(Source: Beijing Evening News)
The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers use up 72,000 eggs a month
The U.S. carriers eat tens of thousands of dollars a day?
No matter which country has an aircraft carrier, the carrier concentrates the elite power of a country's navy, so their dietary needs can always be met as much as possible. For example, the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier dining room, a variety of food; France's "Charles de Gaulle" on the rationing standards far above the general warships, three meals a day, the crew can enjoy steak and fish fillet, vegetable salads and desserts; Indian carriers are mainly to chicken and duck, fish and shrimp and mutton based, with a variety of vegetables. In the sea life, the carrier's food supply can be said to be extremely rich, far more than the average ship, second only to the top of the luxury liner
Behind the variety, we must consider for the carrier's personnel on the huge amount of supply. Aircraft carriers have one or two thousand people on board, or as many as five or six thousand. Preparing three or more meals a day for that many people is an astronomical amount of ingredients in itself.
Taking the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as an example, an average of 5,000 crew members will probably be equipped with 70 to 90 cooks, who will have to make 16,000 to 18,000 meals a day, serving from 6 a.m. until 12 midnight, and consuming 1.3 tons of fried chicken, 1.3 tons of fish, 3.6 tons of bacon, 3.6 tons of steak, 3.5 tons of potatoes, 4 tons of lettuce, 5.4 tons of rice, 11 tons of hamburgers, 20 tons of hot dogs, 72,000 eggs, and 4,500 liters of soda, 6,800 liters of milk and 15,000 liters of orange juice.
According to information released by the U.S. military, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier consumes an average of 45,000 to 65,000 U.S. dollars worth of food per day, and needs to replenish 1.8 million U.S. dollars worth of food per week, which calculates that a carrier's food consumption alone reaches 21 million U.S. dollars, or about 130 million yuan, in a three-month deployment cycle! Therefore, we see on the Internet inside the U.S. aircraft carrier meal, the deck of the "barbecue party", these are actually all built on the basis of extremely huge consumption of materials, and the maritime logistics support capabilities put forward high requirements, on the one hand, the means of delivery of materials, on the one hand, must be able to resupply in overseas ports, preferably with an overseas military base. Overseas military bases.
Shortening of the menu cycle Nutrition is more balanced
Despite the fact that it seems that the variety of food is very rich, but due to the limitations imposed by the means of replenishment and food storage at sea, aircraft carriers actually have a cyclical menu to satisfy the needs of officers and men. For example, U.S. carriers used to have a 21-day menu, changed to a 14-day cycle after 2007, and have recently begun experimenting with a seven-day menu, while the French carrier Charles de Gaulle has always had a 14-day menu.
U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Catering
From the perspective of the Navy's operational characteristics, the shorter cycle of recipes means that officers and men are much less likely to consume unhealthy fast food such as hamburgers and hot dogs. Although the diet of the U.S. aircraft carriers is extremely rich, judging from online photos. However, considering the pressure of operations and patrols on U.S. carriers, many officers and soldiers are still forced to consume high-calorie, high-fat foods such as hamburgers and hot dogs to meet the calorie requirements of high-load work. And this type of food is easy to store, less pressure on the supply. It seems likely that the food on the Charles de Gaulle is even better than that of the U.S. military. This is not only the French cooking is more excellent, but also because the French "Charles de Gaulle" carrier mission range is also much smaller than the U.S. nuclear-powered carriers, the pressure on logistics is not so great.
The U.S. aircraft carrier deck "food party"
Now that the U.S. military has scaled back the recipe cycle, the ship's officers and men naturally welcome it. The new recipes are more nutritionally balanced and more conducive to the health of the ship's officers and men, especially in the main course increased grilled chicken, grilled fish, as well as the proportion of vegetables and salads, reducing the proportion of fast food. Technically speaking, the U.S. military adopted the means to start a large number of semi-finished and finished food, that is, according to the nutritional collocation, the main course of the portion, seasoning in advance with a good, to the ship chef simply to each portion of the main course of food heated up can be. This on the one hand reduced the pressure of replenishment, and also reduced the work pressure of the ship's cooks. While the flavor is certainly not as good as restaurant craftsmanship, it's already a big improvement over fast food.
