Mubs & Barley Soup

Meal 31 of the CLMIL Rations. Favored by trail medics and dockmen alike.

There’s a saying along the Bastion Lines: “If you’ve got mubs, you’ve got a meal.” Born from scarcity and hardened into tradition, Mubs & Barley Soup isn’t just food—it’s endurance in a bowl. Whether stirred over a medic’s campfire or simmered in the galley of a salt-hauler, this soup has warmed more hands than any hearth.

Cheap to make, slow to spoil, and dense with grit and glue, it’s a meal that doesn’t apologize for what it is: tough cuts, bitter greens, and barley thick enough to slow a charge. Those who grew up on it crave the chew of tendon and the salt-kick of crookleaf long after they’ve left the marches.

This is not a dish for nobles or fine plates. It’s for people with cracked hands and long nights. And when cooked right, it sticks to your ribs—and your memory.

Ingredients (field ration version):

• 1½ cups mubs (mixed offcuts of meat: tendon, gristle, fat, bone scraps – whatever’s left)
• ¾ cup cracked barley
• 1 small yellowroot bulb (or onion substitute)
• 2 dried crookleafs (bitter greens)
• 1 clove black garlic (or preserved equivalent)
• Pinch of ash salt
• 1 tsp render fat (boil-off from mubs or added lard)
• 1½ quarts water or bone stock
• Optional: sprig of iron thyme (for digestion)

Instructions:

1. Render the mubs in a large pot over medium flame until fat begins to pool. Brown any meat scraps until they develop crust.
2. Toss in yellowroot and black garlic. Sauté briefly in the mubs’ fat.
3. Add water or bone stock and bring to a low boil. Skim foam.
4. Stir in barley and ash salt. Lower to a steady simmer.
5. After 30 minutes, crush and stir in crookleafs and iron thyme.
6. Simmer until barley softens fully and mubs are tender (1–2 hours depending on toughness).
7. Serve hot. Let cool slightly before packing into thermal ration tins.

Field Notes:

• “Soup thick enough to walk on” is considered ideal.
• Soldiers joke that if it jiggles when cold, it’s a good batch—means the collagen did its job.
• Some outposts add dried sea clams or powdered cheese ration for variation.