Talk about shooting off your mouth. When the pioneers settled on the range, they'd sometimes use gunpowder to flavor their stew.
"If they ran out of salt, the little zing of potassium (in gunpowder) put it right over. It was part of their substitutes, which people got very proficient at," says Cathy Luchetti, author of "Home on the Range, A Culinary History of the American West" (Villard Books, 1993), a fascinating look at life on the frontier with stories, old-time recipes (chosen more for interest than actual cooking), memories and photographs."I'm interested in the social history of the people who lived there," Luchetti said of the books she has written on the West. "They're basically soft-cover documentaries."
"Home on the Range" is interesting both as a look at the resourcefulness of the pioneers and settlers and as a commentary on the importance of food as more than sustenance.
Although the pioneers started off with a full wagonload of supplies, they were usually reduced to working with whatever the land would yield.
And they were ingenious. Long before Ritz crackers made them famous, there were mock apple pies of sugar and chopped up crackers, soaked in vinegar, and baked in pie crust. Moss would stand in for eggs in custard. Vinegar, water, sugar and baking soda would substitute for lemonade. The substance that formed at the top of the milk sloshing in a bucket at the end of the wagon would serve as sour cream.
The food was notoriously bad - one dish of day-old biscuits seasoned with black pepper and sage was commonly called gosh as in "gosh, will we have to eat that again?"
Food was so scarce at times that pioneers would ration their supplies to get through the winter. One entry from Isabella Bird, an Englishwoman who traveled to Denver in 1873, talks about the vexing problem of feeding an extra mouth, an unexpected visitor to her quarters in the snowy back country.
"He is mad after food, and I see that Mr. K. is starving himself to make it hold out. Mr. Buchan is very far from well, and dreads the prospect of `half rations.' All this sounds laughable, but we shall not laugh as we have to look hunger in the face."
The problem nearly solved itself when Bird accidentally baked gingerbread with faded cayenne pepper instead of ginger and awoke to find the hungry guest choking and sputtering and unable to eat breakfast as usual.
Beyond a look at what the pioneers ate to survive, the book shows clearly the role of food as nourishment for the human spirit.
Over and over the pioneers would long for foods remembered from home or exult over a meal made of some unexpected find. "They missed white bread and white sugar the most," says Luchetti. "References to that come up constantly."
Holidays were made special by rationing supplies for days in order to make some cherished dish. As Bird recalled, "We have tea and coffee enough to last over tomorrow, the sugar is just done, and the flour is getting low . . . We spent the afternoon cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I made a wonderful pudding, for which I have saved eggs and cream for days, and dried and stoned cherries supplied the place of currants. I made a bowl of custard for sauce, which the men said was splendid; also a rolled pudding, with molasses; and we had venison steak and potatoes, but for tea we were obliged to use the tea leaves of the morning again. I should think that few people have enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner more."
Luchetti concentrates on food, she says, because she sees it as an agent of change.
"As all the cultures came together with the frontier as the focus, they mingled and the food mingled - the Easterners who wanted their meat lightly cooked with the Westerners who wanted it like shoe leather. . . . All the foods came together and mingled and reflected what America is all about."
Some of the foods became part of our vernacular. Sourdough bread is thought to date from this period, along with chicken fried steak. Luchetti's own personal favorite is roly poly, a dumpling originally from England. "Roly poly cooking was common. There were cherry, pumpkin, raisin - and I think they're really tasty. I think there could be a roly poly renaissance."
Here are a couple of old-fashioned recipes that they might have enjoyed on the trails west (including a stew without the gunpowder).
PIONEER STEW
2 pounds russet potatoes (4 medium potatoes), cubed
3 cups onions, peeled, cut in half and thinly sliced
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths
Salt and pepper
12 sprigs fresh thyme or 11/2 teaspoons dry thyme
2 pounds boneless blade steaks or 6 lamb shoulder chops
12 ounces prepared beef broth
2 tablespoons flour
Fresh chopped parsley
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a 3-quart casserole dish or heavy pot with a lid, arrange half of the potatoes, onions and carrots. Season heavily with salt and pepper. Top with 6 sprigs of fresh thyme or 3/4 teaspoon of dry thyme.
Place the meat on top of the vegetables and add the remaining potatoes, onions and carrots. Season with salt, pepper and remaining thyme.
Add beef broth and enough cold water to barely cover the top layer of vegetables. Cover and cook for 21/2 hours until the meat and potatoes are fork-tender.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of flour with 3 tablespoons water and stir until the paste is smooth. Add the mixture to the stew and stir well to dissolve.
Bring the stew to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until thickened. Discard the thyme sprigs if using fresh thyme and adjust seasoning. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and serve. Makes 6 servings.
- Recipe from: Idaho Potato Commission
ALMOST A ROLY-POLY
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup cold water
16 dried apricots
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender or food processor, cut in margarine or butter and shortening until the pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle water a couple tablespoons at a time over flour mixture and toss with a fork (or use food processor). Mix just until mixture is moist enough to hold together. Form into a ball. Do not over handle.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a circle about 1/8-inch thick. Using a knife cut out eight individual over-sized circles. Place two dried apricots in the center of each one and tuck the dough over it, forming dumpling-shaped bundles. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush the dumplings with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar if desired. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until dough is cooked all the way through.
- Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking Meredith Corp.
RHUBARB CRISP
4 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened sliced rhubarb
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
FILLING
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup orange juice or apple juice
Thaw rhubarb, if frozen. Do not drain. For topping, in a small mixing bowl stir together the oats, brown sugar, and the 2 tablespoons flour. Using a pastry blender, cut in margarine or butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set topping aside.
For filling, in a large mixing bowl stir together sugar, the 2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Add rhubarb and its juices and orange or apple juice. Gently toss until coated. Transfer filling to an ungreased 8-by-1 1/2-inch round baking dish.
Sprinkle topping on the filling. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the rhubarb is tender and topping is golden. Serve warm.
- Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking