"The Civil War’s Division of North and South is..." Topic

… Reflected in Cookbooks.

"Naval blockades kept the South starving for salt and other foods, a fact reflected in the recipes of the time.

Cookbooks can be an overlooked source of history. They reflect not only the culinary values of an era but even the political. That's exactly what the new book Food in the Civil War Era: The South, edited by food historian Helen Zoe Veit explores, reports Nina Martyris for NPR.

Any connoisseur of Southern cuisine is sure to be aware of how history has shaped the foods of the region. Many foods are the dishes slaves cooked that harkened back to the foods of West and Central Africa and make do with more meager ingredients. (Though some Southern dishes betray unexpected influences — fried green tomatoes, for example, might come from Jewish immigrants and are apparently a recent addition to the cuisine.)

But modern variation in dishes cooked in the Northern U.S. versus the South is the result of decades of influences, simmered and blended over time. To delve into the differences made stark by the Civil War, Veit looks to cookbooks written in that time. "Although direct references to the war were rare in Northern cookbooks," Viet told Martyris for NPR, "a close reading can help us glean hints of the turbulence churning outside the kitchen window."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

???? The South was a salt exporter. A few areas might have had salt shortages, but nothing general.

Most of the shortages were local due to lack of transportation. Much of the pre-war traffic moved by coastal water traffic and was cut off by the blockade. But you're right; the shortages were a region by region thing and not wholesale.

There were probably also much increased needs for salt for curing meat and preserving food for the army. It looks like the South was actually a salt importer, and that West Virginia took many of the best salt resources with it.

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