train car derailment in the canyon I grew up in. One car full of cans of beer and one of cases of C-rations. I ate on those for years!
Just for cooking: Field Cooking Set has pressed marks in the Kettle. 250ml / 500ml and the first rivet in the pan is a 300ml mark. So you know how many water you need when you use "Instant" food.
BTW the hard bread is colloquially known as Panzerkeks or Panzerplatten (tank/armour cookie or tank/armour plate). Makes for a great fire starter together with some shoeshine.
Huge fan of anything with pig fat, Mausers and solid fuel stoves. the same stove I carried in my webbing back in the day. Enjoyed and now I have subscribed, cheers from Queensland.
I've read a former West German naval officer talk about their rations. He said they include a hardtack that is essentially an extra large butter cookie cooked extra hard that serves the role of an energy bar, that the troops call them 'panzer platten' (armor plates) because of how hard they are, and often use them for other purposes than eating but that he enjoyed them.
I bought a Esbit Stove and fuel tablets when I was still in the Army, specifically for FTXs. They worked great and a morale boost for cold nights when you needed something warm to drink.
On the channel townsends ( which is an 18th century channel) they have videos on how to make hardtack, pemmican, and "portable soup" wich is like the erbsvwurst.
Closest thing I've seen to hardtack in local stores is saltines, which last a while but will go rancid due to the oil in them. Usually easier to just make it. Flour, water, salt, bake, bake again, and maybe again. Kept some in my tool box at work as a last ditch snack and three years later it was still edible. Will look into the Erbswurst though, some commenters are saying its discontinued, but it cant be that hard to make.
I can confirm that Esbit pretty much keeps forever. My father has a crate of the stuff sitting in the basement that my uncle -swiped- acquired when he was a truck driver in the Bundeswehr in the early 80s. I take a hand full with me on my annual camping trip with some buddies and the stuff still works flawlessly to this day, almost 40 years later (and god knows when it was produced).
Never heard of Erbwurst before but I do have a new when purchased 1950's Esbit stove that was apparently East German Army issue. Love it and it goes where ever I go. Folded up fits in a shirt pocket with fuel tablets inside.
The British army still uses an esbit style stove but recently replaced the hexamine fuel tabs with alcohol based ones. The new tabs have less energy but don’t give off toxic fumes like hexamine does.
I bought my coworker one of those Gnomes since he is always giving me patches and such. He loves the thing! It sits proudly on his desk, at home for now but once this is over it coming to the office lol
Fun fact: Esbit is short for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform" (Erich Schumm's tablet fuel) - definitely recommended to pack the tablets airtight, because they are hygroscopic and really stink if you burn them wet.
The Swedish army rations also heavily depended on pea soup. It's been a staple food since the 1200's here, and every single blue collar restaurant still serves pea soup and pancakes every Thursday. It's traditionally eaten with a dab of mustard to give it some kick. The "Army recipe" pea soup is still sold in shops under the name "Soldatens Ärtsoppa" (the soldier's pea soup), and today it's manufactured by.... Knorr.
I still have 4 sticks. Meanwhile they are ridiculously expensive on Ebay. Some months ago I prepared it for my neighboours. All of them liked it espacially with some wiener saussages in, as I knew it from my childhood. Outdoorfans used it as a former cheap and rich meal during hillclimbing tours. A shame that Knorr closed the production place for maximising their profit.
Fun fact: The German military still uses the very same type of Esbit burner and the same cooking set. And the Erbswurst is a common item in many German supermarkets!
Hardback also called pilot biscuits or pilot bread , used to be able to buy it in bulk at Winco , you can buy it online or go to Townsends on you tube. He shows how to make it, it is basically water salt and flour baked kinda like cookies only dried completely.
The hardtack reminded me of ship's biscuit, except not riddled with vermin. (And that, in turn, caused the "lesser of two weevils" joke from _Master and Commander_ to replay in my head.)
