Rations

[Tyler]

Re: Mechanical Baking Co

thanks Tyler - will try them. Would not be good if they are defunk. Bents are somewhat expensive, if perhaps more edible than MBC. Will let you know.

Thanks, I'd like to know how it turns out.
-Tyler Putman

[KathyBradford]

How hungry?

From a letter written by GG Uncle Absolom Kleckner, 21st OVI, Co. A December 20, 1862, Camp Hamilton, near Nashville.

"I tell you we have quite a time here catching robins. Two of our boys went out night before last and caught 35. I tell you, I made a good pot pie last night. 3 of our boys went out and caught 65. We also had another pot pie today. We bought 2 pounds of butter to season them with. We paid $1 for 2 pounds and it was strong as old cheese at that."

Looking out the window at the welcome sight of spring robins, I can't imagine thinking of them as supper. What were some other documented things the soldiers ate that wouldn't occur to us?

[DougCooper]

4 and 20 Blackbirds baked in a pie...

...and served up by the 21st OVI.

A menu change is good, said the old soldier, and while eating an individual robin is about the same as a dove (not much there) a bunch of them could make a good dish.

Other delicacies that come to mind are possum, mule, horse, eels, turtles, gators, squirrel, snakes, woodchcucks...and anything else either fish, mammal or fowl foolish enough to stand still when soldiers are about.

It all tastes like chicken anyway... :wink_smil

[DukeRPSC]

Birding...

Gen. John B. Gordon's servant flattened and chopped up minieballs to make shot so the General could shoot birds to supplement to table fare. I'll have to pull the text to verify the birds so used. Anyway, it was something you don't think about Generals spending their time doing.

A pard of mine ( a well-credentialled historian, curator of the military collection at the AHC ) related a fad of AoT soldiers keeping small fishing kits in their pockets. Seems fish constituted a supplement to the ration when opportunity provided.

So....it wasn't all porkbelly and crackers.

[Jimmayo]

Re: How hungry?

"You would have laughed to have seen great grown men Saturday with their traps and dead falls catching birds. We were very successful, the mess I am in caught quite a number. We made a large pot pie which was very nice. "

John Kerr Beaton, 9th Va. Inf.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/j_mayo/9va/letters.html

I served in the AF with a fellow from Alabama. He was from a poor farm background and said his grandmother was rather fond of Robin pies.

[Justin Runyon]

Re: How hungry?

Captain Muller's "Eel" Breakfast
Transcribed by Larry Stevens
Excerpt from "We Were The Ninth" A History of the Ninth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Constantine Grebner, translated and edited by Frederic Trautmann.

"On patrol in a dreadful region, we struggled up and down mountains, through ravines, and across steep slopes. You kept your balance with the aid of overhanging limbs, and you supported yourself with your rifle or sidearm, so as not to lose your footing and tumble into the depths, never to return. Certainly not a pleasurable hike. But our good humor heartened us enough to help us over the obstacles. Meanwhile the snakes simply glided along the ground and curled alluringly around trees and branches. Captain Muller soon cut off the head of one with his sword, an especially fine reptile several feet in length. Nobody noticed how he carried it or even that he brought it along.
Next morning, after the mailman delivered letters an
d packages in camp, it being a day of rest, the captain emerged from his tent, smiling contentedly. He invited several of us, who were standing around, to breakfast at 10:00. "I just got in the mail some splendid marinated eel from Cincinnati and I'm cooking it up in grand style." Three of us accepted. Our amiable benefactor hoped we might bring crackers and beverages; and we brought them. We sat down to pieces of superb eel in a tasty sauce. We crumbled and added the crackers and washed down the oily mouthfuls with an occasional pull at one of those renowned flat and square bottles. Our genial host rubbed his hands in glee and urged us to dig in. "We can't have any left over," he said. "What a shame if such good fish spoils or is thrown out."
Now, even the stomach of a soldier in the field has its limits. And so at last we were sated on those savory morsels. The bottle was empty. Captain Muller folded his hands piously across his giant paunch and turned congenially to a lieutenant notorious for being squeamish: "Well, K., old buddy, how about it? Nothing beats a well-marinated Virginia Snake!" A leap from the chair, a savage curse, a dash from the tent...and let us not say what else!"

