Rations

[springkeeper]

Re: Rice

The Carolina Plantation rice is very good and very easy to cook.

Carrie Craddock

[John Legg]

Re: Rice

How much is it, i couldnt find a price on the site! its probaly there i possibaly just missed. i just skimmed through it!

John

[John-Owen Kline]

Order Carolina Gold

Order rice (and high quality corn products) from;

http://www.ansonmills.com/page22/page35/page35.html

[Spinster]

Re: Rice

Mr. Legg,

The direct link to Carolina Plantation is below

http://www.carolinaplantationrice.com/

Pricing changes with volume, so look to your unit needs for a season.

These folks were most kind and accomodating in working with us last spring at Fort Moultrie, and I believe what I didn't cook up went on to Rich Mountain.

[John Legg]

Re: Rice

Thank you all, ive found my answer.

i will be buying some, when i get the money. i just whiped out my wallet on a commutation jacket! :D

Thanks and Cheers,

[fortykin]

Dessicated Vegetables

Gentlemen,

The following is some info I came up with while searching for info on dessicated vegetables the other night. The soldier that wrote this was posted in Indian territory in late 1864. It is by far the best description I have seen for "desicrated" vegetables.

"We never had any fresh vegetables at Julesburg; they could not be got to us. But there were issued to us what were called "desiccated vegetables." In the true pronunciation of the word the second syllable is long, but it was called by the boys as if it were dessy-kated, with accent on the third syllable. It was made of onions, cabbages, beets, turnips, carrots and peppers, steamed, pressed and dried. They were almost in the form of leaves pressed together. They were pressed, after they were dry, into cakes twelve inches square, and an inch thick. They were pressed so hard that they weighed about as much as wood, and came sealed up in tin cans about a foot square. They were intended to be put into the soups, and were largely used by us for that purpose. They were very nutritious, and it was convenient, when we went on scouts, for the boys to break off a piece and put it in a saddle-pocket. The boys would nibble at it as they were riding along; it was a kind of leguminous bread, and they ate about as much of it dry as they did by putting it into soups."

The following is the link to the site this came from:

http://www.kancoll.org/books/ware/ew_chap27.htm

t

[fortykin]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

BTW, I forgot to leave my name on the last post.

Bill McCormick

[AZReenactor]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

Bill,
What a great resource. Thank you for sharing.

I found several great books in the Kansas Collection including The Prairie Taraveler.

Commerce of the Prairies - Gregg, Josiah (1844)
A Campaign in New Mexico With Col. Doniphan - Edwards, Frank S. (1847)
Report of the Committee of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society,
with the Act of Incorporation (1854)
Kansas: Its Interior and Exterior Life - Robinson, Sara T. L. (1856)
Six Months in Kansas - Ropes, Hannah Anderson (1856)
Governor Geary's Administration in Kansas - Gihon, John H., M.D. (1857)
The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions - Marcy, Randoph Barnes, Captain, U. S. A. (1859)
Went to Kansas - Colt, Miriam D. (1862)
The Lawrence Massacre - Cordley, R. (1865)
Memorial Book of E. C. D. Lines (1867)
Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest - McCoy, Joseph G. (1874)
My Life on the Plains - Custer, General George Armstrong (1874)
The Andreas History of the State of Nebraska - Cutler, Wm. G. (1882)
The Andreas History of the State of Kansas - Cutler, Wm. G. (1883)
Emigrant Life in Kansas - Ebbutt, Percy G. (1886)
Twin Hells - Reynolds, John N. (1890)
Extract from Marvels of the New West - Thayer, William M. (1890)
Kansas Exhibits of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition
A History of Lawrence, Kansas - Cordley, Richard (1895)
The Real Issue - White, William Allen (1896)
Some of the Rhymes of Ironquill (1896) [in progress]
In His Steps - Sheldon, Charles M. (1896, 1909)
Last of the Great Scouts - Wetmore, Helen Cody (1899, 1917)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum, Lyman Frank (1900).
Old Settlers' Tales - Crevecoeur, F. F. (1902)
Pioneer Days in Kansas - Cordley, R. (1903)
Legends of the Kaw - De Voe, Carrie (1904)
American Thumbprints - Stephens, Kate (1905)
The South Dakota National Guard Goes to Fort Riley, Souvenir Book (1906)
KANSAS: The Prelude to the War for the Union - Spring, Leverett Wilson (1906)
The People’s Reveille, Souvenir Book - Hill City, Graham Co., Kansas (1906)
The Indian War of 1864 - Ware, Eugene F. (1911)
Report of the Committee of the Kansas State Historical Society
on the Santa Fe Trail Through Kansas (1911-1912)