The dishes set misses an inlay. The inlay has a little slot that matches the hook on the top part. When you grap the handle of the lower part with the same hand, you can hold everything in one hand, while you wait in line of the field kitchen.
Had those cookers in the British Army ( so I used them from 1976-2000) along with AB biscuits! Crush the "soup" mixture, and add it to the water, then at the biscuit, bring to the boils and simmer for 3-4 minutes. On a cold, wet evening prior to stand too. Warmed you up and filled your belly. We used to take oxo cubes and curry power as well, ( when available) . I miss those days!
Funny that you show this now since Knorr is not producing this stuff anymore since last year. Helped me a lot during university life on sundays being hungover...but still have a few rations kept in the basement for the very, very end of month
I live in the same city where the Erbswurst was produced until relatively recently. According to my parents and grandparents, depending on the wind the whole city smelled like that. in the 80s they heightened the smokestacks, so now you don't smell it in the city, you smell it around 25km away. You can also absolutely eat it like that, and making it yourself isn't too hard either.
I have one package of Erbswurst at home :) I was freaking out when I saw that you made a video about it. I will eat Erbswurst tomorrow for lunch. Nice regards from Germany
There is a RUclips channel called Townsends that teaches a lot of 17th to 18th century living and cooking is one of the main things they do. They have a hardtack recipe that shows how easy it is to make in large batches. It is a very simple process and they also have a recipe for the portable beef soup that Lewis and Clark carried. As a flintlock hunter, I always carry these two things in my pack. Mixed with wild greens and berrys and such (including a small fishing kit) if I find myself lost, I'm confident that I'll survive to find searchers or civilization. You should ALWAYS get familiar with the plants in your area that are good to eat and those that are poisonous.
I think Campbell's Soup has a Split Pea Soup with Bacon in a can. You can make close to the original recipe by buying the dried split peas and adding thick chopped bacon and salt to flavor it with other ingredients to how the cook made it. I bet the Infantry company field kitchens did that recipe to feed large groups of soldiers.
It's really fascinating, to see someone from a completely different country be very interested and pationate about stuff from your own country (and it's predecessors). Thanks for the video! Greetings from Kraut country.
Heard from a few buddys in the Bundeswehr that the Pick Pott is absolute shit. Is that true oris that just the normal "Alles vom Dienstherren ist scheiße" talk?
I was going to ask this question. Is the bucket/kidney mess kit still in use in Germany, Austria? Where else? I have German (alu) and Swedish (steel) type and do use them, was issued Brit ones in 90s which are ok but generally prefer the bucket type. I found out recently us Brits had the bucket/kidney type for more than 100 years til 1930s. Modern rations dictate our choice but I favour the bucket + lid + handle for processing food, water, carrying coals etc. Our Crusader mug system and bottle + plastic mug is great for short term. Personally.
Erbswurst is sadly unobtanium in the US at this point since it was discontinued by the manufacturer and had some conflicts with FDA food import regulations. Fortunately, there are clone recipes floating around the internet for those who like this idea
I lived in Winnipeg Canada there’s a very large Mennonite population there. A bunch of the old guys where Yatzy‘s:) The old guys would make the soup on site, but they made it more like a porridge. With the hard bread. Dried hunter Langer sausage on the side . They would also a drink South American Tea Out of a bull horn with a metal straw. When I knew the most of them they where in their 60s. And they would haul concrete forms like nobody’s business.
If you look up the channel _Townsends_ they have a number of videos showing how to make hardtack and other survival foods. Because in the 17th century, most food was survival food.
With nordic hardtack or "knäckebröd" you have to be bit more careful with it's storage. It has been baked form a sour rye dough and it can go "off" if stored improperly. You can eat it even it's "off" state but the taste is bit weird. In correct conditions it will last for years, but i recomend taking a nibble every now and again to check if it's still good.
Very nice presentation. There are quite nice recipes out there with Erbswurst, made by soldiers for soldiers, for example "Hühnchen Erbswurst" (Chicken a la peasoup), I'm really trying to remember the title of the book I've read it in some years ago. That chicken recipe kinda stuck witrh me. I for myself hord "Panzerkekse" everywhere in my house, (some day my wife found a pack in the wardrobe) they are the german standard military cookie, I absolutely love them, the older recipe was much better though, but harder to come by these days. "Hoarding" isn't the right word, I'm actually constantly gnawing them and have to top up my supply regularely. Then I cannot see them for a month or two and the circle starts from the beginning. Just love them.
Some canned and generally long storage food expires really only due to regulations. But when it is liquid or semi liquid and stored in plastic, plastic will slowly leach into the food, until it passes a safe amount. This is e.g. why most plastic bottled drinks expire long before they really spoil.
Great message at the end! Happy to see videos from you, and Ian as well, both of you guys always keep me entertained and more importantly, knowledgeable.
Strange, survival rations that were designed during the hard days of warfare to keep troops alive are still viable. Thanks Karl, I always like your interesting and diverse content. Not everything has to be about firearms. That looks like a good kit to have around in case things get really bad.
Great video, Karl. More videos along the lines of this one, the recent cavalry carbine comparison, and the historical vignettes you bring us would be most welcome. Stay well, stay safe, and bon appetit!
Always had a stick of it ready, when I was in University. It´s also great on hikes. If you bring the powder-water mixture up to a boil for a minute or so it will thicken up a bit.
In 1889, the Knorr instant-food company bought the license. Knorr, which is today a Unilever brand, discontinued the production of Erbswurst on December 31, 2018.
InRangeTV 😢 guess I’ll starve when my looted food runs out then...
We still use this stuff at home, I quite like it and it is an easy snack when you have little time to cook
Some Google fu turned up directions on DIY erbswurst. www.meatsandsausages.com/sausages-by-country/german-sausages/erbswurst
Damn! Looks like just the thing for hurricane rations.
Just wanted to comment that they discontinued the erbswurst, very sad!
We still used Esbit cookers in 2001 during my time in the Austrian Army.
Yup.. issued in UK military rations up until thr 1990s when I was in. Not sure if they still are. My son uses an esbit cooker when he's in the field.
We have one at home for bike trips
It's still used in the Bundeswehr
hello there big fan
Immer noch
As for the fuel tablets, during my service in the Bundeswehr, for heating a single serving, we used half a tablet to ensure we didn't need to wait for the rest to fully combust and so that the stove could be packed away faster because it cooled faster.
We got stoves looking a lot like that in '98, but we also got a brick of "hexie" fuel about the size of the stove per day. A 2cm cube was plenty for two meals and two cups of tea.
Problem is it's a bugger to clean the base of the mess kit afterwards.
We got Hexi tablets in the Australian Army as well(I think they still issue them today) and we use to break them up with the butt of the rifle into small parts for the same reason
As a former Bundeswehr, would you comment on my post about the former officer reminiscing about 'panzer platten'? IIRC he wrote something about other troops putting shoe polish on them and setting it on fire to heat water but that he never did that because he actually liked the taste.
Baptiste Siegfried Scherer Thanks for the info,i salute you from Romania.
When I was in the British Army in the late '80s into the mid '90s, we used those cookers too. They were known as hexamine cookers, or hexieblocks. The cooker was basically the same too. Ours came folded shut with a waxed cardboard box of the hexieblocks inside. At one stage I had literally hundreds of boxes of these things in my shed and used them as firelighters because you always had way more blocks than you could ever use cooking a 24 hour ration pack. Pro tip - once you've brewed your tea, keep the used teabag as they're perfect for scrubbing the soot from the hexieblocks off of your mess tin.
I absolutely agree, those little blocks are great fire starters we got them too (99') in Austria, and we used the tablets for starting the fires in the tent ovens too.
We were using Hexie right up until about 2013/14 if I remember correctly. Then it was replaced with a new type that did exactly the same thing but burned far more cleanly, faster, hotter and with very little smell. Generally a 50% improvement I would say. I also had a large quantity and one day just ended up burning the whole lot (which was foolish).
