Rations

[Mrs. Buttrick]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

This is the recipe, plain and simple:

Fill a barrel with well-washed sliced potatoes, and cover with spiced vinegar which has been previously scalded…

We scalded about two gallons of cider vinegar and poured a generous amount over the potatoes as we peeled them into a five-gallon crock. I can tell you that within a short time, the ingredients in the crock began to produce a golden foam. It was nearly full to the brim with potatoes (about fifteen pounds) when we packed it, but by the next morning the potatoes had settled and were but half the volume. We thought we should not taste them until another week or so passed. I am embarrassed to say that the whole batch went, not into the river, but into the compost pile at the Trimborn farmstead instead. That was a mighty heavy crock to carry home without the advantage of a sturdy wagon.

This spring, I promise, we will taste some and invite the troops to do the same.

[AZReenactor]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Very interesting. I was curious about the term "spiced vinegar" being used. I've seen various reciepts for spiced vinegar and was curious what was being used here. I'll have to see about putting some together to try here in the far West. Vinegar is a handy restorative in the heat and I'm always courious about how it might be incorperated into the diet.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Very interesting. I was curious about the term "spiced vinegar" being used. I've seen various reciepts for spiced vinegar and was curious what was being used here. I'll have to see about putting some together to try here in the far West. Vinegar is a handy restorative in the heat and I'm always courious about how it might be incorperated into the diet.

Although I've heard of pickled potatoes during the war, I've not done research on them. If I recall in my reading, they were supposed to keep the men from getting scurvy. I looked in a great number of my period cookbooks and did not find any receipes for pickled potatoes.

Other pickled vegetables may have been a more palatable way to get vinegar into the men. Also, many vegetables taste better with some vinegar sprinkled over them or that could be just a "southern thing" that I grew up with.

Yes, vinegar is very restorative in the heat and the way we use it is as a beverage. Mike makes up a concentrate of equal parts of honey and cider which to make it easy to carry. Put the concentrate in a glass bottle, never in a tin canteen. When one is ready for a drink, mix 2 tablespoons (or more or less to taste) with 8 ounces of water. The common name for this beverage was called harvest drink, haymaker's switchel, switchel. Another version used raspberry vinegar as the base. The sweetner could be molasses, brown sugar or honey. We prefer the honey. Ginger may also be added, which settles the stomach.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Vinegar is a handy restorative in the heat and I'm always courious about how it might be incorperated into the diet.

Aw, c'mon Troy, you darn well know the bottom feeders have been slamming us early and often for having pickled goods in our vittles. :)

The pickled potatoes really sound like a head start on something akin to German potato salad, and it is coming from Milwaukee. Well, that's probably 2+2=5, but it is worth a look up. Let's see how they taste in about a month.

Couldn't help it. Had to make some.

(Virginia won't tell you this, but you'll quickly learn your horse loves switchel concentrate, too.)

[rebinnj]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Yes, vinegar is very restorative in the heat and the way we use it is as a beverage. Mike makes up a concentrate of equal parts of honey and cider which to make it easy to carry. Put the concentrate in a glass bottle, never in a tin canteen. When one is ready for a drink, mix 2 ounces or more with 8 ounces of water. The common name for this beverage was called harvest drink, haymaker's switchel, switchel. Another version used raspberry vinegar as the base. The sweetner could be molasses, brown sugar or honey. We prefer the honey. Ginger may also be added, which settles the stomach.

I make this sometimes at home, and if I remember when I am camping. For just a cup full I use one cup water, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon honey, stir thoroughly.

[Mrs. Buttrick]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Can't help a little diversion on the observation about German influences. In the same collection of letters from Memphis, Fanny Burling Buttrick writes:


Tuesday, 2nd August
Evening

We have a fine young German boy in the hospital who has been very ill with dysentery but now convalescent. He heard there was a bottle of German mustard in the box and begged me to spread him one cracker and bring it to him. The Doctor was willing and I did so. He tasted it and beseeched me to sell him the bottle at once.


Virginia, your vinegar drinks have soothed many a weary soldier and civilian! I am grateful for your guidance on this.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

[QUOTE=
(Virginia won't tell you this, but you'll quickly learn your horse loves switchel concentrate, too.)[/QUOTE]

I'm glad the horses have benefited from the switchel concentrate. I hope now I won't be start to be known as the "vinegar lady." Of course that might be an improvement to some of the other names I've been called.

I'm also glad that others have enjoyed the switchel beverage. It is a restorative and has helped many in the heat of the summer. Just keep passing the word so others might benefit also.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

This is Virginia's spouse chiming in. The unseasonably warm temperatures must have addled her a bit (and we don't have any switchel concentrate made up right now for her relief!). In her directions, she should have said "two tablespoons" instead of "two ounces" mixed into a cup of water. I fixed her post so it reads correctly. At the concentration she stated, you'll be close to curling the hair on your toenails! And the water used for dilution should be cold. Warm switchel is unpalatable.

