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Unconventional Foods People Ate During the Civil War
Jul 28, 2025
Survival during war is often about more than just time spent on the front lines. During the Civil War, finding sufficient, edible food was challenging on account of a devastated landscape, insufficient labor after farmers went off to fight, as well as blockades and barricades preventing access to much-needed provisions.
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Amid the devastating landscape of the American Civil War
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finding sufficient food supplies wasn't always easy. Blockades and barricades prevented access to necessary provisions
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while the country experienced a labor shortage as farmers went off to join the fight on either side
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So, Civil War soldiers and their civilian counterparts did what anyone would do when confronted with a similar situation
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They improvised and did the best they could with what they could find. Today on Weird History, we're exploring a sampler of the unconventional foods people ate during the Civil War
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Mmm, mmm, civilicious. Everyone loves a good cup of Joe. In a content ysis of Civil War-era letters, one historian noticed the word coffee appeared more often in correspondence than words like war, slavery, and Lincoln
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There was a significant disparity in the way both sides discussed the brew. Union soldiers talked about how they prepared coffee
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Soldiers from the South were more likely to discuss their lack of real coffee and what they did to simulate the beverage
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Before the Civil War, coffee was a staple in most households. But during the war, it became a luxury
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Both Union and Confederate soldiers drank plenty of coffee whenever possible. The problem was, a decent cup of mud wasn't always available
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So soldiers improvised, brewing coffee from peanuts, chicory, grains, and apples. Some of them got a bit more creative using acorns or sweet potatoes
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Per General J.E.B. Stewart, sweet potato coffee wasn't hard to make. To make sweet potato coffee, soldiers peeled and cut the potatoes into chunks
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approximately the same size as a coffee berry. Then they placed the pieces into the sun to dry
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Once dried and parched brown, soldiers ground them to the consistency of coffee grounds
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After that, it was merely a matter of mixing the grounds with water until it became a pasty substance
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A bit of hot water and brewing transformed the concoction into a beverage the soldiers could enjoy with their breakfast
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The coffee disparity affected the South, and they sometimes referred to their makeshift coffee concoctions
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as Lincoln coffee over the outlandish brewing methods and ingredients. Coffee was an essential commodity to both sides
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and sometimes soldiers received unique coffee recipes or brews from home. When General George Pickett received a new blend from his wife, he remarked
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No mocha or java ever tasted half so good as this rye-sweet potato blend
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Okay, George, whatever you say. The army intended for their rations to only last three days on an active campaign
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Unfortunately, fresh meat often spoiled or became infested with flies shortly after the soldiers received it
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So the army pickled meat to make it last longer. Thus, salt beef and salt pork were born
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The two types of meat were often standard rations at the time. Salt beef, otherwise known as salt horse
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was described by veteran John D. Billings as thoroughly penetrated with saltpeter
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often yellow-green with rust from having lain out in the brine, and when boiled, was four times out of five
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if not nine times out of ten, a stench in the nostrils, which no delicate palate cared to encounter at shorter range
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Sounds deeelicious. Salt pork or sow belly didn't receive much praise either
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because it was usually black, rusty, and decidedly unpopular. Soldiers had to soak the pickled meats in water
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just to make them palatable. After that, they could be pretty versatile
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Cooks might boil the meat or stew it with beans. Sometimes soldiers consumed the meat uncooked
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as a sort of sandwich. Of course, the sandwich bread wasn't your typical 12-grain whole wheat loaf
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It was hardtack. Ultimately Billings found the salt pork preferable to the musty and rancid salt horse Even at that he thought the meat was indigestible and unpalatable
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Per the revised United States Army Regulations of 1861, Union soldiers got 12 ounces of pork or bacon and a little over one pound of beef
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Flour, cornmeal, and a pound of hard bread rounded out the provisions. On rare occasions, a soldier might get some coffee, sugar, dried fruit, or vinegar
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to add some flavor to their meals. Confederate soldiers, on the other hand
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had a very different mess kit. The meat wasn't always available, and barricades made getting provisions
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to the South more difficult. To make up for the shortage, soldiers substituted a mixture of rice and molasses
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for the meat itself. Cooks occasionally added cornmeal to pad out the flavor
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Molasses is an acquired taste, but it worked as a sweetener when Confederate troops ran out of sugar
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or made other foods. And you thought your lunch was rough. In a time when we can have meals delivered straight to our homes
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Civil War recipes may seem strange. Take the case of a dish called slosh, for instance
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Made from a volatile combination of bacon, grease, and flour, slosh was a bacon lover's dream come true
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It was also a necessity in the South where food supplies weren't always great