Hey! I was never told the tea bag trick! Must try it. :-)
Yeah they’re still using those stoves and tablets
When serving in the Australian Army during the 90's we had the same stoves & fuel but since we were a Reserve infantry unit we had no mechanical transport generally so dumped the stoves & made an improvised one out of rocks or a small ration can
I've noticed a serious lack of hissing in this video.
Nice!
And a serious lack if trays
Lets get this out onto a t- - . . . Hey! Nice Hi- -. . . STEEEVEEEEEEE!!!
Nice!
No glass taps? How does he know its liquid?
And for dessert, some Scho-ka-Kola
It's become my go-to chocolate because if these guys!
I was going to say the same thing, but decided to read down the comments first. I'm having a wedge right now.
I was thinking pervitin for every meal but fair enough.
@@Ecocristero3 il have some, Please
@@erzherzogalbrecht8504 We'll take my entire supply and charge at Moscow, who's in?
fun fact: ESBIT is the Backronym for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform"e.g. Erich Schumms fuel in pill-form. Works great, stinks like hell and was also used for fuling toy steam engines.
The ERBSWURST is gone, since 01.01.2019 the production is ended. Sadly there ist till now nothing for a replace ti.
Probieren Sie schwedische Erbsensuppe.
Perhaps you can find Erbsensuppe bags from Knorr or Maggi company.
@@dmg4415
Vergiss den " punch" nicht.
Eller vad det nu kan heta på tyska.
Fast nu för tiden ska man väl smörja in händerna med den.😆
Get ready for the what would Karl do ration kit from Brownells
Look up the recipe. Pretty easy to replicate
Today in "Kochen mit Karl: Die herzhafte Erbswurst! Lecker!"
(Cooking with Karl: The hearty Erbswurst! Delicious!)
YES! lol XD
Sehr gut!
Mitt Keks! Spitze!
Örbswörst* :D
feels like i've seen this in wolfenstein.
Well as seeing as we have original pieces of hardtack that's edible from the civil war I believe it's a great long term food
Honey lasts forever too
Nice.
@@rhodesianwojak2095 since it is antibacerial, you can put it on wounds too!
Actually still part of the German military kit. We carried those in our vehicles. I am very familiar with the kit there. Btw open the stove fully or it can collapse
Yeah I have some experience with the esbet stove, it's been a while but I remember that it should be fully open. Great reminder of some uglier times in my life..cheers K
Yeah, saw it half opened and flinched by the looks of it.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
History: This is what is your ancestors did and it is still practical.
University Students: Angry ramen noises
@@sebastiangorka200 what proof do you have?
@@sebastiangorka200 at least it's natural...
Gonna call bullshit on that one. Peas, bits of bacon, and hardtack is infinitely better than that extruded sawdust paste.
@@sebastiangorka200 thats why it is a survival ration. Its meant to provide calories for soldiers on the march. It is not intended to be part of a long term diet. MREs tend to operate on a similar principle. Lots of salts and sugars for energy and electrolyte replacement but not a lot of proteins or vitamins. I suppose you can do a pemmican/protein bar but good god does that require you to drink a shit tone of water to process it. And water may or may not be in regular supply and therefore valuable for other things.
@WiffleballTony I have yet to find a Uni student who actually plays Fortnite....
Sadly Knorr discontinued the Erbswurst :(
Not even two years ago. But well, its not like this is something that would make them a lot of revenue
Whaaaaat
reverend1989 if only they held out for another two years
For 129 years in production, that's a track record. I liked this product for backpacking bicycle tours + camping - sad.
@@brokenspine66 I was just thinking that it would be so nice to have soup on that form factor for touring.
Out of my own Bundeswehr experience I can tell you to always open the Esbitkocher all the way, ask me how I know the semi open stove is a bad idea :)
How do you know the semi-open stove is a bad idea?
