History Desecrated Vegetables

[Western Reserve Volunteer]

Or more properly desiccated vegetables. I was reading the Prairie Traveler the other day, written just before the war in 1859 that described how those desiccated vegetables were made, and claimed they were more space and weight efficient than canned goods.

That brought to mind two questions: are there any modern equivalents of desiccated vegetables, and secondly how are even supposed to prepare them for eating anyhow? I assume it's a "just add water" affair, involving boiling them until they a mush... and my understanding was that the line during the war was that they were fairly inedible. Even their proponents described them as "rock hard" when dry!

 

[CowCavalry]

Dried soups come to mind.

 

[DaveBrt]

Or more properly desiccated vegetables. I was reading the Prairie Traveler the other day, written just before the war in 1859 that described how those desiccated vegetables were made, and claimed they were more space and weight efficient than canned goods.

That brought to mind two questions: are there any modern equivalents of desiccated vegetables, and secondly how are even supposed to prepare them for eating anyhow? I assume it's a "just add water" affair, involving boiling them until they a mush... and my understanding was that the line during the war was that they were fairly inedible. Even their proponents described them as "rock hard" when dry!

"How to Feed an Army" is a 175-page book that you can find in Google Books. The book is a compilation of the responses to the Commissary General's request in the summer of 1865 for Lessons Learned from his subordinates.

There are comments of these vegetables and what the troops liked and did not like about them, as reported by several senior officers. Not exactly an answer to your questions, but I suspect you will find it interesting.

 

[donna]

These vegetables were prepared in soups. An interesting thread on them, their history and recipes is from Albert Sailhorst. It is at:

https://www.civilwartalk.com/threads/dessicated-vegetables-pork-soup-and-pea-soup-corporals-kitchen-scotts-battery-newsletter.134769/

They were made with water too. Soldiers ate them a lot during the war.

 

[Rebel_Giratina]

I imagine it was kinda like those little packs of dehydrated veggies you sometimes get with soup-in-a-cup, only bigger. And somehow grosser.

 

[7thWisconsin]

William Murphy was a soldier in the 18th Infantry at Fort Phil Kearney in 1866-67. They were still issuing desiccated vegetables then. He describes them as ¨Somewhere back east there´s a factory where they put them up. They take a heap of each kind of vegetable and slice them just as thin as possible then they are thoroughly dried out. Then they mix them all together under a tremendous hydraulic pressure until they are squeezed just like plug tobacco. They come in cakes about nine inches long, three inches wide and nearly an inch thick. Then they are packed in air-tight caddies and when opened they look just like a big plug of tobacco but when placed in boiling water, how they do swell! One of these plugs will make several gallons of good rich soup.¨ (The Fetterman Massacre, Dee Brown, pp. 80-81) I think these were best used by a whole mess to make a communal meal rather than by an individual soldier.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

You may find interest in these books:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980344426/?tag=civilwartalkc-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1077286708/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

 

[Gary Morgan]

I have an electric food dehydrator and while I will eat the dried fruit as it comes out, I toss veggies like carrots and tomatoes into soups and stews to soften up and eat cooked.

 

[Nebraska Lawdog]

Just like today, quality & palatability probably varied by contractor.
I'm sure that there were many ration items that were tossed rather than the soldier self-inflict himself with it.
Just how hungry was he?
Add to that, good cook or bad cook?

 

[dlofting]

Kidney beans, chickpeas, pinto beans and many more are much more tasty and nutritious if you start with the dried form. Generally you soak them for awhile (overnight if possible) and then boil with maybe a bit of salt.

I start with dried pinto beans, soak them, boil them and then put them in a food processor with cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil and some water. I fry the mixture and end up with refried beans to use in Mexican dishes.

You can do similar things with lentils and split peas.

 

[CowCavalry]

Kidney beans, chickpeas, pinto beans and many more are much more tasty and nutritious if you start with the dried form. Generally you soak them for awhile (overnight if possible) and then boil with maybe a bit of salt.

Don't forget the bacon grease or fatback etc.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I came across this description today and once again marvel at the soldier's gift of using humor in every situation imaginable.

Dessiccated vegetables is a new combination of feed tried out on the soldier and highly recommended by the army contractor as a means to balance up the army ration and said to be quite palatable; a condensed vegetable ration to be used in time of emergency. It is soon found that the greater the emergency the more palatable this ration becomes.

Ritchey declares it is made from corn in the shock. An analysis of this mysterious mixture under the naked eye disclosed to view the secret of the enterprising contractor and reveals a mixture of green peas and beans in the pod, pumpkin, turnips, carrots, corn and other ingredients including a trace of flies. This feed is prepared by being coarsely ground and pressed into cakes resembling pumice from a cider press then stacked up in a kiln to dry out.

It shows such wonderful power of expansion that on the first try-out camp kettles were in demand to hold the overflow but camp kettles finally give out when the overflow must be stacked out on the grass. In fact a half pound of this "roughness" when cooked will make as much slop as two men can eat and becomes known in army circles as "desecrated" vegetables or kinnikinick.

After all, this evaporated silage is relished as an occasional change after long diet on bacon and hardtack but it is lacking the quality of giving much nourishment and does not become popular with the boys any more than does the wind pudding dished up by the oracles every day without fail….
The weather is pleasant and the quartermaster issues three day's ration of coffee, crackers, bacon, sugar and kinnekinick. On October 18 we continue the march and quantities of "kinnikinick" is seen scattered over the camp grounds as we file on the road.


Source:

Footprints through Dixie : everyday life of the man under a musket : on the firing line, and in the trenches, 1862-1865 : Gaskill, J. W. (Joseph W.) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

186 p. : 24 cm

archive.org