• Welcome to the Receipts of the Blue & Gray. - The receipts you will find here are original Antebellum, and Civil War period receipts, as originally published between the years 1796 and 1880. One exception, is: Newspaper Clippings & Periodical Receipts are limited to a publishing period from 1858 to 1866.

    Some receipts from this era attempted to give medicinal advice. Many dangerous, and in some cases, deadly, "cures" were given, reflecting the primitive knowledge of that time period. Don't assume everything you read here is safe to try! Recipes and Receipts posted here are for Historic Research Purposes, enjoy them, learn from them, discuss them!

    ★ If you attempt to try one of these recipes / receipts, you do so at your own risk! ★

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Cocktails/Brews Table Beer

table beer
(from Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times, published by West & Johnson, 1863)
beer.jpg


Ingredients:
8 quarts water​
1 lb. treacle (molasses)​
1/4 oz. ginger​
2 bay leaves​
yeast​
Instructions:
To eight quarts of boiling water put a pound of treacle, a quarter of an ounce of ginger and two bay leaves, let this boil for a quarter of an hour, then cool, and work it with yeast as other beer.​


another receipt
(from Confederate Receipt Book. A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times, published by West & Johnson, 1863)

Ingredients:
2 gallons of water, twice​
1 quarts molasses​
1 pint yeast​
1 tbsp. cream of tartar​
2 lbs. of coarse brown sugar​
2 ounces hops​
Instructions:
Eight quarts water, one quart molasses, one pint yeast, one tablespoonful cream of tartar, mixed and bottled in twenty-four hours; or, to two pounds of coarse brown sugar add two gallons of water, and nearly two ounces hops. Let the whole boil three quarters of an hour, and then work as usual It should stand a week or ten days before being drawn, and will improve daily afterward for a moderate time.​


Note: Treacle is a Southern term for molasses.
 
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Cottage Beer from Depression Era

1 peck good wheat bran
3 handsful hops
2 quarts molasses
2 Tablespoons yeas10 gallon water

Put wheat bran and hops into water and boil until bran and hops sink to the bottom. Strain through a thin cloth into cooler. When it is about lukewarm add molasses. As soon as molasses is dissolved, pour all into a 10 gallon cask and add yeast. When fermentation is over with. cork up the cask and it will be ready in 4 to 5 days.
 
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