Yes, I too am curious about what it is that you know, and how you know it
Probably lit something on fire or his kit tipped off and burned him with hot water. Haha.
in my experience in the Bundeswehr it tends to tilt over more easily, i won't advice to blow out esbit. when cooling down the melted esbit cristalises into HCN. Lighting it back again you can suffer HCN poisoning, leading to brain damage, lung damage, cancer, death. For any history buff: HCN was used in some termination camps in WW2 instead of Zyklon B.
Source: my former Feldwebel
When cooking on an Esbit stove you usually heat up a ration and not just water, so you need to stir constantly or your food will get burned quite quickly, as the Esbit is really REALLY hot. And said rations weigh a tad more than 8 ounces plus the mess kit gets very hot as well. All said: it is very prone to tipping over and you do not want to catch a hot mess kit full of very hot content with bare hands (When using the Esbitkocher in the field we usually wore one glove to hold on to the kit) Pro tip: make sure the handle bar is always upright so it stays cool :)
I owned an Esbit when I served in the US Army in Germany in the 80s. Great bit of kit. Small [it fit in a field jacket pocket], incredibly light, and the fuel was readily available... even at gas stations.
When I served we were eating the last of the C-rations and the first of the MREs [these did not yet have the heat packs] and being able to dump your food into a canteen cup and heat it up in 15 minutes was DAMNED handy.
Still waiting on that Steve1989 collaboration
Keep waiting.
"It expired two years ago"....Steve thinks "anything under 20 doesn't count as expired"
Same.
Can wait for Steve to do Campbell's soup and McDonald's in 20 years.
@@InrangeTv lol!
Like a surprising number of German product and company names, Esbit is an abbreviation. It originally stands for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform", i.e. Erich Schumm's fuel in tablet shape.
Usually Americans pronouncing German is very hard to listen to but I enjoy hearing you say "Örbswörst" again and again. Great video to showcase these rations from yesteryear
InrangeTV make some of the best damn content there is. I would very much like this as a series, there aren’t much videos on German rations
Love the show, Karl! In the mid 80's there was a train car derailment in the canyon I grew up in. One car full of cans of beer and one of cases of C-rations. I ate on those for years!
I really dig the InField-kitchen videos. Offers you a topical, yet broader net to bring in new viewers with as well.
Haha! 2:35 "Örbswörst" (love you Carl, greeting from the country of the Örbswörst)
Just for cooking: Field Cooking Set has pressed marks in the Kettle. 250ml / 500ml and the first rivet in the pan is a 300ml mark.
So you know how many water you need when you use "Instant" food.
BTW the hard bread is colloquially known as Panzerkeks or Panzerplatten (tank/armour cookie or tank/armour plate).
Makes for a great fire starter together with some shoeshine.
"thank you, apocalypse gnome!" 😁
Huge fan of anything with pig fat, Mausers and solid fuel stoves. the same stove I carried in my webbing back in the day. Enjoyed and now I have subscribed, cheers from Queensland.
I've read a former West German naval officer talk about their rations. He said they include a hardtack that is essentially an extra large butter cookie cooked extra hard that serves the role of an energy bar, that the troops call them 'panzer platten' (armor plates) because of how hard they are, and often use them for other purposes than eating but that he enjoyed them.
I bought a Esbit Stove and fuel tablets when I was still in the Army, specifically for FTXs. They worked great and a morale boost for cold nights when you needed something warm to drink.
On the channel townsends ( which is an 18th century channel) they have videos on how to make hardtack, pemmican, and "portable soup" wich is like the erbsvwurst.
Thank you Carl. You guys stay safe & healthy as well. -Proud Patreon supporter since 2015.
Closest thing I've seen to hardtack in local stores is saltines, which last a while but will go rancid due to the oil in them. Usually easier to just make it. Flour, water, salt, bake, bake again, and maybe again. Kept some in my tool box at work as a last ditch snack and three years later it was still edible. Will look into the Erbswurst though, some commenters are saying its discontinued, but it cant be that hard to make.
