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Text/Xu Chenyuan's study
"Biscuits" should be known to everyone, and can only be used as a snack for pastime and gluttony, although two or three pieces of stomach are satisfied at the time, after a while, they will be hungry again.
Why can compressed biscuits, known as "portable grains and grasses", be eaten as a meal? Even a piece can last for two days, what is it made of, and why are the same biscuits more anti-hunger than ordinary biscuits? How did people invent it?
The history of the invention of compressed biscuits
Compressed biscuits were actually born very early, the emergence of grain baking technology and the use of grain milling, is the stability of human food greatly improved, at that time in Egypt, there were already shortbread made of sorghum, which was eaten as food by seafaring seafarers at that time, and the ancient Romans were also eating a biscuit called bucellatum.
And we know that the most important thing in marching and fighting is to ensure the sufficiency of food and materials, whether it is a long journey on the road or a brave fight on the battlefield, it is very exhausting of physical strength.
So if you want the soldiers to have a good performance, it is definitely not possible to go hungry, so it is necessary to have some small-sized ready-made objects that are easy to carry and can play a role in replenishment at any time.
For example, during the Third Crusade during the reign of Charles I of England, the British army ate a kind of coarse grain biscuits called "cotton biscuits", which are made of grinding barley, bean flour, rye, etc., and the "captain's cake" in the back is more elaborate and added with craft flour.
And if we want to look at the history of biscuits from the etymology of the English word "biscuit", we must say that a British sailing ship ran aground near the Bay of Bis, and the entire crew of the ship was forced to be stranded at sea, and the only food on board at that time was flour, sugar and some butter, and they mixed these three ingredients together and roasted them to satisfy their hunger.
This is actually the earliest biscuit, "biscuit" is actually named after the Bay of Bis, and later biscuits were introduced into military food, and other high-calorie ingredients such as cream were added to the makers.
Since the biscuits are exposed to the air for a long time, they will become soft, commonly known as "rejuvenation", so when the baker makes them, they will make them as hard as possible to make the biscuits last longer.
If dry enough, a biscuit can last for several years, so long-term seafarers will bake the biscuit four times to completely dehydrate it, and prepare it six months before departure, so that the biscuit is hard enough to withstand all kinds of temperatures.
As a kind of compressed biscuits for military materials, it is certainly not available to us ordinary people, so the compressed biscuits bought on the market today are civilian, but these food factories that produce compressed biscuits have some military background, so they are marked with the signboard of military rations, and there are many compressed biscuit brands on the market, mainly 09, 900, 90, M9, etc.
Of course, civilian compressed biscuits do not have the same high standards as the military for anti-hunger, so they are relatively low in calories, and they will also be optimized in taste in order to meet the preferences of consumers in order to sell them, such as cocoa flavor, coconut flavor, etc., and even some brands also take into account the tolerance differences of the population and replace sucrose with erythritol.
Why compressed biscuits fight hunger
We know that the raw materials of compressed biscuits are actually no different from ordinary biscuits, which are nothing more than flour, sugar and butter, which are the basic materials, but why is the anti-hunger ability of compressed biscuits so powerful?
According to the professional introduction, compressed biscuits are made of wheat flour, sugar (usually white sugar), oil (mainly butter), and dairy products as the main raw materials, using cold powder process to adjust the powder, and then roll baking, and after it cools to room temperature, it is crushed, stirred again, and some auxiliary materials such as nuts, preserved fruits, meat floss, etc., can be added at this time, and finally compressed to make it.
Compression is the most critical link, why the heat density of a compressed biscuit is so much higher than that of ordinary biscuits, is because after compression, the moisture inside the biscuit almost disappears, and the texture becomes very compact.
It is said that 100 grams of compressed biscuits contain less than 5% of the water and more than 450 calories, so it is simply a calorie bomb, equivalent to eating three bowls of rice, and friends who are losing weight eat a piece, and I don't know how many kilometers to run to consume.
The biggest feeling of compressed biscuits is solid, for example, when eating breakfast, many people are Xi to soak an ordinary biscuit in milk to eat, and it will not take long for the biscuit to soften and expand in the milk.
But someone put the compressed biscuits into a pot with water to boil, the water is boiling, but the biscuits have almost no change, except that the surface is slightly softer because of the absorption of water, and the volume does not expand, so after boiling for another half an hour, the compressed biscuits began to grow larger, and finally became a paste.