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Slosh was economical and easy to prepare. Soldiers took a significant amount of grease, added some bacon
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and poured in watered-down flour. They'd proceed to stew the mixture until the liquid disappeared
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to create a thicker dish. Alternate versions of slosh with colorful names like Confederate Kush
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included beef and crumbled cornbread to create a more robust meal. Then there was Slapjack, the pancake-style version of the recipe
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that featured a flour paste browned on both sides. It's probably not something you'd order at the local diner
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but it'd probably go great with some raspberries and syrup. While the North had an abundance of food during the war, some foods like chocolate were essentially
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unavailable in the South. But a craving for chocolate and some ingenuity led to creating
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a drink that resembled everyone's favorite winter beverage. We don't mean Starbucks discontinued
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gingerbread latte. We're talking about good old-fashioned hot chocolate. Only this version
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of the drink uses peanuts as a substitute for delicious confection. As it would come to be
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known, peanut chocolate was essentially a sugary drink made from milk and peanuts
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In the 1905 book, A Belle of the 50s, Memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama, provided a brief historical
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account of how people made peanut chocolate at the time. Our chocolate was made in this wise
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Peanuts, or pinders or goobers, as they were variously called, were roasted and the skin
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slipped off. They were next pounded in a mortar. When blended with boiled milk and a little sugar
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A sparing use of this most costly luxury was also necessary. The drink was ready for serving, and we found it delightful to our palates
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It wasn't Swiss Miss, but it was good enough. Sadly, other culinary developments will forever overshadow peanut chocolate's place in history
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Per the National Peanut Board, peanuts grew even more popular in the North after the war
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And by 1884, peanut butter came along to change culinary history for the better
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While coffee alternatives were all the rage during the Civil War, what about America's other favorite beverage, tea
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It had its fair share of imitation recipes too. Tea was actually more scarce than coffee
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What was a soldier to do when 4 p.m. rolled around? They improvised from some incredibly unique sources
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Soldiers from both sides began brewing tea from currant, sassafras, tree bark, and huckleberry bushes
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For that extra zing, they occasionally used corn or bran. Yeah nothing like a relaxing cup of corn in the evening For the more refined palate there was beef tea Folks brewed the tea by putting chopped beef into a pot of boiling water to create a tea
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The tea saw use in military hospitals as a potential medicine. But if some of the accounts from the time are any indication
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most patients refused to drink it. In times of low or reduced sugar supplies
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people turned to various sweetener alternatives. Soldiers turned to our viscous friend molasses for relief
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But sometimes even it wasn't readily available. So what did they do to satisfy their sweet tooths instead
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They turned to watermelon syrup. It is exactly what it sounds like
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The syrup found a place as a sugar substitute alongside sorghum and persimmons
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If you want to try this sweet syrup today, it's pretty straightforward to make. Simply puree four cups of seedless watermelon, add a cup of sugar
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then simmer it until it becomes a syrup reduction. Let it cool, put it in the fridge, and serve it as a tasty dessert topping
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If watermelon syrup isn't your thing, then you could prepare watermelon rinds as preserves
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Preserving watermelon rinds in this manner actually dates to before the Civil War
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An 1858 issue of the popular magazine Godet's Ladies Book contained a recipe for preserved watermelon rind
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The recipe called for soaking watermelon rinds in salt water, alum water, and clean water for three days apiece
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followed by changing the water each day to prevent weird flavors. The most common staple of a soldier's diet was probably hardtack
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Made from salt, flour, and water, it was more like a cracker than bread
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The 3x3 cracker was half an inch thick and sturdy. It was so hard that soldiers often dipped it in coffee or tea to make it edible
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But that wasn't the only reason. Soldiers occasionally referred to the cracker as worm castles
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because hardtack tended to harbor insects. Dipping it in hot coffee helped drive out the bugs
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which the soldier would skim off the coffee pot and then proceed to eat the cracker
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According to Army of the Potomac soldier John Davis Billings, eaten in the dark, no one could tell the difference between infested hardtack
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and hardtack that was untenanted. Hardtack also had problems with mold due to storage issues
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And other times it was so hard, soldiers had to break it with the butts of their muskets
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But it was inexpensive, nutritious, and simple food that kept the men fed during the Long War
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Not to be confused with a timid or feeble person, or the song by the band Helmet
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Civil War Milk Toast was just another way to mix the essential parts of a soldier's diet