Web Publishing Copyright © 1995 Larry Stevens

[DukeRPSC]

Re: How hungry?

I've known people who've eaten them. I am told it is dark meat. Evidently they are harvested when they flock or mob together in large numbers.

I'll stick to doves or quail, thanks, but breaded and fried, I'll bet the robins are quite good.

Member: If-it-flies,-it-dies Mess

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: How hungry?

Robin was an old favorite in Britian centuries ago.

Here is a more contemporary recipie for ''Pidgeon or Robin'', ca1820.

First cut them down the back, then take out all the bones, season them with pepper, mace, cloves, nutmeg, & salt, sew them up in their shape of a Pidgeon or Robin, pour a pint of double distilled vinegar a pint of Lisbon wine to a quart of water, put the bones in this liquor, let them boil a quarter of an hour, & season the liquor as above, then strain it from the bones, put in the Birds, boil them a quarter of an hour, then take them out, when cold put them in the liquor, cover them over with sallad oil, & tye them down close.

...and they wondered why we came to the New World.

[10nycav]

Re: How hungry?

I can tell you from personal experience that woodchuck is quite good. At least the young ones are. Better than rabbit, more like good veal. Young raccoon tastes similar, the older ones are more like mutton but still quite edible. Porcupine is good, so I've been told by friends who have sampled it, as long as it has not been dining on conifers which gives the meat a turpentine flavor. Quail and dove are two of my all time favorite meats (along with wild mallard). I'll bet most small birds are similar in flavor.

Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV.

[10nycav]

Cat . . . the other white meat

I ran across an account of some Confederate prisoners who ate--and enjoyed--cat during their confinement. It was in a little book called "Cooking for the Cause" which was for sale at the Gettysburg NP bookstore a few years back. "She must have been a notoriously fine mouser," the prisoner wrote, "she required no grease."

Ken Morris
10th Regt of Cavalry NYSV

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: How hungry?

Captain Muller's account is not suprising in the least. Eel is (was) a very popular dish in northern European countries and Immigrants from those countries here. ...in fact I think I know what I want to have for my Birthday dinner :wink_smil

[Alamo Guard]

Re: How hungry?

I suppose alot has to do where you were raised as far as your tastes run. Here on the Texas frontier bear was a sub for bacon as hogs were at the time not plentiful in south Texas (boy have times changed).
Possum, raccon, owl and just about anything that walked or crawled ended up in a stewpot. Every part of the animal was eaten excpet for the squeal.
When canned goods were first inroduced here on the Texas frontier they used to have a picture of a devil on the label. This was to prevent the indians from breaking into your house while your away and stealing the canned goods. However only the rich could afford canned food anyways.

[Staunton Rebel]

Re: How hungry?

I grew up in the Blue Ridge Mts. and I have seen many critters eaten. I am very fond of squirel gravy and biscuts. I have tried coon meat also, a bit too greasy for my taste but under the circumstanses of being a soldier, I bet I would have bellied up to the trough with the best of them. When we were younger, my sister and I would hunt snapping turtles and sell them to this old black woman name of Foogie. She always claimed that snappers had 13 different flavors of meat in them. She must have been in 90's back in the mid-1970s so I imagine that cooter stew was a popular dish. Bear meat was popular with the old timers on the old Brown's Gap Turnpike. Needless to say, good eatin' all aroun'.

Pvt. Waverly Adcock
5th Va. Co. E

[Darrell Cochran]

Re: How hungry?

Just the other day it occurred to me that I don't recall many - if any - mention in soldier accounts of killing deer to eat. Growing up as I did in the mountains just west of the Shenandoah Valley, I'm sure there would have been plenty of White-tails around ... Maybe it was "too common" to warrant mention?

[va-yank]

Re: How hungry?

No one has mentioned venison, and I've not seen it mentioned in any source materials, mostly soldiers hunting small game.

Some modern Dept of Fish and Game statistics on big game numbers indicate that the whitetail was just about wiped out by 1900 in most populous states. I wonder how plentiful deer would have been in Virginia and Maryland during the war years?