FRONTIER FARE

The recipes that follow were selected according to their suitability for campfire cooking at

living history interpretations of the Fur Trade Era. They were derived from cookbooks,

diaries, and journals of the period and the ingredients used are all documented to have been

available on the early frontier. Substitutions for some of the ingredients can be made in

accordance with the historical precedents of a particular interpretation. No attempt has been

made to modernize the syntax or to correct the spelling and grammar of the original recipes.

The author's comments that follow some of the recipes are in italics for clarity.

COOKING ON THE PRAIRIES

"During the march across the bleak Dakota prairie they had acquired the practice of

collecting buffalo chips on their ramrods, saving them until it was time to make camp in

the evening and then depositing their finds with the cook. One of the officers later recalled

that the manure made a better fire than wood, and it was a good deal easer to find." David

L. Kingsbury quoted in Forts of the Upper Missouri by Robert G. Athearn, page 138.

This is not as disgusting as it sounds. If thoroughly dried the buffalo chips do not have any

odor nor do they impart any "unusual" flavor to the food.

Cooking Over Buffalo Chips by J. Goldsborough Bruff (1804-1889)

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BREADS AND CAKES

CORN MEAL CAKES

1. Indian cake, or Bannock, is sweet and cheap food. One quart of sifted corn meal, two

great spoonfuls of molasses, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a bit of lard half as big as a hen’s egg,

stirred together; make it pretty moist with scalding water, put it into a well greased pan,

smooth over the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides, before a quick fire.

A little stewed pumpkin, scalded with the meal, improves the cake. Bannock split and

dipped in butter makes very nice toast.

Other common additives were raisins, dried apples (my favorite!) or any foraged fruit that may

have been available.

2. To three pints of Indian-meal, a piece of butter as large as an egg, and a tea-spoonful of

salt. Put two tea-cupfuls of boiling water, stir it in, then add three eggs, and milk to make

it the consistency of batter. Half a tea-spoonful of saleratus.

Lard, bacon grease or suet will work fine as a substitute for the butter in this recipe. If

unavailable or not appropriate to the historical setting the eggs and milk can be eliminated

entirely. Saleratus is baking soda.

3. Make a paste consisting of: Corn Meal, Salt and Water. Form into cakes and fry in a

skillet with pork fat or lard.

4. Scald one quart of Indian meal in enough water to make a thick batter; add a

teaspoonful of salt, one of molasses, and two of butter. Bake on a board, or in a pan.

5. Bannock. Sift a quart of fine Indian meal, mix with it a salt-spoonful of salt, two large

spoonfuls of butter and a gill of molasses; make it into a common dough with scalding

water, or hot sweet milk, mixing it well with a spoon; put it in a well buttered skillet, make

it smooth, and bake it rather briskly. When it is done, cut it in thin smooth slices, toast

them lightly, butter them, stack them and eat them warm.

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6. Indian Cake. Take three cups of Indian (corn) meal, two cups of flour, one-half tea-cup

of molasses, a little salt, one tea-spoonful of saleratus, and mix them with cold water.

There are literally dozens of very similar recipes for cakes made from corn meal, and there are

equally as many names for them. Indian cakes or Indian-meal cakes, Bannock, Johnny

cakes, hoe cakes, or simply corn meal cakes are the most common names encountered. The

name Johnny cakes is believed to be a corruption of "journey cakes" since these corn meal

cakes kept well and were often included among the rations for travelers, long hunters, and

river boatmen. A gill is a unit of measure equal to 4 fluid ounces or 1/2 cup.

MOLASSES FRITTERS

One quart of flour, one gill of molasses, one tea-spoon-ful of soda, two of cream of tartar.

Fried in boiling lard.

FRIED BREAD

Three gills of fine grits, boiled soft; mix with it two tablespoonfuls of rice flour, and salt to

the taste. Make the mixture into cakes about half an inch thick, and fry them in lard in a

spider or skillet.

This is a recipe that is very adaptable to frontier settings. Coarse corn meal can be substituted

for the grits, and any type of flour can be used. The Indians made it with Prairie Turnip flour.

MILITARY BISCUITS

Take 1 quart flour, 2 table-spoons lard, 1 tea-spoon salt, 1 tea-spoon saleratus and enough

water to make soft dough. Knead thoroughly, divide into portions and then fry in a

greased pan.

Bacon grease was frequently substituted for the lard. Military biscuits and a cup of

coffee constituted the basic breakfast eaten by soldiers on campaign.

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GRAHAM WAFERS

Take one quart of wheat meal, one half pint of Indian meal, and a little salt. Mix them with

water, roll them out very thin, and bake them hard. Add a little sugar if you choose.