The principle of compressed biscuits to fight hunger is that because of their hard texture, it is difficult to be digested when they enter our stomach, and because of the absorption of water in the stomach, we will feel a significant sense of satiety, and because of the long digestion time, the time to provide energy to the body will also become longer.
And with the progress of science and technology, there are more tricks in the development of food, and people eat more varied, which of course also affects the production of military food.
For example, in order to allow soldiers to have more nutritious food choices, self-heating foods have also come into being, such as self-heating rice, self-heating noodles, etc.
The food is easy to carry and easy to make, and soldiers don't need a professional cooking environment to eat steaming food, and they don't have to nibble on tasteless compressed biscuits all day long.
For example, the SMI-300 series of self-heating food, which is a kind of fried rice containing three flavors, soldiers only need to use the self-heating agent and heating agent that have been prepared in the field to eat delicious meals, and the mainland 17 self-heating food also adds some foods with high protein content such as tuna.
Continental compressed biscuit usage
In the movie "Changjin Lake" released on the mainland in recent years, there is such a scene, when the bombing of the US army was in full swing, and our army fell into a very passive and embarrassing situation.
It was winter, and it was difficult for the logistical food supply to keep up in time, and in such a cold environment, it was a complete luxury for the soldiers to be able to eat a hot meal.
Even a blackened raw potato was a treasure in the army, and in this case, a food made from a mixture of flour and wheat bran bran appeared in the army, which was the earliest prototype of compressed biscuits on the mainland.
After the invention of this hard biscuit, it became popular in the barracks, and everyone used it to satisfy hunger, but because it was so hard, it is said that many soldiers even gnawed out their teeth.
Moreover, because compressed biscuits are not conducive to digestion, the soldiers cannot eat any vegetables and fruits for a long time, the diet structure is extremely simple, and the lack of adequate dietary fiber and vitamin intake is easy to have problems such as indigestion, constipation, and fire.
After the end of the war, the mainland began the construction of New China, and food science gradually developed, and began to develop some more nutritious, more delicious compressed biscuits, in the Vietnam War, the mainland People's Liberation Army ate the compressed biscuits produced by the mainland itself.
As a kind of food for the Continental Army, compressed biscuits have also witnessed the continuous development and progress of the Continental Army's food, especially after the reform and opening up, the military food of the mainland has undergone great changes.
In the early stage of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the food of the mainland army was mainly compressed biscuits, and the raw materials of compressed biscuits were also very single, in the sixties and seventies 761 compressed biscuits were born, it was not only small in size and easy to carry, so it became the main supply of the mainland army for field training and operations.
In the 80s, the mainland's military rations have paid attention to the diversity of food and the balance of nutrition, to ensure that soldiers must have rice, meat, and vegetables for every meal, and slowly, the army canteen began to be built, and the canteen has a rich variety of dishes every day, and at the same time, it has also begun to pay attention to cooking techniques, so that the soldiers can eat happily and devote themselves to training and tasks with a better physical and mental state.
For example, the army has developed food specially provided for patrolling the plateau border defense units, while the navy has developed long-distance and life-saving food for patrolling the ocean, and the air force also has exclusive food for airborne troops.
Since the beginning of the 90s, the mainland has also successively developed more nutritious, healthy, and highly effective military rations, such as high-energy field rations, and the development of these military foods has not only met the needs of the troops' daily training and special conditions.
In turn, it has put forward requirements for the mainland's food technology, promoted the development of the mainland's food industry, and the mainland's food production has become more standardized and standardized, and science and technology have been positively affected by it.
After all, compressed biscuits are used as a special food, so its nutritional elements are relatively single, carbohydrates account for the main proportion, but the daily intake of the human body in addition to carbohydrates, oils, proteins, also need a variety of trace elements, long-term lack of any one will affect the health of the body.
And as we just mentioned, due to the low water content of compressed biscuits, if the usual water intake is insufficient, long-term consumption can easily lead to constipation, and in severe cases, stones may be formed, but when eating compressed biscuits, do not drink a lot of water, because it will cause the biscuits to expand in the stomach, stomach distension and stomach pain and other adverse reactions.
Compressed biscuits are crucial as a military supply, and now many people will carry some compressed biscuits for outdoor activities, such as trail running and hiking, and it is still a good choice to buy them for emergencies.
However, this kind of food with high calorie density and single nutrients is not suitable for long-term consumption, and it is easy to cause gastrointestinal problems such as indigestion.
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Resources:
Baidu Encyclopedia - 09 compressed biscuits
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