Myself, I perspire heavily and have to be careful to hydrate, hydrate, and hydrate before and during events. Usually, at events, as participants, we're limited to water and its products (tea, coffee) as a beverage. None of which contain the things our bodies need to have replaced. We all can't carry around dried blue berries at every event. Besides those and apple cider vinegar, what are some CW period foods which would help keep us safer from the heat at events?

 

This site http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ allows you to look up the nutrition content of a wide variety of foods and ingredients, including the sodium and potassium content. You can also click over to "nutrient lists" to see foods ranked by content of a particular nutrient. Salt really isn't difficult, but for potassium, potatoes, molasses, fresh or dried peaches and nuts are some possibilities, but that web site allows one to explore different options for different historic situations.

I don't know how the myth about vinegar being helpful from a modern standpoint got started, since it has almost no electrolytes. Eleven mg of potassium in a tablespoon means you'd need to drink three or four cups of straight vinegar to get the same potassium as one tablespoonful of blackstrap molasses. You'd need to drink a few gallons of vinegar to get as much sodium as a quarter teaspoon of salt.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Grumpy,

Tired of being issued so many pounds of dried peaches?

Hank provided a great link, unfortunately I notice some of the items have moved up or down the list from what we were using 3 or 4 years ago (remember this same thread on the OTB Forum?), and a few items are blatantly missing. Anyway, some holes to fill in as I get around finishing the water article.  

While I couldn't get exact matches on some foodstuffs, this will give you an idea of some of the ratings of items from the first few pages that have been issued, foraged, sutlerized, etc. in the past couple of years:

16051 Beans, white, mature seeds, canned 262 1 cup 1189
01095 Milk, canned, condensed, sweetened 306 1 cup 1135
09298 Raisins, seedless 145 1 cup 1086
11674 Potato, baked, flesh and skin, without salt 202 1 potato 1081
16072 Lima beans, large, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt 188 1 cup 955
11644 Squash, winter, all varieties, cooked, baked, without salt 205 1 cup 896
12167 Nuts, chestnuts, european, roasted 143 1 cup 847
16011 Beans, baked, canned, with pork and tomato sauce 253 1 cup 746
16086 Peas, split, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt 196 1 cup 710
16038 Beans, navy, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt 182 1 cup 708
11508 Sweet potato, cooked, baked in skin, without salt 146 1 potato 694
16025 Beans, great northern, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt 177 1 cup 692
11192 Cowpeas (Blackeyes), immature seeds, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 165 1 cup 690
11371 Potatoes, mashed, home-prepared, whole milk and margarine added 210 1 cup 689
16010 Beans, baked, canned, with pork and sweet sauce 253 1 cup 653
11196 Cowpeas (blackeyes), immature seeds, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 170 1 cup 638
11299 Parsnips, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 156 1 cup 573
11423 Pumpkin, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 245 1 cup 564
11436 Rutabagas, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 170 1 cup 554
11533 Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, stewed 255 1 cup 528
11439 Sauerkraut, canned, solids and liquids 236 1 cup 401
01088 Milk, buttermilk, fluid, cultured, lowfat 245 1 cup 370
11575 Turnip greens, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 164 1 cup 367
11125 Carrots, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 156 1 cup 367
20020 Cornmeal, whole-grain, yellow 122 1 cup 350
20046 Rice, white, long-grain, parboiled, enriched, dry 185 1 cup 346
11642 Squash, summer, all varieties, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 180 1 cup 346
09236 Peaches, raw 170 1 cup 323
09326 Watermelon, raw 286 1 wedge 320
09238 Peaches, canned, juice pack, solids and liquids 248 1 cup 317
10185 Pork, cured, ham, extra lean and regular, canned, roasted 85 3 oz 298
11565 Turnips, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 156 1 cup 276
11291 Onions, spring or scallions (includes tops and bulb), raw 100 1 cup 276
09094 Figs, dried, uncooked 38 2 figs 258
09153 Lemon juice, canned or bottled 244 1 cup 249
09254 Pears, canned, juice pack, solids and liquids 248 1 cup 238
11162 Collards, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt 190 1 cup 220
09003 Apples, raw, with skin 138 1 apple 148
20006 Barley, pearled, cooked 157 1 cup 146
09011 Apples, dried, sulfured, uncooked 32 5 rings 144
18309 Pie, cherry, prepared from recipe 180 1 piece 139


Had to include pie....  