Reverend Sylvester Graham invented Graham Crackers in 1829. Graham was a Presbyterian

minister, temperance advocate, and avid vegetarian, who promoted the use of un-sifted and

coarsely ground wheat flour for its high fiber content. The flour was often referred to in

recipes as "Graham flour" which led to whole wheat bread being called "Graham bread." He

left the ministry in 1830 to expound his all-encompassing "Grahamite" philosophy which

included total abstinence from alcohol, vegetarianism, eating only "natural" or unprocessed

foods, hard mattresses, open bedroom windows, chastity, cold showers, loose clothing, pure

water, and vigorous exercise. He and his followers opened a boarding house in New York, the

Graham House, in which the tenants could live according to the Grahamite philosophy. The

good Reverend would have been appalled at the recipe above, calling for the addition of sugar.

Raw molasses would have been more to his liking. Of course modern Graham crackers are so

adulterated that he would probably have a stroke if he knew how his name and his ideas have

been so badly misused.

POTATO BISCUITS

Boil and peel five or six potatoes; mash them and roll them out; knead them with a little

flour and salt, and bake on a greased griddle. Split and butter while hot.

This recipe works very well with Prairie Turnip substituted for the potato.

RICE COOKEES (BISCUITS)

One pint of soft boiled rice. Add as much flour as will make a batter stiff enough to be

made into cakes. Fry them in lard. Salt to the taste.

In making the batter you will have to add enough water to knead the ingredients together.

Although "salt to the taste" is the last instruction, it should be added when the dough is being

made, not afterwards. About one-half teaspoonful will do.4

MA-PI' (Hidatsa Corn Balls)

Mix equal parts of corn meal, melted animal fat and marrow, and dried fruit. Roll into

balls about the size of your fist then flatten them to the thickness of your hand. Store them

in a buckskin pouch and keep them dry.

This was the staple long-term storage food of the Hidatsa and Mandan tribes who lived in

fertile farmlands along the Missouri River in the Dakotas. French explorers learned the

recipe around 1700 and it soon became general knowledge on the frontier. The animal fat

was usually buffalo, but venison, moose, pork or beef were sometimes used. The fruits

employed by the Hidatsa Indians were June berries and wild cherries. Any other fruits can be

substituted. In addition to foraged fruits, figs, raisins, and dried apples were the favorites of

the fur traders and travelers through the West.

MEATS, STEWS AND SOUPS

SALT PORK AND GRAVY

Slice one pound of salt pork thin. Freshen it by putting the slices in cold water and

bringing to a boil. Dry the slices, then slit the edges and fry until crisp. Make a cream

gravy with the drippings.

CAMP SOUP

Put half-a-pound of salt pork in a saucepan, two ounces of rice, two pints and a-half of cold

water, and, when boiling, let simmer another hour, stirring once or twice; break in six

ounces of biscuit, let soak ten minutes; it is then ready, adding one teaspoonful of sugar,

and a quarter one of pepper, if handy.

This recipe was specifically developed for military use. The biscuit referred to is "Navy

Biscuit" or hard cracker, a.k.a. hardtack.

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BEEF BROSE

After any large piece of beef has been taken out of the pot it was boiled in, skim off the fat

with part of the liquor, and boil it in a saucepan. Have ready in a bowl oatmeal that has

been toasted brown before the fire, pour in the boiling liquor and stir it a little; if too thick,

add more liquor, and send it to table quite hot.

The juice from any boiled meat, especially venison or buffalo can be used as well.

DRY DEVIL

Take the liver, gizzard, drumsticks, and sidebones of a fowl or turkey; score them; lay on

made mustard very thickly, and add a quantity of cayenne pepper and salt, and broil them.

Dry Devil is generally made with organ meats or meat scraps, although prime meats, such as

beef, buffalo or venison, will work nicely in this recipe.

Hand Forged Gridiron, the predecessor of our modern barbeque grill and source of the nickname for a football field

GAME FRITTERS

Take any of those parts of cold roasted game, which can be cut into thin slices, dip them

into good batter, and fry them in lard. Sprinkle the fritters when done, with salt and spices,

pounded very fine.

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HOPPING JOHN

1. One pound of bacon, one pint of red peas, one pint of rice. First put on the peas, and

when half boiled, throw in the rice, which must be first washed and graveled. When the

rice has been boiling half an hour, take the pot off the fire and put it on coals to steam, as in

boiling rice alone. Put a quart of water on the peas at first, and if it boils away too much,

add a little more hot water. Season with salt and pepper, and, if liked, a sprig of green

mint. In serving up, put the rice and peas first in the dish, and the bacon on the top.

