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Post by raingauge on Feb 28, 2007 13:35:40 GMT 12.75
When I do breads and such, I put them right on the dutch oven floor. Cakes and things I have taken to putting in a cake tin, and on a trivet. I am thinking about making a little "rack" so I can put two cake tins in my little Griswold #8, one tin just above the other you know. 9 inch cake tins fit nicely in a #8, and I think there is room for both. Anybody try something like that?
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Post by Two Tales on Feb 28, 2007 20:44:13 GMT 12.75
I use trivets/cake cooling racks in my DOs for baking, used to use rocks about 1/2 inch high...but them racks beat the rocks hands down ;D ;D I used to have a two tier cooling rack like you are talking about Raingauge...only draw back to that is heat distrubtion...remedied by changing the pans' positions half way through the cooking process...easier to just use 2 DOs ;D and a danged good reason for having a spare ;D...layer cakes go over very well at Demos and Cook Offs...there is a piece in the IDOS News Letter about using sand in the bottom as a heat dampener in your DOs...s'pose it would work if'n you couldn't find any pebbels
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Post by raingauge on Mar 1, 2007 8:30:22 GMT 12.75
Heat distribution was my concern, maybe I'll just stick to 2 ovens. One of my "spare" dutch ovens is an old Griswold double skillet, I carry it every camp trip, use it around home....just a handy little thing. I've found that double skillets tend to grow legs once some people find out how handy they are, dont know how many I've lost.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 1, 2007 9:23:30 GMT 12.75
Mike got the hankering for apple pie last night. I've got a 6-qt DO which is about 12" across. And since I've had to do all my baking/cooking in DO's lately, I figured I was up the challenge.
The way I did my pie was after I've assembled the pie in the tin, I set it on a double thickness of damp cheesecloth, gathered the sides of the cloth and lowered it into the DO. (I dampened the cheesecloth because I was afraid it might burn if not dampened.)
Then, I pushed the gathered cloth around the sides of the pie and baked it as normal. About 15 minutes before it was done, I barely cracked the lid so the steam could escape. When the pie was done, I used the cheesecloth to help lift the tin so I could get a hold of it with my potholder and spatula. Really no mess at all and pretty easy. Just takes a little dexterity.
Turned out pretty good. Only thing I noticed is the bottom crust was just slightly over browned by the time the top crust browned. Might not have turned out that way if I'd have put the coals on the lid so it baked more evenly.
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 3, 2007 8:17:03 GMT 12.75
While we are on that subject, do you guys use trivets in your ovens when you do breads, biscuits or roles? What about your other baked products? Do you use tins or pans on trivets? ......... Don't use a trivet or anyting here.
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 3, 2007 21:24:59 GMT 12.75
Faith, that there wetted cheese cloth counts ya know I liken it to using sand or folded up foil..still acts as a barrier between the iron and the tin...
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Post by Paws on Mar 3, 2007 23:42:30 GMT 12.75
I think I have made a pretty good case for the historical authenticity of the use of pie tins in the field by campers, soldiers, and the early trail herders too. My concern is to get the thing right, being the most probable, so we aren't giving bad information at reenactments. I see one problem with using pie tins though that being the difficulty of removing the tin with the desert or baked goods from the hot oven intact and without burning off your nibbies! Do you think that this problem would have hindered the use of tins?
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Post by brittonfaith on Mar 8, 2007 6:56:54 GMT 12.75
Just got done reading "Mosby's Rangers". I don't figure the field cook had to worry with baking pies, as it says that the troops carried a couple of sandwiches and would rely on the kindness (or pilfering) of locals to provide other vittles. There was a term that was mentioned for this - can't remember it off the bat. But, what they usually were given were pies or other baked goodies.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 8, 2007 7:11:58 GMT 12.75
I believe the term your looing for is, "foraging". Don't be too sure about the cooks not being busy.
I bet they had the worst duy in the whole damn camp! Thy still had to march and go along, but when the soldiers hit the ground for a bit of rest, the cooks were building fires, gathering wood, fixing the food, checking the inventory, cleaning and scrubbing pans and skillets and such, loading and unloading the wagons.
Tons of work and preperation in running a filed kitchen while on the march.
