Country Kitchen: Pioneer Foods of Early America
By Mary Emma Allen
As a project to accompany my children’s story,"Sarah Jane’s Daring
Deed," about
a pioneer family in early New Hampshire, I began to research the foods
and ways of
cooking in those days.
Sarah Jane’s family lived in a cabin, one room with a loft. Her mother
cooked
over the fireplace. As Sarah Jane’s adventure begins, she’s picking
blackberries which
the family dries for winter food.
"What other foods do they eat?" students ask me. "How did Sarah Jane’s
family
acquire and prepare them?"
Early Foods
Since supermarkets and convenience stores weren’t on every corner and
towns
were few, the family had to raise and hunt for their food. In the story,
Sarah Jane, her
mother and little sister Lucy are alone because Father and brother
Stephen have taken the
oxen and wagon to the nearest town, two days’ journey, to get supplies.
On the way, they’ll take grain to the mill to grind into flour. They
might get a
barrel of molasses at the store. Farming tools that they can’t make will
be high on
the list and household supplies for Mother..
They raise most of their foods on land they clear. Other food consists
of game
they
hunt and fish they get from the stream. Mother prepares simple meals
with the food
from their farm or supplies Father brought from the nearest town.
Cooking Over the Fireplace
Nowadays we think it a pioneer task if we cook over a woodstove, as we
did
when I was growing up. However, the early pioneers had only a fireplace.
Sometimes in
summer they might even cook outdoors. The nearest we get to this is
cooking while
camping.
If we visit early American reenactments and museums, we may see the
pioneers
cooking over the fireplace, as my family and I did when we stopped at
Living History
Farms in Des Moines, Iowa and the Schiele Museum of Natural History in
Gastonia,
North Carolina.
GRANDMA’S CREAMED POTATOES - This is a recipe of my grandmother’s,
also one that Sarah Jane’s mother may have made for their meals.
Dice leftover, cooked boiled potatoes. Place potatoes in iron skillet,
called a
"spider" by my grandmother. (Any heavy frying pan or electric skillet
will do.) Add a
dab of butter (home churned on Grandma’s farm);
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over the potatoes. Pour in whole milk or
cream to
just cover potatoes. Add salt and pepper as desired.
Cook slowly over medium heat until potatoes are warmed through and milk
has
thickened.
Sometimes my mother varied Grandma’s recipe and diced an onion into the
potatoes before cooking. In season, she chopped fresh parsley over the
top or sprinkled
with paprika. Some modern cooks like to stir in 1/4 cup finely shredded
cheese before
serving.
(C) 2002 Mary Emma Allen
About the Author
Mary Emma Allen has been writing her "Cooking Column" for newspapers
and online publications for 30 years and
has compiled a family cookbook. She’s currently compiling a
cookbook/story book,
"Tales From a Country Kitchen." Visit her web site for more cooking
articles. Contact her at me.allen@juno.com
The Country Kitchen Series
Window to the World
Mud Season Means Spring!
Memories at the Kitchen Table
The Pioneer Kitchen