Sailor brand crackers....they last forever.
I can confirm that Esbit pretty much keeps forever. My father has a crate of the stuff sitting in the basement that my uncle -swiped- acquired when he was a truck driver in the Bundeswehr in the early 80s. I take a hand full with me on my annual camping trip with some buddies and the stuff still works flawlessly to this day, almost 40 years later (and god knows when it was produced).
Never heard of Erbwurst before but I do have a new when purchased 1950's Esbit stove that was apparently East German Army issue. Love it and it goes where ever I go. Folded up fits in a shirt pocket with fuel tablets inside.
The British army still uses an esbit style stove but recently replaced the hexamine fuel tabs with alcohol based ones. The new tabs have less energy but don’t give off toxic fumes like hexamine does.
I bought my coworker one of those Gnomes since he is always giving me patches and such. He loves the thing! It sits proudly on his desk, at home for now but once this is over it coming to the office lol
WarhoundXLV it was called Chernobyl gnome on some such on Amazon. It was cheap but worth it since he does a lot for me *EDIT* :Link below
@@warhound45 It's on amazon, you can find it by searching for gasmask gnome.
Fun fact: Esbit is short for "Erich Schumms Brennstoff in Tablettenform" (Erich Schumm's tablet fuel) - definitely recommended to pack the tablets airtight, because they are hygroscopic and really stink if you burn them wet.
The Swedish army rations also heavily depended on pea soup. It's been a staple food since the 1200's here, and every single blue collar restaurant still serves pea soup and pancakes every Thursday. It's traditionally eaten with a dab of mustard to give it some kick.
The "Army recipe" pea soup is still sold in shops under the name "Soldatens Ärtsoppa" (the soldier's pea soup), and today it's manufactured by.... Knorr.
Thanks for your well-wishes Karl -- thanks for your leadership and entertainment big dog
I still have 4 sticks. Meanwhile they are ridiculously expensive on Ebay. Some months ago I prepared it for my neighboours. All of them liked it espacially with some wiener saussages in, as I knew it from my childhood. Outdoorfans used it as a former cheap and rich meal during hillclimbing tours. A shame that Knorr closed the production place for maximising their profit.
Well, thats what companys are there for
Fun fact: The German military still uses the very same type of Esbit burner and the same cooking set. And the Erbswurst is a common item in many German supermarkets!
The stove and mess kit where used basically unchanged in the west german army at least into the 1990s. Still works and useful in close combat...
Hardback also called pilot biscuits or pilot bread , used to be able to buy it in bulk at Winco , you can buy it online or go to Townsends on you tube. He shows how to make it, it is basically water salt and flour baked kinda like cookies only dried completely.
Thanks, Karl. I learned something from you today as always.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Mostly, I lurk and keep quiet. The lives of those soldiers, in all conflicts, is fascinating to me. Thanks, Karl. Kurt//@@InrangeTv
Definitely adding that to my backpacking kit and cupboard. Awesome video!
I just looked at the Google Trends page for Erbswurst. This video caused a giant spike over the week.
I love the quality history you guys bring to the platform
Thank you Karl..I look forward to trying some of that. Please Stay Well...
The hardtack reminded me of ship's biscuit, except not riddled with vermin. (And that, in turn, caused the "lesser of two weevils" joke from _Master and Commander_ to replay in my head.)
Probably more nutrients in the weevils than the hard tack biscuit lol
The dishes set misses an inlay. The inlay has a little slot that matches the hook on the top part. When you grap the handle of the lower part with the same hand, you can hold everything in one hand, while you wait in line of the field kitchen.
Had those cookers in the British Army ( so I used them from 1976-2000) along with AB biscuits! Crush the "soup" mixture, and add it to the water, then at the biscuit, bring to the boils and simmer for 3-4 minutes. On a cold, wet evening prior to stand too. Warmed you up and filled your belly. We used to take oxo cubes and curry power as well, ( when available) . I miss those days!
