Regarding the time mentioned, shouldn’t the first question be where was cabbage grown as a food? Soured cabbage on a military scale isn’t viable without the means to produce it or seize it
It was posted in the first reply in this thread. Just sayin’. 
Ok.
Hardtack, aka Ship’s Biscuit, was often full of weevils. Sailors would bang the biscuit on the table and eat whatever critters didn’t scurry away. Apparently “millers” were a common meal onboard, too. Also known as rats. I imagine salt pork and weevily biscuits have to be pretty bad for the rats to look like an improvement.
Taste like chicken?
I have that book! Haven’t tried that particular recipe yet though.
something something “lesser of two weevils”
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier successfully replicated the same trick in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1787. This was about the same time Thomas Jefferson was introduced to a new gourmet delicacy at a Parisian banquet: French fries.
ETA: They’d been invented in Belgium much earlier, but because Jefferson encountered them in France and then introduced them to America, we know them as French fries.
That seems to be almost the way it happened, though it wasn’t labeling, it was the the fact that the officers ate, and actually seemed to like sauerkraut that did the trick.
I don’t have it in front of me now, but The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, about the voyages of Captain Cook, quotes Cook’s diaries to that effect. IIRC it was on the voyage to Tahiti(for the transit of Venus?) that the seamen were given the kraut, but didn’t like it so they ate very little of it until Cook hit on the idea of making a show of how much he and the officers enjoyed it.
Actually its the opposite; lemons and limes are the least cold hardy of the citrus trees. They are killed or damaged when temps are in the high 20s. Sweet oranges and grapefruit are slightly more cold tolerant and can withstand temperatures in the mid 20’s before succumbing.
If they knew fresh fruit helped with scurvy, would dried fruit have been an option? I would think it would have been a natural substitute for fresh fruit since it stays good longer.
Now that you say it… That does sound familiar.
While disgusting to our modern tastes, insects are an excellent source of protein and vitamins. For people with borderline malnutrition, the weevils were probably a net benefit.
In Korea, fermented cabbage is kimchi. And one of the joys of spring was the fresh kimchi, after living all winter on kimchi that was gradually getting older and more sour.
::applause::
You win the thread!
In one of the Jack Aubrey novels, Jack asks the ship’s Doctor which of two weevils he would sponsor in a race. Dr. Maturin chooses the largest. Jack replies the smaller one should be his choice, “You must always pick the lesser of two weevils”.
Magellan lost a number of men to scurvy on his crossing of the Pacific, but it is thought that the quince preserves he had along helped reduce the toll. However, people didn’t seem to realize that was the reason. In any case, dried fruit has less vitamin C than fresh fruit.
Indeed. It’s Jack’s favourite joke, and almost as good/bad as his dining-with-Admiral-Nelson anecdote.
Citrus fruits are rather more costly than cabbage and don’t retain vitamins well. Darn.