Recipes
Death by Rolling Pin?
- Published June 10, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
Who knew a kitchen gadget, wielded by an angry wife, could cure a drunken husband? Businessman Francis Murphy of Omaha, Nebraska, “received” the cure in 1890.
Drinking with the Friars
- Published May 13, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
After moving to White Oaks, New Mexico, in 1886, Albert Zeigler was awaiting 10 gallons of “very fine wine,” as the pioneer put it, that ox teams were transporting from San Antonio. “When the keg came we were all so anxious to get a good drink,” he recalled, “but when we opened the keg you can imagine our great disappointment to find it filled with water. Someone had taken the wine out and filled the keg up with water.”
The “Crazy” Dose
- Published April 26, 2012
- Written by TWMag
“One of the most prevalent superstitions was regarding the burial of partially decayed materials under steps of the house of the person to whom one wished harm.
Summer Harvest Beer
- Published April 15, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
Ginger beer is the favorite drink in all parts of the country for use in harvest time, and is probably the very best for such use.
Salty Thieves
- Published April 16, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“Another Robbery, This One On the Yukon, Netted $7,000,” read the August 31, 1898, headline in The Helena Independent.
Hammin’ It Up Out West
- Published March 18, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
"All the cookin’ o’ course was done at the fireplace…. Later, when we got pigs, father smoked ham an’ bacon for the winter. First after the hogs was killed, he’d make a heavy salt brine, then he’d rinse the hams
Snake River Salmon
- Published March 13, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“While travelling along the Snake River, father secured a fine, large salmon from an Indian, and we looked forward to a good feast at supper time.
The Irish Influence
- Published February 11, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
"Reader, when at the big hotels, call for the dish on the bill of fare called, ‘fillet de bouf et pommes de terre hachis a l’Hibernais,’ and you will get the hash of the kind known to the unlearned as ‘Irish stew,’” wrote The Oregonian in 1870.
Harvey’s Happy Girls
- Published January 10, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“There is never any sick among the travelers along the Santa Fe line on the eating houses. These are all owned and managed by Mr. Fred Harvey....”
Sourdoughs, Claim Jumpers & Dry Gulchers
- Published January 07, 2013
- Written by Sherry Monahan
"I made a splendid batch of bread the day we came.... Besides the bother of making bread so often, we have to make the yeast here about once a week. It’s made of potatoes, hops, salt and sugar. One cupful of old yeast is put into it to start the new batch, which is then put away to rise in a large stone jar in a cool place.”
Mountain Man Grub vs the Forts’
- Published November 08, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“Our journey on will be still more difficult, on account of food. In a few days from this place, buffalo cease entirely, and no game is to be found in the country. To remedy the evil we have to dry and pack meat here for the journey.”
Fine Fruitcakes
- Published November 05, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
"Inmates of various boarding-houses shudder to think of the vast amount of turkey and fruitcake leftover from the feast of yesterday,” wrote San Francisco’s Daily Evening Bulletin of New Year’s Day dinner in 1873. The reporter added these inmates already know these leftovers will be “occupying a premium position on the dinner-table for several weeks to come.”
Berries, and I Don’t Mean Whistle
- Published October 04, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“…I helped put in the corn, and on the hills I picked green huckleberries to make a pie. I picked ripe huckleberries, walked a mile and a half to town, and sold them for ten cents a gallon. Blackberries too,” Rose Wilder Lane said.
Thanksgiving on the Frontier
- Published October 01, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“This is Thanksgiving, which is celebrated by us by partaking of a dinner of wild ducks roasted, stewed quails, mince pie and a very fine watermelon just picked from the vines, all of which we heartily enjoyed.”
Eating Along the Oregon Trail
- Published August 28, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“Should any of my readers ever be impelled to visit the prairies…I can assure him that he need not think to enter at once upon the paradise of his imagination,” stated Francis Parkman, an 1846 Oregon Trail pioneer, in his 1872 book, The Oregon Trail.
Hangtown Fry
- Published September 02, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“We had gone into Hangtown one night for provisions, when we heard that a great strike had been made at a place called Coon Hollow, about a mile distant. One man was reported to have taken out that day about $1,500,” recalled Edinburgh-born artist John David Borthwick, of his 1851 tour of Hangtown’s gold fields.
Parlez-vous francais?
- Published July 28, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
In the last 30 years, “...cookery has made immense strides thanks to the importation of French, Italian, German and English cooks, seconded by the efforts of travelled Americans who have learned that there are nutritious and palatable viands ...beyond pork and beans, fish balls, clam chowder and pumpkin pie,” reported Texas Siftings magazine in 1886.
County Fair Fixin’s
- Published August 06, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“At Healdsburg, the first county fair, we received a silver butter knife for the best butter,” recalled Mrs. Eliza Gregson, who had arrived in California’s Sonoma County in 1848.
County fairs began as a way for local farmers and ranchers to show off their prized animals, agriculture and the products made from both.
Beware of the Dung Tea
- Published June 27, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“Among the foremost of remedies ‘handed down’ in the family is the tea made of dung,” recalled Oregon pioneer Charles Banister.
The Corny Old West
- Published June 12, 2012
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“It was pretty tough in those times,” Mrs. Bell Mattison recalled about her years in Fillmore County, Nebraska, after she moved there with her family in 1868. “My mother had died, and my father had re-married.
Indian Fare
- Published May 24, 2011
- Written by Sherry Monahan
“We have cooking classes three days a week. The girls are taught to make all sorts of nice things to eat….
