The congelation of fat above indistinguishable chunks of meat and vegetables led one reporter to describe it as "an inferior grade of garbage".

A soldier named Calcutt claimed "the Maconochie's stew ration gave the troops flatulence of a particularly offensive nature."

though we reckoned in the trenches the Maconochie tin of meat and veg was a banquet in its own way, but most of the contractors who fed us should have had their money stuffed into a couple of kit-bags round their necks and chucked into the deepest hole in no-mans land.

Barbara Buchan from the Fraserburgh Heritage Centre confirmed that their records contain only a single positive response to the product.

[3] An alternative view is voiced by Lance-Corporal Henry Buckle in his diary of April 1915: "Had a glorious meal today, got a Machonachie [sic] ration from some engineers in the wood, a round tin containing meat, spuds carrots, beans and gravy, enough for two in a tin.