Page 19 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 57

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not been swept for a long time and the
whole kitchen needed a serious clean. I
was spared that filthy job, being put in
charge of the manual bacon slicer and
spending my time opening large tins
of corned beef, ham, etc prep for meals
and sandwiches. I was not spared the
cleaning however because the machine
was old and filthy, a few buckets of boil-
ing sudsy water and a stiff scrub soon
cleared that, but my shoulders ached at
the end of that day from working the
machine.
Lincoln
I was posted as a B3 cook to the Royal
Lincolnshire Regimental Headquarters,
Burton Road, Lincoln at their Victorian
barracks. A proud regiment with many
battle honours on their flag, their regi-
mental cap badge featured The Sphinx
to represent Egypt, where many of
them were earned. There was a super
new kitchen, not much equipment but
very easy to clean, coal fires were looked
after by the boilerman across the road.
The Regiment was in Malaysia so only
a permanent staff and new recruits lived
Catterick, May 1957 in. 250 for breakfast – easy. We worked
on the three-shift system with a cook
My first attempt at cooking was in up a field kitchen anywhere. Our oven
sergeant i/c. When the battalion, with
‘Mess Tin Cookery’, using our own had been built by a previous intake and
over 700 men, returned it was chaos, late
mess tins. Hot pot, all ingredients very was five double ovens in a connected
nights to feed them on arrival and many
carefully cut, same size and thickness. row, about ten-foot-long. A large fire
more suntanned strangers every day to
Layered diced meat which were in neat is started above the ash pit, giving less
cook for.
squares, potatoes, onions, meat and fin- heat as the ovens became further away
Being given a tape after being put
ished the final layer of sliced potatoes all is the official idea which did work, grad-
i/c a shift was a step up. This I found
the same size and thickness, seasoned ing the heat as it got further from the
was a great help when going through
and into the oven to become a golden firing box, from roast to meringues. That
the guard room into/from town.
crisp brown on top, it smelled super. is unless you had a bright group like us
Straight after my promotion the Guard
Being cooked and taking them from who pushed the fire further along than
the oven we all then progressed to the it was meant to be. Eventually we were
next lines which was a large block of the pushing the fire further and further in
Royal Signals, into their massive, busy with long logs until the whole fire box
kitchen where lunch preparation was in roared, the oven’s backs glowed red hot
full swing, tipping our offerings into a inside, and were painful to approach.
large steam kettle, it become the squad- The weekenders put their prepared large
dies soup of the day. joints of meat unsuspectingly into the
During our week of Field cooking oven, without checking the heat! We
training, a squad of territorials arrived were doing our job as instructed and
to cook lunch, we were called at 5am to warned them quietly, told them they
‘fire’ for them, dressed in denims, this we were the chefs, we were the firemen, so
all resented. Being told to fire a 10-foot we put more and more wood on. The
double bluff oven with two others we joints were ruined, burned to blackened
set about sabotaging their efforts “make cinders, we had just done as instructed
sure the ovens are nice and hot or you and kept the fires going.
will all be in trouble”. A mobile double Our ‘passing out’ was a journey by
bluff oven was made of two heavy cast truck to Otterburn, Northumberland,
iron ovens placed back-to-back, space a wild and desolate place to the firing
for a fire box between them, fire at one range there, cooking for a Guards train-
end, chimney at the other, for setting ing session. The stoves and flues had The Lincolnshire Regiment HQ’s kitchen

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