Vol. VI, Episode 21
Flapjacks or Slapjacks
Want a veteran's way to use the flour ration?
Watch Will and Chad below as they demonstrate both the US and CS way of cooking the flour ration
in the field by making soldier pancakes.
Ingredients
- Water
- Flour
- Salt (for Federal rations)
- Bacon grease
Tools
- Frying Pan
- Fork
- Knife
- Cup to mix in
Mix the water and flour together to your own desired consistency.
Resources
Hilary Herbert, 8th Alabama Infantry- Alabama Historical Quarterly
Osborne Oldroyd, 20th Ohio Infantry- A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg. From the Diary of Osborn H. Oldroyd
Another Primary Source
"Our rations got cut short - our supply was cut
off and we had to get our supply mostly from the
surrounding country...we got flour and bacon and
had to march all day and bake slapjacks as we
called them at night.
We made them in this
way: we made a dough and then fried out a lot of
bacon and then dropped a chunk - yes, two or
three - in the hot lard till they were brown,
then took them out and put in fresh dough. This
often took until 2 at night, and the next day
early in the morning at daybreak we had to be
ready to march again. We would march all day
till dark - and sometimes two or three hours
after dark - and then we had to go through the
same process making slapjacks as I described
above."
- Edited from Pvt. Frederick Finnup,
5th Company, 9th Ohio Infantry, "The Story of My Life",
describing his time just before the Battle of
Perryville.
