What Pioneers ate on the Oregon Trail

Most people my age know one thing about the Oregon Trail, and that's that you'll probably die of dysentery, but it turns out there was a lot more to this 1,200+ mile trek west, including the fact that it lasted four six minutes. months and that you would have about 500 meals on a campfire. A lot of that would have been Johnny cakes and bacon. So thanks to Hellofresh for sponsoring this video as we try not to die of dysentery this time on Tasting History. So, for those who don't know, the Oregon Trail was basically a collection of wagon

trail

s that ran from Independence Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon.

And from 1846 to 1869, about 400,000 settlers, farmers, miners, ranchers and their families used it to cross 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) of desert grasslands and mountainous terrain. Now, it wasn't exactly a single road and there were people breaking off to settle in California or Utah, but usually about half the year there were wagon trains moving west on a common road, and the people in those wagons were known as immigrants and every morning at around four in the morning they got up and started to make a fire so they could prepare their breakfast, and one of the most common breakfasts was bacon, hoe cakes or Johnny cakes, which is a cake of corn, and coffee.

These Johnny cakes were very popular at that time, they had been since the 18th century, and they went by many names, including hoe cakes, but also Indian flour cakes or Indian corn cakes, which is

what

they call 'The Farmers and Immigrants'. he. Complete Guide' of 1856 mentions it written by Josiah T. Marshall, says: 'Take a quart of sifted Indian flour, two tablespoons of molasses, two teaspoons of salt, a little lard (shortening or butter), half the size of a chicken egg; Stir this, moisten it well with boiling water, put it in a well-oiled frying pan, smooth the surface and fry until golden brown on both sides before a quick heat.

Now you have instructions for making a fancier version with milk, cinnamon, and ginger, but I'm going to make this basic version because I have a feeling this is

what

most people would have eaten most mornings on the Oregon Trail. And honestly, if you need the fancy version, then the Oregon Trail probably isn't for you. I would choose something like a meal from current sponsor Hellofresh. Unlike the Oregon Trail immigrants who ate a lot of salt pork and hard crackers, Hellofresh's ingredients are just as fresh. They deliver boxes of high-quality ingredients directly to your home, so you don't have to go to the supermarket frequently.

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So to try Hellofresh, simply go to hellofresh.com or use my link in the description and use the code TASTINGHISTORYSWEET to get a free dessert for life. You'll receive a free dessert in every box while your subscription is active. That's TASTINGHISTORYSWEET at hellofresh.com for a free dessert for life. I'm sure the people on the Oregon Trail would have really appreciated a free dessert. Unfortunately, at least in the morning they only ate Johnny cakes and bacon. They had other things, but to make Johnny cakes and bacon you need 2 cups or 300 grams of fine corn flour, 1 tablespoon of molasses, 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons or 30 grams of unsalted butter and a little boiling water. .

And then you also need some fat to grease the pan, and the best way to fatten it up, and probably the way they would have done it, is to fry the bacon in that pan. It should also give the Johnny Cakes a nice bacon flavor. So first fry the bacon however you like. Then set it aside, but keep the fat in the pan. Then add the molasses, salt and butter to the cornmeal and mix everything by hand. Then pour a little boiling water and start mixing with a spoon. Now you decide how much water you add.

For a firmer cake, add about 3/4 cup water, but for a looser cake you can add a little more. It's not very specific about how wet this mixture should be, but it does say that it should be smoothed out on top. So if it's too loose you can't straighten it out, it just does it automatically, so I guess it's a little firmer. So make several round biscuits by hand, heat the fat and carefully place the biscuit into them. Unlike pancakes, which have little bubbles on the top that let you know when it's time to flip the cake, these don't. so you just have to look at it.

For me it took about 3 minutes on one side and then 2 minutes on the other side. So if we can make them, we obviously know that immigrants would have brought cornmeal, molasses, bacon, and salt. When butter time came, they often took a dairy cow with them and in the morning they milked it into a bucket and fastened it to the bottom of the cart, and all day long the pushing of the cart continued. Basically churning it into the butter they were going to eat that night, good fresh butter. But it wasn't all Johnny biscuits and bacon for every meal, so what else did those

pioneers

pack to take with them before they called the wagons ho?

