I know the stupid yank asks another dumb question. But I find it really neat that the brits would have a large snuff container for the lads. Makes me think of ‘Gunga Din’ etc. back to the days of the 1800’s when IPA style ale was invented. Love all things british and I just had to know if they still had the big snuff containers. Back in the 70s when I was in the US AIR FORCE they would never had done such a thing. Now they get on the guys for smoking…go figure.
All things british? Even mushy peas?
never heard of it in my 7 years service. The snuff that is. The only reason we would have had a rams head is if we had either eaten the ram, or nicked it.
thinking about it, some of the more ancient regiments may have such things in their museums, but I doubt they would be in use.
I love you too graybeard19 Bob, what’s wrong with mushy peas? Having lived in the colony for two years now, I am craving mushy peas like you wouldn’t believe, and I’m not even from up north. I can’t seem to find marrowfat peas or the equivalent here, so I can’t even make my own. And despite what the cooking shows here may tell you, you can’t make mushy peas out of regular garden peas!
It’s not a silly question at all. Bish777 is probably correct though. Regimental mulls, originally for the officers’ mess and always created from a fondly remembered regimental mascot, are probably only found in museums. I’ve never heard of one still in regular service. More on Regimental Mulls - http://www.scotsdgmuseum.com/pages/silver/rams-head.php http://willhutchison.com/blog/2010/02/27/a-most-unusual-rams-head-snuff-mull/ http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display.aspx?id=5394 http://www.cameronians.org/museum/starobjects.html Speaking of Gunga Din - The actor, Victor Mclagen, who was later typecast as an hard-drinking Irishman in westerns alongside John Wayne, was English and not Irish. He was the British Army heavyweight boxing champion of 1918 and became military Provost Marshall of Baghdad after the Great War. His buccaneer spirit found him in India in service to a raja, lion hunting in Africa and shipwrecked in the South Seas. In Canada he was a gold-prospector, farmer, fisherman and policeman as well as a professional boxer. In 1909 he fought Jack Johnson (German 15-cm artillery shell to WW1 soldiers) in a six-round no-contest bout. That same year he beat Frank Moran, Jack O’Brien, Tony Ross and Al Kaufman. His life, before and between films, must be amongst the most colourful of any actor.
I certainly never saw such a thing in the Royal Signals. Such things may decorate an officers mess or two but as a member of the ranks my exposure to officers leisure facilities was minimal.
I’ve heard bad stories about mushy peas. In fact have heard rumours that’s the main reason britian started an empire, to get more food ideas. (A brit told me that so it’s o.k., that’s how it works right?)
@bob the empire was mainly to procure chinese food and curry.
“…the main reason britian started an empire, to get more food ideas.” That’s correct. Like some other European empires, the British empire evolved out of an insatiable desire for spices from India and, later on, sugar from the West Indies. In 1605 the Moghul emperor Jahangir, father of Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, allowed small spice trading posts to be run by the East India Company in Agra, Madras and Bombay. Company employees went native, were given preferential treatment at court and two hundred years later the company was running the continent. When the company was dissolved the Raj took over. The lesson from history for the modern age is not to let anyone on the board of directors at McDonalds have any administrative function in government Otherwise nations will end up with a milk-shake and burger corporation for government and a stupid clown called Ronald for Head of State :>)
i’m not sure how well guacamole would go with my fish and chips.
you can buy canned mushy peas in the States. There are plenty of British import/specialty shops around. Even gourmet/ethnic supermarkets carry them. Yes Brits, get over it, you are considered “ethnic” here.
A good source for high end teas MIGHT be Frontier Herbs out of Norway Iowa, applied for work there once. They have TONS of spices, bulk. Bulk coffee beans, teas and other stuff. Kinda pricey I think. As for the mushy peas never tried them. Would love to sink tooth to some Haggis though as I am of Scottish ancestry…I understand from near Inverness area.
Have you ever had haggis? 8<(
If you are looking for an encounter with “mushy peas” you need to try mashed peas, the way the Norwegians make them. Gotta’ have mashed peas whenever I go all “national heratige” and have some lutefisk. EDIT: C’mon guys… The “lye” used to make lutefisk is usually only ashes from burned birch logs.
@howdydave lutefisk YUCK!! 
nothing against the Norweigans, however I’m not putting caustic soda anywhere near my fish and chips.
This thread remimded me to try in earnest to obtain mushy peas. You can buy them on the internet, but I can’t be bothered with all that. In the end, I experimented with green split peas, as they are the closest available thing to marrowfat peas I can find here. The good news is that it was an almost complete success :oD If you simmer dried green split peas for about an hour (the ones I bought required no soaking) with a little baking soda, salt and sugar, you end up with something that is almost identical to the ‘Food of the Gods’. The only (slight) difference is that the texture is a bit less lumpy, because the peas are smaller than the marrowfat variety used for making real mushy peas. I always used to mash them up a bit with a fork, so that was pretty much academic anyhow. The taste is identical, and that’s the main thing. I practically forced my wife, who hates peas, to try it, and she loved it. The taste is not even close to the taste of the garden peas that most Americans are accustomed to; the peas are harvested in a different stage of their life cycle and are dried. So, for those who turn their nose up at the prospect of mushy peas, I urge you to spend the $0.85 or so and try them before you judge them :o)
supposedly mushy pea pies are big in australia
re haggis hunting with a 12 bore are you mad you need at least a .338 lapua magnum to get through that thick tartan fur!! and if the haggis has a shaved/bald head it’s a lost and upset rare glaswegian urban haggis so DO NOT SHOOT that just makes them angry and vicious …