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Contact:
Jerome Thompson, Museum Director, (515) 281-4221; Rae
Katherine Eighmey, (515) 239-9933; or Sarah Oltrogge, (515) 281-4011
DES
MOINES, Iowa - It's authentic
home-cooked dishes from the Civil War era that will be
served at the Civil War Battle Flags Benefit Dinner on
Thursday, Feb. 21 from 6-8 p.m. at the State
Historical Building, 600 E. Locust, Des Moines. The
dinner is a special fundraiser sponsored by the State
Historical Society of Iowa to aid in the preservation
and conservation of Iowa's
Civil War battle flags, corresponding to the
opening of the new exhibit at the State Historical
Building, Honor the Colors: Iowa's Civil War
Battle Flags.
Soldiers who fought in the Civil War not only had
to contend with the harsh conditions of a nation at
war, but also had to survive on limited food rations.
Standard issue was hard tack, a cracker made only of
flour, water and salt that soldiers soaked in grease
for nourishment. Only when they returned home would
they be treated to hearty dishes of meat and potatoes.
The benefit dinner includes ham simmered in a water
and wine broth (1867); smothered chicken (1877),
chicken pieces browned in bacon fat and then braised
with bacon cracklings and seasoned with mace; a
vegetarian recipe for old New England baked beans
(1850s); cabbage slaw (1860s); corn bread;
Emancipation Pie (1864), a raisin-lemon filling served
in tarts; Southern Rights Cake (1867), a
molasses-spice cake with bourbon; and more. All of the
recipes are adapted from 1860s sources that would have
been available to Iowa home and farm cooks.
The recipes were compiled by Rae Katherine Eighmey
of Ames, who has worked with Civil War-era recipes for
more than a decade. She has two published cookbooks,
Rae Katherine's Victorian Recipe Secrets and A
Prairie Kitchen: Recipes, Poems and Colorful Stories
from the Prairie Farmer magazine, 1841-1900.
"I've cooked hundreds, if not thousands of
recipes, and very rarely is there something that I or
my family do not like," Eighmey said. "You don't
find chocolate and you don't find vanilla, but you
do have wonderful spice cakes, and very subtly
flavored cookies with mace and nutmeg."
Bonnie Boal of Urbandale who owns Cooking With
Bonnie catering service, will be preparing the dishes.
A cash bar will begin at 6 p.m., and dinner will be
served at 7 p.m. Musical entertainment will be
provided by the Marengo Civil War Band and the Jasper
Grays Civil War Singers. Tickets cost $30 and can be
purchased at the State Historical Building Museum
Shop, 600 E. Locust, Des Moines, or by calling
515-283-1757.
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