Baking during the Civil War period was far from an easy task. The women of the house made an art out of making tasty loaves of bread, biscuits, pastry, pies, cakes, cookies, and all of their other homemade goodies. In those days, homemakers couldnt always purchase good flour. Every sack or barrel or bag might present new baking problems. Flour always had to be tested for quality before using it for baking.

Special methods used for such were employed by homemakers during the time the Civil War was raging around them. Here is one of them: take up a handful and squeeze it tight; if good, when the hand is unclasped, the lines on the palm of the hand will be plainly defined on the ball of flour. Throw a little lump of dried flour against a smooth surface, if it falls like powder, it is bad.

Many shady millers used unwanted additives in order to make a less expensive product in order to obtain more profit. One reliable method of determining the ingredients in flour reads as follows :A solution of ammonia turns pure wheat flour yellow. If corn has been ground with it, however, a pale brown. If peas or beans have been ground with it, still dark brown.

In the South, corn meal muffins, pound cake, rolls, cookies, pies, etc., were all baked in the oven of a wood stove. Good baking was simply a matter of experience. Women were able to bake everything with no temperature gage. A good homemaker simply relied on how hot her oven felt when she was ready to bake. She simply stuck an arm in while counting 1001, 1002, 1003, etc. How long it took to scorch the hair on her arm determined whether or not her oven was at the correct temperature for what she wanted to bake.

Each recipe has been updated for the convenience of todays homemaker. The end result will be exactly as it was for our Civil War ancestors. For example, it would be quite a task to make President Lincolns favorite Almond Layer Cake if the original recipe in paragraph form was the only one available to use. Here it is:

Cream one cup of butter and two cups of sugar lightly. Sift three cups of flour and two teaspoons full of baking powder together; then alternate with one cup of milk to the creamed mixture. Beat six egg whites until they form a stiff froth. To the first mixture add one cup of well-floured chopped blanched almonds and then one teaspoonful of vanilla. Now fold in the frothy egg whites to which has been added one-quarter teaspoonful of salt. Pour the batter in three pans about eight or nine inches across, and bake in a moderate oven. Cover each layer with boiled icing to which has been added a half-cup of blanched almonds.

Now look over the modern adaptation of this same Lincoln recipe with a list of ingredients followed by a paragraph of easy-to-follow instructions. This is exactly how every old historical recipe in this cookbook has been updated and made applicable for baking today:

3 cups flour 2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla
1 cup almonds, blanched 1 cups milk
chopped fine 6 eggs, whites only
1 cup butter tsp salt

Blend together the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Sift three times. Then stir in the chopped almonds and set aside temporarily. Beat butter and sugar together in a smaller bowl until it is creamy. Blend vanilla into this. Alternately stir in the flour mixture and milk until; its all used. Set aside momentarily and beat together the egg whites and salt in another bowl. Continue until the egg whites are stiff and fluffy. Carefully fold stiff egg whites into your batter. Now grease and coat with flour three round nine-inch cake pans. Divide batter equally when pouring into each pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking each cake with a toothpick. The cake is done when toothpick comes out clean when withdrawn. Set cake layers aside to thoroughly cool before frosting them.

Commercial baking powder wasnt available to homemakers of the past. They had to improvise and create up their own concoctions. Here is one old time recipe:

Baking Powder
I ounce sub-carbonate soda
7 drachms tartaric acid

Roll smoothly and mix thoroughly. Keep in a tight glass jar or bottle. Use one teaspoonful to a quart of flour.

A recipe for potato yeast used during the Civil War comes from the mother of Confederate General Jeb Stuart. Here is how it was prepared:

6 large potatoes tablespoon of ginger
1 handful of hops 2 tablespoons of salt
flour to suit cup of yeast
cup of sugar

Boil the large potatoes in 6 cups water. Tie the hops in a small muslin bag and boil in with the potatoes. When thoroughly cooked, drain the water on enough flour to make a thin batter. Set this on the stove and scald it enough to cook the flour. This makes the yeast keep longer. Remove from the fire and let cool. Mash the potatoes and add them along with the sugar, ginger, salt and yeast. Blend well and let stand in a warm place until it has thoroughly risen. Then put the yeast in a large-mouthed jug and tightly cork.

A patent was issued for Bordens condensed milk in 1851. Less than a decade later, Americas first milk condensing plant was built in New Jersey. The Union Army purchased most of Bordens milk for use as field rations.

Every recipe in BAKING RECIPES FROM THE WIVES & MOTHERS OF CIVIL WAR HEROES, HEROINES & OTHER NOTABLES was a favorite of some family or individual that lived and loved and prayed while the Civil War raged on around them. Who for example, can possibly resist trying to make Lady Cakes, as Jefferson Davis liked to have placed before him on the dinner table? How about baking a few loaves of Salt Rising Bread as it was made by the mother of Nathan Bedford Forrest? Or would you rather make a batch of Potato Rolls exactly the way Julia made them for her husband, Ulysses S. Grant?






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