Desert Bully Beef, Mashed on Hardtack
Corned beef mashed and pan-fried with onion until it forms a golden, crispy patty, served on a ship's biscuit. Salty, melting, deeply savoury: the comfort of the Desert Rats under the heat of the Egyptian Sahara.
Corned beef mashed and pan-fried with onion until it forms a golden, crispy patty, served on a ship's biscuit. Salty, melting, deeply savoury: the comfort of the Desert Rats under the heat of the Egyptian Sahara.
In the desert, there's no fuss: a tin of bully beef, an onion if luck smiles on you, and the mess tin set on two stones over the fire. You mash the meat, fry it until it crisps, and spread it on the hard biscuit — the one that breaks a tooth if you bite it dry. I ate that among my men, and I tell you: a general who shares his men's mess tin knows them better than one who dines under a separate tent.
- •Tinned corned beef (bully beef) — 1 tin (base)
- •Onion — 1, sliced (aromatic)
- •Fat or dripping — a little (cooking)
- •Hardtack (army biscuit) — 2 or 3 (base)
- •Pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Desert Bully Beef, Mashed on Hardtack
Corned beef mashed and pan-fried with onion until it forms a golden, crispy patty, served on a ship's biscuit. Salty, melting, deeply savoury: the comfort of the Desert Rats under the heat of the Egyptian Sahara.
Why this dish? At El Alamein, where Montgomery led the 8th Army to victory in October 1942, men and officers alike lived on combat rations. Bully beef (tinned corned beef) fried with an onion and spread on hardtack was the daily dish of the Western Desert — the one his soldiers ate, and which a sober commander like himself shared without ceremony.
In the desert, there's no fuss: a tin of bully beef, an onion if luck smiles on you, and the mess tin set on two stones over the fire. You mash the meat, fry it until it crisps, and spread it on the hard biscuit — the one that breaks a tooth if you bite it dry. I ate that among my men, and I tell you: a general who shares his men's mess tin knows them better than one who dines under a separate tent.
Ingredients (period version)
- Tinned corned beef (bully beef) — 1 tin (base)
- Onion — 1, sliced (aromatic)
- Fat or dripping — a little (cooking)
- Hardtack (army biscuit) — 2 or 3 (base)
- Pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Tinned corned beef — 200 g (base)
- Onion — 1 medium, sliced (aromatic)
- Oil or butter — 1 tablespoon (cooking)
- Rustic bread, toasted, or thick crackers — 2 or 3 slices (base)
- Black pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Sauté the sliced onion in a little fat until golden.
- Add the corned beef, mashed with a fork, and break it up in the pan.
- Press the mixture into a patty and let it brown without stirring, then flip to crisp the other side.
- Season generously with pepper.
- Serve hot, spread on firm toasted bread or a thick cracker in place of hardtack.
How it was made : Bully beef (from soldier slang, derived from French 'bouilli') was the standard canned meat of the British army. In the desert, the heat made it semi-liquid in the tin; it was fried with onion to make it appetising, and eaten with the famous 'army biscuits', hard as stone. The smoke from brew-up fires often betrayed positions.
The contemporary twist : Shape small crispy patties into '8th Army' bites, each perched on a cracker, like a desert canapé.
Sources : Imperial War Museum, collections on British army rations (compo rations) · B. L. Montgomery, *The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Montgomery* (1958)
Bernard Montgomery · Charactorium