food

U S Military Academy at West Point



















  Last Updated: 1/31/99

CADETS AND FOOD

Cadets today are no different than cadets of earlier days; they bring withthem their likes and dislikes of certain foods. Just like former President Bush who doesn't care for broccoli, cadets come from all sections of the country and are used to certain tastes, delicacies such as grits from the southern states, etc. as well as their favorite dish that Mom always cooked. Not too many years ago, the menus for the meals were fairly standard and predictable. If cadets thought the evening meal was going to be one that they didn't particularly care for, they would go to the 'Boodlers',which carried candy and ice cream among other goodies, and purchase a pint or two of ice cream and bring it back to their room and wrap it in their comforter (Brown Boy in olden days, has other names today) to keep it frozen and then eat it after returning from the evening meal. 'Boodle' (goodies from home) also helped as long as there was some left after other ravenous classmates found out about a package having been received. Cadets are no longer required to eat the evening meal in the Mess Hall (except for Thursday nights). Therefore cadets can order in pizzas or go to the Boodlers if they don't like the menu, on any night except Thursday.

I believe that someone once said that an Army travels on its stomach. A lot of my memories harken back to the Mess Hall. I remember having to announce each item to the head of the table as it arrived. One day one of our cohorts (from a Northern state)  didn't read the menu and found himself in a quandary when a strange dish arrived. It was black eyed peas. He said "Sir the beans are on the table. Beans to the head of the table please sir."  The firstie was from the south and immediately was incensed. He asked him what they looked like. The response: brown beans with spots. The firstie then yelled quite loudly "Mr. that's gross." Our illustrious comrade, without missing a beat, said "The gross is on the table. Gross to the head of the table please sir." The firstie spewed out what was in his mouth. I began laughing uncontrollably. Needless to say
neither of us had much of a dinner that night. Another time brussel sprouts were on the menu. The same individual announced that the baby cabbages had arrived. I smiled then and still do when thinking of the inane things that we had to do.

My favorite Mess Hall story:  Gunner announced,  "Sir, the dessert for this meal is cherry pie.  Doe anyone not care for cherry pie?"  After struggling for some time to cut nine (or was it seven) equal portions, and making far more that the necessary number of cuts, he grabbed his spoon, stirred the pie furiously, and then announced, "Sir, the dessert for this meal is cherry cobbler."  I think they let him fall out for originality.

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Jim was an extremely imaginative human being and we set a record in I-1 for putting on a skit every night for four weeks in a row and earning a fallout for each one.  This was VERY tough to do in I-1, but as I said Jim's imagination was very fertile and each evening as we were polishing our shoes before supper formation he came up with a story line for a skit that carried the votes of a majority of upperclassmen at the table.
On one night, however, his theatrical flair got him in trouble.  Jim was in the habit of flipping the pie plate through a 360 degree vertical rotation between the table and the level of his right ear where he held it up for announcement.  Usually, he carried off this maneuver with no untoward consequences.  On one night, however, the pie came out of the pie plate and landed kersploch on the table cloth, just as Jim announced, "Sir, the dessert for this meal is peach pie, would anyone not care for peach pie, sir?"  Needless to say, this attracted the attention of the whole table including the very imposing table com, cadet Lt. J. J. Java.  Java glowered down the table at Jim and in a very intimidating voice said something like, "Well, dewscrew, what are you going to do now?"  Jim, with amazing mental alacrity replied, "Sir may I make a correction," to which Java replied, "Make your correction, smackhead."  Jim came back with "Sir the dessert for this meal is peach cobbler," whereupon he expeditiously scooped the peach mess back into the pie plate.  This being I-1, he did not get a fallout, but he at least got himself out of a bad crack.  I think I braced during most of the remainder of the meal for being caught smirking, but it was worth it. My kids, especially Doug, USMA 91, still like to hear me tell the tale


Two or three times a month, the cadet mess would serve a meatloaf we called TURKEY - because it was so foul!! To mask the taste, the plebes at the table had to make a sauce that we called SCHIMMELFENNIG (presumably after the civil war officer) that was half ketchup and half mustard. The purpose, of course, was to sex up the taste of the TURKEY and it really worked. Actually, it was delicious but we always had a lot of fun joking about it.


MESS-HALL REMINISCENCES
From the 1871 Scrapbook

The fare of the cadets in those days was much grumbled at, but I think never without reason.

It consisted almost exclusively of beef, boiled, roasted, or baked for dinner; cold, sliced, or smoked for breakfast and supper; beef soup twice a week, and bread pudding with molasses on soup days.

The bread was excellent, and huge batches were baked twice a week and stowed away in a great room.

The stale bread and the remnants it was believed were made into puddings. Once the Captain of the Mess-hall found in a pudding a nest of three or four mice. He forthwith carried the great tin pan which contained the pudding to the Superintendent, who dismissed him with the information that it was an accident which might easily happen. But immediately after that, for at least a month, the corps were served with roast geese and turkeys in great abundance.

The story was that this fare was forced upon the steward as a punishment for the mice. It was more probably a free will offering from Mr. Cozzens, who was always a great friend to the cadets, and a universal favorite. While carver of my squad I once found that the tea came out of the great tea-pot less fluently than usual, and upon seeking the cause, discovered a dish-cloth in the bottom of the spout. Another time a carver fished out a fine-tooth comb from the pudding, and this brought another supply of geese and turkeys.

The only man I ever saw eat pork and molasses was a Southerner. He would cut a slice of fat pork and cover it with molasses and esteem it the greatest luxury of the table. Yet it was always a standing jibe on the "Yankees" that they were "pork and molasses eaters."

Previous to 1826, the cadets on the fourth of July were allowed liquors, and they always had a sumptuous dinner. This was prohibited by the Superintendent in 1826. Upon the fourth of July that year, Major William J. Worth, the Commandant, spread a table in his own house and invited the whole corps to partake; wines, ices, and rich provisions in abundance. The story circulated afterwards that he and the Superintendent quarrelled in consequence of the dinner, and it never was repeated.


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