Standard daily Yankee rations by mid-war, in practical terms, consisted of a pound or so of beef, or more commonly pork, of indifferent quality, nine hardtack crackers, a rag full of coffee beans, enough sugar for the coffee, and a double handful of peas, beans, rice, or the like.  Oh, and all they could beg, borrow, buy, or steal from the sutler and the locals.  And remember these guys got $6.00 a month - sometimes - which they promptly gambled away in Frog Town.

In case you haven't noticed, this doesn't describe the fare of most reenactors.  Rather than rant about Twinkies, six-packs of soda, and multiple trips to McDonalds, I will describe what works for me.  Just one word of warning first, though.  Test all these recipes at home on the stove before you go into the field.  You will find the ingredients, amounts, temperatures, and cooking times that work for you.  Most important, you'll know what you're getting yourself in for, living on this fare for almost three days.

It will increase morale and retention tremendously if you share about half of what you've got with the fresh fish.  Give them a taste and let them watch you prepare it, but whatever you do DO NOT let the spectators share.  That is, unless you like being sued.  You are not a licensed food vendor.

The following list of stuff should all fit in your haversack without overloading it or bulging excessively.  If your haversack bulges, you've got too much stuff for three days.  The bill of fare is designed to demonstrate a variety of recipes and preparation methods.  All of this is absolutely authentic, though perhaps a bit more diverse than a real soldier would have had, unless he was part of a mess with some good foragers.

Shopping list:

A good-size slab of bacon, preferably un-sliced, but I'm not picky

Several pieces of hardtack

Enough dried white Navy Beans or peas to fill your mucket half full

A small carrot

A couple of apples or equivalent for eating.  No bananas or kiwi fruit, please.

A small onion, and I do mean small

Three small potatoes

A bit of corn meal, tied up in a rag

A small handful of cabbage

Enough rice to fill your mucket about one inch from the bottom.  I've cheated with minute rice before.

Some salt and pepper - the period equivalent of those little bottles of Tabasco they put in MREs today

Unground coffee beans and some raw sugar, if you drink coffee

Friday evening

You pull in after work, park the car, and pack out your gear.  You don't have a lot because you're not a FARB who brings everything under the sun.  Hiking in, you actually look more like a soldier on campaign.  Your first two priorities are to find a place to stash your gear and set up your tent, and a place where it's legal to have a fire.  Always carry a portable butane stove in the trunk - just in case.

Grab your mess rag, a sharp knife, canteen half or frying pan, canteen, bacon, and plate.  Slice some bacon into the pan, add 2 ounces of water, and put it on the fire on low heat.  Replace water in the pan as needed.  It will take maybe 6 oz of water to do this right.  Eat the bacon, but save a few pieces in your mucket.  Now drop a piece of hardtack in the hot grease.  Crank up the heat just a tad for this.  When the hardtack has soaked up all that salty bacon grease, enjoy your skillygallee.  Oh, did I mention that skillygallee will linger in the digestive system about as long as a can of stewed prunes?  Actually, a bit shorter.  But hey, it's authentic!

Before retiring, take that mucket with the bacon you saved and fill it half full of beans.  Slice up your carrot and put into the mix, then fill it to the top with water.  Cover it to keep the bugs out, and put it somewhere safe where it can sit overnight.  A tablespoon of bicarb in the mix at this point will prevent your noisy bodily emissions from alerting the enemy to your unit's presence while you're hiding in the corn field waiting to flank them during the Saturday tactical.

Saturday morning

On Saturday, roll call, drill, and camp chores leave little time.  A couple hardtack crackers and an apple will make breakfast.  Grab that mucket with the beans (which will have swelled up by now) and add water to cover the beans.  Put it on low heat to cook slowly until lunch.  Check back a couple times and add water if needed.  Too thin?  Add some corn meal.

Saturday lunch

Ahhhh!  Campbells never made anything this good!  Authentic, and extremely yummy.  Remember no real man needs a spoon when he has a cup.  Clean up and it's off to the corn field to hide.

Saturday dinner

A tried and true recipe to clean the taste of sulfur out of your mouth and nose.  Get out your bacon, potatoes, and onion.  In your pan, cube the bacon into 3/4 inch pieces in the bottom.  Thin-slice the potato and cover the bacon.  Add 4 ounces of water and let it simmer.  When it's almost done, dice up the onion and throw it on top.  That'll clean your nose out.  Add a few pinches of corn meal to thicken.  Just a little bit of cabbage works here, too.

Sunday morning

Now's the time to start thinking about what you can cook to use up everything you've got left.  Swap food with your pards.  First, lets cook that rice.  Fill the mucket about one finger joint deep with rice.  Cover it with about twice as much water, and put on medium heat until it boils.  Take it off the heat, cover it, and let it steam for 20 minutes while you pack all your excess gear off to your car.  Put all the rest of your cookables in your pan and have a repeat of Saturday night dinner with what's left, along with your rice.

So how do you clean the sticky, gooey, starchy rice mess out of the inside of a mucket?  Glad you asked.  Be sure the fresh fish watch to see how easy it is.  Fill the mucket with water and set it beside the fire to boil.  It'll boil clean.

Sunday lunch

Apple, hardtack, whatever.  Stay away from offers of leftover skillygallee if you've got a long drive home.

"Cowboy Coffee"

I haven't covered coffee because I have no use for it, but this is how to make it.  Wrap your load of un-ground beans in a double layer of rag, put them on a rock, and mash them up with the butt of your musket.  You now have grounds.  To the coffee grounds, add some sugar, and tie the entire mess up in a rag.  Turbinado or raw sugar, which you can buy at the grocery store, is close to what the soldiers would have been issued.

To make a cup of coffee, take a handful of grounds & sugar from the rag and toss them in the bottom of the cup.  Fill the cup with water and set it by the fire to boil.  Just before you drink it, add a bit of cold water to settle the grounds.  That's it.