Pioneer Recipes Everyone Should Know How To Make
Have you made some pioneer recipes your ancestors made many years ago? They didn’t have the ingredients we have today, so they had to make do with what they had. And make do is what they did for sure. They had to fill the belly because they were traveling in covered wagons, in most cases, with limited access to the General Store, back in the day.
Whether it was the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, or other destinations as a goal, times were tough when it came to meal planning.
Plus, even when they got to their destination, it could have been months or years before regular food supplies or merchant stores were readily available to them to purchase ingredients to make their favorite dish.
I sometimes think we’ll be making these recipes once again if and when we have a grid down, additional disasters, or whatever you believe will happen. And they will happen, trust me.
As an example, our power grid in the US is so outdated and will take years, actually several years to replace, if it can even be done. Power outages are reported almost daily somewhere in the US.
These pioneer recipes are pretty well known, but I want to put them in printable form so you, my readers, can print them now before you need them. This is a post I wrote some years ago, but I felt the need to update it now based on the challenges I’m reading on social media and hearing about on the TV.
Of course, if you cook from scratch you know several recipes to get you by if the grocery stores are shut down for days, weeks, or months.
Typical Ingredients:
- Cornmeal
- Salt
- Baking Soda
- Molasses
- Buttermilk
- Eggs
- Rice
- Raisins
- Vanilla
- Cinnamon
- Baking Powder
- Oil/Lard
- Flour
- Brown Sugar (1/4 cup molasses per one cup white sugar)
- Potatoes
- Milk or Cream
Pioneer Recipes
Mormon Johnny Cake
Bread is a staple in every era we read about. We all love bread as comfort food and something we know will fill us. If you have an iron pan or skillet you can cook a host of meal options at home, or out in the open.
The batter mixture for this recipe is pretty simple and easy to throw together if you have a small bowl to use, a spatula, and all the ingredients available.
- 2 cups cornmeal
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 tablepoons molasses
- 2 eggs (optional for fluffy cake)
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Combine the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk and molasses.
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Add eggs if desired. Cook in a hot greased cast iron pan for about 20 minutes on high heat.
Spotted Pup
Breakfast is an important meal no matter who you are and when you live. I really love using a Dutch oven to cook meals, and this is a great example. The ingredients in this recipe make for a flavorful and sweet meal option everyone will enjoy!
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1-1/3 cups milk
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
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Preheat a seasoned Dutch oven and add ingredients as stated.
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Stir the eggs in quickly or you will have scrambled eggs. Cook until the eggs are cooked through.
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This was served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This recipe makes a bowl of sweet rice and fills the belly.
Soda Biscuits
My family made soda biscuits all the time. There is something awesome about making homemade biscuits. Did you grow up making them? I sure did. We would lather them with butter and homemade jam.
We would also make bacon gravy or chipped beef gravy to pour over biscuits a few times each week for dinner. As long as you have some flour available you can mix up a bread of your choice, and biscuits are generally liked by family members of all ages.
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup oil
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Combine the ingredients, and roll them out onto a floured board. Cut with an un-floured biscuit cutter.
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Bake in a Dutch oven or on an ungreased cookie sheet bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Honey Candy
My church group used to pull this honey candy all the time. Those were great times when people socialized with one another. I miss those days. Having something sweet to look forward to is always welcome after a hard day on the trail or in the office.
This recipe is fun to make as a family team whether around the kitchen table or the back of a covered wagon.
- 2 cups honey
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup cream
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Combine the ingredients and cook to a hardball stage.
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You can test the syrup for a hardball stage by drizzling a small amount into a cold cup of water. If a ball forms quickly it's ready.
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Pour onto buttered platters.
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Let it cool until your greased hands can start pulling it in sections to a light golden color. Cut into pieces.
Potato Cakes
One of the recipes my family made all the time. It’s truly a cheap and filling meal. I grew up drizzling honey on mine. How did you eat yours? Life is so good with good friends and delicious food, isn’t it?
- 6 potatoes, peeled and grated
- 1/2 cup milk or cream
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 cup flour
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
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Combine ingredients and scoop a 1/8 cup onto a greased hot griddle.