Funny that you show this now since Knorr is not producing this stuff anymore since last year. Helped me a lot during university life on sundays being hungover...but still have a few rations kept in the basement for the very, very end of month
I live in the same city where the Erbswurst was produced until relatively recently. According to my parents and grandparents, depending on the wind the whole city smelled like that. in the 80s they heightened the smokestacks, so now you don't smell it in the city, you smell it around 25km away. You can also absolutely eat it like that, and making it yourself isn't too hard either.
I have one package of Erbswurst at home :) I was freaking out when I saw that you made a video about it. I will eat Erbswurst tomorrow for lunch.
Nice regards from Germany
Fantastic vid ty! I love survival programs, pls make more.
I have one of those stoves that I got in the Boy Scouts, made for the BSA, back in the early 80's.
One of my new favorite videos
Thanks for the idea,i’ll get all the neccessary stuff as soon as possible.
There is a RUclips channel called Townsends that teaches a lot of 17th to 18th century living and cooking is one of the main things they do. They have a hardtack recipe that shows how easy it is to make in large batches. It is a very simple process and they also have a recipe for the portable beef soup that Lewis and Clark carried. As a flintlock hunter, I always carry these two things in my pack. Mixed with wild greens and berrys and such (including a small fishing kit) if I find myself lost, I'm confident that I'll survive to find searchers or civilization. You should ALWAYS get familiar with the plants in your area that are good to eat and those that are poisonous.
I think Campbell's Soup has a Split Pea Soup with Bacon in a can. You can make close to the original recipe by buying the dried split peas and adding thick chopped bacon and salt to flavor it with other ingredients to how the cook made it. I bet the Infantry company field kitchens did that recipe to feed large groups of soldiers.
It's really fascinating, to see someone from a completely different country be very interested and pationate about stuff from your own country (and it's predecessors). Thanks for the video! Greetings from Kraut country.
We still use the same Esbit Stove and Mess-Kit in the Austrian Army.
Same in Germany
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
We have a mess-kit based on that same design still in use in Finland :)
Heard from a few buddys in the Bundeswehr that the Pick Pott is absolute shit. Is that true oris that just the normal "Alles vom Dienstherren ist scheiße" talk?
I was going to ask this question. Is the bucket/kidney mess kit still in use in Germany, Austria? Where else? I have German (alu) and Swedish (steel) type and do use them, was issued Brit ones in 90s which are ok but generally prefer the bucket type. I found out recently us Brits had the bucket/kidney type for more than 100 years til 1930s. Modern rations dictate our choice but I favour the bucket + lid + handle for processing food, water, carrying coals etc. Our Crusader mug system and bottle + plastic mug is great for short term. Personally.
you don’t do food often on the channel but I always enjoy the content.
Great content as always !
Such a divers content makes Inrange great provider of information. Keep the good work and stay safe.
Love the content Karl!
Erbswurst is sadly unobtanium in the US at this point since it was discontinued by the manufacturer and had some conflicts with FDA food import regulations. Fortunately, there are clone recipes floating around the internet for those who like this idea
The production of "Erbswurst" was stopped on 31. December of 2018 due to low demand. Its now hard to get anywhere.
At 4:30 you get the authentic experience of the allies flying overhead while cooking rations!
Quite apt at a time like this, thank you Karl.
I lived in Winnipeg Canada there’s a very large Mennonite population there. A bunch of the old guys where Yatzy‘s:) The old guys would make the soup on site, but they made it more like a porridge. With the hard bread. Dried hunter Langer sausage on the side . They would also a drink South American Tea Out of a bull horn with a metal straw. When I knew the most of them they where in their 60s. And they would haul concrete forms like nobody’s business.
Thank you Karl. This was fun.
Absolutely LOVE this type of content!!! Thank You, Karl!!!
Dunno if you know- Esbits need to be flipped 180° and they work properly (the spiky bits dig in to soil/ ground to keep the pot stable)
If you look up the channel _Townsends_ they have a number of videos showing how to make hardtack and other survival foods. Because in the 17th century, most food was survival food.
