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.

Frontier Friday - How to Make Soap from Ashes

Making Soap from Ashes

(This is a museum piece only - and intended only to show how the pioneers made soap.  It is not practical for today)

Provide a leach cask, that is, one that is large at the top and small at the bottom. If this is not readily obtained, procure a hogshead that will not leak, have the head taken out at one end, and set it, propped forward a little, upon logs placed right and left, and high enough from the ground to set a pail under the front side. There should be a hole in the bottom, close to the front, with a tight plug in it. Lay in two or three bricks around the plug hole, and across them some bits of board, so as to reserve a space that will keep the ashes from packing close against the plug hole - also several bricks here and there over the bottom with straw or brush laid on them. Have your soap barrel ready.


Then have the ashes put in and pressed down, till the hogshead is very full. Scoop a hollow in the center in which to pour the water and then fill it with cold soft water, until it will hold no more. The next day, see if the water has settle away; if so, add more. When it is full, cover it up. Then pour into it 20 pounds of grease of all kinds, tried and rough, ham skins, and scraps, boiling hot. Stir it very thoroughly every day during the process.

Have the hogshead filled again, after three or four weeks draw off the lye, which will, this time, be comparatively weak; fill up the soap barrel, and continue to stir it daily for a week or two. The first lye being very strong, will completely eat up even the coarsest of the grease, and after three or four months you will have a barrel of excellent soap, fit for use.

A Holiday Meal on the Trail

The following are some pioneer recipes that were served on special occasions like holidays...many of them we still eat today!

Greens with Bacon and Vinegar

10 fresh greens (spinach, mustard, swiss chard, dandelion)
5 slices of bacon
1 T vinegar
Wash greens, remove stems, tear in medium pieces, Toss.
Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces.  Cook in Dutch Oven until crisp.
Add green to  2 T bacon drippings and cook until wilted 6-8 minutes.
Add bacon and 1 T vinegar and toss.  Serves 6.

(In Indiana growing up my Mother would make Wilted Lettuce with Hot Bacon Dressing...sounds very much like this recipe)
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Boiled Potatoes and Peas

3 large potatoes
4 slices bacon
1 c peas (thawed if frozen)
3/4 t dillweed
1/8 t salt
1/8 t pepper
Peel potatoes and cut 1/2 lengthwise.  Place in Dutch Oven add water to cover and boil.  Reduce to medium heat and cook 20 minutes until tender.  Cut bacon into 1 inch pieces and fry until crisp.
Reserve 2 T bacon drippings in skillet.  Cut potatoes into 1/4 inch slices.
Add potato slices and peas to skillet.  Over medium heat cook 4 minutes  turning gently 4-6 minutes.  Stir in bacon, spices.  Cook 2 minutes.
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Dried Apple Dumplings

8 oz dried apples
7 cup of water
3/4 cup brown sugar packed
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1 T lemon juice
Chop apples in pieces and combine with water, sugar, cinnamon and ginger.  Bring to boil.
Reduce heat to medium and simmer 25 minutes.
Add lemon juice, cook 5 min covered.  Remove cover and drop dumplings over simmering apples. Cover tightly over medium heat 15 minutes. (Do not remove cover)

The Dumplings
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 t baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup water
Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl.  Beat egg and water by hand.  Add to flour.  Mix with spoon until moistened.  Do not over stir.  See above on when to add to apples.

Serves 6
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Venison Stew


1 large onion
2 lbs. venison
1 T oil
4 cups beef broth
1/8 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 1/4 t marjoram
2 carrots
1 medium parsnip
1 cup chopped cabbage
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup water
Chop onion.  Cut meat into 1 inch pieces
Heat oil in Dutch Oven over medium high heat.  Cook meat and onions until browned.  Stir in 4 cups broth, spices, and cook 40 minutes on low heat, partly covered.  Chop veges in pieces and stir in.  Cook 1 hour.
Mix flour and water until smooth, stir into stew and cook 5 minutes until thicken.  Serves 7-8.
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Strawberry Ice Cream

1 pint strawberries
1 1/2 cup thick cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 t salt
1 cup canning salt
5 lbs. crushed ice.
Rinse strawberries, trim and slice in half.  Mash strawberries until smooth.  Add cream, sugar, and salt.  Blend until smooth.
Pour into coffee can, seal well.  Spread 2 inch layer of crushed ice in a large coffee can.  Set the smaller can with the strawberries in the middle.  Sprinkle 2 T canning salt on the top of the ice. Pack with ice up to 1/2 inch of smaller can height.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup canning ice on top. Pack ice to the top and sprinkle 2 T canning salt on top.  Seal larger can.  Roll back and forth slowly 5 min..  Carefully remove seal and pack ice  to the top again.  Sprinkle 2 T canning salt. Replace lid and seal again.
Repeat process of rolling and repacking 11-13 times.

(Obviously this was a summer treat, and one that would depend on the availability of fruit and ice...but it was such a cool way to make ice cream, I wanted to share it.)


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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.