Pioneer Meals

 

 

Prairie Meals

Pioneer Pancakes is a recipe nearly 140 years old and contains ingredients Maddie’s family could access in Kansas Territory.

Pioneer Pancakes

1 cup flour                                                  2 eggs

1 cup cornmeal                                           2 cups milk

3 teaspoons baking powder                        ¼ cup fat, melted

1and ½ teaspoons salt



Combine all ingredients; mix well. Fry cakes on hot, lightly greased griddle.

 

The midday meal could easily have been a stew or soup with some cornbread. The following recipe is over 100 years old. My aunt used hard-boiled eggs in a similar manner for gravy.

 

Chicken and Slickers (Noodles)

 

1-3 pound chicken                                      3 cups flour

Salt & 1 teaspoon pepper                            ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon poultry seasoning                    ½ shortening or fat

2 tablespoon butter                                     5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped 

Place chicken in large kettle; add water to cover. Add one tablespoon salt, and the pepper and poultry seasoning. Boil for about an hour or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from broth; set aside. Reserve seven cups of broth, adding water if needed. Sift flour, one teaspoon salt and baking powder into mixing bowl. Cut in shortening or fat. Work in ¾ cup reserved broth or enough broth to make soft dough. Roll out on well-floured board; roll out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into ¾ inch strips three to four inches long to make slickers (noodles). Bring broth to a boil in kettle. Drop in 1/3 of the slickers; add 1/3 of the eggs. Repeat layers, using all slickers and eggs. Reduce heat; simmer for about ten minutes or until slickers are done. Chicken may be boned and added in layers or served whole. Serves 6.

Dessert might have been part of the meal, too. Fruit pies and cobblers were favorites. Maddie’s family might have enjoyed this blackberry cake. 



Blackberry Cake

2 cups sugar                                               2 teaspoons cinnamon

¾ cup shortening                                        2 teaspoons nutmeg

3 eggs                                                         2 teaspoons cloves

1 cup unsweetened blackberries                 1 teaspoon soda

          and juice                                            1 cup buttermilk

3 cups flour                                                 2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream shortening and sugar together until light; add eggs. Beat well. Stir in blackberries with juice. Sift flour with baking powder and spices several times. Stir soda into buttermilk; add alternately with flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. Bake in greased and floured ten-inch pan. Bake in preheated oven got one hour and 15 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool; may frost if desired.