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Post by Paws on Mar 8, 2007 11:24:55 GMT 12.75
Aha and there is the rub! Fact is that there were very few cooks with the armies while on the march. Mostly none at all. Cooks took up space as did their gear and provisions so they only moved from time tom to where the army might be deployed in garrison for some time. When on the march the campaigners were left to fend for themselves. The Quartermaster would issue their provisions directly to the men. This consisted of about a pound of salt horse (preserved beef), or a pound and a half of salt pork, if available of course, a portion of flour or corn meal to make their own soft bread if desired, a bit of coffee or tea sometimes both if available, some salt, some sugar, some prepared or cooked beans, if available, possibly some desicated veggie cakes (consisting of dehydrated carrot, broccoli, cabbage, corn, peas, celery, or whatever else the contractor had handy and available to meet the contract, maybe a little vinegar, some pepper, and if there were no other bread each soldier was entitled to a daily ration of ten hardtack crackers. At times the Quartermaster might receive hard candy, sulfer dried apples or apricots and if not in garrison these would be issued to the soldiers beginning with the officers until the supply was depleted. If in garrison then the coffee, beans, flour, corn meal, and dried fruit rations would be issued to the cook for mass preparation. When in garison it was sort of an unwritten contract that the beans, coffee, and soft breads would be prepared by the cooks for the men. Sometimes if the march and campaigners had not progressed to make it impossible the rations prepared in garrison were moved by wagon to the lines and served to the troops. Then of course as in all wars the soldiers received packages from home. One of their favorites was sugar cookies which were very popular. There were also cakes, soft bread, tins of fish, oysters, butter, condensed milk, and glass cans of jam and jelly. Fruit canned in tin or glass were always welcome. What the Quartermaster or the family didn't supply the Sutlers would have for sale right close to the battlefield and within every garrison encampment or fort. When the armies were moving quickly and ahead of their supply lines the commanders were ordered to purchase or forage their needs paying the providers of goods with IOUs or promissory notes to be paid by the respective governments. And you guys thought MREs suck! ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 8, 2007 11:51:18 GMT 12.75
Well, that ain't the way they did it in the movies! ;D
I never figured the ossifers would be chowing down on cold biscuits too.
Still, even in camp, that kitchen staff would have to be in constant motion I bet if they was to stay up with the meals, such as could be accounted for. Lots of work!
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Post by Paws on Mar 9, 2007 1:50:40 GMT 12.75
Oh man you bet lots and lots of work. Toby , most of the officers received their rations through a "meal allowance". They were provided voucher reimbursement for what they would spend for their personal provisions up to a certain amount. Not too different from our current system of per diem for our troops who do not have access to garrison kitchens (dining halls). The officer might have an enlisted man or two that would perform his foraging and found for him via hunting, fishing, purchasing from the locals or midnight requisition. There might be a mess of four or five officers formed as the enlisted men often did and a particular individual designated as the cook for the mess and that individual would also be responsible for forage and found. While the supplies of food items was short everywhere, especially in the Southern states, the armies had first crack at what was available simply because they had both the power and the money. The same was true of the officers in camp . Did you know that the Civil War soldier had access to tinned Pork and Beans , Lea and Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce, Borden's Condensed Milk, Potted meats, and Vienna Sausage? Tinned or canned fruit, meat, fish, butter, and such was always available at Sutler's but for a price. You figure that a can of peaches might cost as much as a steel fry pan or about a dollar US or twice to four times that amount CS, and the fact that the average enlisted soldier was earning somewhere between eleven and fifteen dollars a month and you can see just how expensive things were. And too they were rationed which drives up prices and creates black markets and in turn again drives up prices even more. In the case of a can of peaches the pre-war price was around five cents as an example.
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Post by Paws on Mar 11, 2007 3:44:01 GMT 12.75
Oh Toby, those "cold biscuits" weren't always cold! There were three things that prompted the mess cooks to warm them up: (1) variety of course (2) soften them in hot coffee, water, tea or grease so they could be eaten. (3) soak them in hot liquid or heat them near a fire to get the worms to crawl out before they were eaten. Here is a litle mood music for ya! "click me"
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Post by Toby Benoit on Mar 11, 2007 7:17:08 GMT 12.75
I kinda figured they'd dunk 'em. I dunk my leftover biscuits in my coffee sometimes when I'm too damn lazy to fix breakfast.
I aso like them dipped in egg and fried brown or dipped in molasses.
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Post by Paws on Mar 26, 2007 1:44:32 GMT 12.75
Now the old boys did that too! They were often issued molasses when they were available. As a byproduct of sugar production molasses became very popular in the early US. The setlers more often used them and honey for a sweetener than they did loaf sugar. Loaf sugar was a cone shaped mass that became tremendously hard kind of like the texture of a modern sugar cube. It was used by breaking off chunks with a special "nipper" designed for the purpose. The loafs are still manufactured and distributed to third world countries. I have them included in my display of period correct oddities used in the field kitchen. I also cary unrefined granulated sugar, unsulphered molasses, sulphered molasses, and honey. Here is a photo of loaf sugar and nippers. Now you know how those mountains named "Sugar Loaf Mountain" got their names!
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Post by Paws on Apr 19, 2007 0:59:50 GMT 12.75
A breakfast treat is a hardtack biscuit, maybe two, broken up in the tin bowl then covered with hot sweetened coffee with a little condensed milk aded if available. Let the biscuit soften and have it just like cereal!
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