Civil War Era Potato Chip Recipe

This recipe was cooked for the Historical Food Fortnightly. A yearly challenge that encourages bloggers to cook a historical food every two weeks. The challenge this week was "Meat and Potatoes" and mid 18th century potato chips fit both those categories. Being made with bacon grease, the chips from this recipe are fragrant, with a smoky bacon smell and a crunch that modern chips can't compete with.

The origins of potato chips are vague. Many people have claimed to have invented them when they became popular around the time of the Civil War, but recipes for similar dishes have been printed as far back as The Cook's Oracle (1822) with its recipe for “Potato Fried in Slices or Shavings." Recipes for them were printed on both sides of the Atlantic and a recipe for them even appeared in Godey's Lady's Book in 1865.

Today chips are known for being a side dish to a meat dish and this has historically been the case. A Manual of Domestic Economy (1856) suggested potato chips go out with the second course along with partridges and lobster. The Modern Cook (1858) suggested they be served with roasts and ptarmigans, a grouse like bird. The New England Farmer, and Horticultural Register (1847) recounted a trip through Mississippi where the author was offered "jerked venison and potato chips." The potato chips in this case being made from sweet potatoes but still being served with meat.

Civil War Era Potato Chips

The Challenge: Meat-and-Potatoes (January 1 - January 14) They’re a staple for the tables in the most rustic cottages as well as the fanciest banquet tables - and it’s also an idiom meaning a staple or the most basic parts of something. Make a historic “meat-and-potatoes” recipe - however you interpret it.

The Recipe:

The Date/Year and Region: London, England, though similar recipes were also printed in the U.S. around the same time.

How Did You Make It:

Ingredients:

- Potatoes or sweet potatoes
- Bacon grease or oil
- Salt

Instructions: 

Skin the potatoes then peel them in long strips in the same way you would pare an apple. Put the strips in a bowl filled with cold salt water until you are finished peeling. Remove the pieces and let them dry on napkins. You can blot the tops of the strips carefully. In a medium sized saucepan on medium heat, heat the grease or oil. The grease is ready to fry in when you put a small piece of chip in and it bubbles. Drop in as many pieces as you can without overcrowding them. Stir constantly with a long handled metal spoon or they will stick to the pan. Fry 3-5 minutes. The pieces will shrink and float but wait until the edges are a little brown before removing. Place fried chips on a sieve to let dry. Sprinkle with salt as they are placed on the sieve.

Time to Complete: 30 Minutes

Total Cost: A few dollars.

How Successful Was It?: Better than I expected.

How Accurate Is It?: For my personal chips I fried in oil as I don't eat meat but my family had the bacon fat variety.

Day Trip: Fort Delaware *Warning Photo Heavy*

"There is much sickness; the small-pox is prevailing, and many are dying daily. Some are allowed to cook their own rations, but the balance have to eat in the dining room, which is a fair representation of that hell hole, Fort Delaware." --Griffin Frost

I've been waiting forever to write this post! It's no secret that I visit a lot of historical sites, but I have to admit that right now, my favorite Civil War site is Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island in Delaware City, Delaware and it breaks my heart that historically minded people are surprised to hear that it's still there and not a long lost place they read about in books.The great news is not only is it still there but it's open to the public!  

Pea Patch Island is a small, marshy island located on the Delaware River. It has been the site of 3 forts going back to the early 1800s due to its strategic position near the mouth of the Delaware Bay. The current fort, the bulk of which was finished in 1860, is a massive, pentagonal structure with looming 32 foot granite walls and a moat. Although originally built for defense of the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia, the fort was repurposed as a POW for captured Confederates, political prisoners and Federal troops sentenced for crimes.

Ferry to Pea Patch Island

When standing on the banks of the Delaware, the fort is menacing and appears not far off. Amidst the seagull caws you can hear the voices of onlookers claiming "I could swim that." The reality is that it's farther away than it looks. In modern times, you take a ferry to reach the island, in the 1860s the majority of men who thought thought they would take their chances trying to swim across, were swept under by the strong currents.

Docking at the Island.

Tram once you land on Pea Patch.

Birds flying to the island.

