Whole Milk powder would be that much better, then. It’s just wretched stuff for the most part.
This was back in the 1940s. I got the impression from him they had genuine Ice Cream in those days, stashed away in the freezers.
Well yes, they didn’t have room for ice cream machines on WWII boats. They had to get it from submarine tenders, so it was an even rarer treat. Modern boats have machines which use a janky powdered mix to make “ice cream”. In another thread @robby told a story about one of his boats getting some decent ice cream mix during a visit to Norway. That was not the norm.
He made it sound like they had a pretty good ice cream stash. The had a nickel slot machine in the control room that somebody absconded with from somewhere. He said they had a slush-fund the chief of the boat kept from the proceeds and then could help out lower enlisted sailors who had to go home on emergency leave and things like that.
I think I saw a cartoon about that–for vets, once is fine, 30 times a month not so much
If you’re not limiting to the American Navy, the Japanese Navy (Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) has a tradition of serving curry aboard ships every Friday. I don’t know if they still do it, but I’m pretty sure they would have competitions between ships for whose curry reigns supreme, as each ship had it’s own recipe. Curry was adopted by the Japanese Navy to combat beriberi. The meat and flour in the curry provided thiamine, staving off the disease.
Interesting. The U.S. Navy, on the other hand, always served fish on Fridays, out of tradition for Catholics and members of other Christian denominations who abstained from meat on Fridays. (Nowadays this usually only strictly followed by Catholics during Lent, but it used to be more common for Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays all year long.)
We also conducted a deep-cleaning of all spaces in the ship every Friday (referred to as field day).
So the mnemonic went: “Friday, field day, fish day”. 
I’ve read that curry was introduced to the Japanese by the British, after their takeover of India.
