History of American Military Rations

Tonight I’m going to focus primarily on the food rations of the land forces instead of the Navy and later Air Force. Those 2 branches of the military are the best fed branches in the armed forces today, especially if you are submariner. They eat like kings. That wasn’t always true as the Navy historically was the worst fed lot due to the nature of sailing vessels and the time they spent at sea with often little fresh food and certainly not much storage and no refrigeration. The major hurdles of combat were the toughest to overcome for our land forces and the problems and improvements over the last 200+ years have primarily been how to feed combat troops and that is what I will speak on tonight.

Napoleon Bonaparte said that an army travels on its stomach and we will see that it most certainly does. An army that is not adequately fed is not an effective fighting force. Hunger and malnutrition lead to disease that can decimate a force’s strength more than combat casualties can.
Often battles have been lost because one of the armies was suffering from the ill effects of hunger. A weary, hungry soldier is not a good soldier. But there have also been instances, particularly in George Washington’s army where hunger was overcome and battles won despite the odds. Washington’s Continental Army suffered many horrible losses due to the fact that it was next to impossible to feed the number of soldiers he had on hand. The winter at Valley Forge is a prime example of this. 12,000 Soldiers encamped at Valley Forge during the winter of 1775-1776. Over 2000 died that winter due to disease, starvation and the cold. The animals fared no better with hundreds of horses dying from starvation.

In Ernest Hemingway’s autobiographical novel of World War One, A Farewell to Arms, he writes a dialog between 2 characters:

“It is very bad for the soldiers to be short of food. Have you ever noticed the difference it makes in the way you think?” “Yes, I said. It can’t win a war, but it can lose one.”

Because of this very fact, the provisioning of our military has taken more of a priority in the 20th century than in any other time period in our history. Since the 1980’s scientists have been employed to research and develop, nutritious, portable meals designed to be delivered to combat soldiers at the front lines.

However, before World War 2, food seemed to almost be an afterthought of the army. Sheer numbers of soldiers make the task of feeding them a daunting one. Let’s consider last year’s Beijing Olympics. The Chinese served the 15,000 athletes, trainers, coaches and other support staff over 80,000 meals per day around the clock. They employed over 6000 chefs and support staff in their kitchens and dining rooms to provide food service. When you consider that there were over 165,000 men at the 3 day battle of Gettysburg and field kitchens unheard of, it is not unreasonable to imagine that 80,000 meals in that 3 day period might have been estimated on the high side. And there were certainly not 6000 support troops working on meals for these soldiers. Most of these men were lucky to eat once a day and many had gone several days without anything to eat. At the battle of Sharpsburg, General Hood’s Texan’s credited their ferocious attack against the Union to their anger at being interrupted from the first hot meal they had had in 3 days. But anger can only get you so far, when the body is weakened from hunger.
Both soldiers and athletes need a balanced adequate diet to perform at the peak of their training for prolonged periods of time. The Gold medal swimmer, Michael Phelps, consumes over 12,000 calories per day when competing. The expenditure of energy he puts out requires that enough fuel be taken in to produce a well performing machine-his body and a soldier is the same.
The Chinese Olympic advantage was that they had state of the art kitchens that were well stocked, well supplied and well manned. The United States Army and the Confederate Army never enjoyed this kind of service unless they happened to be in garrison and even then, it wasn’t done on any large scale.

The problems faced by our forces during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were of supply, distribution and preservation. During the Revolutionary War, lack of salt hindered the newly tasked Quartermaster and Commissary corps from preserving meat. Salt was needed in the curing and smoking process and enough of it was not always available. Also the lack of sanitation and often lackadaisical approach to preserving meat rendered what was available inedible at times. Canning made its appearance by the Civil War, but was often unreliable as Louis Pasteur had not yet invented his pasteurization process which heated canned foods past 180 degrees. It was not understood why some canned foods were safe to eat while others were deadly, often contaminated by botulism. The commissary department also did not have one major supplier for food, but rather relied on foraging, some buying, and a lot of begging, borrowing and outright stealing to try to supply the troops. And often the commissary department was at odds with the Quartermaster’s department in getting food where it was needed. Weapons, ammunition, food for the animals and other equipment had priority over human rations on the railroads and wagon trains. And I won’t even mention were the wounded rated in that list of priorities. Until the advent of the railroad, over ½ of all supplies that followed an army on the move were animal rations. The armies on both sides in the Civil War needed horses which were in shorter supply than men, so they were given priority. Artillery could not be wheeled into place effectively without horses or mules and there weren’t as many replacements, so animal care was a priority over human care.

The Revolutionary War
Shortly after Washington became the commander of the Continental Army, one of his first tasks was to appoint a commissary general of stores provisions.
The beginning daily ration of a soldier in the Continental Army consisted of:
16 oz. Beef 6.8 oz peas
18 oz. flour 1.4 oz rice
16 oz. milk .1830 oz soap
1 qt. of Spruce beer .0686 oz candles

This was the ideal ration, but it fell short more often than not. And this was the ration of the Continental army. Many of the militia units were on their own when it was time to provide food.
Interestingly enough, compared to our present dietary requirements, this ration provided more calories and twice as much protein and contained all the vitamins and minerals with the exception of Vitamins A & C.
Note that there was an alcohol ration at this time. This practice had been discontinued by 1832, but during the war for Independence, the reliance on alcohol was often out of sanitary conditions as water was not always available and if it was, it was likely contaminated. After 1832, commanders at their discretion could issue alcohol rations, but usually these were reserved for special circumstances mostly related to “fatigue”.

Foraging parties were common during both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and in some instances were the primary source of food for the armies. Promissory notes were given to the farmers and townspeople unlucky enough to be in the army’s path when it was hungry. Many of these notes were never made good. During the American Revolution, the US was broke and couldn’t even pay its soldiers, so paying for food was out of the question. The winter at Valley Forge shows just how hard it was for the Continental Army. Food supply shipments were irregular and most of the soldiers survived on fire cake which was a vile concoction of flour and water cooked over a camp fire. During the 6 month encampment, hunger, disease and despair took its toll, not only in casualties, but in desertions. Cries of “beef” echoed throughout the camp and the future only promised more of the same. Washington wrote during that winter:

“…unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place… this Army must inevitably starve, dissolve or disperse in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can.”

That capital change came in the form of General Nathanial Greene who was appointed head of the commissary department and Baron Von Stuben a mercenary who began to magically transform the threadbare troops into a fighting force supplied by Green who was able to coerce enough money and supplies to feed the troops. The army that left Valley Forge that spring had been transformed from a hungry, malnourished, ill prepared fighting force into a mature Army that was able to take on the British in the upcoming months and years of the war. Regular shipments of food continued to dog the Continental Army throughout the entire war.

