Meat in Haversack?

[crgswyr]

Was wondering what most guys take in form of meat for the weekend and how do you prepare it? I've her slab bacon alot, but how do you prepare it. Do you cook it pre-event and if so does it last all weekend? And if you don't cook it before how do you keep it cool?

[JulianNew]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

I carry slab bacon or salt pork in a poke sack. I keep it in my haversack raw throughout the weekend until it's time to cook it. As long as the meat is cured it will be fine. I've heard of some guys getting sick because of eating pre-cooked meat at an event so I've always been cautious of that.

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

I have carried either, by bringing or being issued, slab bacon raw for a weekend and cooked. The bacon needs to be smoked and/or cured. Chances are very good you will not find that at a supermarket, at least in the north. I have to go to a butcher shop or order it online. Make sure its dry and wrapped good. Be smart and keep your haversack from just sitting in the sun. I have carried smoked slab bacon from a local butcher from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning in 90 degree heat eating some of it for each meal plenty of times. When I cook it, I cook it well. You can get true salt cured bacon as well which when I order it comes in a box and lasts forever. Just need to clean off the small amount of mold that might form on the outside like a country ham.

To wrap it I have used cloth, paper and poke sack. My favorite is a painted cloth sack that help keeps any possible juice or grease from getting on other items in the haversack. Paper I have found works the worst because of this.

Cooking I cut it thin as I can and fry in a small skillet or canteen half. Cooking slow is better if you have time on coals then fast and hot on flames. Renders more of the fat out and gives a better cook through the slices. Small chunks skewered on a ramrod and roast on the fire works as well. I have seen men boil chucks in water but that never has sounds good to me but it works.

[RW0369]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

Second what Mr Bevard says in regards to salt pork, if you get fresh meat at an event though, cook it immediately. If you're going to eat it all right away cook it however you like, but if you plan on saving any cook it all the way through("well done"). With fresh meat I don't even put it in my haversack, just cook it right away. I'm also the guy that eats it all right away and greatly regrets it saturday night.

As far as what to take, often times you can find out what they were eating around the time of certain events by reading diaries, and some books on the portrayal may make note of it as well. Recently that's one of the things that's sort of piqued my curiousity, how often soldiers wrote about food at various times and places. Often times that's one of the things they write about in the most detail.

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

I have to go to a butcher shop or order it online. .

Jeremy:

Who do you order from?

Kevin Dally

[Silas]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

Scotthams.com

[PMFerringer]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

Any butcher that sells bacon can get slab bacon. If it's smoked/cured it's good to go. If you're adventurous get raw pork belly and smoke it yourself. I plan on stocking up up for 2016 this hunting season by smoking the wild hogs I kill.

[john duffer]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

Scotthams.com

I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out so - I had several slabs of Scott Ham's bacon left over after a ration issue which then stayed in my car trunk for six or seven months and were used for a ration issue at another event. To my knowledge nobody died.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

On Campaign with the Army of the Potomac, The Civil War Journal of Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Stephen W. Sears, ed., Cooper Square Press, NY 2001

(Dodge was adjutant, 101st NY at the time of this)

p. 35 June 30th [1862] “I have just taken breakfast with great delectation. Unsling haversack and canteen, squat down & place the former between my knees and the latter resting against the former; open the haversack, extract a brown cartridge paper, which unroll and find a chunk of boiled beef; cut therefrom one third of a day’s ration, take also 2 sea-crackers and begin to eat, drinking splendid fresh spring water from my canteen. Suddenly says Verdi on my right, ‘Want a piece of bologna?’ and cuts a slice off the same, whose spicy juice would raise the dead! What breakfast could possibly compare with this...”

Hint: Use a cheap cut of lean beef and boil it with a fair amount of vinegar in the water till done through; the vinegar will tenderize the beef and help it keep through the weekend. No need to cook anything but coffee on site.

[Trail Otter]

Re: Meat in Haversack?

I've carried salt pork in my haversack. I cook it well the night before I leave. You know you're a reenactor when your wife complains about the house smelling like "damn'd salt pork" :D Anyway, it's edible from Friday morning til Sunday afternoon (if any is left). I just take what I want to use each meal.

One meal I made with it was dehydrated vegetables, salt pork and broken hardtack. I need to work on the water part of it but it's not bad eating.