A real German stew is a heated stew. It is prepared in 1.5 liter cans, consisting of two parts, one above the other, of porridge and meat. An arrow is drawn on a small part, by turning which you turn on the heating process. The contents of the can heat up and you instantly get a hot meal. Of course, cooking such a stew at home is unrealistic, but you can still do something similar. Our site brings to your attention a recipe for a wonderful homemade stew with porridge, based on German motives. Of course, it is unrealistic to cope with automatic heating of stew at home, but the stew turns out to be so satisfying, fragrant and tasty that you can even eat it cold. Well, in order to enjoy the real taste of German stew, you need to put it in a pan and just heat it up.
List of ingredients
- pork - 600 g
- garlic - 5 cloves
- bay leaf - 5 pcs
- buckwheat - 500 g
- water - 500 ml
- lard - 5 teaspoons
- salt - to taste
Cooking method
Wash the pork, pat dry and clean thoroughly. Cut the meat into pieces and place in a bowl. Add salt and pepper. To stir thoroughly.
Take 5 half-liter sterile jars and put the meat in them, filling the jars to about halfway. Add a teaspoon of lard to each jar and pour in water so that it is flush with the meat. Put the jars of meat in a cold oven and cover with tin lids without rubber bands.
Turn on the oven to heat up to a temperature of 200 degrees and wait until the water in the jars with meat boils. This process usually takes 30-40 minutes. Then reduce the temperature and stew the meat in jars for 3 hours. At the same time, you need to monitor the temperature in the oven so that the meat is stewed quietly.
Peel the garlic and cut into halves. Wash bay leaf. Remove jars of meat, put garlic and bay leaf in them. Pour into each jar 100 g of buckwheat washed and dried in a dry frying pan and pour 100 ml of warm water. Cover jars with lids again and return to oven.
Wait until the liquid in the jars boils, then reduce the temperature and cook for 50 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the stew in it for another 1.5 hours. Then remove the stew from the oven and roll up, inserting the previously removed gum into the tin lids.
German stew is ready!
Today I would like to tell you a little about canned food, and not just canned food, but about the legendary stew.
And what does it have to do with, so beloved by me, "Belle Epoque"? - you may ask...
Reasonably ... After all, we open Wikipedia on the word "stew" (stew - canned meat), and we read interesting things:
“The inhabitants of the USSR first learned about meat in cans during the Great Patriotic War: cheap stew, invented by entrepreneur George Hormel, was a strategically important product for the American allies.”
As you can see, dark Russians first saw canned food only in the middle of the 20th century.
But that's just not true...
It's actually not true at all...
Many people know that the first canned food appeared in France at the very beginning of the 19th century.
This invention was met with great interest around the world. In the Russian Archive magazine for 1821 there is an entry: “Now they have reached such a degree of perfection that ready-made dinners from Roberts in Paris are sent to India in some kind of tin dishes of a new invention, where they are saved from spoilage.” These "re-invention tins" are the invention of mechanic Peter Durand. It was Durant who invented food tin cans. Naturally, they were much different from modern ones - they were made by hand and had an uncomfortable lid. The British acquired a patent and began to produce canned food according to the Upper method, and since 1826 the British army received canned meat as allowances. True, in order to open such a jar, the soldiers had to use not a knife, but a hammer and a chisel.
The Russian military was also actively interested in ways to preserve food for the army. Trial purchases of an "overseas product" were made. But in Russia, stew did not take root for a long time. The first samples bought abroad were even tested by order on prisoners and students. It can be seen that experiments on such an unreliable element were nevertheless recognized as positive. Because already in 1870 Russia built its first cannery. So “the inhabitants of Russia first learned about meat in tins” not in the middle of the 20th century, but a little earlier (only a century) - in the middle of the 19th century.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, canning was a traditional way of preparing food.
So it turns out that Belle Epoque and stew have a lot in common. Both came to us almost at the same time :)
True, this is where the similarity ends - if with the advent of 1914, the "Belle Epoque" was gone forever - then the stew survived its finest hour. After all, the main customer of the canning factories, of course, was the army. For example, five types of canned food were produced in St. Petersburg: fried beef (or lamb), stew, porridge, meat with peas and pea stew. Millions of soldiers in this "triumph of madness", as the First World War would later be called, ate canned food, including stew.
