"We see a lot of videos on YouTube and TikTok about Depression-era cooking, but Civil War-era cooking is just as interesting and creative. Cooks at that time had to come up with some unique recipes because ingredients were hard to find during the war. One such recipe for pumpkin bread left quite a bit to be desired, especially compared to the sweet-and-spicy pumpkin bread we're used to today."
"The South had to adapt recipes because of Union blockades during the war. Ingredients like salt and wheat flour were all but impossible to come by. One Confederate-era recipe for pumpkin bread required the cook to boil a whole pumpkin until it could be passed through a sieve. After that, whatever flour you had was added until it formed a dough."
"Instagram user Cookin' with Congress tried this recipe out, and the results were maybe worse than you think. "If you told me this is yoga mats, I might believe you," he said after taking his first bite. The flat, moist-looking loaf seemed less like bread and more of a way to make meager flour supplies edible by extending them with something that would at least fill your stomach."
Civil War-era cooks improvised because ingredients were scarce. Union blockades restricted salt and wheat flour supplies in the South. One Confederate pumpkin bread recipe required boiling a whole pumpkin and sieving it, then mixing whatever flour was available until a dough formed. The recipe included no sugar, salt, or baking instructions. Modern testing by an Instagram user produced a flat, moist loaf that resembled a yoga mat and functioned mainly to stretch scarce flour. The loaf was bland and lacking leavening, sugar, or salt. Wartime shortages sometimes provoked food riots in Southern streets.
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