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A French WW2 Soldier's Meal

Donnie
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Reconstructed from documented French military ration components and the civilian ration system of Occupied France, 1940 to 1944
Le menu complet:
La soupe au lard et riz — rice soup with smoked bacon and onionLes rutabagas bouillis — boiled rutabaga Du pain — French bread, a baguette or country loafUne ration de vin rouge — a shot glass of rough red wine, le pinard
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings: 2

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IngredientsMethodVideoNotes
Donnie Dodson

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Ingredients
  

For la soupe au lard et riz:
  • 150 g lardons fumés or thick cut smoked bacon cut into small pieces — lard fumé is the documented basis of the French military soupe
  • 1 medium onion oignon, diced
  • ½ cup riz blanc white rice
  • 1 litre cold water
  • Salt and black pepper — sel et poivre
  • Fresh parsley persil, to garnish if available
For les rutabagas bouillis:
  • 2 medium rutabagas les rutabagas, peeled and cut into rough chunks
  • Cold salted water to cover
  • Salt
  • A small amount of butter or margarine if available une noix de beurre
For serving:
  • Du pain a good French baguette or country bread loaf, as much as you want
  • Une ration de vin rouge a small glass of rough red wine, the rougher the better for historical accuracy

Instructions
 

Make la soupe au lard et riz

  1. Place the lardons or diced smoked bacon in a cold heavy-bottomed pot. No oil. Bring the heat up to medium-low and render the bacon slowly for 8 to 10 minutes until the fat has run and the pieces are beginning to colour at the edges. Do not drain the fat. It is your entire flavour base.
  2. Add the diced onion to the rendered bacon and its fat. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes until the onion is completely soft and lightly golden. The onion absorbs the smoky bacon fat and will perfume the entire soup.
  3. Add the cold water directly to the pot with the bacon, fat and onion. Bring slowly to a simmer over medium heat. Add the white rice and stir to combine. Season with salt and black pepper, remembering that the smoked bacon is already salty. Simmer gently for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is completely cooked and has thickened the broth slightly. The finished soup should be somewhere between a thick broth and a stew, exactly the register that French military cooks were aiming for when they made their version of la soupe in the field.
  4. Taste and adjust salt. Scatter fresh parsley over the top if you have it.

Boil the rutabagas

  1. Place the peeled and chunked rutabaga pieces in a pot and cover completely with cold salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until completely tender throughout when pierced with a knife. Drain well and return to the dry pot for a moment over low heat to drive off excess moisture. Add a small amount of butter or margarine if available, season with salt and serve immediately.
  2. Rutabaga holds heat well and does not need to be served immediately at peak temperature. It will remain edible at room temperature for considerably longer than potatoes, which is presumably one of the reasons it was used as a substitute.

Assemble the meal

  1. Serve the soupe in a deep bowl. Place the rutabagas alongside on the same plate or in a separate small dish. Provide the baguette or country bread torn into pieces for dunking in the soup. Pour le pinard, the wine, into a small glass. Eat the soup while it is hot, dunk the bread into it, and drink the wine alongside rather than before or after.
  2. This is the French soldier's meal. Simple, warm, smoking faintly of bacon fat, with rough wine and good bread alongside. By the standards of the other WW2 ration recreations on this channel it is the best meal of the series. That tells you something specific about French military food culture that no amount of historical analysis could communicate as directly.

Video

Notes

  • The rice stigma is real and documented but the soup is better with it than without it. The rice provides exactly the body that makes this a satisfying meal rather than a thin broth. French soldiers complained about it as inferior because they wanted potatoes. They were not wrong that potatoes would have been better. They were not entirely right that rice was a disgrace. In the soup, it works.
 
  • Do not use good wine for the pinard. This is one of the few recipes on this channel where quality is specifically inappropriate. Cheap, rough, acidic red wine is the correct historical choice and produces the correct flavour in context. A rough table wine from any Southern European region is appropriate.
 
  • The rutabaga improves significantly with more butter than historical accuracy permits. A generous amount of butter, a pinch of nutmeg and a good seasoning of salt and pepper produces boiled rutabaga that is actually worth eating. Historical accuracy produces boiled rutabaga that explains why an 86-year-old Frenchwoman has refused to cook it again for the last 75 years. Make both versions and decide which one you prefer. You already know which one she prefers.

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