In order not to be unfounded, I will tell you about an interesting case that happened in 1966.
An elderly citizen entered the All-Union Research Institute of the Canning Industry and put a can of canned food on the table with the inscription “Peter and Paul Cannery. Stewed meat. 1916". Andrei Vasilyevich Muratov, the owner of this can, received it at the front during ... the First World War. The analysis and subsequent tasting showed that “The stew was excellently preserved, despite the fact that it had lain in a jar for 50 years!!!
I even met mentions that at that time even a special "self-heating stew" was supplied to the front in small quantities. By turning the bottom of the can, quicklime and water were brought into contact. As a result of the reaction - heating. This invention of the Russian engineer Fedorov, made by him in 1897, began to be produced already at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1915, the Russian army began to receive this stew in the trenches, though in small quantities. She was recalled in his memoirs by General Shkuro, who in the First World War was the commander of a detachment of scouts on the Caucasian front. The Turkish rear was their permanent habitat, and this stew helped them out a lot. Fast, high-calorie, does not unmask when cooking. Then the release was stopped, after the civil war, and generally forgotten about it. Not to fat. And the Germans in the First World War, having tasted the captured Russian stew, appreciated the idea and set up production for the Second World War ...
Of course, speaking of stew, one cannot but talk about the Second World War. There is probably not a single person who would not have heard of the famous "American stew". "Second front" - as the front-line soldiers caustically called this attempt by the Americans to buy off the allies. I don’t want to argue with skeptics: “an attempt to exchange blood for canned food”, and with labus fascists and other defective dissenters: “stew as America’s decisive contribution to the war, and a factor that saved the entire USSR from starvation.”
Let others argue about it.
I am much more interested in how this most legendary "second front" looked like. And it turned out that the descriptions of the stew are full - but there are no photographs. Well, who, pray tell, could take pictures of simple tin cans. There are tanks, there are planes, but there is no stew.
But it is not for nothing that they say "he who seeks - he will find" ...
I present to your attention the real legend of the "Second World War" - "American stew".
It turns out that during the war in America, a whole film was made about the production of "svinaia tushonka". :)
Cincinnati, Ohio. Preparing canned pork (Russian: "svinaia tushonka") for lend-lease shipment to the USSR»
Valuable footage - you can see not only what the legendary stew looked like, but also what it consisted of:
Pork, lard, onions and spices in the amount that goes into each individual tin.
You can tell a lot about the "American stew" - almost every memoir of the front-line soldiers mentions it ...
But I won’t bore you - there are already “many letters” :)
Just look at the faces of ordinary American girls who somehow helped to forge VICTORY
PS Yes, yes, I remember that I promised to tie it up - but I cannot but mention one more story connected with the "stew".
Today it is already difficult to imagine that thirty years ago no one knew about the word "spam", at least in its modern meaning.
Initially, it was the name of canned meat, the annoying television advertising of which made their name "Spam" a household name :)
So, when you get another tempting offer to buy Viagra in the mail, remember the legendary stew...
Ration for mountain parts and skiers. It is clear that the diet during heavy physical exertion should be much more caloric than usual - dried fruits, cookies, chocolate. And six cigarettes.
Special diet for mountain rangers.
Patrol diet for one day - sausage, butter, chocolate, dextroenergen (sugar substitute).
The ration of naraschutists is canned sausage, two cans of cheese, chocolate, biscuits, "marchetrank".
Diet for six days. 12 chocolates, plus cognac.
An article from the magazine "Adler" for 1943 talks about the 48-hour diet of paratroopers:
Four packages of canned sausage (250 g).
250g cheese in two aluminum tubes.
Two packets of crackers (250 g).
Five packages (500 g) of soy meat - "Fleisch Brot".
Four bars of chocolate.
Three packs of dextroenergen.
Three packs of marshgetrank.
Chewing gum packaging.
Cigarettes and matches.
Motorized units could be issued up to three additional "portions", in addition to the usual NZ, as they were mobile and sometimes broke away from their supplies at decent distances. Their diet consisted of an 850 gram can of canned meat and vegetables, 500 grams of knakebrots, chocolates and dry lemonade.
During 1943, the tankers added to this diet another 200 grams of fat or fatty pork, 25 grams of pressed coffee, 15 grams of coffee beans, 10 grams of sugar.