2. One pound field peas, picked over and soaked overnight in six cups water, one-half

pound smoked ham hocks, one onion, sliced, one dried cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoonful salt,

1 cup cooked rice. Place the peas and water in a pot over moderate heat, and add the ham

hocks, onion, hot pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for one to

one and one-half hours, or until the peas and meat are tender. Remove the cayenne

pepper. Remove skin and bones from the hocks and cut the meat into small pieces. Return

the meat to the pot, add the cooked rice to the pot, and heat for about five minutes more.

3. One half pound of salt pork

6 cups water

1 cup dried black-eyed peas

1 cup rice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Put the pork into a large pan. Add the water and boil. Remove from the fire and simmer

over clean coals for about 45 minutes. Sort thoroughly and wash the peas. Add them

gradually to salt pork and water so boiling will not stop. Cover and simmer about one and

one-half hours, or until peas are almost tender, stir them occasionally. Slowly add the rice,

salt and pepper so boiling will not stop. Cover the pan and simmer about one-half hour. If

necessary, add more water. Remove salt pork and drain thoroughly in a cullender or sieve.

Keep warm until ready to serve up. Slice the pork and keep warm.

Hopping John is Southern, and it is the official State food of South Carolina. It dates to at

least 1831 by legend, and the first published recipe (#1 above) appeared in print in 1845. The 7

Oxford English Dictionary incorrectly states that the name was first used in print in 1856 by

Frederick Law Olmstead. The name is believed to have come from a one-legged black slave

named John who sold his red beans and rice mixture in the streets of Charleston, South

Carolina, hopping along behind his cart. Field peas in #2 refers to black-eyed peas. The red

peas in #1 are actually red beans or pinto beans. The author of #1 forgot to mention that the

bacon needed to be cooked in the same pot as the beans and rice.

PORK AND BEANS

Allow two pounds of pickled pork to two quarts of dried beans. If the meat is very salty

put it in soak over night. Put the beans into a pot with cold water, and let them hang all

night over the embers of the fire, or set them in the chimney corner, that they may warm as

well as soak. Early in the morning rinse them through cullender. Score the rind of the

pork, (which should not be a very fat piece), and put the meat into a clean pot with the

beans, which must be seasoned with pepper. Let them boil slowly together for about two

hours, and carefully remove all the scum and fat that rises to the top. Then take them out;

lay the pork in a tin pan, and cover the meat with the beans, adding a very little water. Put

it into an oven, and bake it four hours. This is a homely dish, but is by many persons much

liked. It is customary to bring it to table in the pan in which it is baked.

IRISH STEW

Cut up about two pounds of the neck of the mutton into small cutlets, which put into a

proper sized stewpan with some of the fat of the mutton; season it with half a table-

spoonful of salt, a quarter of an ounce of pepper, the same of sugar, six middle-sized

onions, a quart of water; set them to boil and simmer for half an hour, then add five or six

middling-sized potatoes, cut them in halves or quarters, stir it together, and let it stew

gently for about one hour longer; if too fast, remove it from the top, but if well done the

potatoes will absorb all of it, and eat very delicate; any other part of the mutton may be

served in the same way.

Use buffalo meat instead of the mutton, add a little dash of Worcestershire sauce, and enjoy!

Worcestershire sauce was first exported to the U.S. from England in 1837 by Lea and Perrins

and became an instant sensation.

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BUFFALO TONGUES

"Buffaloes' tongues should soak a day and a night, and boil six hours." (Quoted from The

Practical Housekeeper by Elizabeth F. Ellet, page 145.)

To Roast a Tongue. Take a fine large fresh tongue, scald it, and take off the skin; cut it off

at the root and trim it neatly; stick a few cloves here and there in it, and put it in a cradle-

spit; sprinkle it with salt, and baste it well with butter.

To Dress Smoked Tongue. Having boiled it very tender, peel it smoothly, put it into a pan

with some of the liquor in which it was boiled, a large spoonful of butter and a gill of red

wine, and stew it for fifteen or twenty minutes, turning it over several times; then drain it,

dredge it with finely grated bread, shaking it on through a dredging-box, put on some

broken bits of butter, and brown it lightly before a brisk fire.

Basting with melted buffalo fat or pork fat is a good frontier substitute for the butter if there is

none available.

Roasting fork for cooking meat directly in the campfire, a

simple utensil that will replace the cradle-spit used in the recipe above.

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JERKED BUFFALO MEAT

"Some of our men having been out with their guns, returned at noon overloaded with

buffalo meat. We then commenced jerking it. This is a process resorted to for want of time

or means to cure meat by salting. The meat is sliced thin, and a scaffold prepared, by

setting forks in the ground, about three feet high, and laying small poles or sticks crosswise

upon them. The meat is laid upon those pieces, and a slow fire built beneath; the heat and

smoke completes the process in half a day; and with an occasional sunning the meat will

keep for months." (Quoted from Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains by Joel

Palmer, pages 22-23.)

