anyone ever attempt to make D&D iron rations?

[MystArt]

When I was playing D&D back in high school I used to think the foodstuffs called "iron rations" were a great way to save gold pieces. Forget dining at the tavern, I'll sit in the park and eat my iron rations. But my DM always told me if given the chance to eat real food no sensible person would eat iron rations. I always wondered why.

I have found a few scraps of info about how iron rations were a WWI form of emergency food, also French troops sealed their food in tins (hence the iron in iron rations). But I've always wondered what the food was.

I found this very good description but I was wondering if any D&D players here in the RPF might have taken a stab (no pun intended) at making iron rations. Anyone ever give it a go?

 

[MystArt]

Well since no one else did ..... I made a video. Apologies it's half an hour long but at least I can't be accused of not being thorough.

 

[Mike J.]

Interesting. We don't get a lot of D&D on here, or a lot of real food. I commend you for both!

This is exactly the sort of thing I would expect to see in serious LARPing.

I have passed this on to Propnomicon.

Thanks for sharing


-MJ

 

[MystArt]

Interesting. We don't get a lot of D&D on here, or a lot of real food. I commend you for both!

This is exactly the sort of thing I would expect to see in serious LARPing.

I have passed this on to Propnomicon.

Thanks for sharing


-MJ

My pleasure! I hope the Propnomicon folks enjoy it too.
Now if I can just get the twigs of Pemmican out of my teeth ...... blech!

 

[Propnomicon]

My pleasure! I hope the Propnomicon folks enjoy it too.
Now if I can just get the twigs of Pemmican out of my teeth ...... blech!

This is the kind of project I absolutely love. That said, as a decrepit old Grognard I think Gygax-era iron rations may have been inspired by the ones in use during the Napoleonic era. Those were packages of hardtack and portable soup that varied wildly in quality depending on the budget when they were ordered. In general they were wrapped in cloth, since the portable soup gelatin could sweat depending on atmospheric humidity, leading to mold if it couldn't "breathe".

 

[MystArt]

This is the kind of project I absolutely love. That said, as a decrepit old Grognard I think Gygax-era iron rations may have been inspired by the ones in use during the Napoleonic era. Those were packages of hardtack and portable soup that varied wildly in quality depending on the budget when they were ordered. In general they were wrapped in cloth, since the portable soup gelatin could sweat depending on atmospheric humidity, leading to mold if it couldn't "breathe".

Yeah it was fairly hard to research this one. Almost all sources pointed to the WWI rations with one exception, a YouTube channel showing how to make Pemmican. They called that stuff Iron Rations but back when I was playing D&D I was very confused ...... where is the "iron" in iron rations? Pemmican would have been wrapped in animal skins, same with the Napoleonic stuff. As a kid I actually thought our characters were biting down on chunks of iron. Silly me. I guess that would have been good for the blood but little else.