South Carolina patriots in some ways fared better than the regular army troops. In many cases, they were fighting small skirmishes and battles in their own backyards and were within easy riding distance of either their own farms or homesteads or those of family or friends that were eager to help supply the smaller militia units. Hunting was also a more viable source of food in the South Carolina backwoods. Small bands of soldiers could form hunting parties and bring in game for the entire group.

An army like Washington’s was so large and cumbersome that all game had scattered upon hearing the first footfalls of the infantry. But like the South Carolina patriots relying on their own areas for food, the British were also relying on this as well and would raid farms and homesteads and burn what they could not carry with them. Still, the smaller militia units typically fared better food wise, than did the much larger regular armies.

The War of 1812
During the War of 1812, not much had changed in the way soldiers were supplied and fed with the exception that the ration had been reduced. They received a bit more meat and flour, but the other rations were greatly reduced.
Somewhat related to the food supply in the war of 1812 is the birth of Uncle Sam. A meat purveyor in upstate New York, by the name of Sam Wilson stamped wooden barrels of meat with the initials U.S. as they were designated to be shipped to the US Army. The soldiers jokingly referred to their meat supplier as Uncle Sam due to these initials on the barrels and an American Icon was born.

The Civil War
By the beginning of the Civil War, foods canned and preserved in tin were known, but not widely used because of the contamination that was common. In 1864 Louis Pasteur discovered the relationship between food spoilage and microorganisms, but by then the war was almost over and the distrust in canned food was already ingrained in the soldiers. Until his discovery, it was thought that the removal of air kept the food from spoiling and not the use of higher temperatures to kill off the microbes.

Military rations differed greatly between the Union and the Confederate Armies. The South which was largely agrarian based began with a great supply of meat and staples, but quickly ran into problems of supply and transportation. As the war dragged on, everyone in the South experienced food shortages. The North who had longer supply lines and was fighting outside its boundaries also experienced problems with supply, so resorted to requisitioning supplies from the locals often at gunpoint. The blockade of Southern ports, the devaluation of Confederate currency and the lack of industrialization contributed greatly to the problem of availability of food and its transportation.

The South’s problems were compounded with the fact that no infrastructure was in place such as the Federal army had. The problems of raising, training and supplying a largely inexperienced fighting force while starting a government from scratch resulted in inexperienced officers being put in charge of supplies. Due to this, food shortages began as early as the spring of 1861. Ladies aids societies like the one in Greenville, sent packages to the soldiers, but often these were delayed, rerouted, and plundered and as food became in short supply at home, even these packages began to dwindle.

The Union army prior to the beginning of the war had about 16,000 regular troops on active duty and these were garrisoned in forts with food either grown locally or purchased from local purveyors. However, once hundreds of thousands of men were in uniform for the North, the ease of feeding a stationary peacetime army quickly dissolved and the transition to supplying a large mobile army was never overcome. While the north had the advantage of a more stable currency and more readily available supplies, they were fighting primarily outside their own boundaries and supply lines were long and often plagued with problems and delays that meant the food often arrived spoiled.

Transportation problems on both sides often resulted in foods that were infested with bugs and spoiled and many soldiers succumbed to disease and death as a result of the inadequate diet and ingestion of spoiled food. Corruption also plagued both sides as lax procedures, prerogative of rank and general laziness inhibited the supplies from reaching those of the lowest ranks and who were the ones supplying the manpower to do the actual fighting. Scurvy once again reared its head, but along with it came the discovery that vegetables were being withheld from the fighting forces and were being rerouted to the officers and their families.

Sutlers also followed the armies and those with the means to pay the exorbitant prices could gain extra nourishment off these traveling commissary wagons.

Lack of cooking equipment also plagued the South. This shortage was so dire that Col. Robert V. Richardson commanding the 12th Tennessee Cavalry regiment wrote to his brigade commander:

“I have not a single vessel to cook one morsel of bread. My cooking has to be done as we can beg the citizens to do it… For God and country’s sake, make your fair-promising, but never complying quartermaster send me skillets, ovens, pots or anything that will bake bread or fry meat… I cannot fight anymore until I get something to cook in.”

This problem was so widespread that often companies of men (100 soldiers) had no more than 2 or 3 frying pans. Rather than risk the loss of a pan from a wagon, men would often stick the pan handle down the barrel of a rifle and carry it along on marches.
The Union army soldiers solved their vessel problem by a business venture known as stock holding. Each stockholder contributed an equal amount of money towards the purchase of a “spider” a 3 legged cast iron skillet. The understanding was that whoever carried the spider that day, got to use it first that evening. Some stock companies often rented out their equipment and made a nice profit.

Both sides utilized the “mess” system of cooking. A mess consisted of about 10 men who pooled their resources and cooked as a group. Often the man, who was considered the best cook, could bargain his way out of unpleasant duties by volunteering to be the mess cook for his group while in return, they would perform his other duties in addition to their own.

The Southern ration by the middle and end of the war consisted of ¼ pound of meat and 1 pound of flour or cornmeal. A ration was one days worth of food per soldier. Consider the size of a McDonald’s quarter pounder hamburger and you have approximately the same quantity of food that a Southern soldier ate in one 24 hour period. By contrast, the Union army’s rations consisted of 20 oz of fresh or salted beef, 18 oz. of flour or soft bread or 12 oz of hardtack, 1.2 oz of beans, or 1.6 oz of rice or desiccated vegetables or potatoes. 1.6 oz of coffee or tea, .32 gills of vinegar, 2.3 oz of sugar and .6 oz. of salt.

The marching or 3 day ration for both armies usually consisted of cornbread for the South, hardtack for the north, salted pork and water, with coffee, sugar and salt added to the Unions rations.

Federal troops received about 10 squares of hardtack per day. Called Army bread, sheet iron crackers, hard bread and worm castles, it was impossible to eat as issued. It was either soaked in water or coffee, or a piece was broken off and held in the mouth until it softened up enough to chew. Inventive cooks found ways to use hardtack in recipes such as frying it, roasting it, and crumbling it in stews and soups.

While the Southern Army ate hardtack when they could capture it, it was not a staple in the South. Cornmeal was the southern equivalent and was made into cornbread, Johnny cakes or corncakes. Salt pork was the other staple of the Confederate soldier and consisted of very little meat and a lot of fat and pork skin. Active campaigning and marching often left the Confederate soldier to consume his salt pork raw and gastrointestinal illnesses were rampant on both sides of the conflict.

