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Post by shiloh on Feb 2, 2005 5:09:29 GMT 12.75
It really is the oddities that make it fun for units. I know of some that have their own surgeon (ours is a real-life EMS/EMt worker), some with chaplains (ours was a military chaplain), some with regular civilian camp followers (we have some wives) and reporters (we have several Bohemians). Recently, I have sort of become the regimental armorer and I am now going about studying this rarely researched position to determine what I need. A wagon would be great and they can operate as ambulances during a battle. I have seen this before and it looks good. We don't have designated cooks though. That'd be great too, but we take care of ourselves at events.
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Post by Paws on Feb 2, 2005 6:02:03 GMT 12.75
No a cook is a rare thing. Only a unit like Mosby's Raiders could get away with it in the field. It would work OK in garrison with the addition of some heavy equipment a a whole lot more volunteers but then you are in conflict with the sutlers and the sponsors who usually glean their profits from selling food. I'm thinking about doing an hour or two of lessons for the campaigner to more or less teach the troops how to prepare their rations and coffee while in the field. In a historically accurate sort of way that is. It could serve to train the troops as well as a nifty demonstration of the "how it was dones" for the spectators.
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Post by shiloh on Feb 3, 2005 5:41:41 GMT 12.75
We do have a great cook volunteering at Stones River who whips up period-correct dishes for us when we are camping at the park. He has begun giving talks to spectators on how it was done and even giving tastes of his dishes to the guests. He dug up an Amish cookbook that had recipes dates to the 1820s and 1830s and researched them to discover what was common fare for civilians back then. One concotion was "chicken cobbler." It was actually good.
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Post by Paws on Feb 4, 2005 4:42:29 GMT 12.75
I have a White House cook book reprint from 1876 which is really a good source. Took some investigation to find out what was meant by some of the language though. An egg of lard or butter? A Spider? Many of the ingredients have changed as well do to technology. Baking powder for instance is a different chemical composition and to turn the bread or biscuits "Yellow" (which IS period correct) you need to add baking soda and it is best to go all the way and leave out the baking powder and just combine the baking soda with cream of tarter. Much more authentic appearance, texture, and taste as well. With respect to the Sour Dough mixtures; each one from different locations would be different in flavor, texture and yeast composition. Oh this accounts for some of the yellow breads and biscuits as well.
Here are some authentic recipes for you that have the language modernized.
CORN DODGERS
Corn dodgers were a kind of travel snack food of the 19th century, a tasty treat to eat between cooked meals.
2 cups cornmeal one-half cup bacon grease 1 cup milk 2 teaspoons baking soda one-third teaspoon salt
Scald the milk in a sauce pan. Stir in the cornmeal, baking soda and salt. The mixture should form a moderately loose dough. Shape into eight to 10 oblong dough balls or “dodgers.” Heat bacon grease in a frying pan over hot coals. Place the dough balls in the hot grease and fry until both sides are brown. Don’t overcook. (When sugar was available it too would be added whens the dodgers were to go travelling) *******
GRUEL
Gruel has a reputation as a punishment food for bad children or convicts, Del Bene says, but it’s a flavorful, easily digested food, often prescribed in the 19th century for those who were sick who needed a less-rich diet.
1 pint water or milk 4 tablespoons cornmeal one-fourth teaspoon salt or 1 ounce salt pork 1 tablespoon sugar one-fourth teaspoon nutmeg 1 tablespoon raisins
Boil water in skillet. Add cornmeal, nutmeg and raisins. Stir while boiling for 10 minutes. Add salt and sugar to taste. Serve piping hot. Those with a sweet tooth may wish to throw in a little cinnamon. Those with adventurous palates may wish to add a little ginger root.
HASH
Travelers could make this old standby using mutton, beef or pork as well as antelope, buffalo, elk, venison, prairie dog, sage hen or any meat they could acquire. It was a method of making a flavorful meal out of less-palatable meat.
1 pound meat 4 onions 4 potatoes 1 cup milk 4 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon peppercorns, crushed water
Slice the potatoes, dice the onions and chop the meat fine. Mix together in a pot and add a few tablespoons of water -- enough to allow boiling. Cover the pot and place over moderate to high coals until the whole is cooked completely. In the final few minutes of cooking, add milk, butter, salt and peppercorns. Stir until the mixture has an even consistency. Serve hot. To spice up the mixture, add ginger root or pepper sauce to taste.
