The untold stories behind the potato legend

Everyone knows that the potato is an indispensable food in our lives, and now it is about to become the fourth major staple grain on Chinese dinner tables. Throughout history, the potato has won many battles and become the undisputed food of choice in certain special industries. Have you heard all these legendary stories about the potato?

In this issue, we have collected and compiled some legendary stories about the little potato. Through these stories, let us get to know the potato once again and step into the world of the potato.      ——The Editor

[Legend One]

The “super dry ration” of the battlefield?

During World War II, relying on its powerful economic and technological strength, the United States invested a huge amount of manpower, material resources and energy into researching, developing, producing and supplying “super foods” for its troops that were nutritious, easy to carry and long-lasting in storage. These super battlefield rations were like fuel for vehicles and ammunition for weapons, guaranteeing that American soldiers maintained good fighting strength.

Back then, what American soldiers could not do without at every meal on the battlefield were a kind of military compressed biscuit and “SPAM” luncheon meat, and the main ingredient of both was “whole potato flour”.

Luncheon meat is a block-shaped product made by mixing a small amount of pork with a large amount of whole potato flour, then adding oil and salt. This meat was packed in tin-plated steel cans and later gradually became popular around the world. As for the military compressed biscuit, 99% of its ingredients are whole potato flour, with the rest being binders and flavorings.

In 1937, the “canned luncheon meat” rich in whole potato flour, first produced by the American Hormel Foods Corporation, successfully became the main source of protein in the food of the Allied forces during World War II. In 1941, the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor. In order to prepare super dry rations that were easy to carry and sufficiently nutritious for the hundreds of thousands of American troops heading to the front, the U.S. military logistics department, after careful selection, chose SPAM luncheon meat and military compressed biscuits that were small in size and easy to carry.

Facts proved that using luncheon meat and compressed biscuits as soldiers' staple food was a very wise decision. Their main ingredient was whole potato flour, which contained almost all the nutrients found in grains, vegetables and fruits, and oil and fat were added as well, making them absolutely fully nutritious. Eisenhower, then Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, once said: “For the past four years, it was luncheon meat and compressed biscuits that helped us win the war!”

After World War II, the preparation and recipes of U.S. military food changed greatly. Luncheon meat and “military compressed biscuits” also gradually gave way to the ready-to-eat Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE). During the Vietnam War, stewed chicken and pork with braised potatoes were added to the U.S. military's field rations. In the Gulf War and the Iraq War, the main food of the U.S. military was ready-cooked dishes. These foods were soft-packaged, small in volume, light in weight and good in taste. The cooked dishes included: creamy chicken chunks, potato slices with ham, braised steak with potatoes, corned beef with mashed potatoes, and so on. So it can be seen that the little potato always played an important role on the battlefield.

[Legend Two]

An essential food for astronauts in space?

China News Service, citing a report by the British Daily Mail, said that during the six-month space mission that began in June 2011, the long-term expedition crew of the International Space Station included cosmonaut Sergei Volkov from Russia, the great country of “beef with potatoes”, who became a “space farmer” and grew potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) on the space station. This experimental project was intended to explore food self-sufficiency for future space exploration.

In astronauts' menus, the potato is an indispensable staple food and dish. It not only appears in the form of mashed potatoes, but traditional delicacies such as “beef with potatoes” are also indispensable.

Why choose the potato? This was not only to accommodate the dietary habits of astronauts from Western countries, but even more to take into account the astronauts' health and ensure that they take in the most complete and balanced nutrition.

On the one hand, the potato is almost the most adaptable food crop in the world, suitable for cultivation almost anywhere in the world, especially in remote, frigid, harsh-climate and arid regions. It even turned out to be suitable for space beyond Earth.

On the other hand, the potato has high nutritional value and comprehensive nutrition. Besides carbohydrates, it also contains a large amount of protein, minerals, and lysine and tryptophan that general food crops lack, as well as rich vitamins and trace elements. Among them, vitamin C is 10 times that of apples, and potassium is 4 times that of bananas. It is the only fully nutritious food in the world: it combines all the nutrition of grains, vegetables and fruits, is low in fat and low in calories, and the anthocyanins, polyphenols and other strong antioxidants especially rich in purple potatoes are comparable to blueberries.

Therefore, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations calls it the “king of nutritional value” and a “treasure buried underground”. Scientists' research shows that the potato is an excellent future food. At present, astronauts' space food includes potatoes, and in the future, when humans travel to other planets, the potato will be the most ideal crop along the way.

[Legend Three]

Is the potato as important as love?

The Potato Museum in Munich is one of three potato museums in Germany. It houses over a thousand kinds of potatoes from around the world, and the museum also uses oil paintings, carvings and other art forms to tell people about the history and culture of the potato.

It is said that when the potato first arrived in Europe, it was not well received. The Germans' change in attitude toward the potato was related to King Frederick the Great of Prussia. In the mid-18th century, plague and natural disasters struck Germany, causing a total crop failure in agriculture and starving many people to death. In the crisis, King Frederick the Great thought of the potato, which was easy to grow and easy to keep alive. He first gave the potato royal prestige by having female members of the royal family all wear potato flowers. Then he had soldiers plant a large field of potatoes, and after the potatoes grew, he sent the most elite troops to guard them, withdrawing the troops at night. As a result, curious peasants came to the field late at night to steal potatoes. In this way, the cultivation of potatoes spread. To this day, potatoes are always placed in front of the tomb of King Frederick the Great at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany.

For Germans, the potato is even more of a “life-saving straw” in times of crisis. Germany has experienced many famines in its history, but it was precisely by relying on “3 potatoes a day” that Germans weathered crisis after crisis. Starting in 1929, Germany suffered from the world economic crisis, and many families could only afford potatoes, using them as both dish and staple food, which is why they called it the “second bread”. To this day, Germans still eat potatoes at least two out of three meals a day.

German supermarkets offer every kind of potato food imaginable, and quite a few new potato-related things have emerged: potato hotels, offering potato-related tourism services; potato monuments, on which all historical figures who contributed to the potato cause are engraved; and potato libraries, where books on everything from the history and trivia of the potato to academic research on it can be found. In Lower Saxony, when young men and women are deeply in love, they give each other a potato, because for the locals: “love and potatoes are equally precious”.

Germans love the potato also because it embodies the “potato spirit” of “diligence and thrift” and “unadorned simplicity”, just like the German nation itself. No wonder neighboring European countries simply call Germany the “potato country”.