Chinese "Liaoning" ship, the chefs rely on multi-function steam oven, vegetable cutter, steamed bread machine, large steamer and other cooking equipment, in five meal processing area, three staple food processing area, a bakery processing at the same time, to ensure that the supply of food. In addition, it also extends the meal time, adopting the combination of six meals a day, self-help-based and meal delivery.
Chinese aircraft carrier meals:
It is desirable to take the road of finished products and the combination of Chinese and Western
China has the first aircraft carrier, in fact, also on the Chinese Navy how to ensure that the meals of large surface ships has put forward a new challenge. From a culinary point of view, Western food is relatively simple to prepare and highly nutritious, but the equipment is more complex, while Chinese food, although good taste and relatively simple equipment, is more complex to prepare, and the cooking water demand and sewage.
For the naval kitchen, a ship of one or two hundred people can still follow the traditional practice; but for thousands of aircraft carriers, the traditional production methods of Chinese food on the pressure of cooking soldiers is unprecedented. It is hard to imagine how much precious fresh water it would take to wash the vegetables and how much labor it would take to cut and stir-fry the vegetables if we were to make an ordinary dish of shredded pork with fish for the entire ship's officers and men. We are now looking at the U.S. aircraft carrier food, big fish and meat behind the standard through: high calorie supply plus simple processing, in addition to senior officers, ordinary officers and men's diet tastes absolutely no better than where, but also not adapted to the specific circumstances of China.
Therefore, China's aircraft carrier meals, certainly need to take the road of finished products and the combination of Chinese and Western food. On the one hand, in the aircraft carrier such a large platform, based entirely on the Chinese diet, it is difficult to meet the combat training on the officers and soldiers of the physical exertion, the pressure on the production of food is also large, it is necessary to introduce some Western food types (such as fried chicken, pastry, juice, etc.); in addition to ensure that the taste of the Chinese officers and soldiers, and also to further increase the supply of finished dishes. For example, the People's Liberation Army Daily disclosed that our submarine force is already using finished collective food. This borrowed from the airline meal, with tin foil bags of food, just heat, a dish with meat and vegetables fried vegetables "out of the pot".
From the Chinese and foreign aircraft carrier officers and men to eat, you can see that the aircraft carrier is not only a weapons platform, and is a huge systems engineering. In addition to high-tech equipment, such seemingly commonplace factors as eating can be key to overall combat effectiveness, thus requiring integrated arrangements. Chinese food is more difficult to finish than Western food, but as China's food technology and logistical support capabilities continue to improve, Chinese carrier officers and soldiers will certainly be able to eat world-class meals.
Recently, China's naval network published several photos of officers and soldiers of the Chinese carrier Liaoning eating and cooking, which again made readers interested in the "food" of such large ships as aircraft carriers.
The U.S. aircraft carrier
Fried chicken legs, ham, cutlets, seasonal fruits and vegetables, salads, desserts, ice cream, and a variety of beverages are all available. The kitchen also regularly gives the officers and men "improve life", supply lobster, crab, special steak and other "chef recommended dishes". When the wind and waves are calm, the officers and men will put the shipboard aircraft "invited to the side", on the deck of the open-air barbecue party.
French aircraft carriers
Three times a day, officers and crew enjoy three appetizers, a steak or fillet, two vegetable salads and three desserts. The main crew lounge area outside the dining hall also has vending machines for beverages such as beer, fruit juices and mineral water.
Indian carriers
The meals are not as rich as those in the United States or as elaborate as those in France, but they are equally tasty. The main focus is on chicken, duck, fish, shrimp and lamb, accompanied by a variety of vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, and of course, most of the curries. Another common food is Indian flapjacks, which are loved by officers and soldiers for their simplicity and sweet flavor.