I'm just looking for something "different" to throw in my Haversack for those "flat" or, bring your own grub events. Summer and early Fall of course, leave us the most latitude. I need to put my molassas back in my haversack/knapsack.

BTW, I never get tired of dried peaches or pie. Ever.

My mess was I think, the only one to eat any of it's pumpkin at that 140th Antetiam thing. I peeled it, chunked it, boiled it, added sugar to it, plopped it into cakes and fried it up. It was damn good too. I mean, what the hell else were we going to do there in our little hollow? Might as well eat.

Grumpy,

I remember Todd Bryda's 28th Mass. fellows having great fun with issue sweeteners, those tasty field "punkins," and a few other delights. They were the same folks who gave us those great serenades at Camp Curtin, and made "Beans in the Hole" at that snow covered Odessa NY COI. I forget who sold the pumpkins to Little Mac's army, but I do remember Mr. Pry selling $2,500 worth of apples, which was a heck of a lot of produce in 1862. Most of the fellows simply didn't know what to do with any form of winter squash.

From what I can tell, you are on your own for 2nd Kernstown rations. With the dry weather we have had thus far this year, I'm quite relieved not to be obligated for growing and/or preparing the food to feed the troops the way we usually do.

I'll have to go back to see if that USDA table includes information about blind robins.  

blind robins - already wrapped in brown paper

I remember looking into this after reading the nutritional discussions before a certain marching event last year.  

We generally focus on potassium-rich foods, like bananas, when talking about electrolytes, but it's interesting to try to break down the actual ration and figure out what it provides.  The site Hank mentions, and Charles quotes from, has a wealth of useful information in this regard.  

I started with http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/SR18/nutrlist/sr18a306.pdf
and looked for potassium.  (According to another site, one should get anywhere from 2,000 to 3,500 mg of potassium a day.)  

-A serving of dried apricots (one of my favorites) will give you 400 mg.

But,

-12 ounces of pork will provide about 1200 mg (because contemporary dieticians tend to regard the noble hog with the same aversion as did the ancient Hebrews, this is something that tends to get overlooked these days).

-While bread isn't a great source of potassium, a pound of hardtack (equated to matzos) should still get you another 400 mg.

-Coffee with brown sugar should get another 4-500+ mg a pint.

Apparently then, even without supplements the old marching ration brings you pretty close to the minimum daily requirement.  If it's not too generous on potassium, it's also pretty slim on calories, with 12 oz. of pork and a pound -- more or less -- of bread together fetching about 2,500 calories.  

On top of that base, the sugar ration becomes a significant source of additional nutrition, worth -- if brown -- another 250 calories.

Billings I think complained about the stinginess of the marching ration, but tradition seems to have blessed the view that it was better to give the soldiers too little than too much on the march, including water.  They seem to have been more concerned about the short-term effects of overindulgence than the only slightly less short-term effects of dehydration and electrolytic imbalances.

Oh well.  As we say in Co. 'BSS':  "They were younger, and a lot them died."

For the CW, dried domestic blueberries, apricots, and pecan pie all have a very similar problem. I can hear Hank giggling right now.

An excellent article detailing the nutritional value of the issue ration was posted in either late 2002 or early 2003 in response to some idgits who were scared to death of issued real bacon at a number of events. Due to the usual frequent forum crashes, that article is probably no longer available, and with the USDA changes it could be revisited. Maybe I'll add a chapter to the rations book, because so many people of the microwave generation think mid-19th century food was just empty calories.

The issued rations and many foraged items already have plenty of salt. Some folks say too much salt, and maybe that is true in cold weather. In the case of the recent Vicksburg NPS LH, we had a number of folks who were pretty clueless when it came to adding salt to their foods, and were totally unaware of water intoxication and hyponatremia even after the many discussions about this very thing on the AC Forum. One of the biggest benefits of boosting potassium intake is being able to get a good night's sleep. Otherwise, listening to people scream at the top of their lungs in sheer agony all night long is a distinct possibility. You don't know whether to shoot them to put them out of their misery, or give them a potassium tablet.
 
Salt pork is an excellent source, but rarely issued these days, and with the USDA cracking down on real bacon production, I'm not sure where that leaves the artificially smoke flavored sowbelly that so many folks use as a bacon substitute. The latter spoils within 24 hours, whereas the real thing lasts for years hanging in the pantry. Most events see fellows receiving about a 75% meat ration over a 48 hour period to prevent waste.

