“The reason so many Texas cowboys went north and stayed there was because they were tired of cornbread and sowbelly.”
– Teddy Blue
Grub Pile Poem Postcard from Legends’ General Store
On the Frontier Menu
Cookie at the Chuckwagon. Click for prints, downloads and products.
“Arbuckles Coffee and Canned Cow Won the West! “
— Unknown
Seasonings were basically bacon or salt fat, salt and pepper, and fresh herbs the settlers grew themselves.
Boiled Salt Pork
2 lbs salt pork
Assorted vegetables as available, chopped:
- Onions
- Potatoes
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Turnips
- Salt and pepper
- Water
Freshen salt pork by soaking in a kettle of water at least 2 hours. If very salty, repeat soaking.
Cut salt pork into chunks and brown in the bottom of a Dutch oven. Add water to cover and bring to a
slow boil. Add vegetables and cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper.
Only a fool argues with the cook. Poster available at Legends’ General Store.
Rabbit Stew
- 1 rabbit dressed and cut into serving pieces
- ¼ c flour
- Salt and pepper
- 4 T Butter
- 2 onions chopped
- ¼ c chopped carrots
- 1 c potatoes chopped
- Mixed Herbs
Mix flour and seasonings together. Coat the rabbit pieces with the mixture. Melt the butter and fry the rabbit pieces until browned. Put the pieces in a large pan and add the onion, carrot and potatoes. Cover with water and season with salt, pepper and herbs. Cover and cook for three hours.
Your website and recipes are so great! My son is having 4th grade Pioneer Day where they dress as pioneers, go to a farm, use pioneer tools, and have “school” in a one room school house old style. They have to bring a lunch that pioneer kids would have eaten and your recipes have helped me SO MUCH! I love them! Thank you!
Very nice indeed, thanks Kim!
I’m from an old Arizona Ranch family. I was taught how to make venison jerky about 1960, and it was basically your recipe, except out in the boonies we put chicken wire on top of a clothesline and sun-dried it. It was so refreshing to finally see an “authentic” jerky not made with soy sauce and sugar. Real jerky has salt and pepper. My son and I made a big batch yesterday. These days I use brisket instead of flank steak. Keep up the site! Thx! We’re doing biscuits and jerky gravy tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing Walter! That sounds yummy 🙂
Serving field mice today might send your guest running, but the pioniers ate what they could to survive. I eat things today that others would not eat such as raw Suarkraut and cultured raw milk.
I would love to try the jarred pickles that sit in the sun for two weeks