U.S. Navy Recipes
By Patrick McSherry
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The berth
deck slushers," or mess cooks, of the Battleship MAINE
General:
Bonified recipes used in the U.S. Navy during the Spanish American War are
difficult to find. The Navy had no official cookbook. Some of the types of
dishes prepared are known by name and were made in other periods also.
However, as the recipes were not documented, they could have changed over
time. Below are some recipes we believe to be correct to the period.
The Recipes:
Burgoo
Burgoo has been a source of some confusion in recent years because
there are two distinctly different foods which are called "burgoo." In
portions of the United States - generally Kentucky and Tennessee -
burgoo is the term applied to a type of stew. However, the burgoo of
the Spanish American War era U.S. Navy referred to a different
concoction. Going back to the British navy, burgoo was a boiled
oatmeal, as was noted by William Spavens. Apparently this recipe
carried over to the U.S. Navy, with references to the oatmeal
concoction as late as 1907. It can be assumed that the following
recipe, which appeared in the U.S. Navy's first cookbook in 1902 was
the burgoo of which the sailors of the Spanish American War U.S. Navy
were partaking:
"Into
pots
of boiling water to which 1 pound of butter and 2 pounds of sugar
have been added stir 40 pounds of oatmeeal and boil two hours,
stirring occasionally. (NOTE. - When the oats are crushed or cracked
boil for twenty minutes only.)"
Plum Duff
Plum duff is referred to by navymen of differnt time periods and different
countries. The "duff" part of the name is claimed to be from a
mispronounciation of the word "dough." Dough had to rhyme with "rough,"
and was therefore pronounced "duff."
We have a tongue-in-cheek recipe for plum duff from 1898 as recorded by a
soldier of the 2nd Oregon Volunteer Infantry
who wrote:
"Will send
you a recipe for making pudding. If you will try it, no doubt you will
like it:Take a few hard tack, or, if you haven’t them, a few stale
biscuits will serve the purpose; take an axe and pound them up as fine
as possible; pour in a cupful of vinegar and a half- teacup of brown
sugar, thoroughly dissolved in bacon grease, and drop in a few prunes;
if you haven’t the prunes, a little rice will do. Then make a sauce out
of milk made from cocoa nut and prepared chalk, with the yolk of an egg,
and a little cinnamon or pepper will do; put it on the fire by five in
the morning and by six in the evening it will be ready to serve. Eat
while it’s hot. The name of this is plum duff..."
The recipe above is not intended for a full recipe, but does give a
good idea of how the recipe was prepared. The recipe is quite similar to
that found in the 1902 Navy cookbook. Given the similarities, we believe
that the 1902 recipe reflects the version of this dish prepapred during
the war. The 1902 recipe is as follows:
"Soak 25
pounds of stale bread in cold water and drain dry. Add 25 pounds of
sifted flour, 5 pounds of suet chopped fine, 3 pounds of raisins, 5
pounds of sugar, 4 pounds of currants, 2 pounds of prunes, 3
tablespoonfuls of salt, 1 teaspoonful of ground cloves, 1 tablespoonful
of ground cinnamon, and 1 wineglassful of vinegar, and mix all
thoroughly with cold water. Turn the bags inside out, drop them into
boiling water, render out slightly, and drop into dry flour, dredging
them thoroughly. Turn the bags flour side in and fill them with the
pudding. securing the opening firmly, drop into the copper in which
water is boiling and cook for at least two hours. If there is sufficient
time, the pudding will be improved by boiling three or four hours."
Sea Pie
The following recipe was provided in the New
York Sun newspaper, and lists Sea Pie as being "one of Uncle
Sam's naval delicacies." The recipe provided, said to serve 22 men, is as
follows:
Cut up 16
1/2 pounds of meat, two pounds carrots or other vegetables, one pound
onions, all of which place in boiler with enough water to cover; add
some jelly from the meat, season with pepper and salt and stew gently.
Make a paste with five pounds of flour and 1 1/2 pounds of suet or
drippings. Place this dough over the stewed meat and boil or steam for
20 minutes."
Slumgullion
The same soldier from the 2nd
Oregon Volunteer Infantry who
provided the recipe for "Plum Duff" provides a period tongue-in-cheek
recipe for Slumgullion, which was a Navy staple, as follows:
"...Another
mixture we call slum gullion is made this way: Get a kettle of water,
put it on the fire until it comes to a boil, then take several cans of
horse meat, and stir it in with hardtack and if you have a can of
tomatoes that you don’t need and are in your way, just drop it in with
plenty of salt and pepper, and you will have the nicest dish you ever
saw..."
Bibliography:
Berth Deck Slusher Photo - Library of Congress
Feeding the Pacific Squadron," The
Asheville Weekly Citizen. (Asheville, NC), November 12, 1907, 3
"From the Philippines," Springfield
Leader and Press. (Springfield, Missouri), December 31, 1898,
5.
General
Mess Manual and Cookbook for Use on Board Vessels of The United States
Navy. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902) 29, 31.
Spavens,
William, The Narrative of
William Spavens: A Chatam Pensioner .(Chatham Publishing, 1998)
69.
Uncle
Sams' Cook Book," Boston
Globe. Juky 7, 1898. 7 (the
article was quoted in the Boston
Globe from the New
York Sun).
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