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Turn the potato cakes halfway through cooking so each side browns.
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Bake until light and golden brown in a greased cast iron pan. I grew up serving honey over my potato cakes.
Norwegian Lefse
Lefse is one of my favorite recipes made by my great-grandmother, Danny, one of my pioneer ancestors from Norway. I love my Lefse spread with butter and brown sugar. My family prefers white sugar. My mouth is watering right now.
It’s all about memories, right? My husband hadn’t heard of Lefse until I introduced him to this recipe. When our kids were young we’d make it on weekend mornings, and they loved it! My Lefse Post
- 4 cups mashed potatoes
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 cup sweet cream
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup flour (approximately-enough to roll lefse thin)
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Boil the peeled potatoes, and mash very fine and fluffy.
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Add the cream, butter, sugar, and salt. Beat again until light and fluffy. Add flour just before rolling out.
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Roll a piece of the dough as for pie crust, rolling as thin as possible.
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Bake in a frying pan until light brown, flipping to cook both sides. When baked, place them on a plate with a cloth between them to keep them from drying out.
Bacon or Sausage Gravy
Biscuits and gravy are a personal favorite that I probably eat more than I should. This is a combination I grew up with because they were cheap to make and my mom could stretch a meal with more flour and milk.
I actually went to several restaurants with a friend when we lived in Southern Utah to see who made the best sausage and biscuits. We decided it was a restaurant called Black Bear Diner. They were awesome!
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 gallon of milk
- 1 pound bacon or sausage
- sugar to taste (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
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Grab a frying pan and brown the bacon or sausage. Set the meat aside.
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Add the butter to the same pan and let it melt.
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Add the flour to make a roux with the butter and bacon grease. When the roux is smooth, add the milk and stir until completely cooked through.
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Add the bacon bits or sausage pieces. Salt and pepper to taste. I add a little sugar which is optional.
Some other old-time recipes you may want to research and make are hasty pudding, cornmeal mush, hard tack, Mormon gravy, corn dodgers, beef jerky, pemmican (dried meat), and a US favorite, apple pie.
Final Word
I feel strongly about learning to cook inexpensive meals because I believe hard times are coming. Please teach your family how to cook from scratch. Learning how to cook these pioneer recipes would be a great start for any family wanting to be thrifty and self-reliant during tough times as all preppers do. Thanks for prepping. May God bless this world. Linda
Thank you for these recipes and reminding us to use more basic ingredients. For years where I lived corn meal was unavailable, when we moved back to the USA I made my husband fish cooked in corn meal. He loved it! I have been making my own bread since I took a bread making class in January, it feels so comforting and I know I can bake my own in an emergency. I plan to try some of the recipes you posted last week when I make my new batch of bread.
Hi Linda, oh my gosh, you took a bread making class!!! I love hearing this, you are so awesome!! I love corn tortillas so much, I need to make some very soon!! Linda
I’ve got the Mormon Trail Cookbook. Have you seen it? It’s got a lot of really good recipes like these.
How are you and Mark holding up in your cold snap? You ready for the 3 to 6-inches of snow you’re supposed to get? We’re supposed to get 1 – 2-feet up here.
Stay warm and stay home, if you can. Big hugs, Mare
Hi Mare, I better look for that cookbook!! We are doing great, what a year for snow!! I’m on the hunt for that cookbook! Great tip! Stay warm, my friend! Big Hugs! Linda
I got my copy of the cookbook when it came out about 20 years ago. It’s ridiculously expensive, now, on Amazon. I looked around and the best prices I found are at abebooks.com. The reasonably priced copies are used, but I’ve had good luck purchasing from them. The sellers give good descriptions of the condition and most offer free shipping. Here’s one in very good condition for $5.66 and free shipping. The seller’s in Logan, so you would probably get it right away, as well. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30177996618&searchurl=kn%3DMormon%2BTrail%2BCookbook%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2
Mare, thanks for the link. Yikes, the one on Amazon was out of site moneywise!! Linda
You’re very welcome my friend! Big hugs!
Google Mormon Trail Cookbook, and you will several for under $10. Thriftbooks dot com was one of them.