With nordic hardtack or "knäckebröd" you have to be bit more careful with it's storage. It has been baked form a sour rye dough and it can go "off" if stored improperly. You can eat it even it's "off" state but the taste is bit weird. In correct conditions it will last for years, but i recomend taking a nibble every now and again to check if it's still good.
I know this won't get as many likes as other videos but I appreciate this kind of content; fascinating.
Very nice presentation. There are quite nice recipes out there with Erbswurst, made by soldiers for soldiers, for example "Hühnchen Erbswurst" (Chicken a la peasoup), I'm really trying to remember the title of the book I've read it in some years ago. That chicken recipe kinda stuck witrh me. I for myself hord "Panzerkekse" everywhere in my house, (some day my wife found a pack in the wardrobe) they are the german standard military cookie, I absolutely love them, the older recipe was much better though, but harder to come by these days. "Hoarding" isn't the right word, I'm actually constantly gnawing them and have to top up my supply regularely. Then I cannot see them for a month or two and the circle starts from the beginning. Just love them.
One thing also you could do to thicken the soup is crush a bit of the hard tack and throw it in the soup, might make it a bit easier to eat
Some canned and generally long storage food expires really only due to regulations. But when it is liquid or semi liquid and stored in plastic, plastic will slowly leach into the food, until it passes a safe amount. This is e.g. why most plastic bottled drinks expire long before they really spoil.
The commentary section is now under german speakers reign.
So, wer aus Deutschland, Österreich oder Schweiz da? :-D
Ein ganzer Haufen! ich bin immer wieder überrascht wie viele bei InRange oder beim MG Jesus unterwegs sind.
Ich bin aus Schweizer
Zwei KAR98 (lange oder die kurtz) bitte. Unt Ich bin ein Englander :P. Wo ist der MG Jesus und die französische version?
Deutschland. Mecklenburg un genau zu sein. Grüße ausm Norden
Moin
Cheers Karl. Nice vid!
Thanks for the broadcast. This is truly "Food for thought & contemplation".
Both the cooking set and the field stove are still issued in basic training in Germany
now this is a cooking show i can get behind
When I was a kid Santa brought me a small table top steam engine that used small Esbit tablets as fuel. I think it was German made. Lot's of fun :-)
That stuff is real easy to make at home. Made some years ago, and now that you reminded me time to go at it again.
Thanks!
Karl, thank you for the historical content, always one of the best bits of this channel. I love the food aspect too.
do more of this please , it gives a lot of context to the gun vidios
Nice and very informative 👍👍
It would appear that Knorrs has stopped production in January ‘19 ☹️
Erbswurst might be gone, but hard tack is still commercially available at least in Alaska as “pilot bread”. Just bought a bunch today.
Great message at the end! Happy to see videos from you, and Ian as well, both of you guys always keep me entertained and more importantly, knowledgeable.
Well made pea soup is liquid happiness in winter.
Hardtack best to be crumbled and mixed with the soup. Thickens it back up quite nicely.
@heldgop But then you use up more of the tabs and still have the dry hardtack. Mixing the two solves both issues.
The German "Knorr" company announces in Dec 2018, they discontinue after 129 years the production of the "Erbswurst"
Strange, survival rations that were designed during the hard days of warfare to keep troops alive are still viable. Thanks Karl, I always like your interesting and diverse content. Not everything has to be about firearms. That looks like a good kit to have around in case things get really bad.
you can use multiple or less Esbit fuel tabs to increase the cooking time and control the heat
Great video, Karl. More videos along the lines of this one, the recent cavalry carbine comparison, and the historical vignettes you bring us would be most welcome. Stay well, stay safe, and bon appetit!
Always had a stick of it ready, when I was in University. It´s also great on hikes.
If you bring the powder-water mixture up to a boil for a minute or so it will thicken up a bit.
Can't find a negative comment anywhere. I love this channel.