Later, to ensure a quick recovery of strength, additional chocolate and hard candies were added to the diet.
The pilots, in addition to regular food, were given half a liter of milk, an egg, bread, and butter before the flight. During the flight, you could refresh yourself with chocolate, fruit or candied nuts. In addition to the NZ, crews flying long distances were issued a hunting rifle to shoot game in the event of an emergency landing.
Under normal conditions, the unit was supposed to have a three-day supply of food to feed its soldiers. In addition to this, there were two types of emergency rations. The first, this is half, it was kept by each soldier. The second is a full emergency ration, and it was stored in the field kitchen, in case the usual supplies ran out.
Could also be transported on other vehicles of the part. The decision to use the full NZ was made by the unit commander, after using up the usual products, and based on the environment. That is, products from the NZ were not served at the table along with the usual dinner.
The complete NZ consisted of:
one). Canned meat, at the rate of 200 grams. It could have been in larger jars - 400 or 850 grams.
2). Vegetables, based on 150 grams of dried or canned vegetables, or "pea sausage".
3). Dry bread products, 250 grams, as well as in the half ration.
4). Coffee, or ersatz coffee, 25 grams.
5). Salt, also 25 grams.
Processed cheese "Tilsiter" in tubes - "BONA" and "ADA".
Canned sausage.
"Sho-ka-cola" for the emergency NZ Luftwaffe.
"Sho-ka-cola".
Coffee in tubes, with milk and sugar.
Marchgetrank (dry lemonade) - was also in cardboard packaging.
Dried cabbage, 600 grams.
Large army pack of Knorr soups. "Kriegspackung! Handle with care! Do not drop!" Oxtail soup - "Ochsenschwanzartsuppe".
A jar of canned stewed cabbage.
Ration for mountain parts and skiers. It is clear that the diet during heavy physical exertion should be much more caloric than usual - dried fruits, cookies, chocolate. And six cigarettes.
Special diet for mountain rangers.
Patrol diet for one day - sausage, butter, chocolate, dextroenergen (sugar substitute).
The ration of naraschutists is canned sausage, two cans of cheese, chocolate, biscuits, "marchetrank".
Diet for six days. 12 chocolates, plus cognac.
An article from the magazine "Adler" for 1943 talks about the 48-hour diet of paratroopers:
Four packages of canned sausage (250 g).
250g cheese in two aluminum tubes.
Two packets of crackers (250 g).
Five packages (500 g) of soy meat - "Fleisch Brot".
Four bars of chocolate.
Three packs of dextroenergen.
Three packs of marshgetrank.
Chewing gum packaging.
Cigarettes and matches.
Motorized units could be issued up to three additional "portions", in addition to the usual NZ, as they were mobile and sometimes broke away from their supplies at decent distances. Their diet consisted of an 850 gram can of canned meat and vegetables, 500 grams of knakebrots, chocolates and dry lemonade.
During 1943, the tankers added to this diet another 200 grams of fat or fatty pork, 25 grams of pressed coffee, 15 grams of coffee beans, 10 grams of sugar.
Later, to ensure a quick recovery of strength, additional chocolate and hard candies were added to the diet.
The pilots, in addition to regular food, were given half a liter of milk, an egg, bread, and butter before the flight. During the flight, you could refresh yourself with chocolate, fruit or candied nuts. In addition to the NZ, crews flying long distances were issued a hunting rifle to shoot game in the event of an emergency landing.
Under normal conditions, the unit was supposed to have a three-day supply of food to feed its soldiers. In addition to this, there were two types of emergency rations. The first, this is half, it was kept by each soldier. The second is a full emergency ration, and it was stored in the field kitchen, in case the usual supplies ran out.
Could also be transported on other vehicles of the part. The decision to use the full NZ was made by the unit commander, after using up the usual products, and based on the environment. That is, products from the NZ were not served at the table along with the usual dinner.
The complete NZ consisted of:
one). Canned meat, at the rate of 200 grams. It could have been in larger jars - 400 or 850 grams.
2). Vegetables, based on 150 grams of dried or canned vegetables, or "pea sausage".
3). Dry bread products, 250 grams, as well as in the half ration.
4). Coffee, or ersatz coffee, 25 grams.
5). Salt, also 25 grams.
Processed cheese "Tilsiter" in tubes - "BONA" and "ADA".