Bread is another scaled back item, using the 50-80 rule of thumb, but moreso due to the cost being $7.00 per man per day. Running a half ration of 5 crackers gives about 200 mg, and this tends to reduce the number of trail markers found along the shoulder of the road.

Only one pint of coffee! Mutiny in progress! I'd love to see an analysis of the more common CS coffee substitues that we've issued over the years. I'd love to be listening in on the phone call when someone suggests checking out the nutritional content of scorched corn meal, toasted sweet potato, or roast okra seeds, too. Toasted barley and wheat may already be on the list.

The table doesn't include rodent droppings either.  

The thought occurred to me as I was writing that you had this ground pretty much covered, but I hadn't thought to look for the article and was kind of interested in nosing into it myself.  

Looking at the data on the USDA site, and thinking of the variations in the issue ration (9 vs. 10 pieces of hardtack, possibly from various bakers with pretty general QC, "about" 12 oz of pork or 16 oz of beef from various parts of the animal), we're probably dealing with a fairly significant, if not wide, range of nutritional value in a daily ration.  But it's nice to have an idea.

Did I make a booboo on the apricots?  I would hate to give up my apricots.

Here's another foodstuff you don't see too much at events -- the 1864 Army and Navy Journal has a series of ads for pineapple cider.  Gotta check Whole Foods for that one...

I've always contended that Confederate field rations were actually more healthy than their Federal counterpart; simply because they were, by necessity, far more varied. Both rice and corn meal were staples in the Confederate diet, along with wheat flour and hard bread. Plus, a larger portion of the ration was grain based, rather than meat, which was almost always in short supply. By the middle of the War, the "official" meat ration was reduced to 1/3 pound per day for troops in garrison and 1/2 pound for troops on campaign. My guess is the troops rarely got that much meat issued.  

 

I don't know that we have scratched the surface when it comes to figuring out what it was those boys were really eating. For every answer I find another dozen questions, and some of those very questions are so mundane it isn't even funny.

The single biggest problem with our normal perception of what was issued is interpreting the tables by face value. When we do the typical rations research for events, we can quickly take the forecast headcount, and come up with a fiscally constrained ration issue plan, and work backwards from there. That's only the starting point, because the next step is finding out what it was they were really eating. So many times the foraged items are not included in the reenacting world, but they are mentioned in diaries, letters, and other first person accounts.

The recent Vicksburg event provided some fascinating pieces of information that may come into play at a possible 2009 event.  Can you imagine yanks so darn tired of eating chicken, duck, goose, and turkey that they asked for pork products? The same goes for not having hardcrackers for a few weeks, and the vignette of the men shouting at Grant to issue hardtack. Some of the participants chimed in with references to essence of coffee, which is why we used that. The Shiloh menu was a scream, because we'd found some pretty reliable evidence the officers were eating like kings (thanks to the private sector) and the enlisted folks were suffering -- at least during the period when Uncle Sam's transportation system was lagging behind.

If one digs enough, something outside the standard field ration will appear. Even at the start of a campaign when most brigades are being issued salt pork, some schmucks get the fresh beef from the cattle too ill to move. Think about that for a moment.

Don't forget to check your local Latino market for tasty Pineapple drink products, or just the juice section in your regular grocery store. It's a colonial hospitality thing, you understand.

Confederate rations are fascinating. Most folks born and raised in the South grew up eating them, so it is just home cooking. This holds true through the present time. The problem is a heck of a lot of CS reenactors simply toss their rations into the woodline rather than try to cook them. I'm not sure why that is.

Nic bought dried apricots instead of peaches last year, and most folks didn't even notice. Perhaps they thought they were small peaches. Domestic, large scale, apricot production is a history unto itself.

Quote :

Charles Heath wrote : If one digs enough, something outside the standard field ration will appear. Even at the start of a campaign when most brigades are being issued salt pork, some schmucks get the fresh beef from the cattle too ill to move. Think about that for a moment.

Charles,

I remember reading an account where the soldiers were complaining about being isued "bloody" beef, rather than salt pork. In this case, there was nothing wrong with the beef. They just preferred the salt pork. I doubt many of them ate much fresh meat in civilian life. Funny how tastes change.