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

Pea soup is generally believed to be a military soup but the truth is different. Even at the end of the 19th century soldiers ate mostly groats with meat and their soups differed significantly from contemporary soups. In the 17th and 18th centuries chicken soup, beetroot soup and fermented rye flour soup were served on holidays and other special occasions. Our ancestors ate soups for breakfast. That is why even in the 1960s in southern Poland people would say “drink” and not eat breakfast (irrespective of whether it consisted of solid or liquid dishes). The tradition of making vegetable extracts came to Poland from France during the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV, a great enthusiast of soups. They were refined dishes then and it was a long time before they become a military dish.