Homesteaders in North Florida were pressed into service in the Confederate army as cattle drovers. Some of these homesteaders had moved to the wilds of Florida from Georgia and the Carolinas to escape the cloud of brewing war and had hoped to be left alone to farm and raise cattle. The Florida scrub cow of the time was a scrawny, scraggly descendent of the Spanish cows brought over in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were not large and their meat was tough and stringy. Herds of these cattle were driven into Georgia to supply the confederate army and by the time of arrival, there was little meat left on their scrawny hides to supply much in the way of food. But the cattle drovers were given the promise of being free from conscription if they continued to make these drives. The drovers spent months riding in the Florida wilderness herding these wild cattle in order to get enough together to make a drive into Georgia. After the war, the US Army continued this practice, but shipped the beef south to Punta Rassa (near Ft. Myers) to be shipped to Cuba until the advent of the Spanish American War.

The 20th Century.

The problems that faced the armies during the 18th and 19th centuries were generally ones of obtaining adequate fresh supplies of food and shipping it in a timely manner to the correct location. By the 20th century, advances in food science, preservation and transportation had largely corrected these massive problems. The Quartermaster’s department still faced huge hurdles in supplying nutritious well balanced meals to our fighting men. While the problems of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars were just getting food, any food to the troops, the problems faced in the 20th century were not only getting the troops the food, but making sure it had sufficient calorie and vitamin content to keep the men healthy and was safe to consume. They also began to be concerned with its taste as well, something that had previously come very last on the list.

World War One
By World War One, the rations of the US soldier had been increased to 17 items and the diet was considerably improved both in nutrition and taste. Due to trench warfare, the soldiers on the front lines still existed on substandard and often unheated foods. For the first time, rear areas were capable of supplying large quantities of cooked fresh or canned foods and large scale field kitchens were now being used. Hot meals were provided to the men in the trenches just prior to an order to “go over the top” and were often seen as a mixed blessing. Fresh hot food meant that sometime in the next few hours, they would be ordered out of the trenches into no man’s land into fierce fighting.

Three different types of trench rations were tried during the war. Iron rations, trench rations and reserve rations. All three were designed for troops fighting in the trenches and new ways of packaging was developed to make these rations impervious to gas attacks and contamination. Tobacco rations were added during this time as well. These canned and boxed rations were commercially produced by several companies in the United States and marked the first time that a uniform supply of food was given to our fighting men. However, these rations were bulky and heavy and there was not a wide variety of menus. But in the rear areas, food was hot and plentiful and a rotation out of the trenches and into the rear areas was welcome.

Herbert Hoover who went on to distinguish himself as one of our worst US presidents is credited for providing the US fighting forces in World War one with much of the food they consumed. His efforts as head of the U.S. Food Administration were praised by President Wilson and his abilities as a great manager, helped keep rationing at home to a minimum and still provide enough food not only to feed the US troops, but to also supplement the rations of the allies in Europe.

The Red Cross was also instrumental in WWI by providing additional food and provisions to the troops overseas and care packages from home among troops were a common sight. By 1918, the US soldier was eating much better than his counterparts in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

During World War One, a product we all know and love came to be developed right here in Greenville. With the opening of Camp Sevier and the arrival of thousands of troops in the area, a local woman by the name of Eugenia Duke decided to make a little extra money by selling sandwiches to the troops at Camp Sevier. Often making as many as 10,000 sandwiches a day in her apartment kitchen, Mrs. Duke soon became a favorite of the soldiers stationed here and after they left Greenville, letters began to pour in, asking her for her recipes. Mrs. Duke made the decision to start producing her own mayonnaise, the only one available without added sugar (possibly due to rationing). She soon moved her business into the painting building of the Gowen Coach factory on the banks of the Reedy River. The building now is known as the Wyche pavilion. Mrs. Duke and her sons ran the company until the mid 1930’s when they sold it to the Saurer Company of Richmond Virginia. Duke’s mayonnaise is still produced in Greenville County today.

World War Two
Much research and development went into military rations between world wars one and two. As a result, the fighting force in World War two was better fed than in any of the previous wars. By this time, the military had employed dieticians and scientists to develop better tasting, more nutritious food and had improved packaging, preservation, production and shipping. They also classified rations into categories that included mess halls, field and combat rations. Type A rations were typically prepared in a mess hall and consisted of as much fresh food as possible. Type B rations were essentially the same, but substituted canned and dehydrated foods for fresh. The new Type C rations were designated for combat and were also supplemented by rations D and K. C rations or C-rats are the best known of all army rations and were used up until the early 1980’s.

C rations were designed to be as lightweight and portable as possible and to supply a complete days worth of meals to a combat soldier. They held 6 key opening cans of varying types of food. They were designed to be used for up to 5 days, but due to necessity or improper planning by short sighted commanders, their use was usually extended much past the recommended 5 day period.

C rations were designed to be eaten hot or cold and contained canned versions of biscuits, cakes, breads, meats, stews, beans and other staples. In many cases, soldiers reverted to the “mess” system of the Civil War and pooled their resources by dumping their rations into a helmet to be heated together. The addition of spices and other condiments and whatever fresh food they could forage was often added to this “stew”.

K rations were designed to be even more portable and were the first ration that could fit into a soldier’s pocket. Airborne troops were the first to receive K rations in 1942. The rations were produced by the Cracker Jack Company and were packaged in redesigned Cracker Jack boxes. They consisted of 3 cans labeled breakfast, lunch and dinner.

These rations included a canned entrée, biscuits, dried fruit, water purification tablets, a 4 pack of cigarettes, chewing gum, instant, sugar and a small packet of toilet tissue. They would vary this with the addition of powdered drink mixes such as lemonade and chocolate bars or bouillon cubes to make soup.

D ration bars were the forerunner of the protein and energy bars we have today. Hershey produced the D ration bar and it looked very similar to a chocolate bar. But that is where the similarity ended. The D ration was intended for emergency rations only for troops engaged in active combat and was to last up to 24 hours only. Each soldier received 3 D ration bars. The bars were hard, unappetizing and usually had to be sucked on before they could be bitten (much like hardtack of old). They also produced great gastric distress if eaten for longer than the recommended 24 hour period. Hershey produced 3 billion of these bars between 1940 and 1945. When these bars were being developed, the Quartermaster gave the Hershey company 4 requirements:
The bar must
1. Weigh 4 oz.
2. Be high in food energy value
3. Be able to withstand high temperatures
4. Taste little better than a boiled potato

This last requirement was to keep the troops from eating the bars unnecessarily instead of reserving them for emergency situations. The heat resistant qualification was due to the fact that chocolate melts at body temperature and a soldier would not only be carrying these on their person, but they would also be in use in the hot and humid Pacific theater. A gas resistant coating was added to both the bars and the packaging.

