Civil War Soldier's Tin Cup, modified for straining and cooking

This is a very unusual and unique piece being offered, it is a soldier’s tin cup made into a skimmer or sifter. The diameter of the cup is 4 ½” and it stands 3” high. It has a flat bottom and all the seams are soldered, which is correct for the era. It has been hand-punched with small holes throughout the cup.

Civil War soldiers had to do a lot of cooking over a campfire and the use of these types of skimmers had a myriad of uses in camp life. A popular meal where this would be used is making hominy or hominy grits (especially popular with southern soldiers).

To make hominy, corn is soaked in a large pot in a mixture of water and wood-ash lye, which expands and loosens the hulls from the kernels. The hulls are then sifted away using something like this cup. The swelled kernels that remain are hominy, ready to be fried or boiled for eating.

Like I said, this is a unique piece. I’ve seen canteen halves and dippers punched with holes, but this is the first cup I encountered. I am sure it had multiple uses with corn meal and flour. This is a very interesting personal item. I discuss soldiers cooking and eating in my book “The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items”.