Desiccated vegetables as used During the Civil War

Desiccated vegetables

Now Civil War Army Rations were fairly similar for both sides on paper, in reality the southern rations were normally not as good due to manufacturing and transportation problems.  Everyone probably knows about the hard tack and salted beef and pork served to the troops by both sides during the civil war.  But have you heard about desiccated vegetables.

Since fresh vegetables spoiled quickly, were heavy and hard to transport, a product called desiccated vegetables was issued to the troops.  This product was a mixture of potatoes, cabbage, turnip, carrots, parsnips, beets, tomatoes, onions, peas, beans, lentils and celery.  The vegetables were cleaned, shredded, mixed, dried and pressed into hard blocks.  From the description of the products, they use a massive press to compress them and then dried the compressed blocks in large ovens.  These blocks were expected to soften when boiled.  They claimed a cubic yard of desiccated vegetables could contain 16,000 portions.

As a member of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry Regiment reported, however, “We have boiled, baked, fried, stewed, pickled, sweetened, salted it and tried it in puddings, cakes and pies; but it sets all modes of cooking in defiance, so the boys break it up and smoke it in their pipes!”  These were never very popular with the troops and were often called “desecrated vegetables”.  These were supposed to provide a reliable source of fiber and prevent scurvy.  They were issued to US troops starting in the 1850 and continuing well past the Civil War..  From what I can find out about them, their quality depended on two things.  How they were stored and who made them.  The ones that reached the troops were often old and of poor quality.

Desiccated vegetables
The press

Gen Gorge McClellan described them thus,  “Desiccated or dried vegetables are almost equal to the fresh, and are put up in such a compact and portable form as easily to be transported over the plains. They have been extensively used in the Crimean war, and by our own army in Utah, and have been very generally approved. They are prepared by cutting the fresh vegetables into thin slices and subjecting them to a very powerful press, which removes the juice and leaves a solid cake, which, after having been thoroughly dried in an oven, becomes almost as hard as a rock. A small piece of this, about half the size of a man’s hand, when boiled, swells up so as to fill a vegetable dish, and is sufficient for four men. It is believed that the antiscorbutic properties of vegetables are not impaired by the desiccation, and they will keep for years if not exposed to dampness”.

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I have a press in the garage and intent to try making some in the near future. The press I will use is an olive oil press I made that has a five-ton jack to apply the pressure.  Hopefully this is enough.  I will then take a selection of beans and fresh vegetables and squeeze the liquid out of them.  The juice will be saved, my wife will figure out a use for it. I will then dry the cakes in a solar oven and hopefully I will end up with desiccated vegetables.

If anyone has a good recipe or ideas for this I would appreciate it if you could share them.

Howard

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8 thoughts on “Desiccated vegetables as used During the Civil War”

  1. Veteran Who Is Preparing

    I have read about this a few times and was curious about it. I thought it was dried vegetables in a bag, not pressed in blocks. I have a suspicion that the oils from the beans would go rancid with the process described. May want to try it with and without items that may cause possible spoilage for testing for taste and shelf life. I look forward to your results and any successful recipes.

  2. I can not believe the things I learn on this blog. Who would have thought, but then again you got to feed the troops somehow. Can’t wait to see how your experiments come out.

  3. I have read about this a few times and was curious about it. I thought it was dried vegetables in a bag, not pressed in blocks. I have a suspicion that the oils from the beans would go rancid with the process described. May want to try it with and without items that may cause possible spoilage for testing for taste and shelf life. I look forward to your results and any successful recipes and I can not believe the things I learn on this blog. Who would have thought, but then again you got to feed the troops somehow. Can’t wait to see how your experiments come out.

    1. Veteran Who Is Preparing

      You are a bot. You copied what I posted on November 5, 2014 at 8:59PM word for word and only added a couple sentences at the end.

      I wasn’t aware bots could eat food. I though they just consumed electricity.

  4. Take a raw beat peal as a carrot grate it fine, dehydrate it and blend it then mix with other vegges done the same way. Then compress if needed or just bottle and spoone out as needed. Makes from a cup full of broth of food to a pot full of food.

  5. Stephen B. McCartney

    I am writing a paper on desiccated vegetables. I found an
    1864 article in Scientific American which gives the per cent
    of ingredients and the method of manufacturing (alas,
    the article in no longer found on Google Books and I will
    not give the “how-to” until my paper is published). Suffice
    to say, as it involves steaming and a hydraulic press, the
    reproducing this item of ration and putting it into cakes or
    bales is impractical. By 1920’s it was established that the
    nutritional value was about nil.

  6. Do you have any idea where the group got their block of desiccated vegetables that is in the picture above? I am a reenactor putting together a display on the food soldiers ate and would love to be able to educate people about this as well.

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