In the early days, prisoners were kept inside the fort but as prisoners outnumbered guards and crowding became a problem, barracks were build outside the walls of the fort for the prisoners and only officers and Federal troops were kept in the fort for protection. Confederate prisoners taken after the Battle of Gettysburg were sent to Fort Delaware and prisoner numbers soared to 11,000 shortly after the battle.

In total, more than 40,000 Confederates were held on the island. According to the Fort Delaware Society, almost 3,000 Confederates died there as well as 39 civilian POWs and 109 Federal soldiers. Many of the deaths occurred during an outbreak of smallpox in 1863 and other illnesses. There were only 5 reports of drownings and 7 who died of gunshot wounds. While the living conditions were not as bad as some other POW camps at the time, the summers could be hot, muggy and mosquito infested and the sheer number on inmates on the tiny island made cramped conditions inevitable. Men were fed 3 light meals a day until 1864 when their rations were cut in retaliation for poor POW camp conditions in the Confederacy.

The island today would be unrecognizable to the men held there during the Civil War. It is currently a quiet nature preserve where you can see ibises, osprey and heron as the island is an important nesting area as more and more habitat is destroyed. The fort is also home to many bats who enjoy the dark cavernous walls as a hibernation destination. The bats of the fort are sadly infected with White-Nose Syndrome, a disease responsible for killing millions of bats in the last few years. You see many more animals than people and touring the island is much more like strolling along the beach than visiting a POW camp. Along with the wildlife you can take tours of the fort, see living historians doing daily 1860s tasks such as laundry and blacksmithing as well as specialized history tours and demonstrations. If you visit it is worth it to try and get a $5 "Behind the Scenes" tour if you can.

The officers quarters are nicely furnished. 

Recreation of the Prisoner's Barracks. 

Inside Recreation of Prisoner's Barracks 

Soldier's graffiti can be found throughout the fort.

The island has its share of purported paranormal activity and lore. One of the stories I heard was of a drummer boy who tried to escape by hiding in a coffin but accidentally got buried alive. I looked into how plausible this story was as it didn't make sense to me that one could escape this way if the dead were buried on the island as some were. It turns out that many men were buried in New Jersey at Finn's Point National Cemetery. In fact, the men who remained at the fort were reinterred at Finn's Point after the war in 1875. The spirit of this boy supposedly still wanders the fort and tugs on people's clothing.

Another story of escape involved a Florida man who was part of a Union practical joke only to turn the joke around on the pranksters. The Union soldiers thought it would be funny to watch some southerners to try to ice skate on the frozen Delaware River. The Florida man did some dramatic and entertaining falls until out of range of the guard's rifles, then skated right across the river to freedom. I likewise investigated whether this story could be true and the Delaware does indeed freeze over some years. Regardless if these two stories are true, there were thousands of escape attempts and 273 confirmed escapes.1  Many of the failed escape attempts are used to explain the various apparitions, mysterious tugs and paranormal experiences at the fort.

The stars from inside the fort.

Time lapse of visitors holding flashlights during the Ghost Tours.

While ghost stories are at the tip of everyone's tongues at the fort, my research implies the fort has bigger problems. When reading about the re-internment of the soldiers buried on Pea Patch Island, I came across an odd report that stated "On opening the trenches & graves it was found that there had been interred 135 Union and 209 Confederates; and of these, 22 coffins though well preserved, were found to contain nothing."  

  

A coincidence? I think not. 

Missing bodies, lots of bats? Clearly, the fort has vampires. I know I gawked when Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter came out but maybe it's not such a stretch. :) All kidding aside, it really is a treat to see the fort at night and the fort gives night tours during the month of October. I hope everyone enjoyed the post and can get out to see the fort! It really is a great place to learn about history and nature.   

For schedules, tickets and tour info:

Fort Delaware State Park

To find out more about the fort and the soldiers sent there, visit: the Fort Delaware Society. 

Happy New Year!

I blinked and another year has gone by.

I was fortunate to be able to spend my year with family and friends through the good times and the bad and hope everyone else was as fortunate and will be in the coming year!

I love New Years as it really gives me a time to sit down and think about what I want to accomplish in the coming year and this year that means more posts and more reading books. I spent most of 2015 reading magazines and stuff on the internet but want to change that in the coming year. Books are better for the brain.

