Growing up in Iowa, deeply rooted in generations of farm families, instilled in me a profound connection to the land and the origins of our food. For anyone who has experienced the stark reality of food production, like the unsettling sight of a chicken running headless after the axe, the understanding of food’s fundamental nature becomes deeply ingrained.
Pioneer survival was similarly intertwined with harsh realities, where sentimentality had little place in the essential task of food procurement. Nourishing a family was a relentless and demanding endeavor, both physically and emotionally taxing, particularly during the long, unforgiving winter months. The arduous westward journeys themselves were a severe trial. Journals from the time are filled with harrowing accounts of pioneers forced to consume their own oxen and horses, suffering from dehydration or contaminated water, succumbing to poisoning from toxic milk, or enduring the devastating loss of livestock to disease, jeopardizing their winter food supply. Upon reaching their homesteads, self-sufficiency was paramount. Settlers carried seeds to cultivate gardens and fields, raised chickens for eggs and meat, kept pigs for bacon, and cows for milk and, occasionally, beef. Access to a reliable water source was always a critical consideration.
Pioneers quickly learned to utilize the natural bounty around them, foraging for sustenance from the land. They gathered berries, native fruits, nuts, and edible bulbs. Virtually any creature with fur or feathers was considered a potential food source. While deer, buffalo, rabbit, turkey, geese, and duck were the most frequently hunted game, squirrel, opossum, cougar, wild boar, badger, raccoon, and even snake were all deemed perfectly edible. Squirrel hunting presented a unique challenge due to their small size. Larger caliber guns could destroy too much of the meat. The solution was “barking” squirrels – shooting the bark or wood beneath them, causing them to fall and be butchered without lead contamination. The famed mountain man Jim Bridger even proclaimed cougar meat to be the most delicious of all! And snake, even venomous varieties, was said to taste remarkably like chicken. The “Housekeeping in Old Virginia Cookbook” from the 1870s offers a fascinating glimpse into frontier cuisine, featuring recipes for wild game and less conventional parts of domesticated animals that might seem unusual today. Dishes like barbecue squirrel, calf’s head soup, baked sheep’s head, scalloped sturgeon, baked hog tongue, pig jowl and turnip salad, turtle soup, pigeon pie, pig head hash, tongue a la terrapin (turtle), soused calves’ feet, roast ox heart, calf brain pudding, and lamb brain fricassee were all part of the diverse and resourceful frontier diet.
To preserve their precious food supplies, pioneers employed various methods, especially for meats like beef, pork, chicken, venison, buffalo, boar, and certain types of fish. Smoking, curing, or jerking were common techniques. Curing involved soaking meat in saltwater brine infused with herbs and spices. Smoking was a slow cooking process over low charcoal or wood smoke, which imparted both flavor and preservation. Jerking was typically done with meat cut into thin strips, first cured and then air-dried under the sun. The frigid winters offered a natural advantage, providing a vast, natural freezer to aid in meat preservation.
It’s surprising to realize how many fruits and vegetables we commonly consume today were not originally native to North America. Wild fruit options were limited to varieties like wild grapes, blueberries, elderberries, mulberries, cranberries, pawpaw, wild plums, persimmon, chokecherry, and wild strawberries. Familiar fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, cherries, citrus, and even rhubarb were introduced by European and Chinese settlers. In fact, peaches, along with pigs, were among the earliest invasive species in North America. In 1539, Spanish Conquistador Hernando de Soto landed near present-day Tampa Bay, Florida, bringing with him 600 men, along with peaches and pigs. Both quickly spread, and Native American tribes soon cultivated their own peach orchards. Johnny Appleseed, a legendary figure in American folklore, is famously associated with apples, even though apples originated in Kazakhstan and are not indigenous to North America. He dedicated his life to planting orchards across Pennsylvania and westward to Illinois until 1845. Pioneers continued this westward expansion of apples, carrying seeds and saplings as they moved further west.
Corn, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, wild rice, tobacco, and certain nuts were indigenous to North America and cultivated by various Native American tribes before European arrival. Conversely, peas, carrots, celery, onions, white rice, and even okra were not native and were brought to the New World from elsewhere.
The Oregon Trail journey typically spanned four to six months. The provisions pioneers packed could be the difference between survival and disaster on the trail, and choices varied greatly based on individual preferences and practicality. James Miller’s 1848 diary entry detailed their food provisions: “We had… 200 lbs. flour for each person, 100 lbs. bacon, cornmeal, dried apples and peaches, beans, salt, pepper, rice, tea, coffee, sugar, and many smaller articles for such a trip.” Commonly, pioneers also packed approximately 80 lbs. of lard, 20 lbs. of sugar, and 10 lbs. each of coffee and salt per person, along with yeast, hardtack, and crackers.