Accounts of making jerked meats abound in the records from the period. This one was

selected as a typical representative from among many. The current term "jerky" became

common usage after 1850. Jerked meats, including domestic beef, were a staple on the

frontier. Today jerky is mostly eaten as a snack food. In the 19th Century it was reconstituted

by boiling or soaking and then used as regular meat in recipes.

Roasting the Hump Rib by Alfred Jacob Miller, 1837.

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APPOLA

"At night I returned to camp, made a fire, and cooked an appola of antelope meat, and

enjoyed my solitary pipe after supper with as much relish as if I was in a divan." (Quoted

from Wild Life in the Rocky Mountains by Lieut. George F. Ruxton, page 166.)

An appola consists of alternating strips or chunks of lean and fat meat of any type roasted on

a sharpened stick over an open fire. Cooking meat on a stick began with the discovery of fire

more than 400,000 years ago. Today we call it shish kabob, from the Turkish "sis kebap"

which means lamb on a spit. The appola was often augmented with vegetables when they were

available, such as wild or domestic onions, Prairie Turnips, wild garlic, potatoes, apples, sliced

disks of corn-on-the-cob, and sometimes with dough-balls made from cornmeal or flour. The

references to cooking meat on a stick in original 19th Century frontier journals are too

numerous to count.

ROAST VENISON

A large haunch will require three hours. After it is on the spit, rub it all over with butter,

baste with flour and a little salt, butter a sheet of white paper, and lay over the fat part,

fastening it on with strings or skewers, keep it well basted, and five minutes before sending

it to the table take off the paper, dust flour over it, and baste it with butter till the fat is

handsomely browned and covered with a good froth.

Lacking the butter I have tried this recipe using bacon grease or lard as a substitute. This is

one of my favorites. A few bay leaves or basil laid under the paper will make it even better. It

is equally good with any game meat, buffalo, elk, antelope, and even domestic beef. Modern

white paper is bleached with chlorine and is NEVER to be used with foods. Use brown Kraft

paper or unbleached cotton muslin cloth (most authentic) instead.

BOUDINS

"…he seized the intestines of the buffalo, which had been properly cleaned for the purpose,

turned them inside out, and as he proceeded stuffed them with strips of well salted and

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peppered tenderloin. Our 'boudies' thus made were stuck upon sticks before the fire, and

roasted till they were thoroughly cooked and browned. The sticks were then taken from

their roasting position and stuck in position for eating." (Quoted from Travels in the

Great Western Prairies by Thomas J. Farnham, page 44.)

In French cuisine boudins are a highly seasoned link sausage of pork, pork liver, and rice.

On the frontier the word meant any type of ersatz buffalo sausages, which usually consisted of

minced meat and/or organs, fat, marrow, and blood stuffed into the intestines. The use of

tenderloin was not typical. Boudins were considered a great delicacy by the fur hunters and

were frequently mentioned in their memoirs.

HAM AND DRIED PEA SOUP

1. Having hulled your peas, take three pints, parboil them in clear water; then drain them,

rinse them in clear water, and boil them with a piece of ham, ham hocks or bacon. There

should be at least three pints of the liquor, to which add four ounces of butter, broken up

and rolled in four tablespoons of flour; then stir in gradually some mashed peas to thicken

it, season it to your taste with salt and pepper, boil it up, and serve it hot.

2. Soak two quarts of dried or split peas over-night. In the morning take three pounds of

the lean of fresh beef, and a pound of bacon or pickled pork. Cut them into pieces, and put

them into a large soup-pot with the peas, (which must first be well drained), and a table-

spoonful of dried mint rubbed to powder. Add five quarts of water, and boil the soup

gently for three hours, skimming it well, and then put in four heads of celery cut small, or

two table-spoonfuls of pounded celery seed. It must be boiled till the peas are entirely

dissolved, so as to be no longer distinguishable, and the celery quite soft. Then strain it into

a tureen, and serve it up with toasted bread cut in dice. Omit the crust of the bread. Stir it

up immediately before it goes to table, as it is apt to settle, and be thick at the bottom and

thin at the top.

SWEET CORN SOUP

1 pound of salt pork

1 pint of sweet corn

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1 pint of red beans

Boil salt pork, then add beans and corn; cook for about 10 min. then serve with bread.

Parched corn and dried beans can be used if they are soaked overnight, or by boiling them

separately until tender, about an hour, then adding to the pork.