It's the 1850s and you've just had trouble with the East Coast, so you're heading west on that confusing new Oregon Trail. Then you head to Independence, Missouri, where you pack up your covered wagon. These were not the really large covered wagons that were running on the streets of America at the time. No, these were smaller covered wagons known as prairie schooners, and you have to gather 4-6 months worth of supplies and pack everything into this rather small wagon. Fortunately, people who have gone before you have written general guidelines about what you may need and as far as food, which is my concern, for three people they say you should bring about five barrels or one of 1080 pounds of flour, 600 pounds . flour. pounds of bacon, 100 pounds of coffee, 5 pounds of tea, 150 pounds of sugar, 75 pounds of rice, 50 pounds of nuts, 50 pounds of salt, pepper and other seasonings and 10 pounds of saleratus or baking soda.

Other guides from the time say to bring about 200 pounds of lard, lots of dried beans, nuts and cornmeal, and of course about 120 pounds of hard biscuits. Many people also brought that dairy cow and also chickens for eggs. Now all this food was packed in barrels or, more often, in storage boxes that could be stacked on top of each other so that they didn't get too strewn, and could be used as chairs and tables, which was very useful if you didn't. I have no chairs or tables. Since there was no refrigeration, you would think that things like bacon and lard would spoil very quickly, but people would take that and put it in the barrel where the flour or cornmeal was, to protect it from the sun. , and that's how I would stay almost the entire trip.

In addition to food, you also had to bring some kitchen utensils. This usually meant a frying pan, pot, teapot or coffee pot, pewter plates and cups, and perhaps a reflecting oven that reflected heat from an open fire. Bake cakes and pies, but generally less is more when it comes to wrapping. In fact, there was a pioneer from that era who had made the trip before and scoffs at those who carry too much luggage. "They accumulated a surplus of bacon, flour, and beans, and besides every imaginable rubbish and useless article that the wildest imagination could devise, or that human ingenuity could invent, pins and needles, brooms and brushes, horseshoes and ox-shoes, horseshoes, lasts and leather, glass beads and bells, jumping jacks and jew's harps, rings and bracelets, pocket mirrors and pocket notebooks, calico vests and boiled shirts.

And many of these things would be left by the wayside in. the first few weeks. Obviously, the food you carry in your suitcase is not the only food you carry on the road. People walked most of the 15 to 20 miles they traveled every day because it was very uncomfortable to sit in the wagon, there were. a lot of potholes, something like that, so most people walked, so they consumed a lot of calories, so it was necessary to find extra food along the way. And in the early years there were no shops or trading posts along. route, but in the 1850s, Forts like Fort Kierney and Fort Laramie had stores where one could replenish their supplies or replace anything that might be broken, as long as they had them, and very often they didn't.

They usually had as little money as you, but if they did, you'd probably pay five times as much as you would in Missouri, because what else are you supposed to do? A much cheaper way to get food, although a little more difficult, was to go back to the roots, hunt and gather, and sometimes that meant real roots. Things like wild onions and garlic and something called camus root. Pioneer Phoebe Judson, writing about the American Indians she knew, said: “Camus root, a highly nutritious pear-shaped bulb, about half the size of an onion, was the main dependence on it.

It was to them what bread is to us: "the staff of life." After steaming the bulbs in a hole in the ground with hot stones covered with ferns, they dried them, this was their usual hunting diet." You could also go fishing, if you knew how and near a river, and if you didn't I don't know how you can do like Phoebe Judson and just trade for some fish "When we got to Salmon Falls on the Snake River, the Indians brought red meat salmon to camp... Mr. Judson traded some sugar for a good, big and since that night it was too late to cook it, we seasoned it and put it in the barrel of water under our car...

We were really so happy at the prospect of having salmon for breakfast that we couldn't sleep. .' But when they woke up the next morning, "our beautiful fish was gone, as was Mr. Bryant's dog." Since we didn't see him again, he apparently ate too much salmon for breakfast and paid the fine with his life.' As for game meat on the prairie, at least there were prairie dogs that were supposedly very fat, but also ducks, rabbits, geese, and sage chickens. They used these chickens to make a dumpling soup that most people seem to really enjoy, but one woman doesn't. "I think a skunk is preferable, its meat tastes like this horrible mountain sage." Of course, they were small creatures, good for a meal perhaps, but if you wanted to save some meat, they had big game like antelope and of course buffalo.

But the thing is, even a few buffalo or bison are going to be so much meat that you won't be able to eat it all in one sitting, even if you have a few hundred people in the caravan, so they would have to save. and usually that meant it had to be choppy. They cut it into strips and then hung it on a rope around the side of the cart, to dry in the wind as they went down the meadow. And one person said that he made all the cars look like they were decorated with red decorations.

