Joesph, and fellow Sharpshooters;
Your comments about trying to eat modern, commercial salt pork made me chuckle. Hopefully comrade Brian White will relate his introduction with 'the briney porker' to this post.
The modern commercially brined salt pork is not the same as the 'salt pork' issued to the Civil War soldiers. You might search the Authentic Campaigner archives about how meat was preserved during that period. Smoking, brineing and salting were the most common.
You account reminds me of one of John Billing's recollections in his book, Hardtack and Coffee. Billings devoted an entire chapter on food consumed by soldiers of the Army of Potomac; it is one of the 'MUST READ' books for anybody with a notion to do living history. Billing's reported that occassionally a beef ration was so saturated with salt that a few of the men tied a string around the meat and immersed it overnight in a stream just to make the meat palatable enough to eat. On a couple memorable occassions, the meat ration was so bad that the men refused to eat it. Instead, the company procured a coffin and filled it with the spoilage. Then, with field music and honor detail proceeding the casket, the company consigned the 'deceased' in specially prepared grave.
The Mess buys unsliced, smoked bacon in a 5 pound section. Once issued, we cut it up into 1 pound segments for each man. The meat is then cut into smaller pieces and cooked immediately; this way it can be stored in your haversack and be safe to eat. The cooked ration allows one to grab a slice to munch during a halt, or can be added to any culinary concoction you might make up for dinner (sliced potato/onion/apple slices with the bacon makes up a hearty meal).
While period accounts by Sharpshooters report some men ate their salted pork ration raw between a couple slices of hardtack, I would not recommend this. Remember, 2/3 of soldiers from both sides died because of disease; and Salmonella and Trichinosis are two you can live without. While cholesterol is something physicians and drug companies like to badger us modern, sedentary folk about; this concept was unknown during the Civil War. Soldering, then and now, is hard and demanding physical labor, that causes you to burn huge amounts of calories. Soldiers want food, and lots of it, to sustain them.
For those who don't understand soldier 'lingo'; a 'mess' was a collection of soldiers (usually 4-6) who banded together for companionship and to share resources. Pooling food rations ensured (better than trusting company cooks), that they would be cooked properly and all of the mess-mates got an equal share. Occassionally, one member was particularly creative, and using humble ingredients and resources, made up marvelous meals for his comrades. At one event, Dan Wambaugh created a pastry using nothing more than campfire coals, bayonet, canteen half, 4 hardtack crackers, raw sugar, water, and blackberries fresh off the vine. Dan's 'Bill-iums Blackberry pie' was hailed, by all who were fortunate to sample a slice, as "Bully!"
Bill Skillman Randolf Mess-USSS
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