Because of the high food value needed in the bars, the Hershey Company could not produce a bar that could be poured into molds like regular chocolate bars. The bars were so thick and viscous, that Hershey employees had to hand pack this good into the molds before they hardened.

This bar was replaced by the tropical bar in 1945 and was used by troops in Korea, Vietnam and even some of the Mercury and Apollo NASA missions. In the mid 1960’s, these bars along with regular chocolate bars earned the name John Wayne bars because Mr. Wayne signals a helicopter with the reflective packaging in the movie The Green Berets.

M&M’s also made their debut during World War Two. One of the founders of the Mars candy company observed Spanish troops during the Spanish civil war eating a candy that was chocolate contained in a hard candy shell. This shell made it impervious to heat. Mars produced the first M&M’s in 1941 and they were sold exclusively to the US military until after the war. M&M stands for Mars and Murrie, the two founders of the company.

Peanut Butter and Jelly
Both Peanut butter and jelly were on the US military ration menus in World War two. American soldiers added jelly to their peanut butter to make it more palatable as the peanut butter they were given did not have much sugar added. Peanut butter provided and inexpensive and high protein alternative to meat for the soldiers. It was an instant hit and returning servicemen made peanut butter and jelly sales soar in the United States. Food historians have not been able to find any ads or other mentions of peanut butter or jelly sandwiches before the 1940’s.

Spam
In 1937 Hormel developed the first canned commercial meat product not requiring refrigeration. They conducted a naming contest for this spiced ham and the result was Spam. Today Spam is credited as an “innovative product that saved lives, won wars and balanced diets of people worldwide.”
During the war, Spam became a staple not only in the lives of the serviceman, but also the civilian population as meat became rationed. Its military application was important because once opened; it didn’t require refrigeration and could be eaten directly out of the can. Nikita Khrushchev credits Spam with saving the lives of the Russian Army during WWII as they were being starved during the winter campaign outside St. Petersburg (Leningrad).
Today, Hawaii is the major consumer of Spam worldwide due to its role as major military base during the war. Surpluses of spam found their way into the civilian population and native diets. It became the major meat source during the war and is still eaten in great quantity there. Today Spam is called the Hawaiian steak and has been elevated to gourmet cuisine. Spam is featured in sushi called Spam Musubi. Hawaii, Guam and Saipan are the only locations in the world that feature spam on McDonald’s menus in the form of the McSpam Sandwich.

National School lunch program
One significant change that affected the entire US came about directly because of World War Two. In 1946 Harry Truman signed into law the National School Lunch Act. This act came about because large numbers of men were deemed unfit for service due to diet related health problems. This act provided in a national basis funds to school districts to provide healthy meals to school children as “a measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities.” Many local and state school districts had been providing school lunches for years, but this was the first nationwide program and it was designed to reduce malnutrtion in our future fighting corp.


Korea and Vietnam
Little changed in the way of rations during Korea and Vietnam. In fact, most of the rations were stockpiled rations leftover from World War two. The biggest change was the name. They became known as MCI’s or Meals, Combat, Individual. But to the soldiers, they were still called C rats. The biggest problem faced in Korea was the cold and rations tended to freeze solid in the cans. Immersion heaters were soon sent to the troops and by trying a string to your individual can, you could immerse it in a pot of hot water to heat it enough to unfreeze it. Those troops in areas where this was impossible found new uses for their bayonets.

One Korean soldier writes of his experiences:

“Nutritious, but not exciting. The company has an immersion heater. That is a heater that is gas fired and dropped into a garbage can of water. When the water is boiling, the soldiers tie wires around their cans of food and lower it into the boiling water to thaw and warm their food. It is best to hang onto your wire lest some other rescue your food.
Otherwise you gum down the can of food with the coagulated grease, or in freezing weather try to thaw it out in your mouth, that is after you carve it out of the can with your bayonet. Most of these rations are left over from WWII. We refer to them as ‘has beans’. Many of the Korean civilians were starving and scrounged the discarded cans for remaining food. We often gave boxes to some of the deserving kids.”


Soldiers in Vietnam were still relying on the MCI’s or C rats, however they also received an accessory pack that contained candy, gum, cigarettes, non dairy creamer, sugar, instant coffee, salt, moisture resistant matches (necessary in the humid jungles), toilet paper and a plastic spoon.
One Vietnam soldier advised:

“The individual combat knife will be much more useful in the camp kitchen than on the mythic battlefield. C-rations were designed to be eaten cold, but they tasted better hot. And nothing heated as fast as a small nugget of C4 blasting compound set afire with the end of a cigarette. Just don’t step on the C4 to extinguish it or you will be in for a nasty surprise.”

For the first time a cookbook was actually published for use for the C ration or MCI meals. These cookbooks were sent wrapped around two ounce bottles of Tabasco sauce along with a P-38 in a waterproof canister. The p-38 was a highly prized folding can opener.

Post Vietnam and the Middle Eastern Wars.
The C rats were so successful at feeding soldiers a portable, self contained nutritious meal that they were kept in use for 40 years. However, their weight and bulkiness had always been a problem. As early as the 1940’s, experiments were underway for a flexible, lightweight meal delivery system. By 1961 the concept had been sufficiently developed using a foil or retort pouch. Working with the military on a lightweight meal delivery system was NASA. The space program through trial and error was looking for a way to feed astronauts in space with a minimum of packaging and preparation and to reduce the weight of the meal. They were also looking for something with a long shelf life (although considering the age of some of the C-rats, they had hit on this a long time before), better protection against the elements and the elimination of freeze dried foods that had to be reconstituted in water that had to be carried by the soldier.
The MRE or Meal, Ready to Eat, was first adopted by the Department of Defense in 1975, but not widely produced or field tested until the early 1980’s. The first field tests resulted in a mixed reaction from the troops and were sent back to be improved. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, improvements were almost continual. The first widespread test of MRE’s was during the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.

MRE’s were a HUGE advancement in the feeding of combat troops. Originally designed to last a combat soldier 10 days, the Gulf war saw troops eating them for as long as 60 days in a row. The menu options were limited and following the Gulf war, they increased the menu from 8 meals to 24 different types.

