Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-11
A SOLDIERS PUDDING.
was Made Principally of Hard Tack,
but Was Rich Dish, Nevertheless.

suppose, remarked the veteran,
settling himself in an easy position in
ms char and striking a match
preparatory to lighting his pipe. Il sup
pose That you chaps think you ate
sone pretty rich dishes in your day?
No doubt you have. not the slightest.
but l can tell you of n certain Christ
mas pudding which l helped to devour,
yes, and by the same token, helped to
make, which ranks way above any
thlng which ever put tooth into before
or since. That's right too, boys, and
the material from which it was con-
coctnd wasn't so very fine, surely not
50 fine as it was costly.
Twas down in Virginia, and none of
the old dodgers you see around with a
Grand Army button on need to be told
where that state is, they all know. i'm
the winter of ga. All of the boys had
long been thinking of what the folks
back home would have to eat on
Christmas day and they had been wish
ing that they might have something
good. Turkey was out of the question,
as was chicken and there was mighty
little prospects of any nice roast spar
rib. either.
well, the boys in my company
talked the thing over and we decided
that we must and would have a Christ
mas pudding.
when the day arrived we were pre-
pared to spread ourselves. For days
each man had saved as much of his
daily ration of sugar, brown, for use in
this pudding as possible. AS the al
lowance was but a rounding table
spoonful the amount which could be
saved was not great but still we had
accumulated, perhaps, two pounds.
From our allowance of hard tack a
small amount had been saved each day.
SO that we had fair amount of that
on hand. In order to make the pud-
ding as good as possible, we made an
assessment for cash upon each man.
This wasn't q fortune, but it was some.
With this we bought two cans of con-
densed milk and two pounds of raisins
from the sutler and the rest was. eX-
pended for sugar Mt the same place. for
we were bound that our Gelicacy should
be sweet enough to satisfy.
"Christmas eve we borrowed a kettle
from the company cook and with the
aid of an axe. broke the hard tack up
into small bits. These we dumped into
the kettle which was then filed up with
water, leaving the tack to soak all
night. III the morning there was near
ly kettle full of soft tack. if I may be
allowed to use the term. Then We
poured in our condensed milk and q
bit more water. put in the sugar and
the raisns, and you bet we didn't stoI,
to seed or stem them. either.
'In The meantime a hole had been
dug in the ground and a rOusing fire
built. The kettle was placed down deep
in tho Goals, a wide board. for the ket
| tie had no cover. placed over it and
some turf on ton of it and the wood
piled upon the fire. A guard was
placed to See that none of the other
companies stole it, and the pudding was
| left to bake.
THAT was the way we made it. and
| give you my solemn word of honor
| that it was the sweetest morsel that |
ever put into my mouth" and the vet
| eran blew q cloud of blue smoke cell
ingwards ana gaZcd at it with con-
| tcmplative eye, even as though he
| could taste that same pudding then.