Santa Fe Trail maps:
Eastern Section
Central Section
Western Section

The History of Johnson County, Kansas - Blair, Ed (1915) [in progress]
Tales and Trails of Wakarusa - Harvey, A. M. (1917)
Howard Chase, Red Hill - Sheldon, Charles M. (1918)
The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me - White, William Allen (1918)
The Perry Home Cook Book (1920)
Life at Laurel Town in Anglo-Saxon Kansas - Stephens, Kate (1920/1936)
History of The 353rd Infantry Regiment, 89th Division, National Army, September 1917 - June 1919, - Dienst, Captain Charles F., et al. (1921)
The Story of a Kansas Pioneer - Anderson, Melissa Genett (1924)
The Last One - Maxton, Rosie Clem (1932)
The Pioneer History of Kansas - Roenigk, Adolph (1933)
The Grassland of North America - Malin, James C. (1946) (extract)
An Early History of North Lawrence (1961)
The Rath Trail - Rath, Ida Ellen (1961)
Wonderful Old Lawrence - Rowe, Elfriede Fischer (1971)
Autobiography of a Common Man - Beach, Milton
Sod Jerusalems: Jewish Agricultural Communities in Frontier Kansas - Harris, L. David (1984)
Do Tell: The Early Years - Dale, Don B. (1991)
Reflections from the Prairie - Schiller, George W. (1994)
The Cow from Grasshopper Falls - Brown, Mary Ann Sachse (illustrations by Roy Lee Brown) (1996)
A Prairie Wedding: Alonzo and Stella, October 21 1906 - Turner, Vern F. (1999)
The Abolitionist: A Saga of the Albert Gallatin Barrett family of early Kansas - Schiller, George W. (2002)

[markj]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

I've got a tongue-in-cheek description that's equally good:

Madison IN Daily Courier, 9 October 1861:

"PRESSED VEGETABLES" -- A soldier writing from the Potomac about his "feed," says: "We get a substance for soup called "pressed vegetables." It looks a good deal like a big plug of "dog leg" tobacco in shape and solidity, and is composed in part of potatoes, onions, beans, lettuce, garlic, parsely, parsnips, carrots, &c. I acknowledge eating two China tin plates full without convulsions of nature, and can now speak the German language with fluency."
***

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[Charles Heath]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

This is when I really miss the lost data. :(

In the quest for a tin, Perfesser Tobey managed to find an image of part of one side of a tin in a relic book with the Chollet's label mostly intact. Still, the search goes on for that tin cube.

Don't know if I'll ever make enough dessicated veggies to feed 100 men again, but knowledge of the correct tin container would be a joy in itself. Some collector or museum has to have one of those jokers sitting around somewhere. One day, one day....

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

Excellent descriptions of dessicated veggies are provided in Hardtack and Coffee and Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard.

[flattop32355]

Re: Rice

Just be sure you cook your rice ALL the way through.
The extra couple minutes of waiting for the rice to finish cooking is a lot shorter than your trip to the sinks will be after that stuff finishes expanding in your stomach.

Provided, of course, that you are still able to move at all. :wink_smil

[Lone Guard]

Re: Rice

Provided, of course, that you are still able to move at all. :wink_smil

Good point. I'm never going through that again, I don't care how hungry I am.

[Lawrence]

Re: Rice

I'd like to say a quick thanks to everyone posting on this thread, there's been some nice specific links that have been posted which will be very handy for me in the months to come.

I'm wondering if someone might be able to offer some info that's a little bit different to what's been put up so far? I'm putting together an event out here in Australia come next April, and therefore I'm not able to access some of the wonderful products that have been linked to here. I looked through the google searches but didn't come up with anything that gave a description of what a common modern equivelent would be to period Civil War rice. Is someone able to describe the types of grain used?? Also, was it aromatic at all, or just nice and plain, straight up rice? The Carolina Gold looks kind of chunky like an arborio or something, was that standard at the time, or??? You guys have cooked with these more appropriate products, therefore I'm seeking some help!!

I would like to include a period rice as a part of the ration issue for this event, and would like to get it mostly right, rather than just going down the local store and picking up their biggest, cheapest sack of whatever!

Thanks folks,

Shannon Brown

[Charles Heath]

Re: Rice

Shannon,

Take the time to email them directly, and inquire about the Carolina Gold rice description. The thousands of varieties of rice are typically categorized by length of grain first, and then broken down from there by less obvious features. For example, if the rice description is that of a short grained or pearl rice, then you'll know a little more about where to start at the local market. Their contact info is on their website.

You'd be surprised how many reenactors actually care about such details. ;)