5th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company E, "Augusta Greys"

5^th VA Co E, Camp Recipes.

"Fetch me the Sailor Jerry’s!, I need ta be settin’ mah mind on what’s fer supper.”

Here are a few of the recipies that seem to work well. Most of them can be made with Standard Rations and are especially good if the soldier keeps a fewhaversack stuffers on-hand. Cooking is made alot easier if you have a few non-issue utensiles

Do you have a recipe?     Submit it and we'll get it posted.   Ben's corn dodgers and Mary's fried apples will be up soon.

 

HARDTACK  (As excellently researched  Leigh Armentrout: thanks Leigh!)

 

2 cups of flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat
6 pinches of salt

 

Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for one-half an hour at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of holes, four holes per row into the dough. Turn dough over, return to the oven and bake another one-half hour. Turn oven off and leave the door closed. Leave the hardtack in the oven until cool. Remove and enjoy!

 

Click Here for Leigh's Scottish Shortbread Recipe

 

Click Here for Leigh's Soda Bread Recipe

 

Biscuit, dumpling, and Skillet Bread Dough

 

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 spoon full melted bacon grease

 Enough water to make a moist dough

 

To make biscuits, cook slowly on a stick or in a greased tin cup over a bed of coals. Cover the cup with a canteen half filled with coals.

Separate the dough into balls and pitch into soups and stews for dumplings. 

Thin the mix a bit to make a thick batter and fry in a little gresae to make Skillet Bread.

 

Single serving cornbread

 

½ cups cornmeal

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg 

1 teaspoon melted bacon grease

Water to consistency of oatmeal

 

Mix the dry ingredients before adding egg, grease and water. Eggs were not issued so send out the bummer...

Cook in a greased tin cup over a bed of coals. Cover the cup with a canteen half.

 

Peas and/or beans

 

Soak a handful of peas/beans in your cup for a day.

Rinse and set aside.

Fill your tin cup to half way and bring to a boil. Add the peas or beans to the boiling water. Add some salt too. If you’re making beans, some brown sugar should be added as well. Add only enough heat to keep it simmering.

In either case, once the peas/beans start to soften, add some fried bacon.

A little flour mixed well into a small amount of water will make a fine gravy when added to peas or beans. The longer it simmers, the thicker the gravy will become.

This recipe is real good with dumplings (see biscuit dough)

 

Sausage Gravy (as taught by Ricky)

 

Fry-up the sausage and set aside, keeping the drippings in the pan. You can also melt some held-out bacon grease if you want to make gravy for shaved beef or pork.

Let the drippings cool a bit before starting next step ‘cause the grease can ‘splode in yer face.

Stir 2-3 Tbls. of flour into a tin cup ½ full of water. Mix it well. Add this, a little at a time to the drippings. Stir constantly over heat. Let the gravy begin to brown a bit or it’ll taste like cardboard. Add salt and pepper to taste. This stuff is pretty tasty over meat or biscuits.

 

 

Chicken and dumplin’s…or, “how to put the 5^th to sleep without a drop of liquor”

 This is pretty easy and can be done with pork as well. Sometimes the bummers come back to camp with a chicken and we live pretty large fer a day.

 

Dice the meat up into bite sized pieces and fry in a little grease to sear-in the flavor. In the meantime, set a cup of water to boil and throw in some carrots or celery….or whatever you can find. When the vegetables begin to soften, Throw in the chicken and simmer till it is cooked all the way through.  Once this occurs, toss in dumpling and cook down until they make a nice gravy.

 

 

Haversack Stuffers

A few Items, picked up by the soldier along the way could do a lot to help-out a meal. The Army never issued Baking powder. A small bag carried in the haversack could make the difference between palatable food and shoe leather.

Other items could help a lot too. Pepper, a head of garlic, an onion… All these could enhance an otherwise unimpressive meal. Dried fruit, for instance, can be soaked and stewed in a sugar broth to make a tasty treat. Just about any desiccated fruit or vegetable was handy to have around.

One of the most important items in the haversack was a small container of cooking grease. Try cooking without it and you'll see why. 

Utensiles

Cooking with nothing more than a tin cup and maybe a plate is not very practical. A small fry-pan is the best friend a soldier can have. Stamped steel varieties are the lightest to carry. A canteen half can be substituted. A “muckit”, or tin cup with a lid can double as a stew pot or personal bake oven. Setting a tin cup in a bed of hot ash and covering it with a canteen half full of coals also makes a great bake ove