Frontier Fridays: More Old Time Recipes - including Real Mincemeat.

Here are a couple odd ones I have found along with some more interesting ones...

Cracker Tea (for sickness)

Take 4 Boston crackers, split open and toast to a light brown on each side.  Put these into a bowl or earthen dish of some kind, pour over them a quart of boiling water.  Let it stand on the back of the stove for half and hour.  When cold, give two or three teaspoonfuls to anyone who is sick.  It is nourishing and the stomach will retain it when absolutely nothing else can be taken.
 (TOTAL YUK! LOL)

Crust Coffee

Take the crusts or any pieces of stale bread, and bake in the oven until hard and brown.  Put them into an agate or earthen tea pot.  Pour over them boiling water and boil 10-15 minutes.  Strain and serve hot like any coffee with cream and sugar. 
(Want to try this for your morning Joe?)

Mincement (The Real Thing)

4 cupfuls of Chopped Meat
12 cupfuls of Chopped Apples
2 cupfuls of Chopped Suet
1 cupful of Vinegar
3 cupfuls of seeded raisins
1 cupful of Currants
5 cupfuls of Brown Sugar
1 1/2 cupful of Molasses
6 Teaspoonfuls of Cinnamon
3 Teaspoonfuls of Cloves
1 Teaspoonful of Nutmeg
1/4 pound of Citron Ring
Juice of one Lemon
Butter the size of an egg
Salt.
Moisten with Cold Coffee or Strong Tea. Cook slowly for 2 hours.

Homemade Potato Yeast

4 good sized potatoes
1 quart of boiling water
2/3 cupful of sugar
1/3 cupful of salt
1 1/2 cupful of old yeast
Boil, peel and mash potatoes.  Add boiling water, sugar and salt.  If old yeast can not be obtained, use one and one half cakes of compressed yeast.  Put this into a pitcher or dish which will hold 3 pints.  Place in warm spot to rise, keep covered.  Use 2/3 of a cupful to one quart of flour. 

(This reminds me of the sourdough starter I used to make...)

Crab Apple Jelly

Cover apples with water and boil until tender.
Strain through a flannel bag.  Boil the juice twenty minutes.  Add the same amount of sugar, pint for pint, and cook 5 minutes.  Pour into tumblers, and when cold, cover with paraffin. 

(Their recipes were much simpler than ours today, weren't they?)

Next week...some Halloween type recipes  Enjoy!

Frontier Fridays: Homemade Shortening

Do not throw away small pieces of fat from pork, lamb, or steak.  Put them on the stove, in a skillet or agate dish and cook them until there is nothing left but scraps.  Then pare a potato, wash clean, cut into thin slices and cook in the fat for half an hour to clarify it.  Strain through a cloth.  This will be good for frying doughnuts in and for all purposes where shortening is involved, except for pie crust.

Pieces of fat, not fit for shortening can be saved in some old utensil and made into kitchen soup. 

note...My mother used to save bacon grease in a can on the stove...but this was way before her time it seems.

Frontier Fridays: Making Apple Cider

Exact Science of Making Cider - Frontier Recipe

A beverage made from the juice of the apple, and for which sour and rough-tasted apples are generally preferred. The process varies with locality, but the basics of fruit, expression, and fermentation remain the same.

• The Collection of Fruit - should not commence before sufficiently mature. The apples, after gathered, are usually left for 14 to 15 days in barn or loft to mellow, developing alcohol and carbonic acid content.
• Expressing the Juice - grind apples to pulp in mill consisting of two fluted cylinders of hard wood or cast iron working against each other. Pulp goes into coarse strong bags, pressed with heavy weight so as to squeeze out all juice. Then place in large, open tubs, keep at 60 degrees for 2-3 weeks for weak cider, 8-10 days for strong cider. "Rack-off" the liquor into clean casks or other cool place where low and regular temperatures are insured. Leave to mature and ripen until the following spring. "Re-Rack" if necessary. Use the refuse pulp for hogs and beef cattle.
• Bottling the Cider - clear and sparkling ready for bottle. If not, clarify and leave for a fortnight. Bottle and leave off any cork or top for a day to avoid risk of bursting bottles. If using right away, drop a lump of sugar into the bottle. Other cap, store in cellar as it improves with age.

Chow Time!

Twide a day, the wagon trains stops - for afternoon lunch and evening's supper.
All of our meals are cooked over an open campfire - with buffalo chips, sagebrush or weeds were used for fuel.

The staple food on the trail is bacon, bread, and coffee. Whatever we find in route is added for a balanced diet for a pioneer.

Game was hunted depended on location including - fresh buffalo meat, rabbit, sage hen, badger, prairie dog and rattlesnack.

Here is our nightly meal cooked up by both men and women in the group:

Buffalo Steak
Render some fat in a hot skillet. Add sirloin of buffalo steak and sear on both sides. At lower heat, cook meat until tender. For gravy, add a tablespoon of flour to the pan drippings and cook until brown. Stirring constantly add a cup of milk or water and bring to boil. Salt to taste.

Fried Cakes
Combine 1 1/2 cups of flour with 1 cup of water. Mix well with a fork. Using plenty of flour on hands, roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 2 inch squares. Render beef fat in a skillet and add squares of dough. Brown slowly on both sides. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Makes 20 cakes.

Dried Apple Pie
Soak 2 cups of dried apples in water overnight. Drain off the water and mix apples with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon each of allspice and cinnanom. Line 8 inch pie pan with a crust and add the apple mixture, dot with 3 tablespoon of butter and cover with a second crust. Make a few slashes in the top for ventilation and bake over moderate heat for 1 hour until crust is golden brown.

Butter was available on the wagon trains because the women put the cream from the cows milk in the pail that hung under the wagon. Along the rough trail, the pail rewarded us with butter for meals.

As one of my fellow travelers put it "our appetites are good, our digestion strong, and our sleep sweet".

Next time - night time entertainment.