Most people really enjoyed buffalo meat, but there is a story about a man who was given an old ball and I don't think the meat was very good. "It tasted like the 'chef d'ouvre' of the devil's kitchen, the most offensive meat I have ever tasted and so I found it impossible to eat it." But usually meat was very popular. Now immigrants on the Oregon Trail rarely had time to stop to collect more buffalo than they could eat or transport, but it was around this time that other people with more sinister intentions decimated the buffalo population in an attempt to destroy the source. of food. of the Plains Indians.

In 1864, near the end of the Oregon Trail era, an immigrant wrote: “Some of our men went today to hunt buffalo and antelope, but saw none. Although bleached buffalo bones are scattered along the road, no animal was seen. The unnecessary and wanton killing of these once numerous animals has nearly caused them to become extinct." The point is that it was not only the meat of the buffalo that both Native Americans and

pioneers

depended on, but also their excrement. .If you've ever seen the Great Plains, you'll notice that there aren't many trees and there isn't much firewood, so they would collect shavings or buffalo poop to make a fire and I think that's how it was, so it's dry, it burns very well and it doesn't.

It smells a lot." Many ladies are seen wandering around the meadow with bags in their hands, looking for some buffalo fries to prepare dinner. Some of the ladies are wearing gloves, but most have thrown them away and are picking up the buffalo. chipswith his bare hand." And with the dried buffalo dung in hand, it was time to get to work. And this is where the pioneers really impressed me, because especially in the first part of their journey, where they still had A lot of the ingredients they brought, they were making really beautiful, complicated meals. If not, maybe not fancy food, but complicated.

They always had fresh bread that could be leavened with saleratus, baking soda, or the new Preston baking powder. , there was no excuse for bad bread. And if they didn't have them anymore, they would make bread with salt, which is just genius. So, you know how a sourdough depends on yeast to build up and make the bread rise, and. bread with salt depends on bacteria. Usually the ingredients were just water, salt, flour and then a little corn flour or dried potato, and you had to keep it warm all day to be able to prepare it and then put that ferment in. or that starter on the front of the container. flowerpot. venturing where it was warm and the sun was shining.

And it started to rise and that night they were able to make fresh bread with it. Absolutely fantastic. But even more impressive than the bread was the fact that they made cakes and pastries there. There are letters that talk about fresh antelope pie, sponge cake, peach pie and apple pie, although apple pie was often made with dried apples, which in my opinion was not always the best, as in the time when it was said: " Spit in my ears and tell me lies, but don't give me dry apple pies." The food they seemed to love was the 4th of July dinner.

Part of it was that it was a big celebration on the 4th of July, but it was also about half of it for many immigrants, so they spent a little and used up a lot of the good things they had left. left. In 1849, William Swain wrote about the July 4 noon meal. "Dinner consisted of: ham; boiled and fried beans; biscuits; John's pie; apple pie; sweet pie; rice pudding; pickles; vinegar; pepper sauce; mustard; coffee; sugar and milk. Everyone enjoyed it very much. "The boys had gathered all the brandy they could and toasted and cheered and drank until the song was over and the brandy was in.

I went to our tent, took my pen and spent the rest of the day writing to my wife." Or at least that's what he told her she did, I'm sure. As it was a time when supplies were running out, at least the most luxurious comforts, of course there were people who had already passed through there. George Keller had “a Fourth of July dinner of stale, stale bread and rotting beef bones.” And Amos Steck said that for him it was like any other day and that he spent it "driving a slow team of oxen down a dirt road, with his eyes full and his throat choked... with no other refreshment than stale bread for dinner." and, besides, bad bread, he will feel little patriotic enthusiasm to stimulate him even on this Great Day.

Of course, these were the caravans composed almost exclusively of men, because it was the women who did most of the real cooking, he lamented: "I wish I had taken lessons in the art of every man, his own laundress, cook and general housewife, but whether you knew how to cook or not, it didn't really matter when you ran out of ingredients, whatever happened as you progressed." ' You finished all the delicacies we brought from home, and we had nothing left but flour, bacon, beans, sugar and tea, and like the children of Israel, my soul hated and craved these foods for something new...

