Subject: Re: Pioneer Recipes

From: [email-masked] (David Forster)
Date: 6 Sep 93 17:00:01 GMT

This bounced when I sent it to [email-masked] (what's pge.com?), and it may be
of interest to others, so I'll post my reply (slightly editted) here:

Lots.  It's a good bet that the pioneers took with them lots of the recipes
they had back home, so any book on medieval cookery will do for pioneers
arriving in the 16th and maybe 17th centuries (not a lot will have changed from
one century to the next).  I'd suspect that some of those recipes will only
have been done in governors' mansions, though, considering the ingredients
called for.  My favourite books are `Pleyn Delit,' (Hieatt and Butler) and
`Fabulous Feasts' (Cosman).
The local pioneer village museum puts out a recipe book containing
recipes from around Confederation (1867); Here are a few recipes which grade
4/5's could probably handle:

  Eve Pudding

  4 cups (1L)           moist bread crumbs
  3/4 cup (185 g) each: currants, grated apple
  3/8 cup (90 g)        butter
  2                     eggs
                        sugar to taste, nutmeg

  Combine ingredients.  Put in a greased bowl and cover with grease-proof
  paper or foil.  Set bowl in a large kettle of boiling water and steam for
  3 hours, making sure pan does not boil dry by topping occasionally with
  boiling water.  Serve with rum sauce.

  [this may come originally from Wiltshire, I've a recipe in poem-form which
  is almost identical, publised in a booklet entitled `West Country Cooking.']

  Rabbit Stew

  1                     rabbit, cut up
  2 cups (500 mL)       flour
  4 tbsp (60 mL)        lard
  1 tsp (5 mL)          baking powder
  1/2 tsp (2.5 mL)      salt
                        vegetables

  Put meat, with bones, into a pot with enough water to cover.  Make a dumpling
  dough of the remaining ingredients and add in spoonfuls to the stew.  Cook
  over medium heat until meat is cooked and tender.  Add spices to taste and
  any vegetables you have on hand.
  Courtesy of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons

  [The teacher could cut up the rabbit, but should be careful not to cut
  him/herself - as I recall, rabbit meat can have odd bacteria which do nasty
  things to your system if they enter the bloodstream, but which cook out
  nicely.]

Both these recipes would be do-able over an open fire outdoors if you're
looking for realism (the *only* way to go!).
Warning: I have not tried either recipe, but they look very reasonable.

`From the Hearth' is another book published by a museum, this time in Nova
Scotia, at Louisbourg, written by Hope Dunton with AJB Johnston.  It's from
around 1744.  The back cover says it's from the `University College of
Cape Breton Press, P.O. Box 5300, Sydney, Nova Scotia. (902) 539-5300
B1P 6L2.' (That last will be a postal code.)  It's quite good in that it
points out some of the problems *they* had in doing it by the book, i.e., over
a wooden fire in a hearth.  Here's one item they list:

  How To Do Up Salt Cod

  Once a basic staple in the diet of millions, salt cod has now become more of
  a dietary curiosity.  But if you can still get it in your area I recommend
  your try it.  When buying the salted fillets follow the advice of Menon,
  author of La cuisinie`re bourgeoise: ``choose white meat, black skin, and
  large filltes.''

  For 3-4 persons

  1 lb salt cod
  2 tbsp butter
  2 tbsp flour
  1/4 tsp pepper
  1/4 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
  1 tbsp parsley (1 tsp dried)
  1 green onion, minced
  1 cup milk

  Cover the fish with cold water and leave overnight, or simmer for one hour.
  Do this twice, using fresh cold water each time.  When the fish is tender
  and not too salty, prepare a white sauce (p. 18) with butter, flour, pepper,
  milk, vinegar or parsley and green onion.  Add fish and simmer on a low heat
  for 15-20 minutes.

  (Page 18 instructs you to do the obvious: saute' the onion and parsley in
  the butter, then stir in the flour (with the pepper?), letting it bubble
  for a bit, and finally adding the milk gradually, whisking until the sauce
  is thickened.  It seems that the vinegar/lemon juice can be substituted for
  the parsley, though I think that's odd.)

  [Again, a warning that I have not tried this recipe, though I shall before
  too long.]

The book is interesting, but I'm not sure that a lot of recipes could be put
in the hands of school kids with great results.

Here are two more books which might be of use to you.  The first should be
in your local public library (put out by Doubleday), but the second may only
be available in Canada:
Hale, William Harlan, ``The Horizon cookbook and illustrated history
of eating and drinking through the ages,'' TX 631 H3.
Fox, Minnie C., ``The Blue Grass Southern Cookbook,'' originally published in
1904, reprinted by Coles in 1981; the recipes look older than 1904, though.

One last comment: since you're looking at Californian history, you might want
to consult old Spanish cookbooks instead of medieval English ones.

If all else fails, you could always try to get them to make bannock (talk
to a Brownie or a Girl Guide).

Good luck!
- David Forster
-- 
- David Forster
Dept. of Computer Science, CCB 126, York University,          [email-masked]
4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada

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From: [email-masked] (Ralph Griesenbeck)
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 22:48:28 +0000

"Arizona Territorial Cookbook: The food and lifestyles of a frontier"
by Melissa Ruffner with Budge Ruffner (Primrose Press, 815 Bertrand Avenue,
Prescott, AZ 86303 (602)445-4567) is recommended.  It has a lot of 
recipies along with lots of stories, diary excerpts and lore of
the frontier.  An excerpt from the cures section:

Snake Bite: Apply whiskey on and in the bite, or use warm horse manure to
draw out the poison.
One-half freshly killed chicken pressed against fang marks will draw out the
poison  - eat the other half.

Sore Eyes:  Dab eyelids with whiskey, then wipe with tip of a black cat's
tail.

Recipes include:

Mashed Potato Candy
Old Chicken Fried
Journey Cake
Hallowe'en Salad
Apple Roly Poly

Very entertaining and certainly of historical interest.
-- 
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Ralph Griesenbeck   Fusion Systems Limited
[email-masked]            38 Spital Square
+44 71 377 9009            London   E1 6DY
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< The opinions expressed are those of the author, not the firm. >