162 The Army Says Eat Your Vegetables

162 The Army Says Eat Your Vegetables

From The History of American Food by Margaret Hardin

March 18, 2026 · 22 min · Season 5

About this episode

The episode discusses the history and quality of dehydrated vegetables produced during the Civil War.

Sure people complain about mashed potatoes made from potato flakes now - but dehydrated vegetables in their first iteration were far, far worse. In fact some of the first mass quantities of dried vegetables prepared using forced hot air drying - and hydraulic pressing for more compact storage were produced for the civil war. And boy were they nasty. All the same - they were still better than what happed to you if you didn't eat any vegetables at all. (And no - at this point there were no vitmin or fiber supplaments - you had to get it from the source) Music Credit: Fingerlympics by Doctor Turtle Show Notes: https://thehistoryofamericanfood.blogspot.com/ Email: TheHistoryofAmericanFood at gmail dot com Threads: @THoAFood Instagram: @THoAFood & some other socials... @THoAFood

People in this episode

Host: Margaret Hardin

Topics covered

  • dehydrated vegetables
  • Civil War food
  • nutrition
  • food history
  • military rations

Keywords

  • dehydrated vegetables
  • Civil War
  • mashed potatoes
  • nutrition
  • food history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Doctor Turtle

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