Canned sausage.
"Sho-ka-cola" for the emergency NZ Luftwaffe.
"Sho-ka-cola".
Coffee in tubes, with milk and sugar.
Marchgetrank (dry lemonade) - was also in cardboard packaging.
Dried cabbage, 600 grams.
Large army pack of Knorr soups. "Kriegspackung! Handle with care! Do not drop!" Oxtail soup - "Ochsenschwanzartsuppe".
A jar of canned stewed cabbage.
The idea of this material was prompted by a very famous person among military reenactors under the call sign Bublik. A unique person who reconstructs the chef of the Wehrmacht infantry and the only one in Russia who does this in German cuisine that survived the Great Patriotic War.
In general, the kitchen issue is a very delicate issue. It will seem to someone that the presence of ammunition is more important. I agree. But I think that the soldiers of the 6th Army of Paulus, who still had not so much ammunition and shells, but enough, would argue. And so - they ate the last horses and made the Fuhrer a Christmas present. Surrendered. Many are said to have survived.
Let's start with the kitchens. First, from German, of course, it’s good, we talked about the domestic one more than once.
We discussed German and Soviet cuisine behind the scenes for a long time, and this is what we ended up with. For now, by the word "kitchen" we mean a cooking unit.
In a dispute on the topic “who is better”, Soviet cuisine definitely won. The German one was heavier (4 double boilers with glycerin between the walls as a non-stick device) and had one not very convenient archaism. Namely - wooden wheels.
All plans to put the German on the "rubber move" ended in failure. The design of the kitchen itself, with the low blowers of the stoves, did not allow to reduce the diameter of the wheels. And the possibilities of German industry no longer allowed to remodel the kitchen in wartime. She had something to do without field kitchens.
Wooden wheels did not allow transporting the kitchen at a speed of more than 15 km / h. Patency was also not so hot, and the closer to the front line, the more problems there were in the form of craters and other inconveniences. I won’t tell you about how a German woman feels in the muddy Russian clay. To drag it, as the reenactors said at the rate, is still a pleasure.
However, judging by the memoirs, the German chefs didn’t particularly care about this topic, for which they were very “hotly loved” by the soldiers on the front line.
Soviet cuisine back in 1936, according to the decision of Commissar of Defense Comrade Voroshilov, switched to wheels from GAZ-AA. Until that time, the wheels were also wooden, of the cart type.
The fact that the towing speed has increased to 35 km / h is really nothing. As the horses dragged the kitchen for the most part, they continued. Trucks have always had more important things to do. Another thing is that it has become easier to drag the kitchen on such wheels both in terms of effort and in terms of cross-country ability. And this is an important point.
For the closer the kitchen can drive to the front line, the more chances the soldiers have for a hot lunch. If the conditions did not allow, then the food that we had, that the Germans had, was delivered by carriers to the front line. And here it is clear that a thermos is a good thing, but ... The only question is how much distance the carriers had to overcome. And under what conditions.
But in general, the Germans were not very good at feeding. We will not compare the grams of food issued per soldier in the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, it is more interesting how those who prepared food from them disposed of these grams.
After studying a bunch of materials, I have compiled a list of the most common dishes of German field cuisine, which I will introduce.
In general, the food system in the Wehrmacht had a number of differences from ours. First of all, it is worth noting. that there was no difference in the nutritional standards for soldiers, officers and generals. This is indirectly confirmed in his memoirs by Manstein in his “Lost Victories”: “Naturally, we, like all soldiers, received army supplies. Nothing bad could be said about the soldier’s soup from the field kitchen. But the fact that we day after day for dinner they got only soldier's bread and tough smoked sausage, which was rather difficult for the older of us to chew, probably was not absolutely necessary.
The breakfast of a German soldier consisted of bread (350 grams) and a mug of coffee.
Dinner differed from breakfast only in that, in addition to coffee and bread, the soldier also received a piece of sausage (100 grams), or three eggs, or a piece of cheese and something to spread on bread (butter, lard, margarine). Eggs and cheese - if available, mostly canned sausage was used.
The soldier received the bulk of his daily ration for lunch, which, in combat conditions, again became more like dinner.
The most common soups: rice, bean, canned vegetables, pasta, semolina.
