Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

For sledging, a winter activity described later, we had to use corned beef
and we made up the other rations from the standard supplies, but in the
second year we received sledging boxes each with 20 man-days of proper
sledging food, including pemmican and Kendal mint cake, calculated to give
the necessary calories. (Pemmican was originally developed from a North
American Indian recipe based on dried caribou meat, fat and wild berries,
pounded together to make a bar).
On the whole though, we did very much better than in post-war England,
where rationing was still in force. In general we consumed about 4,000 calories
a day when at base and up to 7,000 calories a day when on man-hauling sledge
journeys in winter. My weight was soon up to l3-13 1 2 stone. But one certainly
needed the extra food intake.
We were able to supplement our diet and introduce variety by living off
the land, or rather sea. We caught fish by line or trap, mainly the Antarctic cod,
Notothenia neglecta, with tasty, firm flesh. Occasionally we had fresh seal meat:
delicacies included young crabeater seals, especially liver or filet steak, leopard
seal brains on toast, seal chitterlings (the small intestine of one species is
several hundred feet long). We didn't care much for elephant seal meat, which
has a repulsive oily taste, but could have thrived on it in extremity.
Occasionally we shot a bird, usually gull or shag; we also tried penguin, but
the very dark meat was not attractive. All the birds had a layer of fat under the
skin, which had to be removed before cooking. Birds were usually roasted -
preferably after marinading in vinegar. The eggs of several seabirds were
appreciated, though the whites of penguin eggs are an off-putting translucent
bluish-grey and better used in cakes or omelets than fried or boiled.
Particularly to be avoided were giant petrels (repulsive as flesh or eggs). We
took vitamin tablets to ward off scurvy and cope with deficiencies (vitamins A,
B, C, D) and also we had Califorange - the concentrated orange juice provided
by the Ministry of Food in those days for bonny babies.
It was necessary to ration our food, but this was only to prevent our using
too much of one thing at the expense of others. If there were no rationing there
would soon have been no tinned fruit left!
Canteen stores. Free canteen stores, which included such items as toothpaste,
toothbrushes, soap, razor blades (a large stock), pipes, tobacco (Bulwark,
Players medium, Three Nuns, St. Bruno, Gold Block, Glasgow Smoking
Mixture (foul), Scotch Flake (also pretty foul)) were provided. Cigarettes:
(Players, Craven A, Woodbines, Senior Service, Wills Gold Flake etc.) I stuck
with Bulwark for my pipe, sometimes mixed with Players Medium and - when
we had used up all the Bulwark - Three Nuns. I never liked cigarettes. It wasn't
an addiction and I could do without it quite easily. I hadn't been a smoker
before; it was in the days before there was any suggestion of a link with lung
cancer, and I had taken up smoking a pipe thinking it would assuage hungerpangs,
so that I could spend lengthy periods in the field without taking food
along! [Other canteen stores were charged for and we had to keep a record.]
There were also items like mending wool, buttons, etc.
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