Menus on the Hitler Youth summer camps Sommerlager

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Do anyone have any first hand knowledge of the menus served to the HJ and BDM? Did the youth do the cooking or was it provided by the staff?
 
Hi,

It depended on the size of the camp. At large camps like the Hochland Lager for example there was centralised large-scale catering. On smaller camps the boys would cook together. I have a camp cookbook issued by Gebiet 13 which gives daily menus for a small two-week camp and the fare is quite basic but healthy. Give me a shout if you need more detail on the menus.

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I read some where that Rienhard Hrydrich's resipe for blueberry muffins was very popular.(no kidding). I have got rhe resipe around here somewhere.Mike
 
Thanks Gary,

If you could share one or two menus, I think it would be very interesting. In particular, I would like to find out how the youths learned to cook.
 
In the little book I mentioned there is a comment that it was often the case that most boys were unable to cook anything more than a simple soup so the book aimed to give precise instructions on how to cook healthy meals. It also includes instructions on building field cooking areas.

Breakfast was always bread, jam and a hot drink - either tea, malt coffee or cocoa.
Day 4 in the book gives a typical menu for lunch and dinner so I'll use that as an example. Here's a full translation:

Breakfast: cocoa, bread and jam.

Lunch: potato soup with mince.
For 25 boys the following quantities are required:
20 litres of water
8 leeks
4 celery roots
16 kg of potatoes
500g of fat or bacon (german 'Speck' consists mostly of fat)
5 onions
1 kg of mince
approximately 50g of salt

Slice onions and bacon into cubes and fry lightly- Add the water, the peeled and cubed potatoes and the finely chopped leeks and boil for 45 minutes. Then add the mince and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes until mince is cooked.

Dinner: sliced meat sandwiches, grated horse radish, tea.
For 25 boys the following are required: 8 loaves of bread, 2.5 kg of blood sausage oder liver sausage, 10 horse radishes.
For the tea: 6.25 litres of water and 6.25 tablespoons of tea.

It's very noticeable how little meat was used for the recipes in the book when you compare todays portions to back then. I cooked myself a bolognese yesterday and used 250g of mince which gave me a little under two normal portions of bolognese. Compare that to day 6 in the camping cookbook where the main meal of the day of cabbage, pototoes and mince for 25 boys included only 1.25 kg of mince.
 
Thanks for posting garry

Its good to see what these kids lived on , this sort of menu would not go amiss in todays world, sort of reminds me of my school dinners

mind you i couldnt hack the tea, that is weak:huh:

Nick where do you work i will have to avoid you if thats going on the menu:laugh:

steve
 
I would really like to make that recipe , Post it when you find it Kamerade .

I read some where that Rienhard Hrydrich's resipe for blueberry muffins was very popular.(no kidding). I have got rhe resipe around here somewhere.Mike
 
Thanks for posting garry

Its good to see what these kids lived on , this sort of menu would not go amiss in todays world, sort of reminds me of my school dinners

mind you i couldnt hack the tea, that is weak:huh:

Nick where do you work i will have to avoid you if thats going on the menu:laugh:

steve

steve they never lived on much by the sounds of it :D

garry good info and its a nice book i did look at it ;)

cheers ewan
 
meals

Although a Wehrertuchtigungslager was not a summer camp, we did get a few lessons on cooking in the field ( more or less boyscout type) . The Lager food was cooked by the staff and everyday a surprise.
It probably was meant to get us some meat on our bones, because many of the kids came from occupied areas, and at the latter part of the war, things were austerely rationed.
I remember an awful lot of 'Eintopf' (Stew or soup); tasting extremely good at the time.
Bread in the morning was kommiesbrot or other German rye bread, and on Sunday morning 'Semmeln' ( White rolls, with jam. The 'Coffee&' (yuk) was malt coffee, similar to the Postum that the Mormons drink.
Just a short piece of memory.
HN
 
I'm glad someone thought to ask the "menu" question. We've all seen many pics of the kids at camp, and probably never really wondered what they were being fed.

Rob
 
Thanks Haen :thumb:



Here are some more recipes from the book I mentioned:

Day 6

Breakfast:
Malt coffee
bread and jam

Lunch: cabbage, meat and potatoes
(amounts shown are for 25 boys)
15kg cabbage
12kg potatoes
1.25kg mince
12 ltrs of water
Approx 150g salt
250g fat
caraway to taste

Bring water to the boil and add the cabbage, fat, caraway and salt. Cook for 15 minutes. Add the peeled and chopped potatoes and cook for a further 20 mins. Add the mince and cook for a further 10 minutes. Serve.

Dinner:
Boiled, peeled potatoes with fried herring

__________________

Day 7

Breakfast:
Cocao, bread and jam

Lunch: pasta with dried fruit
(amounts shown are for 25 boys)
5kg pasta
12ltrs water
8 teaspoons of salt
1.25kg dried fruit
375g sugar
Boil dried fruit until soft. Sweeten. Cook pasta for 15 to 20 minutes. Stir often. All of the water must be absorbed by the pasta.

Dinner: boiled, peeled potatoes with dip and blood sausage
(amounts shown are for 25 boys)
400g fat
250g flour
5 onions
5ltrs water
40g salt
15kg potatoes
1.75kg blood sausage

Fry the flour and finely chopped onions until brown. Stir often. Add the water and stir until the dip boils. Add salt and serve. Fresh radishes, carrots or horse radish salad can be served instead of blood sausage.
 
It is but the pieces of fat are way too big in the stuff over here. I must look for a puking smiley sometime actually :)
 
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