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Salt, sugar, wheat flour, coffee, tea and many other staple foods were quite scarce in the South during the War. Ingenious substitutes were always being tried: parched wheat, rye corn, peanuts, acorns, sweet potatoes, and persimmon, okra, and watermelon seeds were being made into fake coffee. Sassafras roots and holly, orange, sage, and blackberry leaves masqueraded as tea. Maypops and pomegranates turned into "lemonade." Vinegar was made into apple cider, molasses, honey, and persimmons, figs, May apples, and beets. Beer was brewed using corn, potatoes, sassafras, persimmons, and spruce or pine needles. The diet of the average Southerner went from pre-war variety of adequate foods to a near-starvation sustenance. Those at home suffered, and the enlisted men perhaps even more so. Parched corn, wormy hardtack, "blue" beef and "sowbelly" jerky, goober peas, and perhaps beans and corn bread were typical soldier fare. At Port Hudson and Vicksburg the beleaguered troops ate the meat of rats, dogs, mules, horses, and cane roots, even grass. It took months for the North to hobble the food supply system of the largely self-sufficient agricultural South, and years to weaken and ensnare the Southern army. Before secession, a typical Southern family's grocery bill was $6.95 per month. By 1864, it was $400.00 per month. In fact, Confederate dollars were so devalued that many families could not afford to buy food staples. As produce became more and more scarce or expensive, people had to find substitutes for common foods. Here are some examples: Meat (at least $20.00 for one meal): Domestic animals, crows, frogs, locusts, snails, snakes and worms Coffee: Okra seeds that were browned, dried
sweet potatoes or carrots, roasted acorns, wheat berries Tea: herbs, sumac berries, sassafras roots, raspberry, blackberry, huckleberry and holly leaves Milk or cream: Beat egg white to froth, add small lump of butter, mix well Sugar: Molasses, sorghum, dried ground figs, honey, watermelon syrup Flour: Rice, rice flour, cornmeal, and rye flour Salt: Boiled sea water, or taking dirt from the smokehouse, adding water and boiling it. Skim off the scum on the top and drop into cold water, and the salt sinks to the bottom. The impurities could be boiled off. Wood ashes or gunpowder could also substitute for salt as a seasoning.
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