Second courses: goulash, roast pork or beef. There are references to chops and cue balls, you can believe it, but it's definitely not at the forefront.
Garnish. Everything is sad here. For the Germans. Boiled potatoes 7 days a week. From 1.5 kg, if only potatoes, and 800 grams, if peas and carrots were attached to it.
Celery salads, kohlrabi cabbages, I can imagine anywhere, but definitely not on the Eastern Front.
I did not find any fish in the infantry menu at all. Only once a week a jar of canned fish.
But it was like a stationary menu. That is, not at the forefront, but on vacation or when understaffing. That is, when placed at some base, but not at the forefront.
Plus how it was used. There are also nuances.
In combat conditions, the German soldier received the "Normal food for the war" (Verpflegung im Kriege).
It existed in two versions: a daily ration (Tagesration) and an untouchable ration (Eiserne Portion).
The daily ration was a set of food and hot food given out daily to a soldier for food, and the second was a set of food partly carried by the soldier with him, and partly transported in the field kitchen. It could be spent only on the orders of the commander if it is not possible to give the soldier a normal meal.
The daily ration (Tagesration) was divided into two more parts: cold food (Kaltverpflegung) and, in fact, hot food (Zubereitet als Warmverpflegung) from the above menu.
The daily ration is issued to the soldier once a day in its entirety, usually in the evening after dark, when it becomes possible to send food carriers to the near rear to the field kitchen.
Cold food is given to the soldier in his hands, and he has the opportunity to put them in a bread bag. Hot food is given, respectively, coffee in a flask, cooked second course - potatoes (pasta, porridge) with meat and fat in a pot. The place of eating and the distribution of food for food during the day, the soldier determines independently.
It seems nothing, but it turns out that the German had to carry all this stuff on himself. Or store it in a dugout, in the hope that no one will gobble up its one and a half kilos of boiled potatoes.
But that is not all. Each Wehrmacht soldier also had two NZs: a full untouchable ration (volle eiserne Portion) (hard crackers - 250 gr., canned meat - 200 gr., soup concentrate or canned sausage - 150 gr., natural ground coffee - 20 gr.) .
At the company field kitchen, two such complete rations for each soldier should have been available. If it was impossible to provide the field kitchen with the products of the usual daily ration, the commander could give an order either to issue one full untouchable cold ration for a day, or to cook a hot dish from canned food and soup concentrate and brew coffee.
In addition, each soldier had one reduced untouchable ration (gekürzte Eiserne Portion) in a bread bag, consisting of the 1st can of canned meat (200g) and a bag of hard crackers. This ration was consumed only by order of the commander in the most extreme case, when the rations from the field kitchen were used up or if food delivery was not possible for more than a day.
On the one hand, it seems that the German soldier was better provided with food than ours. The fact that he had to constantly carry some of them with him, and a fair amount, I don’t know, doesn’t seem to me a good thing.
If the Russian artillerymen or mortarmen "figured out" the kitchen and both sides were engaged in this matter), then at the very least the chances of living were better than those of our fighters.
On the other hand, somehow everything does not look very rational, to be honest. A soldier, in addition to his main duties, has a very important (and try to argue!) Business in his head, namely how to save food and when to use it. And if everything is more or less normal with the first, then in the conditions of winter, specifically, the Russian winter, problems begin. Although reheating in bad weather is still entertainment.
Yes, it is worth noting here that soups in the German system at the forefront, as it were, were not provided at all. It was customary for the Germans to withdraw soldiers from the front line, there - please, but in the trenches hot meals were provided only with second courses.
And here the field is unplowed for various problems with stomachs. Chronic constipation, indigestion, gastritis and catarrh. This problem was so great that in the reserve army there were entire battalions where soldiers suffering from chronic stomach diseases were sent. Up to the point that in October 1942 they were reduced to the 165th reserve division stationed in France. Later, in July 1944, it was renamed the 70th Infantry, but it was never able to fight. Until November 1944, she stood in Holland, where she surrendered to the Allies.
Let's move on to the Soviet side.
Here I will rely not only on documents, but also on the personal memories of the participants.
Speaking about food on the front line, the picture is as follows: in the Red Army, positions were provided for the issuance of hot food twice a day - in the morning (immediately after dawn) and in the evening after sunset.