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into something tastier. On its own, hardtack is kind of bland. By soaking it in condensed milk, soldiers benefited from added flavor to make the bread
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more palatable. It wasn't cheap either. Condensed milk cost upwards of 75 cents per can, so only a recruit with money to burn
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probably did it that way. Milk toast may have been creative, but it wasn't the only solution for making hardtack
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taste better. Soldiers reached into their sugar rations to improve the taste and occasionally made
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hardtack pudding. They'd pound the hardtack into powder, add water and flour to create a crust
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then bake it with any fruit they had on hand. Like everything else during the period, fresh vegetables were a bit hard to come by
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Soldiers occasionally received carrots, onions, celery, and greens in cube form. The veggies were chopped, mixed, and pressed into cubes for use as a portable source of vitamins and fiber
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Desiccated vegetables were revolting veggie cubes. Some soldiers reviled them and gave them a different name
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desecrated vegetables. Desecrated vegetables provided some flavor for soups and stews. And when better fare like beans, potatoes, or rice
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wasn available desecrated vegetables took their place Although reviled by most the cubes helped ward off scurvy and other disorders related to vitamin deficiencies At any rate it still better than
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canned spinach. Not good. The cooking methods employed by some members of the volunteer
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regiments greatly troubled U.S. Sanitary Commission member James M. Sanderson. Sanderson wasn't happy
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with their injurious and unwholesome mode of cooking and believed he could do it better
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Sanderson began experimenting with different cooking methods, developing more efficient ways to use campfires
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and cooking pots in the process. Not only that, he advised cooks to limit their use of fat
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sugar, and salt in their cooking. Sanderson, not one to spill the beans completely
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also advised cooks to avoid over-boiling beans as they cooked. Sanderson left an impressive legacy of recipes in his wake
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Over 18 stews, soups, and other recipes burst from his imagination, including commissary Brazilian stew
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The primary ingredient in this particular dish was vinegar-dipped cubed beef. Cooks stewed the meat with onions and simmered it over low heat for several hours
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If diners were lucky, they might get some potatoes too. What a meal
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When it came time to do some cooking, folks got creative with their ingredients and cooking methods
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Thus, different kinds of cakes were born. Water cakes were made by lightly beating eggs
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with cold water to form a thick batter. Cooks would add a touch of salt and bake it
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then serve it with butter. Don't like eggs? Then try an ash cake, the eggless alternative
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to the water cake. Instead of flour, these cakes were made with cornmeal
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and boiling water, then wrapped in corn husks and cooked beneath hot ashes
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Cooking methods fundamentally altered the dish. If cooked in a pan, it became a hoe cake
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And if it was oven cooked, the result was a dish called pone. A delicious pairing of pork and boiled corn was an everyday meal in the South
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Known as hog and hominy, it was often served with waffles at breakfast or potatoes and greens at suppertime
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The food was so associated with the South that President Abraham Lincoln mentioned it when discussing strategy early in the war
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Vicksburg was a vital transportation hub and supply chain, sending goods to every corner of
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the Confederacy. The story goes that Lincoln met with his military advisors, pointed to Vicksburg
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on a map, and discussed the importance of the Union taking the city. Failure to take the city
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Lincoln said, would result in hog and hominy without limit, fresh troops from all the states
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of the far south for the Confederacy. It's kind of a weird way to underscore the importance of a
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military strategy, but Lincoln was on to something. The Battle of Vicksburg ended up being a turning
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point in the war, cutting off food and other supplies to the south. During the conflict
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Rissoles were a shining beacon of hope on an otherwise dismal menu. As a deep-fried patty
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rolled in pastry or breadcrumbs, Rissoles could potentially contain any kind of meat
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They were like the Hot Pocket of the Civil War. But unlike the modern-day Hot Pocket
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results are more edible and delicious. Minced meat, fish, clams, and oysters mixed with egg
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were all common fillings. Ingredients were mixed with cayenne pepper and other spices
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formed into cakes, and fried. If you want to relive that glory in the 21st century
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this late 1800s recipe has you covered. Chop beef or mutton into small pieces
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and season well with salt and pepper. To each half pint of this, add a teaspoon of chopped parsley
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and a half cup of chopped breadcrumbs. Then add two whole eggs and work the mixture into a smooth paste
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Form into balls, dip an egg, and then cracker crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat
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Serve with a nice sauce poured over them. It wasn't the most common meal of the era
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but rissoles were often served on special occasions and Thanksgiving meals
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