Michael (drinker of "manly strength" switchel) Mescher

[weed]

Re: Proper Container for Essence of Coffee

Guys:

Here are pictures of the original can of "Essance of Coffee" from my collection. It is 2 3/4 " high by 2 1/4" in diameter. I also included a "side by side" image of the "Original" with the one that Jarnagin used to ( I do not know if they still do) sold.

John W

[weed]

Re: Proper Container for Essence of Coffee

Sorry, I need to post the pictures of the "original can" twice. Again, the original can of "Essance of Coffee" it is 2 3/4" by 2 1/4"

The label is obviously a little differant than what the Jarnagin one is, is that a surprise?

Weed

[paulcalloway]

Re: Proper Container for Essence of Coffee

John -
Have one of your lovely secretaries transcribe all that label-text for us eh?
:D
Great pics, bud.

[ContinentalMorganGuard]

Re: Proper Container for Essence of Coffee

The can I have that I posted about before is the similar specs as the other originals 2 3/4" tall by 2 wide. However I've noticed that all the originals everyone has posted does not have the embossed lid like mine, any idea if its a later period or not?

[Charles Heath]

Re: Proper Container for Essence of Coffee

A bit of trivia.

Roger Fenton writes to Grace Fenton -

When I got up I went down to the cliff and had another swim then came back, and got breakfast, cold pork, biscuit, and essence of coffee. After breakfast I went down to the sea again to see the soldiers bathe: They went in by regiments [ — ] fine fun it was to see their delight.

That is letter #17 assumed to have been penned circa 28-30 May 1855 while he was in the Crimea. The "Annie Grace Fenton letter-book, Royal Photographic Society Collection, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford" can be found here:

http://www.rogerfenton.org.uk/showLe...hp?letterNo=17

So, much like Captain Marcy mentioning desiccated vegetables in The Prairie Traveler, this mention indicates Essence of Coffee (of some variety) was available to Europeans a few years prior to our Civil War.

[paulcalloway]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

Horsford, E.N., The Army Ration. How to Diminish It's Weight and Bulk, Secure Economy in it's Administration, Avoid Waste, and Increase the Comfort, Efficiency, and Mobility of Troops. New York (New York, D. Van Nostrand, 1864), 10-11.

The desiccated vegetables furnished by the Government are serviceable in arresting tendencies to scorbutic disease, and in promoting and preserving the general health.

The bulk of these articles in the ordinary merchantable condition, and their liability to spontaneous decay with changes of atmospheric conditions, render their transportation as raw material to any considerable distance, quite out of the question. The percentage of water is large. My determinations (Liebig's Annalen, 1846,) gave the following results:

• • White Potatoes........................74.95% water
  • Blue Potatoes...........................68.94
  • Red Beets.................................81.61
  • Rutabaga..................................82.25
  • Yellow French Beet..................83.28
  • Carrots .....................................86.10
  • Turnips......................................87.78
  • Onions.......................................93.78

As desiccated vegetables, the water is in large part removed, the bulk correspondingly reduced, and the liability to injury from variations of heat and atmospheric moisture overcome. Potatoes, cabbages, turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, tomatoes, onions, peas, beans, lentils, celery &c., are thoroughly cleaned, sliced, dried in a current of heated air, weighed, seasoned, and pressed with the aid of a hydraulic press into compact forms, sealed in tin cases, and enclosed in wooden boxes. In this condition they are sent to the field. An ounce is a ration. A block on foot square and two inches thick weighs seven pounds, and contains vegetables for a single ration for 112 men. It requires only to be soaked in cold water, and then sufficiently boiled, with a piece of meat, to make a savory and every way delicious soup. If the meat be wanting, the vegetables may be served as soup without other ingredients. This ration is furnished in lieu of potatoes, rice and peas or beans.

The proper officers may, within certain limits, vary the ingredients of the ration according to the Tastes of the men and the facilities for procuring supplies.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Dessicated Vegetables

Paul,

As a tiny footnote to the CW Centennial, Horsford's "The Army Ration" was reprinted as Library Bulletin, Supplement Nr. 1, July 1961 by the US Army Quartermaster Food & Container Institute for the Armed Forces, Quartermaster Research & Engineering Command, Chicago 9, Illinois. The Edwin Forbes cover image is that of a line of lads with mess gear in hand awaiting their feeding. Gee, those kettles look familiar.

If you have a can of Rumsford brand baking powder or Borden's condensed milk in your cupboard, then thank this fellow for his work with phosphates, and his keen interest in baking. Horsford is an RPI Hall of Famer, and was the wearer of a fine hat:

http://www.rpi.edu/about/hof/horsford.html