PEMMICAN

1. Hudson Bay Company Pemmican - Pound a quantity of jerky until shredded. Cut fresh

fat into walnut sized hunks and try out over a slow fire or in an oven. Pour the hot fat over

the shredded jerky and mix into a sausage meat like consistency [a 50/50 mix]. Pack

mixture into waterproof bags. Add dry berries if desired; do not salt. It takes 5 lb of meat

to make 1 lb jerky so the pemmican isn't overly fatty, just concentrated.

Depending upon availability, additional ingredients might have included flour or corn meal,

dried fruit, sugar or salt.

2. Traditional Indian Method - The raw meat is sliced as thinly as possible in strips. A rack

is built to hang the strips of meat over a slow fire and the rack is then covered with hides

The fire is kept going until the meat is completely dried and smoked, two or more days.

The dried meat is then partially enclosed in a hide or a strong canvas bag and pounded

with a heavy instrument such as a stone hammer or a wooden mallet made for the purpose

until the meat is completely powdered. An equal quantity of animal fat is rendered. The

bones of the animal are broken up and boiled for their marrow content. The rendered fat

and marrow is heated to the boiling point and put in a container. Then as much of the

pounded meat as can be absorbed is added to the hot fat. This is now Sioux pemmican and

it is put into animal hide bags for storage and transport.

It is believed that pemmican was invented by the Sioux after they migrated from the Great

Lakes area to the plains, where buffalo were plentiful. The recipe spread quickly throughout

the other Plains tribes and was adopted by Europeans shortly after first contact. Besides

buffalo, elk, moose, or venison were sometimes used. There were three ways of eating

pemmican. There was the stew called rubbaboo in which a lump of pemmican was chopped

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off and put in a pot of boiling water. If it was available, flour was added and possibly wild

onions, or prairie turnips, sometimes a little sugar or salt, occasionally other vegetables and a

scrap of salt pork. Frying the pemmican in its own fat resulted in what was called rousseau.

The third method was to hack off a lump and eat it raw, a slow process, since it dried

extremely hard.

VEGETABLES

POTATOES FRIED IN SLICES OR RIBBONS

1. Peel large potatoes; slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings

round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them

in lard or dripping. Take care that your fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a

quick fire, watch it, and as soon as the lard boils, and is still, put in the slices of potato, and

keep moving them till they are crisp. Take them up, and lay them to drain on a sieve: send

them up with a very little salt sprinkled over them.

2. After having washed them, wipe and pare some raw potatoes, cut them in slices of equal

thickness, or into thin shavings, and throw them into plenty of boiling butter, or very pure

clarified dripping. Fry them of a fine light brown, and very crisp; lift them out with a

skimmer, drain them on a soft warm cloth, dish them very hot, and sprinkle fine salt over

them. This is an admirable way of dressing potatoes. When pared round and round to a

corkscrew form, in ribbons or shavings of equal width, and served dry and well-fried,

lightly piled on a dish, they make a handsome appearance and are excellent eating. We

have known them served with a slight sprinkling of Cayenne. If sliced, they should be

something less than a quarter-inch thick.

Who knew that "curly fries" were not invented by a fast-food restaurant chain, but have been

around since at least 1821. When simply cut into slices this recipe was known as "raw fried

potatoes."

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SUCCOTASH

To 1 half pound salt pork add 3 qts. Cold water, set it to boil. Cut off 3 qts. green corn

from the cobs, set the corn aside, and put the cobs to boil with the pork, boil them 1/2 an

hour, then remove the cobs & put in 1 qt. of green shelled beans, boil 15 minutes then add

the 3 qts. Corn. Boil 15 minutes, then turn the whole into a dish, add some butter &

pepper to your taste. If the liquor has boiled away add more, before taking it from the fire.

The succotash you can buy at your local grocery store is just a mixture of equal parts of yellow

corn and Lima beans, a mere shadow of this delicious stew recipe. Succotash is an Iroquois

Indian word, and it is from them that the early colonists learned to make it. The original

Indian recipe used dog meat which the whites replaced with salt pork or salt beef. Mutton,

chicken or wild game meats were sometimes used as well. Other vegetables, such as turnips,

were often added.

BAKED BEANS

1. Baked beans are a very simple dish, yet few cook them well. They should be put in cold

water, and hung over the fire, the night before they are baked. In the morning, they should

be put in a colander, and rinsed two or three times; then again placed in a kettle, with the

pork you intend to bake, covered with water, and kept scalding hot, an hour or more. A

pound of pork is quite enough for a quart of beans, and that is a large dinner for a common

family. The rind of pork should be slashed. Pieces of pork alternately fat and lean, are the

most suitable; the cheeks are the best. A little pepper sprinkled among the beans, when

they are placed in the bean-pot, will render them less unhealthy. They should be just

covered with water, when put into the oven; and the pork should be sunk a little below the

surface of the beans. Bake three or four hours.