I urge everyone to try and pick up this New Year's resolution as there are tons of benefits to reading actual books in our media over-saturated world where thousands of things vie for your attention every minute. Reading books relieves stress, help with depression and anxiety, and can make you happier in general. Although, I'll never give up reading blogs, I have to get more books in this year. :)  

I'm going to keep this post short but, as always, I am thankful for my friends and readers and all the joy that blogging has brought me in the last year and can't wait to see what it will bring us in the new year. If you have a resolution this year, I'd love to hear it in the comments!


Some past New Year's Posts:

Why do we watch a giant ball drop on New Year's Eve?

1850s Shortbread Recipe for New Years.

The Civil War Era, Crazy Christmas Game of Plum Pudding

The holiday season is upon us, even if it doesn't feel like it outside but that means holiday cheer and merriment. What better way to celebrate than with some Christmas cheer of old? The Game of Plum Pudding is a fun way to add some mid 19th century fun to your modern holidays.   

The game is played with two teams. Each person is assigned a name that has a military title and an item that is part of a holiday meal, such as "General Goose." Players take turns spinning a wooden disk, referred to as the plum pudding, while telling a story from the perspective of the object in their name. Players get penalized if they drop the wooden disk, if they say something not in character, refer to someone by the wrong assigned name or forget to mention the "plum pudding" in their story.

The penalties are crazy. In one case a player may be required to kiss every lady in the room and have each lady slap them in return. In another a player must select a person to kiss and other players try to prevent the kiss from happening and in the worst penalty, every person in the room has to say something unfavorable about the player.      

The game was invented by Charles H. Bennett, a famous illustrator of the time known for his work in Punch Magazine.  The rules first appeared in 1857 and have been since published all the way up to the 1880s under the names of the "Field of the Cloth of Damask" or the "Game of Plum Pudding." In William Wallace Fyfe's Christmas, its Customs and its Carols published in 1860, the game is used as an example of Christmas "fun and frolic" of the day.  

This game likely requires a fair amount of eggnog or punch. You can almost picture the young gentleman who gets the chance to kiss a special favorite or  the moment when a popular belle looks around at a room of hopeful bachelors only to bestow her kiss on her grandfather. Those cheeky Victorians. 

If anyone plays, let me know how it goes!

References:

Arnold, George. The Sociable, Or, One Thousand and One Home Amusements Containing Acting Proverbs, Dramatic Charades, or Drawing-room Pantomimes, Musical Burlesques, Tableaux Vivants, Parlor Games ... New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1858. 186-187.

Frikell, Wiljalba. Fireside Games for Winter Evening Amusement. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1859. 14-18.

Fyfe, William Wallace. Christmas; Its Customs and Carols. With Compressed Vocal Score of Select Choral Illustrations. London: J. Blackwood, 1860. 47-50.

Soldier's Christmas at Graeme Park and Needlebooks from Fanciful Utility

 Last weekend I went to the timeline Soldier's Christmas event at Graeme Park in Horsham, PA with the Dixie Marauders. The event had reenactors representing the Christmas holiday in the 1770s, 1860s, 1914s, and 1940s.   We put together an 1860s Christmas display. The display included things that ladies on the homefront would send soldiers, such as sheet music, food and games.

This event gave me a chance to make the Scotch Short-cake recipe and to make some needlebooks based on the information found in Fanciful Utility, which I highly recommend if you are interested in small projects. Needlebooks were the perfect thing to make as small gifts for this event. They came together quickly and each contained, pins, needles, thread and a few spare buttons.      

Closeup of the Needlebooks.

Our display which included sheet music, sugar plumbs, scotch short-cake, coffee, rice, farina, games, packing advice, and more.

The event was packed, even with the threat of and eventual rain. The site was collecting donations to send to the troops oversees and a lot of veterans came out to show support. The husband and wife pictured above were my favorite. The wife was blind but her husband made sure she got to see everything. 

For those of you interested in Fanciful Utility, I highly recommend it. The book has 68 projects including templates and instructions for various needlebooks and sewing cases. It also shows various decorative stitches and techniques and gives advice for period fabric choices and colors.     

We ended up making our own very basic needlebook pattern based on the the advice in the book as suited to our needs but they're nothing compared to the awesome recreations from the book as seen in the video at the bottom.  

Click to see the video!