And while the taste had greatly improved, the ever humorous soldier still managed to call them:
Meals Rejected by Everyone.

The breakthrough with MRE’s now provides our combat troops with such varied dishes as lasagna, grilled chicken and steak, Chicken tetrazzini and even vegetarian entrees. The MRE’s are precooked, do not have to be reconstituted with water and retain their full moisture and have a shelf life of 4-6 years. They have become popular with outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers and rock climbers for their portability.
The MRE can be eaten hot or cold and was a revolutionary development in military food science. It can withstand extreme conditions, both hot and cold, supply drops, rough handling and other combat situations. It is a self-contained meal that is eaten directly out of the pouch with a biodegradable spoon and has about 1400 calories and all the USDA allowances of vitamins and minerals.

Today’s fighting soldier is not only equipped with the latest in combat weaponry and protection, but also provided the latest in food technology. Taste has finally been taken into account as the hurdles of food delivery have been overcome. Once last on the list of priorities, taste and menu variety have become priorities. While they don’t taste like mom’s cooking, most soldiers will tell you that they aren’t bad.

A Revolutionary or Civil War soldier would be utterly amazed at how well our fighting troops are fed today. No soldier need ever miss a meal. The meals are tasty, well balanced and free of spoilage or insect infestation. They are delivered exactly where our fighting troops are located without delay. When we look at how our troops are fed today and how healthy our combat troops are, it is amazing to think that the soldiers of the 1770’s and 1860’s survived their diet long enough to fight. Sadly, many did not. Military rations have come a long way and are continually being researched and improved upon. Until we enter the Jetson’s style of eating meals by pill, the rations of today have the capability of sustaining our Armed Forces well into the future.

My day and Waldoday. Not a good combo

. Thought you'd want to know about my wonderful day yesterday. Should bring you a good laugh.

I had to work in the morning and after work, I went to get my nails done and decided to go to that new massage chain: Massage Envy and get a $39 massage. We had homeschool kids yesterday which are the worst. Hate dealing with them, their mothers and all 52 of their other offspring that they bring along and who cry, wander off, touch thingss and just generally make my job impossible. I spend so much time trying to make everyone behave, I can't do anything else. And the mom's are RIGHT THERE and never say a word to the little darlings that are tearing the place up. SoI've had a knot on my shoulder that's been there so long, I was getting ready to name it. So I had a GREAT massage. So relaxing. I became one with the table and the place is so great. They have memberships!

Anyway, I'm sitting in the parking lot feeling guilty about spending money and needing to go to the grocery store when Irvin calls and says: Jake's (my daughter's boyfriend) car (our old one) is acting up, can you pick Lucy up from school? I'm thinking SHIT, I'm all the way on the other side of town but I"m not owning up to that as I don't want to tell him I got a massage. Well I pull out and head over to Lucy's school. I need gas (Irvin used the car last, but does he put gas in it? NO) But the needle is just above the E so I know there is a station next to Lucy's school and if I"m not there on the dot when she gets out, I'll have to listen to her all the way home which I am NOT in the mood to do having just gotten one of the best massages of my life.

Well in the old car (big behemoth, Grand Marquis), when the gas needle is in that position you could drive a whole nother day. Well NOT in the new car apparantly. I ran out of gas within sight of the gas station but still about a quarter mile away, on a busy road at rush hour. I call Irvin and he cusses and says he's on his way. I had coasted enough to turn off onto a side road and the car dies on a hill on a curve and there is a ditch, so can't really pull off much. I put on the hazard lights and sit there 20 min. as people go by honking, shooting birds and glaring. "Hello, hazard lights mean, car doesn't go!"

.Irvin gets there, puts in gas, car won't start. We try and try. Meanwhile Lucy is waiting and waiting. So I take the piece of shit, garbage mobile that is Irvin's truck to go get her while he stays with the car trying to figure out why it won't start. I can't get it turned around, it keeps stalling (it's a stick shift, which I normally have no problem driving, but I'm on a hill so keep stalling it trying to get going). AND he's told me that his gas gauge doesn't work, so don't go more than X miles in it. GREAT, I could run out of gas twice in ONE day. All benefits of the massage are rapidly fading.


I get out on the main and very busy road, get in the turn lane which proceeds to not turn through several light changes when I figure out that the car 7 cars in front of me is broken down in the turn lane. Now I'm trying to get turned around in the truck and go through McDonald's to try to cross the street to the shopping center where Lucy's school is and people keep getting right on my bumper. Well, there are still hills and I"m still rolling backwards a bit when I try to go in first gear, with people right on my ass, dumbasses, I'd never pull up on the bumper of such a piece of shit looking truck. I cannot get across traffic and end up having to turn, go a 1/4 mile in the wrong direction before I can turn around. By now, she's been at the school 45 minutes waiting and is not happy. But I remember I had a Reece's chocolate Easter egg in my purse (for later LOL) and I give it to her and say "look what I brought you!" LOL Whining crisis averted for now.

So in she gets, but then Jake shows up and she'd rather get in his car than balance her feet on 300 candy bar wrappers, assorted tools, screws and some chain that's in the floorboard. I get back to my car and Irvin says: I think there's a shut off sensor to keep it from pumping air and I can't find it, so we have to go home where I can look it up and get jumper cables as I ran the battery down trying to start it. Thankfully he drives the hated truck, while I now have to put my feet on the 300 candy bar wrappers.

WE get home and he gets on the computer, finds out where the shut off switch is, gets Jake to go back with him (THANK GOD) and they get the car, get the switch turned on, it starts and he goes to the gas station in it.

LUcy comes in and starts telling me that this teacher at school has 2 peekapoos and she's crying (teacher) because her husband has a neurological problem and the allergies to the dogs are making it worse and they have to get rid of them and she can't find anyone. So Lucy wants to "foster" them until we can find them a home. Well the female is PREGNANT. With PUPPIES!!!!OH god, I dno't know what we are going to do, but I figure by the end of the weekend, we're going to have 2 more dogs and 6 more on the way.