2. Stewed beans are prepared in the same way. The only difference is, they are not taken

out of the scalding water, but are allowed to stew in more water, with a piece of pork and a

little pepper, three hours or more.

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PRAIRIE TURNIP

Psoralea esculenta (a.k.a. Indian Breadroot, Tipsin, Breadroot Scurfpea, Pomme de Terre,

Prairie Potato, Tipsinna, Pomme Blanche or Indian Turnip) The Prairie Turnip was probably

the most important wild food gathered by Indians who lived on the prairies. It occurs

throughout the Great Plains from Saskatchewan to north Texas. The white edible portion is

exposed by removing the coarse brown husk. In 1805, Lewis and Clark observed Plains

Indians collecting, peeling, and frying prairie turnips. This tuber can be eaten raw, cut into

chunks and boiled in stews, or dried and ground into fine flour. The flour can then be used to

thicken soups, or made into a porridge flavored with wild berries. Mixed with berries, water

and some tallow, the flour can be made into cakes, which when dried, make a durable and

nutritious trail food. It is the principal ingredient of Indian fried bread.

Psoralea esculenta

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BEVERAGES

"But here he was interrupted by the entrance of one of the engages with a bowl of punch.

The compound was made with lime juice and high wines. Both articles being easy of

transportation may be occasionally found beyond the frontier" (Quoted from Tales of the

Northwest by William J. Snelling, pages 96-97.)

The subject of beverages is thoroughly covered by John Hull Brown in his book Early

American Beverages (See Bibliography). Anyone with a particular interest in beverages,

either alcoholic or non-alcoholic, is strongly encouraged to obtain a copy of this excellent

work which contains hundreds of recipes.

FRONTIER LATTE (?)

"A pot of rich milk was put on the fire, and when it boiled, the ground coffee was poured

in, staying for a moment on top, to contrast the more strongly with the foamy fluid, until it

sank; while we stood around, watching with eager eyes the grains as they were thrown to

the surface by the ebullition. It was splendid!" (Quoted from Wah-to-yah and the Taos

Trail by Lewis H. Garrard, page 156.)

Splendid indeed! You can pull the cooking vessel off the fire and allow the grounds to settle to

the bottom then skim off cupfuls from the top or strain the liquid through a piece of coarse

muslin into another container. However it is done you will find this a real treat, especially on

those cold, rainy days that seem to happen all too often at living history events. I like mine

sweetened with just a little sugar.

TO MULL WINE

Boil some spice in a little water till the flavour is gained, then add an equal quantity of

port, Maderia, or sherry, some sugar and grated nutmeg; boil together, and serve with

toast for dipping it.

In this recipe "spice" means allspice. This is so good on a chilly evening.

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COFFEE

"The insatiable appetite acquired by travellers upon the prairies is almost incredible, and

the quantity of coffee drank is still more so. It is an unfailing and apparently indispensable

beverage, served at every meal…" (Quoted from Commerce of the Prairies, Volume 1 by

Josiah Gregg, page 24.)

Coffee, salt pork, sugar, and flour or hard biscuits were the staple foods of Western travelers,

and standard issue from military commissaries. The coffee about which Gregg wrote was not

brewed from the pre-roasted, pre-ground product we buy today. Coffee beans were only

available in their raw, green state. The beans had to be roasted, usually on a skillet or in a

Dutch oven with a little lard or butter, or animal fat of any type, and then crushed or ground.

Pre-roasted coffee beans did not appear on the market until after the Civil War when a method

of preserving their freshness after roasting was discovered. On the frontier it was not

uncommon for several days' worth of beans to be roasted at once, and thus a small supply of

pre-roasted coffee beans would be perfectly appropriate at a living history campsite. For those

who wish to demonstrate the actual process there are scores of sources for green coffee beans

to be found on the Internet.

"That night parched coffee gave out. We had nothing in which to burn more: but, as

necessity is, ever, the mother of invention, we selected two flat stones from the channel at

hand, twenty-five to thirty inches in diameter, which we placed on the fire till heated; then

one was taken off, the coffee poured on, and stirred with a stick. The stones served

alternately as they became cool. When the coffee was sufficiently burned, a piece of skin

was laid on the ground, and a clean stone, a foot in diameter, rested on the knees of the

grinder, with one edge on the skin. A smaller stone, held in the hand, reduced the grains

between it and the larger one, to powder, by a rotary motion." (Quoted from Wah-to-ya

and the Taos Trail by Lewis Garrard, page 272.)

