Period food
Period Foods/Rations
There are many easy ways to improve your impression and reenacting experience. One easy way is to use period foods and rations. Get rid of the beanie weanies and vienna sausage's and opt for some very easy and period recipies.
Hardtack
Hardtack, also known as hard bread, army bread, and maggot motels (yuck)! This was the basic issue "bread" by both armies. It is basically a thick hard cracker. It is a little tough to eat as is and needs to be broken up into chunks to crunch down. It is a real teeth-breaker. The running joke for the soldiers was that they had bitten into their hardtack and hit something soft. When they looked they realized it was a 10 penny nail. Here is a recipe for my hardtack (minus the nails) - You cannot get any easier than this!
Ingredients:
All-purpose unbleached flour
Salt
Water
Directions:
Simply scoop an appropriate amount of flour into a mixing bowl. Add a little salt and then add warm water a little at a time. Knead the dough as you add the water. The dough should not be sticky, nor should the dough be very dry. Once the dough is of the right consistency, roll it out flat to about 3/8" thickness. Cut into squares about 3x3 or 4x4. I think the "regulation" size of Union hardtack was about 3.5". I then take a small wooden dowel and will punch approximately 16 holes into each square. Place the squares onto a baking pan and bake in the oven at 400 until the hardtack is just getting a golden brown color. Then reduce the oven temp to 200 and bake for 2 more hours. I will then turn the oven off and let the hardtack cool in the oven overnight.
The important thing is to make sure that as much moisture as possible is baked out of the hardtack. If not, the hardtack will get moldy. It should be stored in a dry environment and should last several months this way.
Nothing else should be added to the hardtack ... no raisins, cinnamon, yeast, etc. Hardtack by itself is pretty hard and tasteless. Period accounts state that oftentimes the soldiers soaked the hardtack in cold water and then fried it up in bacon fat. I also found that breaking it up and adding it to your "stew" makes great dumplings for the stew.
If you would rather purchase ready made hardtack, there are two current commercial sources:
Bents Cookie Factory
- Good hardtack, more palatable than Mechanical Bakery's hardtack. A little more crumbly and some pieces have burn marks on them.
Mechanical Bakery
- Good hardtack. Extremely hard and tough. Holds together real well and has very uniform look.
Salt Pork
The closest thing that I know of to salt pork can be purchased at most grocery chains is "Country Ham." However, some stores do carry Salt Pork and they do not call it that for nothing. The original salt pork was stored in big barrels and many soldier's accounts describe the slurping noise it made as pieces were pulled out of the barrel. Luckily country ham and modern salt pork is stored a bit different. Basically salt pork is pork strips that have been preserved using salt. Country ham should stay good for several days and salt pork will supposedely stay good for up to six weeks without refrigeration. In its "salted" form, it does not taste very good. It is best to soak the meat in a cup of cool water for a few minutes before cooking it or adding it to your boiler. This will help leech some of the salt from the meat and make it more tolerable.
Pepper-fried beef
While pepper-fried beef was not issued, fresh beef was. One way to make it last a few days is to pepper-fry it. This is done by frying the meat in your skillet or canteen half and adding a good amount of pepper to it. It should be turned frequently and peppered as it is turned. You should fry it till it almost has the consistency of jerky. It is very good and this will allow your beef to stay good for a couple of days.
Other
The following list is other foods that are good for the march:
Rice
Potatoes
Grits
Hominy
Corn Meal
Dried beans
Peanuts
Coffee
Raw Sugar/Cone Sugar (This can be purchased at most Mexican Food stores)
Of course seasonal foods are good as well. Corn, apples, etc. In addition, the soldiers diet was often supplemented by foraging for additional food in the outlying countryside. It would not be unusual, while on the march, for soldiers to come back with a few chickens, a pig, corn, apple jack, bread, etc.
Email: phillipslegion@yahoo.com
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