Rations

[JStiles]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Brian,
I think that's a good price. Competitive to what Scott Hams charges and you're not going to have to pay shipping.

Jerry Stiles
"Can't read Latin"

[Csayankee]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Sir,

I get my slab bacon from a Armish store in Ky. It notmally runs 2.49 to 2.60 per pound. They don't cost anything for if cutting since they norma;lly will lsice it unless you tell them not to.

Thanks
Daniel MacInnis

[marine05]

Re: Knife, fork, spoon combinations

These items were referred to in Hardtack and Coffee. Billings stated that some were issued and some purchased, most soldiers got rid of them as being fairly unworkable and resorted to traditional flatware.

s/f

DJM

[hardtack1864]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

The stuff I get runs about 3.50-4.00, though when I got it, it was for my mess, I charged $5 a person and they got some hardtack with it too, but I really got free bacon. :tounge_sm But really, when I buy it, it is from a little place that sells per pound and no price difference if you buy 1 or 10 pounds. Though I guess the prices there are really high from the place I get it from.:confused_

[hardtack1864]

Re: Vegetables

I heard of an the issusing of the block type dececated vegetables at a Army of the pacific event. So, they have been reproduced in block form and not just the mixed way.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Knife, fork, spoon combinations

These items were referred to in Hardtack and Coffee. Billings stated that some were issued and some purchased, most soldiers got rid of them as being fairly unworkable and resorted to traditional flatware.

s/f

DJM

Billings does indeed say that solidiers bought a lot of these in the early days then later tossed them. But Wilbur Hindman in Si Klegg lauds them as one of the few truly useful items to come out of the multiplicity of novelties available at the beginning of the war. A wonderful example of conflict among original sources.

Personally, I take the spoon-fork part of mine and use a pocket knife if I have to cut something -- without documentation from either Billings or Hindman, alas.

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Sir,

Definately a good price. As far as stocking up, depends on (1) how much room you have in your freezer and (2) how far you have to drive to the market. If it's two miles away, buy two pounds. If you have to gas up on the way in order to get there, buy more. :thinking:

Ron Myzie
Grocer to several fine events

[JACKSONVC]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Pards,
The best I have found is the dry cured bacon. Keeps a very long time and doesn't spoil. Your best bet on getting hold of this kind is thru a german deli. Binkert's of Baltimore is excellent. They sell sides and smaller portions. I cannot remember the price, but it is well worth it for the taste.

[JACKSONVC]

Re: Andersonville Soup

Jim,
Scrambled eggs and onions. I lived in Gaffney Sc for a while with my cousins and every weekend, cow brains. They tasted ok, but the texture took some getting use too. It seemed to me that after breakfast, they got served at dinner as well. I have also had them as a spread, kinda like deviled ham. My cousins called them "potted brains", they put them up in mason jars with all kind of spices. They were not too bad that way.

[BrianHicks]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Sir,

Definately a good price. As far as stocking up, depends on (1) how much room you have in your freezer and (2) how far you have to drive to the market. If it's two miles away, buy two pounds. If you have to gas up on the way in order to get there, buy more. :thinking:

Ron Myzie
Grocer to several fine events

The Farmers Market is less than 6 miles distance, and I have lots of room in my freezer. :)

From the responses I've gotten, it appears that the price is close to average, and the saving on having no shipping costs would make the price pretty attractive.

[billwatson]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

So buy two pounds now and check it out. Not all bacon is created equal -- and some bacon has had a longer time on the earth than other bacon. If it's old, you'll know -- some of the bacon fat will be translucent rather than white. (I'm assuming this is, like a lot of bacon, wet cured, not the dry cured stuff -- that it's the kind you buy refrigerated and must keep refrigerated until some time reasonably close to the moment of cooking).

Don't buy slabs until you find out whether the price -- which is pretty darn good -- is due to this being old stock or due to the guy simply having a competitive price.

Additionally, you can order bacon in larger quantities from a butcher shop like this and be pretty much guaranteed that it's coming from the source relatively recently. Company I went through three slabs at Gates of Washington, and it came still in the crate from the shipper when I picked it up at the butcher three blocks from my house, having ordered it the week before. It was quite good, some of it having so little fat that it might as well have been from the ham.

[Masked Battery]

Vegetable box

Speaking of vegetable boxes, perhaps the most ingenious use of one was documented in at least two of J.J. Omenhausser's watercolor illustrations done while a prisoner in Point Lookout. A Reb is portrayed standing next to a fully-functioning steam engine which he built in prison out of odds and ends. The flywheel and pistons are labeled as being "Cast out of musket Balls" while the boiler is an old camp kettle. The furnace is labeled "Vegetable box."
It's yet another wartime accomplishment to be in awe of.
One of the illustrations is reproduced in "Point Lookout Prison Camp For Confederates" by E. W. Beitzell.

[smithjub]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Greetings,

Does anyone know of anywhere to get slab bacon, or dry cured bacon, in the Washington, DC area? I've been checking dozens of places, with no luck. I've been able to find sliced slab bacon at farmer's markets, but they wouldn't take orders for unsliced, and only had the sliced stuff for sale. If anyone in this area has a line on a good local shop I'd appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.

[dusty27]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

Jared,

I live in Arlington and get my slab bacon from Scott Hams

http://www.scotthams.com/store/defau...=Country+Bacon

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Slab Bacon... the Price per pound there of.

One small problem with really good slab bacon: If it is truly lean (I get mine from the same butcher that Bill Watson does) you often don't get enough fat out of it to fry anything else.

Ron Myzie

So buy two pounds now and check it out. Not all bacon is created equal -- and some bacon has had a longer time on the earth than other bacon. If it's old, you'll know -- some of the bacon fat will be translucent rather than white. (I'm assuming this is, like a lot of bacon, wet cured, not the dry cured stuff -- that it's the kind you buy refrigerated and must keep refrigerated until some time reasonably close to the moment of cooking).

Don't buy slabs until you find out whether the price -- which is pretty darn good -- is due to this being old stock or due to the guy simply having a competitive price.

Additionally, you can order bacon in larger quantities from a butcher shop like this and be pretty much guaranteed that it's coming from the source relatively recently. Company I went through three slabs at Gates of Washington, and it came still in the crate from the shipper when I picked it up at the butcher three blocks from my house, having ordered it the week before. It was quite good, some of it having so little fat that it might as well have been from the ham.