Civil War Recipes

Civil War Cooking

Watch the following video which describes some of the food soldiers ate during the Civil War. Civil War Rations: The Civil War in Four Minutes

The following link provides recipes for several Civil War meals. Authentic Civil War Recipes

In this lesson, we will use two Civil War era recipes to learn how to halve recipes so we can use the same recipe to serve fewer people depending on the need.

Math Needed – Multiplying fractions

• To successfully halve recipes, you must understand how to multiply numbers by ½. This is the same as dividing by 2. However, since cooking often requires working with fractions, it is best to consistently use fractions when performing calculations. Let us practice some examples.

First practice with whole numbers: 10 cups of water divided by 2 can be written in fractions as follows: 10/1 x 1/2

• When multiplying fractions, multiply the numerator by the numerator and the denominator by the denominator. The numerator is the number at the top of the fraction. The denominator is the number at the bottom of the fraction.

The numerator in the fraction 10/1 is 10. The numerator in ½ is 1. 10 x 1 = 10.

The denominator in 10/1 is 1 and the denominator in 1/2 is 2. 1 x 2 = 2

10/2=5. Half of 10 is 5.

What if the number was 3? 3/1 x 1/2 = 3/2. Think it through; this is 3 halves

1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2

1/2 + 1/2 = 2/2 = 1 whole and another half is left over. So if you were measuring flour, using half of 3 cups of flour would mean using 1 whole cup of flour and an additional half cup of flour.

Multiplying Fractions continued…

• Often fractions of cups, tablespoons, or teaspoons are used to describe how much of an ingredient should be used in a recipe.
• What is half of ½ cup of sugar? To figure out, multiply ½ cup of sugar by ½.½ x ½ =
• Follow the same steps as in the last example, multiply numerator by numerator and denominator by denominator. 1 x 1 = 1 and 2 x 2 = 4. So ½ x ½ = ¼ cup of sugar
• Try dividing the following ingredients in half. Check the answer key at the end of the lesson to see if you got the correct answers.
• ¾ cup of milk
• ½ teaspoon of honey
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1/3 cup of raisins

Union Hardtack Recipe Ingredients

The ingredients for Hard Tack are as follows:

• 2 cups of flour
• ½ to ¾ cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat or lard
• 6 pinches of salt

This is a recipe that would be interesting and simple to make. However, there recipe does not indicate how may people it will serve. The description states that it really doesn’t taste very good so more than likely, we would not want to make very much of it. The following page explains how to halve the ingredients of this recipe so that we can make less Hardtack.

Halving a recipe

When you divide something in half, mathematically, you are dividing by 2

1. 2 cups of flour 2 divided by 2 is 2 x ½= 2/2 = 1 cup of flour
2. ½ to ¾ cup of water ½ cup of water divided by 2 is ½ x ½ = ¼ cup of water

   If you chose to halve ¾ cup of water, it would be as follows: ¾ x ½ = 3/8 cup of water

3. 1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat or lard 1/1 x ½ =1/2 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat or lard
4. 6 pinches of salt 6/1 x ½ = 6/2 = 3 pinches of salt

(How may time does 2 fit into 6? When the numerator is bigger than the denominator, when you divide the bottom number into the top number, you get a whole number. When the top number is smaller, you have a fraction or a decimal. When working with cooking, it is easiest to leave the answer as either a whole number or a fraction.)

Challenge yourself

Select one of the recipes found on the website: Authentic Civil War Recipes

Try halving any recipe (except the pie recipe), cook it by following the directions, and see how it tastes.

If the recipe looks like it will probably taste good and you have a more than 2 people in your household or would just like to have enough for leftovers, see if you can figure out how to double the ingredients in the recipe. (Hint, multiply everything by 2 or 2/1.)

The reference page at the end of this lesson contains resources that show you how to change a recipe based on the number of people you would like to serve if the original recipe specifies the number of servings it makes. Use these resources to try out other recipes you may find online or in your own cookbooks.

Answer key

• 3/4 cup of milk

  3/4 x 1/2 =4/8 = ½ cup of milk

  (simplify to ½ by dividing top and bottom by a number that divides evenly into both, 4. 4 divided by 4 = 4/1 x ¼ =4/4 = 1. 8 divided by 4 = 8/1 x ¼ = 8/4 = 2.

• 1/2 teaspoon of honey

  1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4 teaspoon of honey

• 2 tablespoons of flour

  2/1 x ½ = 2/2 = 1 tablespoon of flour

• 1/3 cup of raisins

  1/3 x 1/2 = 1/6 cup of raisins

Mathematics 2016 Standards of Learning

• Grade 5 Mathematics, Strand: Computation and Estimation
  • The student will solve singe-step practical problems involving multiplications of a whole number, limited to 12 or less, and a proper fraction, with models.

References

Authentic Civil War Recipes

Modifying a Recipe’s Serving Size