Best Cook At SASS Events?

[Dispatch]

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I'm curious, who does the best cooking at the main SASS events? Should I bring Alka-Seltzer? 

[Delmonico]

No idea, but if you join GAF and come to the Muster at Ft. Hartsuff this year I've heard that their Chief Comminsary officer and his assistant are mighty good cooks and no one needed a salertus and water at it last year.











Of course a couple of the meals the cooks made while the troops were on patrol were perhaps the best, (Ignore the plate, was to lazy to wash dishes in the middle of the day)

[Dispatch]

Do they also make there beverages homemade as well? What might they be? 

[Delmonico]

Do they also make there beverages homemade as well? What might they be? 

Go to "The Barracks"  forum, to learn more about the GAF Muster.  The information is stickyed to the top.   the iced tea and cofffee were of course, you want anything else you bring yer own as long as it's non-acoholic, tules for the state historical park.

If any SASS  club wants that crew then they need to contact them with an serious offer.

[Dispatch]

That sounds good just as long as they don't do as at the civil war reenactments, charge $4.50 for a lemonade. 

[Delmonico]

Weith the time and trouble it took to ship in lemons in that time period it sounds fair to me.  Off season they had to be preserved in barrels of brine, plus then they had to be shipped to where you want them.  Of course if you use citric acid and lemon extract to make it, then the cost would go down.

That's how folks had lemonade on the 4th of July on the Oregon Trail near Independance Rock, lots of accounts of that being part of the celebration.

With me and my crew, costs of transportation is the big one, it ain't cheap to haul a 1/2 ton or more of gear several hundred miles.   Also I know the laws in Kansas and Nebraska and what I have to do, other states you need to find out what hoops we have to jump through and how.

Also we don't haul firewood and I expect plenty of good hardwood, cut and stacked on site when we get there., figure 1/4 to 1/2 a pick-up per day, you have any fire permits worked out before we get there.

Costs per meal depends on what is fixed, 3 meals a day involve about an 18 hour work day, if you want period serving ware, you bring it yourself and wash it, I provide hot water in wreck pans.   Coffe, iced tea and/or lemonade are the choices for beverage, tea is brewed fresh, lemonade is made from concentrate from a bottle, PC for the 1870's, lemon extract/citric acid type optional, but more expensive.  Hot water and tea provided for those who don't drink coffee.

[Dispatch]

Weith the time and trouble it took to ship in lemons in that time period it sounds fair to me.  Off season they had to be preserved in barrels of brine, plus then they had to be shipped to where you want them.  Of course if you use citric acid and lemon extract to make it, then the cost would go down.

That's how folks had lemonade on the 4th of July on the Oregon Trail near Independance Rock, lots of accounts of that being part of the celebration.

With me and my crew, costs of transportation is the big one, it ain't cheap to haul a 1/2 ton or more of gear several hundred miles.   Also I know the laws in Kansas and Nebraska and what I have to do, other states you need to find out what hoops we have to jump through and how.
Also we don't haul firewood and I expect plenty of good hardwood, cut and stacked on site when we get there., figure 1/4 to 1/2 a pick-up per day, you have any fire permits worked out before we get there.

Costs per meal depends on what is fixed, 3 meals a day involve about an 18 hour work day, if you want period serving ware, you bring it yourself and wash it, I provide hot water in wreck pans.   Coffe, iced tea and/or lemonade are the choices for beverage, tea is brewed fresh, lemonade is made from concentrate from a bottle, PC for the 1870's, lemon extract/citric acid type optional, but more expensive.  Hot water and tea provided for those who don't drink coffee.

Not even justified for that time period. A soldier only made $13.00 a month in the 1880's. Every literal penny counted. They were more likely to buy a bottle of whiskey than a glass of lemonade. We may never really know the actual cost but for todays day and age however, it's 'price-gouging'. Pure and simple. Turning a profit while producing sub-standard sustnance is just a rip off. This is why alot of people don't come back again to the reenactments. The worst food I ever choked down was at a reenactment. Over cooked rubbery ass crap I wouldn't feed to my dog. This is why I used to cook good quality meals for the battery. 3 meals a day and bottomless coffee for 2 days straight. All for about $10.00 a man. I miss it a little. Alot of work though, as you may know.  I am looking forward to seeing for myself what is served at these GAF and SASS events. We shall see. 

[Delmonico]

Well I guess you can start yer own lemonade stand or not buy form a vendor, folks want vendors at places, but they don't want them to make profit.  Seen that many times. 

The old do it yourself comes in here.

[Dr. Bob]

Delmonico puts out great meals.  It is a lot of hot work, hard work, back breaking work!

[Delmonico]

Delmonico puts out great meals.  It is a lot of hot work, hard work, back breaking work!

Thank you my firend, but it's fun work.

[Tensleep]

Don't expect much at the CAS events....
Hot dogs and hamburgers are what I see most places.
Not very good ones at that.

[Dispatch]

Delmonico,
Don't get me wrong. I am all for free enterprise and turning an 'honest' profit. But when vendors take advantage, that's just plain wrong and the hobby suffers for it. Believe me, I've been cooking for decades. In the hobby and in the real Army. It's no joke. As you said, it's the feeling of accomplishment and contributing a positive effort to the hobby and to the men is whats most satisfying for me. 

[Trinity]

Dispatch.  Yer reenacting the wrong war.  You should try Revolutionary War.  I sometimes feel guilty at how well we're fed.

No Delmonico though.   I might try the pizza thing this coming holiday weekend after hours.

[Dispatch]

Trinity,
You've got a point. I loved it at Colonial Williamsburg. That was back in the early 1990's. I wonder how much it's changed since then. I always wanted to reenact WW I. Although I got enough period correct 'surplus' in my closet as it is. 

[Dr. Bob]

You can never, never, never have too much period correct surplus in your closet!!

[Trinity]

... you just need more closets.