An army marches on its stomach
or a few words about food

Salt and saltpetre were the main preservatives of the meat used to feed soldiers. Salted meat was transported and stored in barrels. Fixing meat with salt is one of the oldest and most popular methods of preserving it, next to drying and smoke-drying. It was used about 4000 B.C. in China and Egypt. The method was also used by Arabs and then by Greeks and Romans. From Rome and Greece the method spread to other Mediterranean countries and then to the rest of Europe. Other methods used to preserve meat for soldiers included drying, pickling and smoke-drying.

Smoking chambers and later military sausage and canned meat plants were indispensable buildings in fortress garrisons. In the 19th century such buildings usually had basements with walls covered with cork and artificial ventilation system which used air cooled in ice-filled rooms. The most modern and largest complex of underground electrically-cooled and isothermal provision storehouses in our part of Europe was located in Cracow. Its construction was completed in 1915. Now part of the facility houses the Museum of Armia Krajowa.