Some pioneers even brought livestock to butcher along the way. Many included a milk cow and a few chickens for fresh eggs. Each morning, after milking, milk buckets were covered and hung under the wagon. The constant jostling from the unpaved roads churned the milk, creating butter by nightfall, which would then be skimmed off. The Dutch oven was an indispensable cooking tool due to its versatility. It could be used for baking bread, cooking soups, grilling meat, and preparing morning oatmeal. Most wagons were equipped with a “chuck box” at the rear, featuring a fold-down table and compartments for food supplies, utensils, plates, and essential cooking items. Large wooden water kegs attached to the wagon sides were refilled from rivers encountered along the route.
Given the physically demanding nature of homesteading, farming, and ranching, carbohydrates were crucial for maintaining energy levels. Breads, potatoes, rice, and other starchy foods formed the backbone of pioneer meals, providing sustenance for hardworking individuals. The staples of the pioneer diet were simple but filling: potatoes, beans, rice, hardtack (a basic biscuit made from flour, water, salt, and a touch of sugar), soda biscuits (using flour, milk, soda, and salt), Johnnycakes, cornbread, cornmeal mush, and plain bread. Butter was a prized addition that enhanced the flavor of many dishes. Fruit jellies added sweetness to breads and hardtack. Applesauce and boiled eggs were also common components of their meals. Savory and fruit pies, made with a versatile “101-year-old pastry” recipe of flour, lard, salt, egg, and vinegar, were hearty and satisfying.
Soups and stews were also prevalent, offering flexibility in utilizing available leftovers. In his 1910 book, “The Book of Camping and Woodcraft: A Guidebook for Those who Travel in the Wilderness,” Horace Kephart described a quintessential pioneer dish known as “Never-Go-Bad Perpetual Soup.” He wrote that it incorporated “all the clean ends of game — heads, tails, wings, feet, giblets, large bones — also the leftovers of fish, flesh, and fowl, of any and all sorts of vegetables, rice or other cereals, macaroni, stale bread, everything edible.” This soup pot was “always kept hot” and its “flavors are forever changing, but ever welcome.”
For desserts, custards, various bread puddings, rice puddings, hasty puddings, pies, and fruit cobblers were common treats. A simple pudding called “Spotted Pup” was made from rice, milk, eggs, salt, sugar, and often enhanced with raisins and nutmeg.
Scarcity of supplies and currency spurred creative substitutions in cooking. Molasses or honey served as sugar substitutes. Vinegar could mimic the acidity of lemons. Mashed, boiled beans, generously spiced with nutmeg and allspice, could create a passable pumpkin pie filling. Catharine Beecher’s popular 1873 book, “Miss Beecher’s Housekeeper and Healthkeeper,” suggested that “two tablespoonfuls of snow, stewed in quickly [to the batter] is equal to one egg in puddings or pancakes.” Another resourceful frontier cook discovered that “orange marmalade” could be made by boiling carrots in a sugary syrup flavored with ginger.
Even basic necessities like water were not easily obtained. Hauling water for household use, gardens, and livestock was a constant and arduous chore. Maintaining a fire with wood or buffalo chips was a never-ending, labor-intensive task. (A general rule was that a family needed a woodpile as large as their cabin to sustain cooking and heating throughout winter.) Daily chores included collecting eggs, milking cows or goats, churning butter, feeding chickens, and tending to horses and pigs, often performed twice a day, with milking sometimes required even more frequently. Baking was a daily routine, as was cleaning stalls for draft animals. Planting and harvesting seasons were periods of intense, all-consuming labor. Even after harvest, there was no respite: drying fruits and vegetables, and later, canning, followed. The introduction of the Mason jar in 1858 made canning feasible, but the process remained highly laborious. Butchering and preserving meat, through smoking or jerking, typically took place in the fall to prepare for the winter. Preparing for the long, cold months was a complex and crucial process, potentially determining survival.
Pioneer life was undeniably hard, and ensuring people were adequately nourished to perform the demanding work was equally challenging. A humorous old frontier recipe for “Buffalo Stew for An Army” illustrates the scale of cooking in those times:
- 2 large size buffalo
- Lots of brown gravy
- Cut buffalo into bite size pieces. This may take up to two months.
- Put in very large pot and cover meat with gravy
- Add vegetables as desired
- Cook stew over hot fire for about 4 weeks
This recipe, while likely exaggerated, underscores the immense scale and effort involved in feeding communities in the pioneer era. Pioneer Food wasn’t just about sustenance; it was a testament to resilience, resourcefulness, and adaptation in the face of immense challenges.
