Shopping list and menu for a typical 2 day event. This will feed 6-8 civilians with a total cost of around $35. Thanks to LuAnn Mason for allowing us to reprint this article.
Equipment:
2 dutch ovens (Can be accomplished with just one but two is easier)
1 coffeepot
Shopping List (all items should be placed in period correct poke sacks or bags before arriving at camp): 1 dozen eggs
3 pounds cornmeal
2 pounds unbleached flour
Small portions of sea salt (chunky), black peppercorns (use mortar and pestle to grind) and baking powder (saleratus is a period substitute)
1 10 pound ham, smoked, cooked, bone in (no canned hams- you want the real thing)
1 pound blackeye peas
1 pound navy beans
Small crock of honey or molasses
2 pounds bacon or salt pork
1 semi-hard cheese in a wheel or chunk, coated with beeswax
Coffee beans
10 pounds potatoes
5 pounds carrots with tops
2 pounds unsnapped green beans
2-3 onions
Fresh fruit in season (Avoid tropical fruits such as bananas or tangerines)
First Breakfast:
1/2 pound cornmeal mixed with 1 1/2 quarts cold water. Cook in dutch oven over quick hot fire until thick and make cornmeal mush. Add honey to taste. Serve with fresh fruit and coffee.
First Lunch:
Cut off some of the ham, chunk it up and put it on to cook with the blackeye peas. Use 2nd dutch oven to fry half the bacon. (Save the bacon for later, we're frying for the grease) Mix 1/2 pound cornmeal, 1/2 pound flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 a small minced onion with enough water to make a stiff dough. Drop by spoonfuls into hot bacon grease to make corndodgers. Slice fresh fruit and carrots for the meal.
First Dinner:
Bury all the potatoes in the hot coals to make baked potatoes. Slice about 1/2 of the remaining ham and places slices on dutch oven lid to heat. Put a couple of tablespoons of the bacon grease in oven and add 1 minced onion. Cook until onion is limp. Add snapped green beans with enough water to cook down. Sprinkle half of reserved bacon on top. Eat half the potatoes you cooked with dinner and save the rest until morning.
Second Breakfast:
Peel the cold potatoes from last night, slice and cook in reserved bacon grease. Sprinkle remaining bacon on top. Slice half remaining ham and warm on dutch oven. Scramble 10 eggs in the same dutch oven. Second Lunch:
Immediately after breakfast slice off all remaining ham from bone and then throw ham and bone into a dutch oven, add the pound of beans and enough water to cover, 4-6 chopped carrots and 1 chopped onion. Let it cook until lunch time. About 45 minutes before lunch mix equal parts of cornmeal and flour (about 3 cups each), 3 teaspoons baking powder, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 eggs and enough water to make a fairly stiff batter. Pour into greased dutch oven and bake 40 minutes or until done. Serve with honey.
Stew
1 red, green and yellow bell pepper
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 purple onions, cut into chunks
4 or 5 potatoes, cut into chunks
1 bag baby carrots
3 lbs stew meat
Garlic salt and pepper to taste
In your large cast iron oven put some oil in the bottom of the pot and brown the meat. Add some seasoning to the meat if you wish. Add all the other ingredients in on top of this and enough water to fill the pot. Season to taste with garlic salt and pepper. The longer it cooks, the better it gets. It takes 4-5 hours over a medium fire to cook everything down tender. Serve with cornbread or hoecakes.
Red Beans and Rice
1 1/2 pounds red beans
2 cups brown rice
1 1/2 cloves garlic
Cayenne and black pepper
Salt
Soak beans overnight (about 6 hours) or until beans are easily pinched. While beans are soaking add cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Change water and add spices again and set over a low fire to cook. Beans will take 3-4 hours to cook. About 40 minutes beforehand add some more water and rice and cook until done.
Peach Cobbler
10 qt. dutch oven
2 large cans sliced peaches in heavy syrup
2 sticks of butter or margarine
2 cups flour
2 cups milk
2 cups sugar
Cut the butter and melt it, mix together the flour, sugar and milk. Pour peaches in the oven and pour batter mixture over the fruit. Do not stir the mixture into the fruit but rather evenly pour on top. Dig a pit beside the fire for oven to fit in. Put coals in the bottom and set the oven on top, add a few a few coals around side and on top. It takes about an hour for this cook. Change the coals on top every 20 minutes.
