06/21/2024 / By Olivia Cook
During the Civil War, many items were scarce and ingredients like eggs, meat or yeast may have been challenging or expensive to purchase. In light of this, folks came up with creative recipes that work well without such ingredients.
The history of these foods is probably much richer than their flavors. They were developed using materials available at the time. (h/t to PreppersWill.com.)
Wheat flour was quite scarce in the South during the Civil War, so soldiers baked bread from available ingredients, like white cornmeal. Some folks prefer to add baking powder, but you have to keep in mind that back then, soldiers did not have baking powder or butter. Sunflower seed oil was used to replace butter, according to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
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Corn pones used to be baked on greased cleaned shovels over glowing coals.
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Another wildly popular Civil War-era food. This treat was made from horehound (Marrubium vulgare), which was brought to America by settlers. Horehound candy was also used as a remedy for stomach aches and sore throats.
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During the Civil War, gingerbread was described as a “comfort food.” But it was also called “food for sick men” or “dying man’s food” as it was offered to wounded soldiers in field hospitals. Gingerbread was often included in care packages sent to soldiers by their families, and was often the source of many food-related scuffles within the ranks of both the Union and the Confederacy. (Related: Survival superfoods you need to stock up on now.)
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Idiot’s delight got its name from the fact that it was easy to prepare – it was said that even an idiot could make it.
This simple but tasty food was one of the Civil War-era foods that gained rapid popularity among soldiers. Although not as common as the other foods, this deep-dish dark brown float of biscuit-like objects in a thick cinnamon-raisin sauce was often found in packages soldiers received from home.
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Many recipes during the Civil War were lost to time. Others are hard to make since details about the quantities needed to prepare them are vague. Here’s one recipe that survived – swamp cabbage stew, which makes use of swamp cabbage (Ipomoea aquatica) that grows in the swamps of the South.
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Visit Food.news for more stories like this.
Watch the following video to learn about pemmican, the ultimate survival food.
This video is from the Medical Breakthrough channel on Brighteon.com.
Prepper recipes: How to make pinole, a tasty survival superfood.
How to make matzoh, a survival food from biblical times.
How to make hominy, an ancient survival food.
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civil war, Confederate shortbread, corn pone, emergency food, food freedom, food independence, food supply, horehound candy, hospital gingerbread, how-to, idiot's delight, preparedness, prepper, prepping, recipes, survival, survival food, swamp cabbage stew
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