If you’ve read the Little House series, your mouth was probably watering a good portion of the time. Hearty soups and homemade bread figured prominently in most of the books; Little House in the Big Woods was notable for maple treats and a huge supper at sugaring-off time; wild game abounded in Little House on the Prairie; and as for Farmer Boy—yum!
Perhaps you and your family wanted to try some of the old-fashioned cooking Laura Ingalls Wilder described so vividly. The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker will help you do just that.
This book explains old-time ingredients and cooking methods for the modern reader. While some of these ingredients may be hard to come by nowadays, some of them just might be accessible to those who raise gardens and livestock!
Most of the recipes are not quick or easy to make, but they are fascinating for their history. They remind us of a bygone day when meals were hearty and food was homegrown. They also provide uses for the produce of the woods, the garden, the field, and the barnyard. Consider some of these old-fashioned favorites:
- Johnny-cake.
- Corn dodgers.
- Roasted wild turkey with cornbread stuffing.
- Sourdough biscuits.
- Doughnuts.
- Buckwheat pancakes.
- Succotash.
- Pumpkin pie.
- Homemade sausage.
- Mincemeat.
- Homemade butter.
- Ice cream.
Are you hungry? If you have the time and the ingredients, you may want to explore some of the old-fashioned cooking in this book. If nothing else, though, The Little House Cookbook is a great source of information on food and cooking in the late 1800s. Enjoy!
Homestead on the Range 