The Manual for Army
Cooks, published by authority of the Secretary of War, 1896
This interesting document contains instructions on how to
properly clean various utensils including coffee mills, tin and copper
saucepans, and knives and forks; with
the additional stern admonition that before being used for cooking purposes, all utensils should be thoroughly clean,
a statement that one finds, surprisingly, in a lot of 19th century
cookbooks, and not just those written for men who – in most cases – one could
safely assume would find the kitchen an alien environment (although the
practice has fallen into disuse, punishing recalcitrant troops by assigning
them to mess duty was for decades a cherished American military tradition,
which meant that the people staffing the kitchens often were there due to a talent more
for raising hell than cooking).
The chapter on beef includes a list of what the prudent army
cook would look for in a beef delivery, with preference given to 1) spayed
heifers from four to seven years old, 2) steers or bullocks (never worked) from
four to six years old and 3) Free-martin (or barren heifer, a term I’ve not run
across before) not over eight years old.
There are some interesting insights on how supplies and equipment were
procured – the Army expected cooks to make up deficiencies from company or “mess”
funds, indicating that the soldiers, non-coms and officers clubbed together to
provide themselves with certain items the Commissary Department did not see fit
to offer.
There is a section on how to render rancid butter
edible. Ick. Several sample bills of fare are helpfully posted
(one Sunday breakfast menu lists beef stew, mush and sirup, bread, and
coffee).
Vegetables include potatoes, sweet potatoes,
onions, okra, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, peas, winter squash, summer squash,
cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, corn, beets, string beans, lima
beans, boiled greens, tomatoes, turnips, salsify, spinach, celery, eggplant,
artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus and mushrooms.
Recipes range from the mundane – boiled beef and carrots –
to the surprisingly cosmopolitan, reflecting perhaps the ethnically diverse
nationalities that made up the rank and file.
Beef a la mode, kebabs and Turkish pillau are there, as well
as an entire chapter devoted to “Spanish” recipes, including estofado, frijoles con queso, tamales, tortillas,
chile con carne and (somewhat out of place) jambalaya.
The following recipes would not be found in a civilian
cookbook. At least not under these
names.
BOMBSHELLS (Sufficient
for 22 men)
16 ½ lbs
meat
6 lbs flour
3 oz salt
1 oz pepper
Sweet herbs
Water
Cut all the
meat from the bone and sinews, reserving 1 ½ lbs of fat for the paste. Chop up the meat like sausage meat with the
onions an herbs shred fine; season with one-half the salt and pepper (In India it is the custom to mix spices,
capsicums, fruit, etc., with the meat.) Make
the paste as follows: Place on the table
the flour, make a hole with the hand in the center, in which place the chopped
fat and the remaining salt and pepper, then put some water in the hole;
gradually stir the flour into it until it is all moistened and forms a stiff
paste; work and roll it well for two
minutes; let it remain as a ball for ten minute, then roll it out to the
thickness required. Have some very clean
pudding cloths ready; their size must depend on the size of the shell; divide
the past according to the size, for either 12 or 32 pounders*; form it into a
ball, and roll it out round; divide the chopped meat and place it in the paste;
add a little water; gather it round like a dumpling; bring the cloth around it,
and tie it tightly, and boil according to size; a 12-pounder, for one person,
one and three-quarter hours; 32-pounder, for two, two and a half hours. The
bones and cuttings must be made into a gravy, and served separate. The meat must be made into balls the size of
bullets, and placed in it.
*an inside joke.
CANNON BALLS (sufficient for 22 men)
6 lbs flour
1 ½ lbs suet
3 pints
molasses
1 pint water
Chop up the
suet, mix with the flour, mix the molasses with the water, put the flour into a
bowl, and pour the molasses gradually upon it, mixing it with the flour; when
the whole is well mied, not too soft, form it into any size balls required,
flour some cloths, tie up each ball separately in cloth, not too tight, and
boil from one hour and upward, according to size. NOTE. – These, with lime-juice sauce, are an
excellent anti-scorbutic, and will keep good for twelve months and longer. They could be made before going on any long
voyage, and given out as rations.
Scurvy was a concern not restricted to Navy doctors,
and the War Department put a great deal of thought into prevention. Sometimes mis-directed, as in the case of the
scurvy epidemic at Ft Laramie in what was then the Department of Kansas (later
Wyoming Territory), in 1858. The Medical
Department insisted that the soldiers were getting scurvy because they had
access only to dried vegetables. The
Commissary Department replied that it had to be something else – there couldn’t
possibly be scurvy at Ft. Laramie because, after all, they had a plentiful
supply of dried vegetables. In this as
in many things, the rest of the Army sometimes wondered if the Quartermaster Corps
was in the pay of the enemy.
ARTILLERY
PIE (Sufficient for 22 men)
8 lbs bread
1 lb suet
4 dozen
apples
2 lbs sugar
Melt the
suet in a frying pan, cut the bread into slices one-quarter of an inch in
thickness,dip each piece into the melted fat, and place them in the oven to
dry. In the meantime get the apples
peeled, boiled, and mashed with the sugar.
Cover the bottom of the baking dish with the bread, cover the bread with
some of the apples, then some more bread over that, then the apples, and thus
until all is used; place it in an oven and bake for twenty minutes. This may be made with any kind of fruit.
The Manual for Army Cooks can be found at the wonderful
MSU site, Feeding America.