The further away the more. The more we traveled, the meager our bills became. This was the time when the pioneers began to rely on things like buffalo jerky, hard biscuit, and portable soup. This was something in which the meat and bones were boiled. of an animal until it became a gelatinous layer at the bottom of a pot. You cut it up and let it dry and then you take it and then you put it in some water and you make a soup. It looked like a bullion cube. something called a 'meat cracker'... pound contains the nutrients of five pounds of the best fresh meat... keeps perfectly longer in airtight cans or barrels...

The traveler on the other side of the plane always has access easy and fast. to a fresh supply we have food.' The problem with the dwindling food supply not only made everyone very hungry but also depressed because when you travel every day it is a bit boring and monotonous all day and the only thing people were looking forward to was their next meal. It was the best part of the day, even in the harshest conditions "This morning we had breakfast in the middle of a snow storm and, although the outlook seemed rather gloomy, we remained cheerful and our provisions, covered with a crust (not sugar), . but with the snow, it certainly disappeared in a way that made it clear that we hadn't even lost our appetite. "If we were to experience all the pleasures of a blizzard on the open prairie." It was also around this time that they ran out of lemon extract.

They often added lemon extract and maybe a little sugar to the water to make a sort of lemonade. because the water was not tasty It was difficult to find anything resembling clean water, but especially on the prairie everything was covered in dust. All their belongings, themselves, their food and their water were trapped in the dust, so they often added aluminum ammonia. sulfate to the water, which would help purify it, but it tasted absolutely horrible. If they didn't have that, they just put cornmeal in the water and waited 20 or 30 minutes, and when the cornmeal settled to the bottom, they took it. . getting them very dirty when they came across Fort Laramie, also called Camp Sacrifice.

This was the last major stop before crossing the Rocky Mountains, and as hard as it was for the oxen to drag your butt across the Great Plains, it will be even harder for them to drag it across the Rockies. So everything that was left had to be thrown away, and I don't mean things like books and fine china, and things that are not really necessary even if you got rid of them, but in some cases even things that were necessary if it was considered too much. heavy. There was a caravan that needed to lighten the load and so they threw away "a ton of bacon, several barrels of bread, six dozen steel shovels, axes, hoes, etc., etc., valued at almost $1,500." I also like the way they wrote etc, which was the C sign, because et in etc literally means "and".

I just think it's cool, I don't think anyone writes that anymore, now it's just etc. Anyway, one thing someone had to throw away makes them cry. "A man named Smith had a wooden rolling pin that was decided to be useless and should be left behind. I will never forget how that great man stood there with tears streaming down his face as he said, 'Should I throw it away?' It was my mother's. I remember she always used it to spread her cookies and they were very delicious cookies." It is truly amazing what these people have gone through and what they have given up to start this new life.

And I don't just mean giving up their mother's rolling pin, but giving up everything they had left behind. Many of these people would never again see the family and friends they knew back east and I don't think I would have been able to do it. I honestly don't think I could have lasted long living a lot, traveling a lot, and eating a lot for six months. Maybe a week. I think I could have lasted a week, maybe two, if these Johnny Cakes tasted as good as they smell. And here we have a pioneering breakfast of Johnny cakes and Oregon Trail bacon.

Sometimes people put honey, syrup, or more molasses in them, but I'm going to try them, still hot, as is. Here we go. So the texture is a little bit, not dry, it's almost grainy, but not unpleasant, but it's a little grainier than I would like, but the flavor is really good. In fact, I expected them to be bland, but they're not. It's... you know, it's kind of like cornbread, cornmeal, it's like cornbread and molasses mixed together for a little bit of sweetness, but the fact that it's actually fried in bacon grease, it's very tasty and you get a very, very nice bacon flavor.

Reminds me a bit of a 19th century version of McDonald's McGriddle. In fact, I think I'll like these. This is something I could eat one or two of. They're a little bit... I think they're a little bit denser than a fluffy pancake because there's nothing in there to make it rise, no leavening agent, so it's a little bit heavy, but it comes with bacon and bacon. Of course it's just bacon, but it's actually fatty bacon because that's what they would have had, so I bought the thickest one I could find. And it's really good. And how cool is this fork?

I bought it in Townsends, they have a lot of really interesting things from this period, mostly more 18th century, but I thought it fit. Plus, it looks great. So I think this is something you should try. It's definitely worth swapping some of the water you know for milk or just playing around with it. You can add some spices to make the version fancier, but still, the main thing you know if you're crossing the prairie and you're really hungry is that it's a great meal. So give it a try, don't die of dysentery, and we'll see you next time on Tasting History.