Anyway, Irvin gets home, Lucy goes out and we don't have any food because I was headed to the grovery store after the massage and never got there and no cupcakes for Waldo (yesterday was WAldoday, we've had him 2 years now, can't believe it). A friend calls and asks us to meet her and her daughter for dinner at this new place which is good and not expensive, I proceed to have 4 screwdrivers (which are so weak, I barely get a buzz and then they forgot to charge us for them anyway, which they should as it was just watered down OJ). But the food was good. But my friend gets drunk and has an argument with Irvin and then does the whole drunk, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry crap and I can tell he's getting ready to lose it with her. I'm over her, her daughter is embarrassed, I'm tired, I want to leave. We can't find the waitress, it's now almost 10 on Fri. and the bar is full of guys trying to pick up women (if I was single, I'd totally go there as there were about 5 guys to every woman) so we get the check and they put it together, which we had told them not too in the beginning so they have to go back and separate it., Well it's only $44 and we had at least $30 worth of food. Irvin had about 7 beers and he was drinking Guiness which is more than say, PBR, LOL and my screwdrivers are not on there. Well we are so desperate at this point and the service has sucked so bad, we pay it and don't say they missed all my drinks and about 3 of Irvin's beers. Because we now have to go get DAVE and drive him to the bus station as he's won a freaking 10 day cruise to Mexico and needs to be in Florida to get on the ship. Dave is the bain of my existance. He and Irvin are good friends, but Dave is such a whiner, I don't know how Irvin puts up with it. And he's always getting into these situations where everyone but Dave can see the outcome is NOT going to be good. Besides on Fri. Dave called at 6:30 and woke us up to tell us he was just going to bed (acutally he's doing some painting on one of Irvin's jobs, so we did need to know this, but not at 6:30).Well, he piddles around and we barely get to the bus station in time for his bus (which you could not PAY me to take to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from here-18 hours). We get home about midnight and fall into bed, so poor WAldo did NOT get to celebrate, but we will today. Just think, Waldo's probably going to get 2 more dogs and a puppy litter for his day. LOL.

ANd how was YOUR day??? LOL

History of Chocolate and Romance

Valentine’s Day Lecture
February 2009

Ah, Love. The very essence of life. The thing that makes the world go around. It can bring a strong man to his knees and make the fighting spirit come alive in a demure woman.
Love has been celebrated for thousands of years in poems, books, plays, movies and song.
From the Beatles “all you need is love” to Browning’s “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”, Love has brought immense joy and immeasurable heartache to everyone that has experienced it. Wars have been fought over love, kingdoms and empires destroyed because of it.

And why?

For it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all. We even elevate the emotion and romance of love in a special day solely dedicated to the celebration of the greatest of emotions. Hallmark, florists and candy companies have made a billion dollar industry out of love. But how did this celebration of love on February 14th get started? Who was St. Valentine?
The Roman Catholic calendar of saints lists 3 saints with the name of St. Valentine and it isn’t clear even to the Catholic Church, which of them is celebrated on the feast day of February 14. All three died horrible, terrible martyr’s deaths, or they wouldn’t be considered martyrs as dying by some horrible means seems to be the criteria for martyrdom. Something we’ve tried to tell a cousin that the family lovingly refers to as “The modern day martyr” and her reply is “just you wait, because I haven’t died yet, but it will probably be horrible.”


The name Valentine derives from the Latin, Valens which means worthy. So how did an obscure and little known saint or saints come to be associated with a day representing love? There are several legends. Probably the most romantic concerns a 3rd century Roman priest coincidentally named Valentine, who agreed to marry young couples in secret when the emperor Claudius II decreed that his army was to remain unencumbered by the complications of marriage and family. Valentine was thrown in jail and sentenced to death for defying the emperor. While in jail, he falls in love with the jailors daughter who visits him. Upon the eve of his death, he sends her a missive signed “from your Valentine.” Again, legend has it that the date of February 14 was chosen either because Valentine was buried on this date or that it coincides with an ancient pagan festival that celebrates fertility. This rumor has a little more credence as Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame writes in Parliament of Foules :

For this was sent
on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to
choose his mate.

In England and France of the middle ages, the middle of February was when birds began to search for a mate and to pair up. Almost immediately after Chaucer’s writing, the day of February 14, began to be looked upon as a day consecrated to lovers and an occasion for writing love letters and sending tokens of love. French and English literature of the 14th and 15th centuries contain many illustrations this practice.
In France on February 14, 1400, a “High Court of Love” was established dealing with love contracts, betrayal and violence against women. This was a time period when Courtly Love flourished. Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife.

However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that handwritten declarations of love gave way to mass produced commercial “Valentines”. And the somewhat prudish and repressed Victorians popularized the sending of these Valentine cards in the mid 19th century. It wasn’t long before the practice crossed the Atlantic and in America the greeting card industry recognizes one Esther Howland of Worchester, Mass for popularizing the practice in America. We should note that Esther’s father owned and operated a rather large stationary store, so those of you that have said that Valentine’s day is a holiday created by the Greeting Card industry are not far off the mark.

The practice of including gifts like flowers or chocolates didn’t get a major foothold until after World War II. The jewelry industry jumped on the bandwagon in the mid 1980’s and today Valentine’s Day is a multi-billion dollar industry.

So how did chocolate come to be so closely associated with love and Valentine’s Day? Just as courtly love was restricted to the nobility, so was chocolate for a time. However when it was first introduced to Europe by Spanish explorers it was considered so vile and bitter that Pope Pius V declared that drinking it would not break communion fast.

The Spanish who were on a quest to rid the new world of as much gold as they possibly could, discovered the Mayas and Aztecs drinking a “bitter, frothy brew” made from the Cacao bean which they also used as currency. Fascinated by this culture’s reverence for the Cacao bean, Hernando Cortez established a plantation to grow “money” and eventually brought back the bean to Spain where mixed with cane syrup and other spices became the drink of the nobility and a closely held Spanish secret for almost 100 years. And because it was considered a fairly pricey and luxurious item, men began to give it to the object of their affections in order to win favor, thus establishing the first gifts of chocolate between the sexes. Meanwhile the rest of Europe was also introduced to the chocolate drink but without the addition of cane syrup. The vile tasting brew was first used as a medicine (if it tastes bad, it has to be good for you being the pharmaceutical motto for hundreds of years). Chocolate didn't suit the foreigners' taste buds at first –one described it in his writings as "a bitter drink for pigs. You can be sure that there was some resentment when the rest of Europe discovered the Spanish were holding out on the sweetened version of this delicacy.

The origin of chocolate or Chocolatl originated in the Amazon region about 4000 years ago. The Aztecs attributed its creation to their god Quetzalcoatl who, as the legend goes descended from heaven on a beam of a morning star carrying a cacao tree stolen from paradise. This only goes to prove my theory that something as delicious as chocolate could only come from paradise. If only Adam and Eve had partaken of the Cacoa bean instead of the apple, we might all still be residents of the Garden of Eden enjoying our daily chocolate in naked splendor!