Everything except bread was served hot. Soup (shchi, borscht) was served both times, the main dish was most often porridge. After the next meal, the soldier had no food left with him, which freed him from unnecessary problems, the danger of food poisoning and heaviness.
However, this scheme also had its drawbacks. In the event of interruptions in the delivery of hot food to the trenches, the Red Army soldier remained completely hungry.
NZ was. It consisted of a pack of crackers (300-400 grams) or biscuits, cans of canned meat or fish. Despite all the efforts of the command, it was not possible to force the Red Army soldiers to carry an emergency supply of food. NZ “flew away”, because war is war, and if lunch is not on schedule ...
Menu. Here, of course, diversity is not like the Germans.
Bread, which is the head of everything. The Germans had one view for all occasions. In the Red Army, according to the norms, 4 types of bread were baked: rye, wheat sour, white sieve, rye custard and rye-wheat. White, of course, did not go to the front line.
In addition, there were rye and wheat crackers, as well as wheat biscuits "Tourist", "Arktika", "Military Campaign".
First meal.
Kulesh. It is difficult to determine whether it is the first or the second, it depends solely on the amount of liquid in it. Prepared everywhere, in all branches of the military.
Borscht. In the plural, because there were three official types of them, different according to the recipe. "Ukrainian", "" and just borscht.
cabbage soup. Fresh vegetables, sauerkraut, greens.
Soups. Fish, not fish soup, of course, but from fresh fish or canned food, from concentrates (pea, pea-millet), rice, pea, with pasta, pickle.
Second courses.
It is clear that porridge. "Schi and porridge - our joy." Kashi were prepared from millet, buckwheat, barley, rice, peas, wheat and oats. The menu seemed to include pasta, but my grandfather, who started the war in 1942 near Voronezh and ended in 1947 in Western Ukraine through Prague, does not remember pasta. “There were noodle soups, but we didn’t like them. And rice did not complain. Not greedy…”
Kashi, moreover, were mostly not thick. It is clear why. So that there are no locking problems, and not out of economy. The cook could well have played from the kitchen to the trenches for “not enough soup”, so everything was mostly normal here.
Tea and coffee were not spoiled in the trenches. Again, I will refer to the memories, “they spoiled me when there was a lull, when the cook had the opportunity. And so, if the cauldron has turned up the cheek, and even not on canned food, but with meat, and porridge when it’s normal ... You can also drink some water. ”
Let me remind you that the kitchen was for two boilers ... Shchi and porridge are more important than tea, really.
Vegetables in the form of salads, like the Germans, of course, were absent. But all available types of vegetables (potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, onions), as well as pickles were present in soups. Which, in general, leveled the problem of vitamins, if there was one.
If we compare the calculations, then the cuisine of the Red Army was more diverse. Local implementation is also a complex issue, but here you need to look at the result. A hungry and weak soldier is not a soldier at all. And unequivocally, in this the Soviet system was much more effective than the German one.
It is also worth mentioning the hospital ration here. It was much more diverse and higher nutritional standards than at the forefront. It is noteworthy that the hospital ration of the Wehrmacht was almost twice as low as the usual soldier's ration.
It's about the attitude of senior leadership to the wounded. The Soviet command obviously believed that the wounded should be quickly returned to duty, or, in any case, improve his health with better nutrition. The Germans treated their wounded as if they were parasites.
Based on these figures, the question arises - is the commonplace assertion that Stalin did not give a damn about losses and soldier's lives cost him nothing? If so, then why waste scarce food on the wounded, if they can be put on the rations of the rear, or even completely halved?
But the fact that in the last weeks of the Stalingrad cauldron, Field Marshal Paulus ordered not to give out food for his wounded at all - this is a fact repeatedly confirmed by German sources.
What are the conclusions? And none in particular. Our system was better than the German one, that's the whole story. The “Aryan civilization” lost even the battle for the stomachs of the soldiers to the “Eastern barbarians”. It was not from a good system that the Germans rushed to loot in the villages.
The Wehrmacht “had the right” to confiscate food from the local population in order to improve the provision of its soldiers in excess of the established norms. However, it remains unclear what share of the seized food was to be accounted for and sent to Germany, what was to be transferred to the centralized provision of the troops located in this territory, and what part of the products the military units could seize without accounting.
There is no doubt that the robbery of food from the local population was officially allowed, this is confirmed by a large number of documents.