Hi Anna, thank you! I bought the one Mare told me about!! Free shipping and under $6.00. I can’t wait to get it. Linda
I cannot think of a better feeling than being prepared… I recently purchased a book titled..” The Lost Ways”…filled with information from the pioneer days & how they survived on little or nothing while crossing in covered wagon… &.. trying to survive on the land… great book..
Hi Tom, I love hearing about this book!! Thanks for the tip! Linda
Dear Mare and Linda: I so appreciate your posting info. on the Mormon Trail Cookbook! Was able to order one from Abe Books, a brand new copy, in fact! What a great find, thanks to you 2!! I am enormously grateful to find such a cookbook that has old-fashioned recipes that are hearty and simple to make and still healthy. We are definitely not Mormon, though I must say we live only 20 mins. for the giant Hill where Hill Cumorah used to be performed every year for decades!
Unfortunately for us, my two guys get sick when they eat eggs, so many recipes will not be useful to us unless it is a baked good recipe where I can use a substitute. HOWEVER, I am mightily impressed with so many other recipes, it feels like Christmas! Thanks again and again! I am considering making the Salmon Chowder recipe this afternoon, now that Central New York is getting cooler. I think we will be in the 60s all day today…zero signs of snow over here yet, though. As a matter of fact, they are not predicting our first frost until next week… but we are not in nor near mountains…just a bunch of lakes!
With all of those yummy-looking Mormon Recipes, I can even imagine using up some of the wad of medium Pink Lady Apples we harvested for the first time this Fall in some of those recipes. Oh, my gosh, those apples are the BEST!! YAYAYAYAY!! That means we will be babying that young tree next Spring-Fall, to see if we can get some larger ones next year! 🙂 Say, Linda: Do you have any old posts about how best to care for fruit trees as part of prepping?? Thanks in advance if you do!!
Best always,
Joyce
Hi Joyce, I love your comment about the Mormon Trail Cookbook! I love Pink Lady Apples, but I have no experience on pruning trees. It seems years ago we sprayed a dormant spray but that’s all I remember. I would go to your local garden nursery or purchase a book. I prefer hands on training but that’s me. If there is a book with pictures I could do it. Linda
Shouldn’t “Soda Biscuits” be made with Baking SODA instead of Baking Powder? I don’t know. Just asking.
Hi Appy Horsey, yes thank you for letting me know. I was trying to decide between the baking powder biscuits and the soda biscuits. Some times I have way too much going through my mind! Thanks for the heads up!! Linda
Hi, Linda ~
Love the recipes! We made the rice dish weekly as I was growing up. Mom used white sugar rather than brown. Personally, I didn’t care for it but if in a grid down situation, I would totally make and eat it!
I grew up making everything from scratch and still do to some extent! One thing readers should know about gravy: bacon and sausage are wonderful but, you can use the gravy with/to stretch just about any meat and vegetables. We often had hamburger gravy on biscuits or potatoes; tuna gravy on same; asparagus on same when we only had a few spears of asparagus to feed a family of 5; creamed peas and potatoes – we used the same gravy mixture to make the “cream” sauce; you get the idea.
Every year at Christmas time, we made Honey Taffy from a recipe that was handed down in our family for generations. We also made a molasses taffy.
Something that people should also know how to do is make their own confectioners sugar. If we are not able to purchase the convenience food products, there is generally a way to do this at home. If you have white sugar, you only need to break it down further to a powder. So, if the grid is down and we have no electrical power, having a mortar and pestle will be something to have on hand. You would grind white sugar until it is a fine powder – this will take time but it is something that likely would only be used for special occasions like birthdays or holidays. And it is something that kids can do.
If one looks on Pinterest, there are any number of old time recipes that we should know about. It drives my daughter CRAZY the amount of paper & ink I go through printing out things like this. I tell her that if SHTF, I want hard copies of how to make things that are not in my brain! Of course, if I had the need to leave my home, this binder I have would not likely be going with me. SO, if I have time to gather some of my food storage to take with me, I made copies of a lot of the recipes and have them in a #10 can in a small flexible binder.