The Aztecs used the cacao beans to prepare a thick, cold, unsweetened drink called chocolatl - a liquid so prestigious that it was served in golden goblets that were thrown away after one use. Christopher Columbus, in 1502, was the first European to run across the beans on his fourth voyage to the New World. This chocolatl was used in Aztec ceremonies. The priests were particularly keen on the caffeine content and the subsequent “buzz” it gave them. It’s not known if this particular effect was enjoyed by the sacrificial victims it was given too prior to their sacrifices to the Aztec gods. The Aztec’s also had special rituals that went with the cultivation and growing of the cacao beans. And considering the process chocolate goes through to become the treat we all know and love, it’s amazing that a process was found to enjoy this bean.

CACAO CULTIVATION


All chocolate products start with the cacao tree. Its scientific name is Theobroma cacao L. from the Greek Theobroma, meaning food of the Gods, and cacao from the Aztec, cacahuatl. There are three varieties - each grown in different parts of the world: Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, and parts of Asia.

The cacao tree, which grows as high as 25 feet, is planted in sheltered, areas in moist, tropical climates as it needs plenty of rainfall to mature. When the trees begin to bear fruit the ripened pods are shaped like small footballs - in red, orange, or gold. Ripe pods are collected and broken open. The wet sticky seeds, called beans are scooped out and the white, shiny "flesh" starts to change color. The beans turn to a deep lavender or purple. They are allowed to ferment in their own natural heat which helps develop their flavor characteristics.

The fermented beans turn to a rich brown color - a sign that they are ready for drying. In many cases, this is accomplished simply by spreading the beans on trays or bamboo matting and leaving them in the sun. If the climate conditions interfere with this drying process, the beans may be dried over hot air pipes. After drying, they are put into bags for shipping to chocolate factories all over the world. In the 16th century, as other countries challenged Spain's monopoly on cacao, chocolate became more widely available. Soon the French, English, and Dutch were cultivating cacao in their colonies in the Caribbean. With more production came lower prices, and soon the masses in Europe and the Americas were enjoying chocolate. Presumably the sweetened version. For many people, however, the expanded production of cacao in the New World meant slavery and privation. Cacao production relied heavily on the forced labor of Native Americans and imported African slaves.



FROM CACAO BEAN to CHOCOLATE


After harvesting, the beans are shipped to factories and stored either in silos or in their original sacks in warehouses. These rooms are well aired, kept at cool temperature and the humidity regularly checked. Before the production stage, the beans are sorted and cleaned.
Once in the factories, the beans are kept cool and dry. Like coffee, cocoa does not acquire the richness of its color and the fullness of its flavor until it is roasted. The degree of care given to this operation has considerable influence on the ultimate quality of the end product - either cocoa powder or chocolate. When roasting is complete, the beans are cooled and their thin shells removed. Here's where the first secrets of the chocolate manufacturer come in. The nibs, or husked beans are blended, combining as many as 8-10 varieties. It is control of these subtle mixtures that maintains a constant quality and brings out the flavor of each particular variety of chocolate.

The nibs then pass through refining mills and are ground. The heat generated by grinding causes the cocoa butter or fat to melt and form a fine paste or liquid known as chocolate "liquor." This goes to large hydraulic presses which remove most of the cocoa butter. The "cake" which is left may eventually be made into cocoa powder. The cake goes through several processes in which it is crushed, milled and finely sifted. But until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, chocolate was largely a handmade product. It was a time consuming product and expensive to produce.But new machinery of the industrial age made it possible to create solid chocolate and mass-produce this candy in enormous quantities at a fraction of the original cost. For the first time, most of the general public could afford this tasty treat.

But in the 17th century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe, believed to have nutritious, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties (it's rumored that Casanova was especially fond of the stuff-could be another reason chocolate has become so closely associated with Valentine’s Day). But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s.

In 1828, a Dutch chemist found a way to make powdered chocolate by removing about half the natural fat (cacao butter) from chocolate liquor, pulverizing what remained and treating the mixture with alkaline salts to cut the bitter taste. His product became known as "Dutch cocoa," and it soon led to the creation of solid chocolate.
The creation of the first modern chocolate bar is credited to Joseph Fry, who in 1847 discovered that he could make a moldable chocolate paste by adding melted cacao butter back into Dutch cocoa.

By 1868, a little company called Cadbury was marketing boxes of chocolate candies in England. A few years later, they started selling chocolates in heart shaped boxes. Today 36 million heart shaped boxes of chocolate are sold each Valentine’s Day in the United States.


Milk chocolate hit the market a few years later, pioneered by another name that may ring a bell – Nestle. Daniel Peter, who worked in the Nestle factory in Vevey, Switzerland changed the flavor of chocolate around the world and almost single handedly pioneered an industry. In 1887, Peter adopted the original formula for adding milk to chocolate thus making it creamier, smoother and more palatable. Peter called his product, "Gala" from the Greek, which means, "from the milk”. Interestingly enough, the idea came to him from the Nestle Company’s innovation in making one of the first baby formula’s called “milky flour”. The company marketed this product in copper-trimmed wrapped printed with: "the healthiest of all chocolates, very nourishing, very digestible, a little sugar not causing thirst."



American Chocolate


In this country chocolate was so valued during the Revolutionary War that it was included in soldiers' rations and used in lieu of wages. While most of us probably wouldn't settle for a chocolate paycheck these days, statistics show that the humble cacao bean is still a powerful economic force. Chocolate manufacturing is a more than 4-billion-dollar industry in the United States, and the average American eats at least half a pound of the stuff per month. But the relationship between chocolate and war was established during the American Revolution and continues today with Hershey still supplying various forms of their candies to the purveyors that supply our Armed Forces both at home and overseas.

Ghirardelli Chocolate has a history that dates back to the California gold rush. Domingo Ghirardelli a native of Italy who owned a successful confectionary business in Lima, Peru, heard about the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and like thousands of other “forty-niners” set out to make his riches. He soon discovered he could make more money supplying the miners and soon set up a series of stores. He lost everything in a fire in Stockton, CA in 1851 and was forced to start over again, this time in San Francisco where he reverted back to what he knew best: candy. He opened his factory in what would become the famed Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.

In the 20th century, the word "chocolate" expanded to include a range of affordable treats with more sugar and additives than actual cacao in them, often made from the hardiest but least flavorful of the bean varieties.




