Does anyone have a recipe for that wartime 'favourite' McConachie stew? Often mentioned in wartime accounts, usually in a negative context!
I fancy 'living the nightmare'.. ..Ian...

I new an Australian truck driver who ate 'hashmagandy'
You remove all the labels from the tins of a two week road trip supply. Every meal time you poor three tins into a billy can. Could be plumbs, cabbage and roo meat..........Lovely Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Sorry Ian, no mention of it in Jamie Oliver's cookbook.
There are a few mentions on BBC's People's War where it's described as a 'tinned stew that's not to everyone's taste' Are you planning to make a batch for Arrowmanche 2014?

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

Go to your nearest corner shop and buy the cheapest looking tin of Irish Stew, you should be about half-way there. Alternatively get hold of a can of free EU stewed beef and make your own.....

email (option): stinkypete80@hotmail.com

i understood that it was everything edible meat sausages pudding fruit cake plus the only thing that didnt go in was ciggies and sweets condense milk yummy

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com

'McConachie' stew was a standard issue tinned M&V (meat and veg) ration that was similar to Irish stew as mentioned by Sir Ewock. It could be eaten hot or cold and it was in the cold form that it seems to have been the least appetising....no doubt the congealed fat might have been a factor ..
'All in' stew on the other hand, is a Squaddie concoction that varies depending on place, time, unit and available potential ingredients...I know from an ex Marine friend that the 'rules' about what could be put in were quite specific in his unit...
I believe 'McConachies' was introduced around 1900 and carried on into the 1950s at least..
I've found a recipe now and intend to 'try out' in the traditional way, cooking initially in an 'issue' type iron pot over an open fire and completeing the process in a 'haybox'...Ian