Unconventional Foods People Ate During the Civil War

Survival during war is often about more than just time spent on the front lines. During the Civil War, finding sufficient, edible food was challenging on account of a devastated landscape, insufficient labor after farmers went off to fight, as well as blockades and barricades preventing access to much-needed provisions.

Much like settlers headed out West during the expansion of the United States or millions of poverty-stricken individuals impacted by the Great Depression, Civil War soldiers and their civilian counterparts resorted to whatever they could find to eat.

#FoodHistory #CivilWar #WeirdHistory

[tammithomas]

Being from the south, alot of these recipes have still survived til this day. I have enjoyed souse, fritters, pickled water melon rinds, and molasses to name a few

[rubynewsom]

My Dad was born 1905, I was born 1956. I'll never forget the first time he made a loaf of grits, sliced it and fried it.To this day I love grits.
My Mom was born and raised as a Moravian in then Czechoslovakia. She told me after the war, then in a Germany refugee camp. They made one potatoes last Three meals, outside peel, the next the potatoes exterior, then the last meal was the inside of the potato.
I didn't grow up poor. Very blessed.
I thank heaven my wise parents showed us how to make food last and be grateful for it.
Thank you for sharing these recipes. My Daddy was Southern born and bred from Mo. I grew up in Mid West.
We are so blessed in USA.

[codename]

Yeah, I would imagine just about anything food adjacent tastes pretty damned good if it’s seasoned with starvation.

[aryan]

When I was little in the 1950s, my father made milk toast almost every Saturday. Buttered toast with a pudding-like sauce on it that he made on the stove with milk, sugar, vanilla extract & a bit of flour for thickening.

[ballhawk]

I'd probably forage a lot. One of the Union commanders was quoted as saying he was surprised he gained 10 pounds on a diet of worms, and felt better than ever. The freshly cooked worms were indeed probably a lot healthier than the rancid meat in many of the rations.

[joshuabrown]

I always made canned biscuits and never complained. One day, I was looking at my Great Great Grandma's recipes for biscuits because I was curious about how they tasted back then. What I found was quite shocking, they didn't have measurements like you would typically see in modern day cookbooks. "A pinch of this, a dab of that, and a handful of this" was used by her to make it work. When I made her recipe for biscuits, it took a while to get it right. My reward? It smelled awesome, and tasted the same. I then spread butter, and some molasses like she would have done back in the day. Now let me tell you, I've never touched molasses in my life, and always thought it was disgusting because of how it looked. However, when it came into contact with my taste buds, it was the most phenomenal thing I have ever tasted on biscuits. Oh, after that, I never bought canned biscuits again.

[doraran]

A joke from Civil War: A soldier bit into some hard tack, encountering something softer than the hard tack. A fellow soldier asked him if bit into a worm, as worms often infested hard tack. Soldier replied, no, it was just a nail.

[_SimpleJack_]

As a non native English speaker Sassafras is now my new favourite word.

[wedgeantilles]

I'll never take any of the food we have nowdays for granted. These guys had it rough.

[oregonnursenurse]

I recently bought an old survival book. Full of recipes from the civil war era. They learned to be very creative. For instance, acorn flour. Squirrel. They had to be resourceful. Cat tails. Apparently, cat tails can be used as food and fuel. The stems are eaten and the fluff is fire starter.

[TheGelasiaBlythe]

There is Civil War hardtack in the Gettysburg National Military Park museum. That stuff lasts forever, as long as it doesn't mold.

[brettthechez]

Nothing like a cup of history in the morning

[bw]

Unconventional foods during the Black Plague? Love the content.

[CaptRich-bigp]

Bacon wrapped smoked watermelon rind. Me and my Bar-B-Que cooking team took first place at a competition in Texas once with this. It was well received.

[Off-with-a-bang]

As a passionate coffee drinker, it makes me happy to know that soldiers in the Civil War" felt coffee was a vital part of their day. I know I can't start my morning without my mug of java ☕️

[TheGelasiaBlythe]

Watermelon pickle is still a thing. Most recipes actually include those cinnamon red hots candies, so the rinds (without the skins) are pink, but it's still very much a foodstuff people eat.

[endcensorship]

“Sweet potato coffee wasn’t hard to make.”
Hard to drink, I would gather, but not hard to make.

[texaspearl]

Poor guys they almost starved to death, I don’t know how they were able to fight. My heart has always gone out to our soldiers. They’ve always been so young..

[Aries]

Why would you be so desperate for “coffee” if it doesn’t even have caffeine?

[nicksoapdish]

I'm not going to lie most of these foods actually sound pretty good. Since I work as a cook, I'd love to learn to cook some of these dishes for myself.