Silly mod idea: Real U boat Cook!

[Hawkers]

I read somewhere that U boat crews ate better than any other service and that a good ship's cook was highly valued by the captain and the rest of the crew, and it got me thinking: why isn't there a 'cook' qualification in the game? :)

I imagine that such a crew member would have a positive effect on the crew's morale, and a healthy, varied menu would have obvious benefits for a crew's stamina and hence their efficiency.

My current crew doesn't have a qualified cook, and it's beginning to tell on their morale ("Schiesse! Not Sauerkraut mit Kartoffel AGAIN!!?")

So - a call to all modders! We need SUPER COOK!! :-j

What could such a mod do?

Well maybe the cook could provide a choice of daily menus, based on what provisions are available, and the captain could choose from a screen what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day on patrol. As stocks run down and things go rotten, a good cook comes into his own, using improvisation and ingenuity to keep the grub varied and tasty. A newly-qualified cook will find this hard-going, and the crew's morale/stamina will suffer as a result. But as he gets more experience with each patrol, things will get better (and tastier). Similarly a cook's ability will be tested to the limit in difficult situations (rough weather, DC attacks). A good cook might still be able to keep the hot soup and biscuits on tap, even if the full menus are severely curtailed! Back in port, the cook would be able to pick and choose what supplies to stock up for the next trip out, and plan meals accordingly.

Stupid idea, I know, but a lot of people complain about filling in those long, boring days without contact, when even the gramophone fails to relieve the tedium. So how about it?

No more moldy bread, PLEASE!! :lol:

Hawkers :up:

[Capn Tucker]

I think you'd need the SDK in order to create something like a cook qualification. Anything that lessens the fatigue rate would help. But what I'd really like to see is a rotating watchbill; I am so tired of telling people when to go to bed. Once again though, something only the SDK could do...

[Venatore]

Both great idea's guys

Venatore :yep:

[The Avon Lady]

How about simply having people record recipes to OGG/MP3 audio files, to be played by the Gramophone?

No, I'm not volunteering! :nope:

[Twelvefield]

I've been reading about "Scotch Coffee". (Scotch, not Scottish)

Cook takes all of the hard-tack buns and heats them up to kill the weevils. Cook burns some of the buns. Cook takes the ashes, grinds them up, puts them in boiling water, and there you go - hot, pungent, brown liquid that looks enough like coffee.

As a personal note: in my life, I have made exactly three cups of coffee. Each was worse than the one previous, and at the last one, people were begging me to never make coffee again. So, I am not qualified to say whether or not Scotch Coffee would be any good, but it couldn't be that bad, either.

[Hawkers]

Found this on http://uboat.net

Example of how the food was stored on the U-505, a IXC type boat.
494lbs. fresh and cooked meats
238lbs. sausages
4,808lbs. preserved/tinned meats
334lbs. preserved fish
3,858lbs. potatoes
397lbs. dried potatoes
3,428lbs. other vegetables
1,226lbs. bread dough
2,058lbs. preserved breads
463lbs. rice and noodles
595lbs. fresh eggs
917lbs. fresh lemons
2,365lbs. other fruits
551lbs. butter and margarine
611lbs. soup ingredients
408lbs. marmalade and honey
309lbs. fresh and preserved cheese
1,728lbs. milk
441lbs. fruit juices
154lbs. coffee
205lbs. other drinks
441lbs. sugar
132lbs. salt
108lbs. chocolates

Menus were followed strictly to promote proper diet and good nutrition. Breakfast would usually consist of coffee, buttermilk soup, biscuits, hardbread with butter or honey and eggs. Lunch would be soup, potatoes, cooked meat and vegetables, and fruit. Dinner included sausages or canned fish, cheese, bread, and coffee, tea or chocolate.

Well, now my question is, how long would that lot last with a typical crew?

Could have a lot of fun devising recipes from that!

Hawkers :up:

[Seminole]

Prien left a record of the exact meal his crew was served while laying submerged awaiting dark just before his Scappa Flow attack.

Sounded delicious.Made me hungry to read about it.

I noticed that the galley is modeled in the Type II boats in the sim but I have not seen it in the other types I have played... VII B and C.

A cooks rating would be a good idea if the seamen were allowed ratings.


This rating would seem more useful than the helmsmen rating with which the officers have in abundance already from the beginning.

[joea]

Maybe the food was good but only for the first week as I imagine stuff went bad pretty quick. Still recall them shaving the meat in Das Boot. :dead:

[The Avon Lady]

Still recall them shaving the meat in Das Boot. :dead:
Must've been a bum steer. :yep:

[Capn Tucker]

Maybe the food was good but only for the first week as I imagine stuff went bad pretty quick. Still recall them shaving the meat in Das Boot. :dead:

Yep, after about the first week the fresh food ran out, then it was canned stuff. Was reading Reinhard Suhrens (U-564) comments on food. He said the bread molded up very fast, and they had to scrape it off constantly. And everything tasted like diesel oil (logical, as the boat was always full of diesel fumes..

[Twelvefield]

While playing Call of Duty, Mrs. Twelvefield remarked at the army kit items that would be displayed around the edges of the screen during the briefing pages. At one point, there was some K-rations. That fuelled an afternoon of non-pornographic Internet searches on what soldiers ate in WWII. Fascinating stuff.

