Book Reflects Old-Style Cooking

‘Preservation of eggs: since the bulk of eggs are laid from March through June, preservation of the eggs is necessary. Coat the eggs with melted lard; pack them in boxes in beds of bran or oats. Or pack the eggs in dry salt, small end down, and keep eggs in a cool place where they won’t freeze. One way to tell if the egg is good or bad when gathering the eggs for preservation is to hold the large end of the egg to your tongue. If it feels warm, it’s new; cold, it’s bad.”

When I read this in Barbara K. Luecke’s book, “Feeding the Frontier Army, 1775-1865,” I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s been good for many evenings of smiles!

And of course I applied the learning to my genealogy.

Luecke was a living history re-enactor at Minnesota’s Fort Snelling when she realized there was no manual issued by the frontier Army concerning the preparation of food. There were guides for what kinds of food and how much should be issued, but no official Army cookbooks.

Combining official Army information with period cookbooks, she came up with her book.

Here are some offerings.

Bacon Pie: Butter a large dish and alternate one-half pound of bacon slices with onions and dried apples. Season with brown sugar, add water to cover and top with a crust. Bake until crust is browned.

Succotash: Soak No. 1 white shelled beans overnight. Cook a couple of hours with dried meat or sliced bacon until tender. Add fresh corn cut from the cob. Onions may be added.

Stuffed Trout: Stuff the fish (make sure it’s gutted first) with any stuffing and sew up the opening. Put the trout in a buttered dish with any spices and some wine if available. Bake for 35 minutes.

Venison Pie: Prepare a crust for a two-crust pie. Stew No. 1 venison that has been seasoned with salt and pepper in a pot with enough water to cover it. Stew until tender, skimming it periodically. Take the meat out, reserving the gravy. Put the cooled meat into the crust, pouring the gravy over the meat.

To make the gravy: Add 2 oz. of Madeira, along with a sprinkling of mace and nutmeg. Sprinkle into the gravy three crumbled, hard-boiled eggs. Put the second crust over the pie and bake about one hour.

Maple-Glazed Turnips: Peel and slice 2 pounds of turnips, then cook until tender. In a dish, melt 3 spoons butter, 2 spoons mustard, and 3 spoons maple molasses; stir to coat turnips and bake.

Here’s a list of seeds purchased in 1821 for Fort Snelling: Yellow onion, red onion, blood beets, scarcity, turnip, yellow Swedish turnip, head lettuce, scarlet radish, salmon radish, carrot, parsnip, cucumber, early June peas, bush beans, early cabbage, winter cabbage, savoy cabbage, sage, red pepper, french turnip, watermelon, winter squash, summer squash, pepper grass, parsley and saffron.

According to Luecke’s book, breakfast call was sounded at 7 a.m. May through August; and 8 a.m. March and April, and September and October. November through February, it rang at 8:30.

The signal for dinner was always six hours after breakfast. An evening meal was not customary.

How do you think would you have survived serving at a frontier Army post?