Garrard's methods of roasting, and especially of grinding his coffee are unique. The field

expedient used in place of a mortar and pestle or mechanical coffee grinder most often

mentioned in period literature was the butt of a gun.

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CHICORY COFFEE

Dig the roots. Scrub them thoroughly. Roast in slow oven until brown all the way

through...several hours. Grind. Brew into coffee just as you would brew true coffee.

Chicory is the most common coffee substitute. It was often obtained by foraging and was

used in varying proportions to stretch existing supplies of real coffee. Somewhat bitter taste,

but not unpleasant.

APPLE TODDY

Roast or bake three fine pippins; let them be thoroughly done; put them in a bowl, beat

them well with sugar, to your taste; pour over them a half pint of brandy, beat well; then

add a pint of water, beat again, so as to have it well compounded; add a few cloves, and

half a nutmeg.

MISCELLANEOUS

CRACKER SOUP

Take several crackers and break them into large chunks. Place them in a pan, barely cover

with boiling water, then allow to stand until soft. Pour off any excess water, sprinkle with

sugar and serve.

ROCK CANDY

Heat 2 cups of water in a saucepan until it comes to a boil, add 4 cups of sugar, stirring

continuously till it begins to boil again; then remove the mixture from the fire and pour it

into a jar. Cut some pieces of string and tie them onto a stick, placing the stick across the

top of the jar allowing the strings to hang, but they must not reach the bottom. Allow to

stand for about two weeks, then remove the stick and cut off the strings. For thicker

candy, add a little more sugar before boiling.

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Rock candy has been around for many centuries. There are several references to it in the

writings of the Persian poet Jalal-ad-Din Rumi who lived in Turkey in the middle 1200's. In

his play "Henry IV" (1596) Shakespeare referred to its therapeutic value as a throat soother

for long winded talkers. This basic recipe was often enhanced with flavorings and colorings.

Flavored extracts were called "essence of….." in the 19th Century. Essence of lemon was the

most popular, although essence of orange, lime, vanilla, coffee, and licorice were used. A few

drops of oil of cloves, or oil of peppermint or spearmint, or a little powdered ginger were also

commonly added.

COFFEE SOUP

Break stale bread or crackers into small lumps and add them to a large cup of coffee. Add

sugar or milk if you have any.

We have obviously fallen upon hard times! Expedients such as this were common when food

supplies were running low.

GRUEL

1. Gruel is very easily made. Have a pint of water boiling in a skillet; stir up three or four

large spoonfuls of nicely sifted oat-meal, rye, or Indian, in cold water. Pour it into the

skillet while the water boils. Let it boil eight or ten minutes. Throw in a large handful of

raisins to boil. When put in a bowl, add a little salt, white sugar, and nutmeg.

2. Mix two tablespoons of flour with cold water until it is smooth, and pour it into a quart

of boiling water, stir carefully, and let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes, add salt, loaf sugar

and nutmeg, to your taste. This is much more acceptable than the ordinary corn meal

gruel.

WATER GRUEL

1. Take of the coarse part of corn meal or grist, two hands full; water, 3 quarts; boil it till

only 2 quarts remain, then strain off the liquor, and season it to the palate with salt, sugar

and nutmeg, to which may be added a spoonful or two of wine.

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2. Take of oatmeal, 2 large spoonfuls; water, 1 quart. Mix them well, and boil them about

ten or fifteen minutes, stirring often; then strain the gruel through a sieve, and add sugar

and salt enough to make it agreeable to the taste. When it is designed as a meal, dissolve it

in a little butter, and then add bread and nutmeg, as occasion requires.

FIG PUDDING

Fill a soup plate with ripe figs, peeled and mashed very fine; to this add three

tablespoonfuls of sugar, half a tablespoonful of wheat flour, and a teaspoonful of butter.

Bake in a moderate oven.

Figs were a frequent item on the traders' invoices and steamboat cargo manifests. They would

be appropriate in most settings, either eaten raw, added to meat dishes, or made into a simple

pudding like the one above.

HASTY PUDDING

Boil water, a quart, three pints, or two quarts, according to the size of your family; sift

your meal, stir five or six spoonfuls of it thoroughly into a bowl of water; when the water in

the kettle boils, pour into it the contents of the bowl; stir it well, and let it boil up thick; put

in salt to suit your own taste, then stand over the kettle, and sprinkle in meal, handful after

handful, stirring it very thoroughly all the time, and letting it boil between whiles. When it

is so thick that you stir it with great difficulty, it is about right. It takes about half an

hour’s cooking. Eat it with milk or molasses. Either Indian meal or rye meal may be used.

