A Soldier's Recipe
Sitting around on a hot summer day waiting for the new reenacting season to start, I thought of some of the things soldiers cooked as rations on a good day.
Potatoes, carrots, onions, dried or salt-cured meats, and hardtack.
In looking through my book, "Blue and Grey Cookery Authentic Recipes", potato soup jumped out at me as a good place to start. The ingredients needed are potatoes, onions, chuck of bacon (I didn't have salt pork around). The seasonings are garlic, salt, and pepper. No amounts given. So, I used what would fit in my mucket. In looking on the internet, I was surprised to see that garlic made its way to the U.S during the Revolutionary War thanks to the French and Spanish. To begin, I cut the bacon and diced the onion, garlic, and the potatoes so they could cook more quickly.
In a camp pan, I cooked the bacon first then added the onions and garlic. Next, I put the potatoes in my mucket and filled it with water until they were covered and cooked them until they were tender.
Finally, I combined all the ingredients in the one mucket and seasoned the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Author: Karolyn Williamson
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