Cooking/Food in the Civil War

Food for Soldiers (Union)

• Hardtack: "hard crackers" flour, salt, & water
• Meat: salted pork, bacon, & beef soaked w/ saltpeter
• Cornmeal: beef and cornmeal fried with bacon grease
• Rice or Hominy: corn that has been soaked & washed to remove the hulls
• Desiccated Vegetables: dehydrated & shredded vegetables packed in cakes

Food for Soldiers (Union)

• Milk: Gail Borden's condensed milk (new invention)
• Extra: flour, salt & pepper, sugar, & coffee or tea

Food for Soldiers (Confederate)

• Cornmeal: for Johnnie Cakes & Cush, beef &cornmeal fried w/ bacon grease
• Meat: salted beef or bacon soaked w/ potassium nitrate (saltpeter)
• Dried Peas
• Hardtack: not frequent due to flour shortages
• Coffee or Tea: Union blockades meant no coffee beans, so they used

Food for Soldiers (Confederate)

• Coffee or Tea (Cont.): peanuts, chicory, okra, wheat, corn, bran, acorns,
• rye, sweat potatoes, & dried apples to make something similar
• Peanuts: "goober peas"
• Extra: sugar, molasses, & tobacco 
• Fresh Vegetables: (when available)

Food Rations (Union & Confederate)

• 12 oz to 1 lb of pork or bacon
• 4 oz of fresh or salted beef
• 6 oz to 1 lb of soft bread or flour
• 1 lb of hard bread
• 4 oz of cornmeal

Food Rations (Union & Confederate)

• Per every 100 rations there was issued 1 pack  of beans or peas (to 10 lb)
• 10 lb of rice or hominy
• 8 lb of green coffee
• 1 lb of roasted & ground coffee
• 8 oz of tea & 15 lb of sugar

Cooking (Confederate & Union)

• Soldiers cooked, broiled, fried, and boiled food over open campfires
• Cooked with skillets &
• All soldiers had a tin cup with them all of the time
• People helping in war would give soldiers cold food (rarely would they
• cook the food before giving it to them)

"Messes" (Union & Confederate)

• Soldiers grouped themselfes in a "Mess"
• Would combine food rations
• One man would cook the food & he would cook to each man's taste
• Had to cook meat ration as soon as issued, or had to eat cold

To end this slide show here is a picture of Oprah Winfrey.