SAUSAGE AND APPLES This old Virginia dish is easy and delicious. Start with about a pound of sausage meat. You can obtain the real stuff at most butchers but I suppose Jimmy Dean will do in a pinch. Form into patties and fry lightly in a pan (The cheaper, the better!) until just browned. Remove the sausage, pour our the fat (not in the fire) and melt some butter in the pan, enough to barely cover the bottom. Core and slice three apples to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and place in pan setting it over a low heat. When apples have softened slightly add a half cup of brown sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon. As soon as the sugar has mixed with the butter and formed a thick syrup add back the sausage and cook for another ten minutes or so.
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Post by shiloh on Feb 4, 2005 6:05:46 GMT 12.75
Thanks for the recipes! I'll give them a shot. Cooking period-correct food for me is easy since all of my food winds up looking and tasting about the same. People say, "is that hard tack?" and I say, "no, it's salted pork." Then they say "is THAT hard tack?", and I say, "no, THAT's a corn dodger." They say "well, do you HAVE any hard tack?" And I say, "why yes, its right there." And they say, "I thought that was burnt salted pork." At that point I generally look closer and say "you are right, that is burnt salted pork and the salted pork I am eating I believe is my hard tack." ;D
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Post by shiloh on Feb 4, 2005 6:13:00 GMT 12.75
Another pet-peev of mine regarding authentic-looking artillery is this; don't stick your stupid arse up in the air!! In regulation drill, there is no mention of the worm ever being used except to pull a round or to clean the tube. #2 man never uses the worm, only the #1 man. Now, for reenacting safety, #2 generally is ordered to worm the tube between shots and that's fine even though it ain't realistic. Now, regulation drill only tells #1 and #2 to break away with their rearmost leg a little ways and turn their torso forward and look down range. All this crap where they lean way back beyond the wheels and hold a hand over one ear and lean the sponge-rammer or worm back dramatically is just that, pure modern dramatics. These guys shot artillery so much in drill in basic training that shooting cannons was as mundane an event as shooting a musket was for infantry. Soldiers, by nature, grow familiar and lazy with their weaponry and they would not have done any extra theatrics during the shots. They also were quite deaf and likely they would hold hands over their ears on occasion or stuffed cotton into their ears if available, but they were deaf enough that they simply didn't really care in the heat of battle about the noise. Do what the safety officer tells you, but for historical accuracy, consider this. This is the difference between National Park regulation-authenticity and reenacting.
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Post by Paws on Feb 4, 2005 7:36:01 GMT 12.75
I heard that!! Example of overfamiliarity with you gun; Fort Campbell Ky, 101st ABN Div Cmdrs building, outside thdere is a cannon that is fired at reville, noon and quittin time. It broke, the guys from weapons repair came over and fixed it. Part of the fix requires an ops check. They did, Loaded a charge and instead of waiting till quitting time to test it decided to test it and go back to the shop. So they didn't want anybody thinking there was a problem so they decided to deaden the sound; stuffed the bore full of cleaning rags. Yep they fired a wad of flaming rags into the big old maple tree right in front of the Commanders window and set the damned tree on fire. Well at least the cannon checked out OK! Hey, tell them the Hardtack is the lump of greasy stuff with the meal worms in it!
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Post by shiloh on Feb 5, 2005 7:47:17 GMT 12.75
There was an incident at a Rose Bowl or other big college football game many years ago where an artillery unit was going to fire during half time. They loaded and fired a couple of shots and during the LAST loading (whether by intention or not) the gun discharged while #1 was ramming the charge. He was not holding the rammer properly and it disloacted his arm, broke his hand and wrist, and sent a shattered rammer across the field into the crowd where it killed 1 spectator and injured some others. We have a video of another incident where a gun failed to discharge and immediately #2 LOOKED INTO THE BORE and then it went off, scorching his face...or what was left of it. I am pretty sure he was blinded and likely deafened. The son of a gun owner I have worked with has a mangled left thumb where he was holding the primer and hook of their gun and #4 pulled the lanyard before #3 got away. The vent discharged a jet of powder and primer pieces into his thumb and the palm near the thumb. PAY ATTENTION and FOLLOW THE REGULATIONS! Those regulations were established for a reason!
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Post by Paws on Feb 5, 2005 8:12:17 GMT 12.75
Grimlessonslearned!
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