Here's a link to the American menu:

http://www.ww2rationtechnologies.com/History.html

Some info on German paratroops:

White bread and dairy products, such as milk and fresh eggs, are considered real luxuries by the German soldiers; these items normally are not issued to troops of the other arms and services as part of the regular diet. On the day that a jump is to be made, German paratroopers are given the following, in addition to their normal ration:

approx. .7 lb. white bread
approx. .25 lb. crackers
approx. .06 lb. butter
approx. 1 pt. fresh milk
1 fresh egg

A ration of an entirely different kind is issued on days when long flights are to be made. The Germans have studied the nutritional benefits of specialized rations, and have concluded that on long flights regular rations sit too heavily on the stomach. The rations described below are issued only when two flights of two hours duration are to be made, or a single flight lasting four hours or more.

approx. .16 lb. crystallized fruits
approx. .25 lb. crackers
approx. .01 lb. sugar
approx. .04 lb. butter
1 bar of chocolate substitute

Analysis of this ration indicates that it contains an abundance of energy-giving foods which will sustain an individual without causing gastric discomfort.

The Germans have adopted an iron ration which is intended to last for a three-day period during operations. This emergency ration is similar to those developed by the United States and Great Britain. A ration of this bulk can easily be carried on the person, and provides the necessary "lift" for a man to carry out the most arduous tasks. It consists of:

2 cans of sausage
2 cans of cheese
1 bar of chocolate substitute
1 package of crackers
6 packages of chewing gum
1 package of lemonade powder
1 package of coffee mixed with sugar
1 tablet of solid fuel for heating

The iron rations are intended to make the German paratrooper self-sufficient for a limited period of time. Inclusion of the fuel tablet allows him to prepare a hot beverage, and yet maintain individual security precautions. This tablet burns for about 5 minutes, yielding a smokeless white flame 2 or 3 inches high.

From what I can tell, the last Iron Ration menu is pretty similar to what a regular German soldier would have had to eat.

I offer this tidbit of history as a contrast to what the U-boat crews could expect. The fact that the U-boat would have had a galley would already put German naval menus out of the league of a footsoldier trying to warm up a coffee and eat a chocolate substitute bar over the low, mouldering chemical flame of a muddy fuel box.

[joea]

Great find Twelvefield, though at least soldiers ahd the possibility to forage. Saw a Soviet film of all things from the 1970s called "They Fought for the Motherland" and there the soldiers (in 1942) would fish in the rivers, or try to scrounge food from the peasants (who often had little themselves).

Anyone know if the U-boat crews (or any other sailors) would fish? Seriously.

[William Munny]

I remember in STUKA PILOT that Rudel mentioned of a few times he dropped a small bomb in a river for fishing in 1944. They ate fish for many weeks by doing this. I could find the exact lines if I had to.

[Sailor Steve]

I've read that US PT-boatmen in the Pacific fished with hand grenades.

[iambecomelife]

Interesting account by a Norwegian who was captured by a U-boat and had to partake of their rations:

[T]hey were fond of "schepk" (type of bacon) which to his utter amazement was consumed with great gusto though he personally saw that it had worms in it. The French sugar they had on board tasted like oil (sabotage) and it got so bad that a song was written about the sugar and the cook, who got the blame for everything that had to do with the food. The verses of the song announced they now had to hurry home because they had run out of diesel oil; the cook had used it all to mix in the food...

[Ultraboy]

Going back to the original idea, if there was a SDK to be had, this is something I'd like to see. In fact ANY mod that added some general day-to-day management to pass the time would be nice. It was when I realized I was just cruising through patrols at 1024x most of the time that I put this game down for a while, but mods like this would be incentive to come back.

[HMCS]

why don't you just change the skin on crewman to give him a white apron, and wedgie cap, and holdin a soup tureen instead of a pair of binoc's.

Voila. Instant cook.

[Anakonda]

I would love to see some life ashore... after a long patrol my crew would like to entertain themselves .... :smug:

[Shadow9216]

I miss the old cafe from AOD- nothing more than a screenshot with different messages you could access. Some were true, others were false- but it was part of the challenge to figure out which was which.

I'm sure you could add this in with Beery's Commander edition, if it isn't already, but it would be nice to have in the stock game as a standalone.

[iambecomelife]

I miss the old cafe from AOD- nothing more than a screenshot with different messages you could access. Some were true, others were false- but it was part of the challenge to figure out which was which.

I'm sure you could add this in with Beery's Commander edition, if it isn't already, but it would be nice to have in the stock game as a standalone.

It would be nice if Ubisoft could implement this in an expansion pack or something, with your officers and men in dress uniforms sitting in a hotel. Nothing too fancy, just a few simple animations for drinking or conversation. The rumors could be simple plin text like they were in AOD, so they wouldn't have to worry about creating new audio files. It's things like this that add to the immersion of any game.

[Capn Tucker]

The German Army had "iron rations" also. But they were for emergency use only, and could only be eaten on the orders of a superior officer.
The normal meals came from the field kitchen or "gulaschkanone", and would include soup of some kind and other hot food. This was done whenever possible before having to resort to the iron rations..