Better Food For Our Fighting Men, a “cookbook without recipes”, edited by Matthieu Nicol, contains a curated series of archival images from the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. At this US Army facility located near Boston, Massachusetts, military scientists and civilian contractors design and test things like uniforms, body armour, portable shelters.

Subjects include rations for combat situations and emergencies, dishes for more relaxed situations, freeze-dried blueberries, liquified ground beef, a “desert bar” of chocolate engineered to withstand extremely high temperatures, tubes of puréed food paired with applicators that allow one to enjoy a liquid meal while wearing a gas mask, etc.

“For the world’s most formidable army, feeding the troops is fraught with logistical, psychological and food safety challenges. Bacteria is an enemy; supply chains are vital, intricate delivery systems. The goal is to provide sustenance and boost morale across the full range of terrain and troop configurations, from mess halls for the officers and selfservice buffets for the rank-and-file to battlefield canteens and survival rations for commandos behind enemy lines. Solving this logistical puzzle is like trying to stuff a square peg into a round hole: once you have devised ways to optimize the daily nutritional requirements of the bodies in question, you need to work out the best solutions for preserving and transporting the food, and still guarantee a minimum level of flavor to keep the soldiers happy.”
- Matthieu Nicol