Hershey’s, A Sweet Success


Having failed twice at his own Candy Company, Milton Hershey, finally made the third time a charm making caramels in his third and final Lancaster, Pennsylvania candy company. In 1893 after a visit to the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago, he returned home with German chocolate making equipment and began producing chocolate covered caramels. Soon the demand for chocolate forced him to focus on a way to make a viable milk chocolate bar. A process that was still closely guarded by the Swiss. After much trial and error, he hit upon a process and the Hershey bar was born. Soon after a company and a town was born. . Having learned from his past failures, he had become a shrewd and astute businessman. He believed, along with the more forward-thinking industrialists of the age, that workers who were treated fairly and who lived in a comfortable, pleasant environment would be better workers. Accordingly, he set upon building an infrastructure to take care of the people who were employed by his company. He had plans drawn up for a model community that included housing for executives and ordinary workers alike, schools, churches, parks, recreational facilities and a trolley system. Unlike other “company towns,” Hershey’s was not intended to exploit its resident workers, but rather to provide for their welfare. As time went on, Hershey saw to it that the town (named Hershey, naturally) added a community building, a department store, a convention hall, an amusement park, a swimming pool, and schools.

We could say the rest was history, but the Hershey company has been an innovator and pioneer in the candy world and a chocolate that soon became closely associated with America and in particularly the American Armed Forces.

After successfully introducing products such as powdered cocoa in 1894, chocolate syrup in 1926 and chocolate chips in 1928, no other product before or since has become such an iconic symbol las the Hershey Kiss. Introduced in 1907, each candy was individually wrapped until the mid 20’s when machinary was invented to take over the process. Hershey Kisses have been continually produced since 1907 with the exceptionm of the war years when foil was needed for the war effort. Hershey put the kiss on hiatus from 1942 until 1949. Today the company produces 24 million kisses per day in 10 Varities.



Hershey goes to war.



Chocolate rations had been a part of America’s soldiers meals from the American Revolution. However, they were not a regular part of the ration until World War One and then in limited supply.


After World War One, the American Quartermaster’s Corp, set about devising rations that were more portable, lighter in weight, higher in nutrition than previous rations. Chocolate bars were included in most of the war rations. However, the Armed Forces was still looking for a highly portable, light weight emergency ration for combat troops that were actively engaged in combat. The Hershey company was tasked with coming up with such a food.

The U.S. Army’s requirements were quite specific. They needed a ration bar that weighed about four ounces, would not melt at high temperatures, was high in food energy value, and did not taste so good that soldiers would be tempted to eat it except in an emergency. In fact they were told it should taste no better than a boiled potato. And so the Emergency “D” ration bar was born. Prior to this bar, melted chocolate was poured into molds in a highly automated system. The D bar was of such a consistancy, that it would not pour and the clay like material had to be packed by hand into the molds. As an added precaution, each bar was coated in a substance to make it impervious to gas. The result was a bar that did provide high calorie content and nutrition for soldiers and was designed to only be used sparingly for as long as 24 hours. Reports from combat troops were mixed. The bar gave them the energy to fight, but it was also hard to chew and could cause quite a bit of gastric upset. Following World War II, the bars were changed quite a bit and finally discontinued. However, Hershey continued to supply the US Armed Forces with chocolate bars and eventually all manner of Hershey candies to be included in troop rations and are still being included in the MRE’s that our soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan are eating today.

In addition to Hershey’s, which produces 100 types of chocolate, candy and baking products, American candy companies still produce the most chocolate available for sale today.
But if it’s gourmet chocolate you want, several confectioners have stepped up to fill the bill. Arguably the most famous one is Godiva. The chocolate of kings and queens has been made in Belgium since 1926. It was introduced into America in the 60’s and sales of the high quality brand have grown every year. If you really want to impress your Valentine, a nice size box of Godiva Chocolate is sure to bring a smile to the face of anyone that receives it as a gift. And if you’re lucky, they might even consent to share some with you.



Chocolate Trivia



American consumers average 10-12 pounds of chocolate a year, while in the Switzerland they eat almost twice that amount.

Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40% of the world's almonds and 20% of the world's peanuts.

The Cacao tree only thrives in latitudes no more than 20 degrees north and south of the equator.

Hawaii is the only state that grows cacao beans to produce chocolate.

U.S. chocolate manufacturers use about 3.5 million pounds of whole milk every day to make chocolate.

66% of chocolate is consumed between meals.

22% of all chocolate consumption takes place between 8pm and midnight.

More chocolate is consumed in winter than any other season.

Chocolate supposedly made its film debut when Jean Harlow ate candy in the 1933 comedy 'Dinner at Eight'.

Chocolate syrup was used for the blood in the famous shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'Psycho'. The scene lasts for about 45 seconds in the movie, but took 7 days to film.

In the U.S. chocolate candy outsells all other types of candy combined, by 2 to 1.

Seven billion pounds of chocolate and candy are manufactured each year in the United States.

M&M’s were first created after the Mars Candy Company founder saw a similar candy being used during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s. The candy coating helped keep the chocolate from melting. Mars first produced M&M’s in 1941 and they were sold exclusively to the US military until after the war. Today 400 million M&M’s are made each day. M&M stands for Mars and Murrie the founders of the company

Halloween is the top candy holiday with the most sales. Followed by Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day.

36 million heart shaped boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine’s Day each year.

90 million chocolate bunnies are produced each year for the Easter holiday.

The first known published recipe for chocolate brownies appeared in the Sears & Roebuck

Catalogue in 1897.Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Adams in 1775 declaring chocolate to be superior to coffee and tea.

The Baby Ruth bar is named after President Grover Clevelands daughter and not the famous baseball player.




Now that we know how we came to enjoy chocolate and how it has been changed over the ages, let’s talk about the reasons why we eat chocolate. Because it tastes good! Chocolate also just makes us feel good. Chocolate contains more than 300 known chemicals of which caffeine is just one. These chemicals work on our brains very similarly to drugs such as Marijuana and amphetamines. The chemicals in chocolate are assuredly safe; they just cause the brain to transmit messages that cause us to feel euphoric. Scientists are researching these chemicals and affects and have gone too far as to say that there may be credence to a chocolate addiction after all. Hey, if it feels good, eat it!!!

Chocolate has been said to cause acne and tooth decay, and has a reputation for being a fattening, nutrition less food. On the other hand, chocolate is also known for being everything from an anti-depressant to an aphrodisiac. While there's still much we don't know about chocolate, recent research is helping us better understand how chocolate consumption affects our health. New medical studies have been conducted that have found that chocolate, especially dark chocolate has antioxidant qualities that prevent heart disease.

Since chocolate has become synonymous with Valentine’s it’s obvious that this delicious treat is good for our hearts in more ways than one.