If the system is in a restricted state, nothing can be better than rye hasty pudding and West

India molasses. This diet would save many a one the horrors of dyspepsia.

Hasty pudding was a perfect food for travelers on the early frontier; simple ingredients, quick

and easy, tasty and nutritious. Of course it was not only a campfire food. It was made and

consumed by New England aristocrats and Southern slaves and everybody in between.

Learning to make it should be part of a required course called Living History 101. The

addition of molasses is essential.

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Three-legged cast iron kettle or "bulge pot" which was the standard cooking vessel of the 18th and 19th Centuries. This example dates to 1800-1830 as distinguished by the pointed, down-sloping ears, the splayed, tapered legs, and the hand forged, folding removable bale.

CORNMEAL MUSH

1/2 cup Corn meal

2-3/4 cups Water

3/4 Teaspoon Salt

Sprinkle corn meal into boiling water, stirring constantly. Add salt and cook for about a

half an hour.

LEMON DROPS

1. Sugar, 2 pounds; tartaric acid, 1/2 ounce; essence of lemon, 20 drops. Make a saturated

syrup with one half the sugar and acid, then add the other half with the essence, and form

into drops.

2. Sugar, 7 pounds; essence of lemon, 1 drachm; sulphuric acid to acidify. Manage as

before.

I cannot recommend using sulfuric acid (battery acid!!!!) in food. Tartaric acid or white

vinegar will safely provide the necessary acidity.

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TO PREPARE MUSTARD

1. Mix an ounce of the best flour of mustard with a teaspoonful of salt; when they are well

blended together, add eight teaspoonfuls of cold water, a little at a time, and stir and rub it

well together with a wooden spoon, till it is quite smooth; the more pains taken in stirring

and rubbing, the better the mustard will be. Mustard is best if made only an hour before it

is wanted; and it will get dry and spoil in a few hours, if left uncovered.

2. Common Mustard. The most common way of preparing mustard for the table is to add

to the best flour of mustard a very little salt and a sufficient quantity of boiling water to

dilute it to the proper consistence, mashing and stirring it with a spoon till it becomes quite

smooth. Some people make use of vinegar instead of water.

3. Made Mustard. 4 tablespoonfuls of best English mustard, 2 teaspoonfuls white sugar, 2

do. Salt, 1 do. Pepper, 2 teaspoonfuls salad oil. Vinegar to mix to a smooth paste, one small

garlic minced small--Wet mustard with oil--add vinegar, &c., beat hard, put in bottles in a

cool place.

The "salad oil" in #3 above is olive oil.

COLMAN'S MUSTARD POWDER - Recipes for mustard have been found dating as early as

42 A.D. In 1804, Jeremiah Colman, a flour miller in Norwich, England, began milling

mustard seeds to produce mustard flour, the precursor of the paste condiment we call mustard.

In his day Colman's name became synonymous with mustard throughout the English

speaking world. Today, Colman's mustard is still prepared by the same process that Jeremiah

Colman developed. White and brown mustard seeds are ground separately and sifted through

a fine mesh to separate the husks and the bran from the mustard flour. After grinding and

sifting, the two mustard flours are mixed together and packaged in the red and yellow tins

which have changed little since they were first adopted in 1866. Prior to that it was packed in

small aqua colored glass bottles with paper labels. The Atkinson-O'Fallon Expedition (1824-

26) included two dozen bottles of English mustard among its provisions. English mustard

bottles have been excavated from the sites of Fort Atkinson (1820-27) and Fort Union (1830-

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67) and mustard is often found in the lists of goods delivered to and sold at frontier outposts.

Colman's Mustard Powder can be found at most grocery stores.

Early 19th C. London mustard bottle. One of the most commonly excavated bottles at frontier sites.

RICE PUDDING

"This afternoon ventured to a make a rice pudding, thought it very nice without eggs &

very little sugar." (Quoted from "Diary of Sarah White Smith" in First White Women

Over the Rockies, Vol. III edited by Clifford M. Drury, page 93.)

A Rice Pudding without Eggs. Pick and wash half a pound of rice, and boil it till nearly

done in three pints of milk; then add six ounces of powdered sugar, four of butter, and a

grated nutmeg; stir it till it is well mixed, pour into a buttered dish, and bake it in a

moderate oven.

At the 1838 rendezvous on the Popo Agie River, the missionary wives in attendance, including

Sarah White Smith quoted above, prepared rice pudding on at least three occasions to the

great delight of their dinner guests, among whom was Captain Sir William Drummond

Stewart.

APPLES IN RICE

Pare, core, and cut four or five good apples in quarters; boil some rice in a cloth, and when

soft put in the apples, tie it up very loose, and boil gently till sufficiently done.24

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