Civil War Food: Soldiers and Civilians

As the Civil War continued, food became scarce.   High inflation in the Confederacy made staples unaffordable for many. Soldiers and civilians were forced to forage the countryside to supplement their meager diets.

The Soldier's Food

Yankee Soldier:  Hardtack

Hard as a rock, this cracker was the bane of many a Civil War soldier.  The ingredients were simple: wheat flour, water, and maybe some salt, mixed into a dense dough, rolled and cut into biscuit sized squares.  Hardtack was almost inedible and nearly dense enough to stop a musket ball.  To soften, hardtack was often dunked in brine, coffee, or cooked with salt pork.  

The recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

 1/2 to 3/4 cup water 

6 pinches of salt

Optional:  add 1 tbsp of vegetable fat 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix the ingredients together into a stiff dough, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/4 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet.  Using a knife, cut dough into 3-inch cracker squares.  Punch four rows of holes, four holes per row, into each cracker.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, turn crackers over on the sheet and return to the oven and bake another 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Confederate Soldier

Sloosh

Many Southern soldiers simply cooked cornmeal mush around a rifle ramrod and cooked it over the campfire. That was called "sloosh". 

Corn Pone
Corn pone was a staple of early settlers and Civil War soldiers.

Recipe

4 cups ground white or yellow cornmeal 
1 tablespoon salt 
2-3 cups of very hot (not boiling) water 
 1/4--1/2 cup bacon grease or other oil

In a large bowl, add the hot water to the corn meal and mix into a thick batter. Cover with a dishcloth and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. The batter should still be soft enough to mold into a small cake.  Cook medium heat on the stove or over your fire, add the bacon grease or oil. When the oil is hot lay the cakes into the pan. Cook them until they are browned on one side, this should take about 3 minutes. Turn each and brown on the other side. Drain the fat and serve.

Food on the Home front 

Lacking many ingredients, the southern women learned to alter food recipes according to their scarce available resources.  

Hoppin' John recipe

The south still had rice and black eyed peas.  Hoppin' John was popular and nutritious.

Oatmeal pie recipe:

The military needed a cheap way to feed a lot of people, and soldiers across the country were introduced to the idea they could eat their horses' oats.  So oats become a popular food for soldiers and civilians.   

      

Idiot's Delight cake recipe:

An easy dessert to make, "Idiot's Delight" cake was quick and frugal.  It was often served on Christmas and Holidays.