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24 Hour Ration Guide

This guide is compiled to assist with correctly making and filling the 24 Hours Ration Boxes available from the Store.

The complete 24 Hours Ration box, with contents, was designed to fit into the larger portion of the mess tin. The Assault 24 Hour Ration box was designed to fit into the small mess tin. For operations where it was deemed it would be more than 24 hours before the supply chain would be established, two packs would be issued; either two of the 24 Hours Ration boxes, where one fitted to the mess tin and the other split and distributed on the individual. Or one 24 Hours Ration box and one Assault 24 Hours Ration box, with each fitting into the respective mess tins.
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Composition
Biscuits x 10

Oatmeal x 2 Blocks
Tea, Sugar and Milk Blocks x Several wrapped together
Meat Block x 1

Raisin Chocolate x 2 Slabs
Chocolate (Vit.) x 1 Slab
Boiled Sweets x Several
Chewing Gum x 2 Pkts
Meat Extract Cubes
Salt 1 Pkt
Sugar 4 Tablets
Latrine Paper 4 Pieces
 
 
Biscuits
Original biscuits were made from National Flour, they also contained Sugar, Salt, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil and water, they were similar to Biscuits, Service Plain.
The biscuits available are called 'Patria' Biscuits.  Cut down to be 2 7/16 inches x 1 15/16 inches
You need 10 of them.


Oatmeal
Oatmeal is a dry flapjack.  Originally there were two types, a baked type and a compressed type.  The below is for the baked type.
Pre-cooked rolled oats - 47.5g
Hydrogenated Coconut oil (available online) – 23.5g
Caster Sugar – 17.5g
Golden Syrup – 11.5g
Mix up all the ingredients in a bowl, put them into a mould and press into 2 moulds of 2 x 2 x ¾ inches and bake in the oven until dry.
Packet should be labelled as OATMEAL.


Tea Milk and Sugar Blocks
The tea milk and sugar blocks comprise of the following;
This is based on making 5oz tea.
Tea – 23g
Caster Sugar – 62g
Milk Powder (full fat if you can get it) – 28g
Icing Sugar – 28g
Mix the icing sugar with the milk powder, then add the tea and caster sugar, put it into a coffee grinder or blender on “fine” and give it a blitz until it’s a powder.  Then slightly dampen (try with 1 tbsp of water, more might be required though) and mould into 8 lots of 2cm cubes.  Try an ice tray for this job.

After this is done, put back in the dehydrator for a couple of hours (you will need one for the meat block) to make sure they fully dry out.  Packet should be labelled as TEA.

Meat Block
There were no tins within the 24 hour ration, so when the instructions talk of a meat block, it is precisely that, a block of dehydrated meat.  It could be manufactured by either pressing it or by moulding it. For the Compressed type, a force of 600-700lb/in2 is needed, according to the specification.  The moulded type is easier to produce at home;
For this, you will need to purchase a dehydrator (available from places like Amazon for about £50).  Make sure it is suitable for meat (70 centigrade+).
To make it, you will need;

500g lamb mince or 500g beef mince
14.5g of beef dripping + a bit extra for greasing (you could also use lard or suet)
2 oxo cubes
15g marmite (or any yeast extract)
2g celery salt
A plastic mould that is 2 7/8 x 2 ¼ x 1 3/8 inches

Step 1
Cook the meat in a frying pan, the idea here is to remove as much fat through the cooking process as possible as the fat is one of the things that causes the meat to turn rancid over time.  Once the meat is cooked, put it in a sieve and drain thoroughly.  Wash the meat with boiling water, drain and dry on some kitchen towel.   
Step 2
Transfer the meat to the dehydrator for 8+ hours on 70+ degrees to fully dehydrate.
Step 3
Put the meat into a Ziploc bag along with the celery salt and the crushed oxo cubes and cool in the fridge for another 8+ hours.  
Step 4
Put your cooled meat into a grinder/food processer and blitz it to get it into fine granules (not a powder).
Step 5
Grease the inside of your mould (try a tupperware plastic container) and melt the beef dripping and marmite together in a pan and add it to your meat, mixing it well to make sure all the meat is covered.  Quickly (before it cools and sets) put it into your mould and press it until full.
Step 6
Put it in the fridge and allow it to cool for another few hours
Step 7
Remove from the fridge, flex the plastic mould and get the meat block out.  I wrapped mine up in some cellophane, then in some greaseproof paper for added protection.  In theory, if you put it in a vacuum seal bag, you can freeze it, but as it stands, it should last for quite a long time. Should be labelled simply as MEAT.

Raisin Chocolate
This was just chocolate with raisins in, with an 80/20 mix of chocolate to raisins.
Therefore, for a 2oz bar, you will need to melt 45g of chocolate and mix with 11g of raisins.

Set in a mould of 2 1/16 x 3 ¾ x 7/16 inches

Vitamin Enriched Chocolate
The vitamin enriched chocolate contained the following, Vitamin A, B, C and D and Calcium in the following proportions per 1oz;
A: 2000 I.U
B: 1 m.g.
C: 10 m.g.
D 700 I.U.
Calcium: 300 m.g.
The chocolate itself was dark, made of not less than 30% cocoa butter.  Size should be the same as the raisin chocolate.


Boiled Sweets
These should be non-thirst producing, such as barley sugar, acid drops, lime, lemon, orange etc.  They need to be nearly rectangular, preferably 1 5/8 inches x 5/8 inches x 3/8 inches.  Suitable cough sweets can be found in Tescos.  They need to be wrapped in cellophane.


Chewing Gum
These should be peppermint in flavour and like the chewing gum capsules/tablets.  4 Per pack and 2 packs wrapped in transparent film.


Meat Extract Cubes
These are just commercial beef extract cubes. Similar to OXO.


Salt
Amount of loose salt in a greaseproof packet and labelled SALT.


Sugar
Cubes of Tate and Lyle refined white sugar.


Latrine Paper
Izal is suitable and is available on Ebay.

 
From 'The 24 Hour Ration Guide' written by Ramsey Green, 2019.
 

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