Hi Leanne, great tip on printing the recipes. We must have some cheap recipes to make when things go south. Great comment! Linda
Surely one ingredient the pioneers had must have been vinegar. It’s so usefulness!
Hi Linda, I’m glad you pointed this out. There is a 101-year-old (not sure how accurate the years are) pie crust that uses vinegar. Great comment! Linda
Hey, Linda: My long-past deceased Grandma recited a bunch of her recipes to me a few weeks before she passed. One was the pie crust recipe that uses vinegar, which was raved about like crazy by a chef we know. I think that recipe was probably also over 100 years old, as she passed around 1975 at age 83???
Unfortunately, we have to do gluten free flours anymore, so I don’t make that pie crust recipe for our family anymore. Instead, when we eat something like that, it is a dessert cobbler, made with Pamela’s Baking Mix with 1 cup of Org. Coconut Flour added in over top of the Bumbleberry Cobbler fruits topped with a sprinkle of Ginger, 1 Stevia Packet (because it contains Rhubarb), and a couple of small slices of butter. It is AWESOME!! Top the “breading” part with a sprinkle of Org. Powdered Ginger on top, and WAH_LAH!
Hi Joyce, what a blessing you were able to get Grandma’s recipes before she passed. It’s critical that everyone get their favorite recipes from friends and family members before they are gone. Now I want to make some cobbler. LOL! Great reminder, Linda
I apologize ahead of time because this is a rather long post: RECIPE….The “bumble berry cobbler” which is renown in our area, where there are SO MANY apple orchards and berry farms, vineyard, etc. is what I generally make over here. If any one wants to know how to make a bumble berry pie or cobbler, the fruit part is made up of a “jumble” of raspberries, blackberries, black raspberries, purple raspberries (or just use WHATEVER you’ve got) along with sliced apples and rhubarb. The apples are often so sweet, the only sweetener that is needed is a tiny amt. of whatever you are used to using..we use 1 packet of stevia. That’s all it needs! THEN, we add in a couple of tblspns. of organic cornstarch to thicken while it bakes and a few sprinkles of ginger powder. I am allergic to cinnamon, but prefer the ginger anyway, so that’s a large PLUS in our book. Thrown a couple of small chunks of org. salted butter on top, and you will not believe how great this cobbler is. IF you prefer, you could add one small shake of sea salt, too, to adjust the flavor. As I said earlier, we have to do gluten free, so I used Pamela’s baking mix with some coconut flour added in and maybe another 1 packet of stevia…if I remember!! The coconut will make the cobbler “breading” need a little more water than any biscuit recipe would call for, but this stuff is AMAZING! If you are a baker at all, it should be easy enough to figure that part out… Hope you all love it. 🙂 My family loves this more than they do any sort of cake or pie!! GREAT for celebrations…I think I will take this to our “Amish family” down in PA to celebrate our surrogate grandson’s 10th birthday next weekend. 🙂 The father of this young family is only 1 year older than our oldest, so we feel like “almost grandparents”, though we’ve always stuck with “Aunt Joyce” and “Uncle Bob”. Their 3 kiddos are the closest thing we will ever have to grandkids, so we treasure each one of them!! The oldest who is now 13 1/2 was about 3 1/2 to 4 when we first met them and became like family with them…even drove them down to their adorable “new home” about 6 1/2 years ago, when they moved to Amish Organic Farmer Country that supplies the Pittsburgh Whole Foods with their organic produce!! CAN HARDLY WAIT TO SEE EVERYONE AGAIN!! Pretty much all of their neighbors and family down there know us by now, too, which is SO SPECIAL!! 🙂 It will also be a huge blessing to buy a 1/4-1/2 bushel each of “Glenwood peppers”, if they still have them. I make an Asian Ginger Garlic sweet pickled pepper with those, which are great and easy over baked chicken. PLUS, we will get other 1/2 bushels of sweet potatoes and some organic garlic and maybe a few other types of veggies. After having 3 tiny hills of butternut squash produce 27 butternuts this year, we are NOT looking for as much produce from them as usual, cause there’s NO PLACE to put everything! We thank God and are totally shocked with all the food He has provided for over winter this year, and we have friends at church who are sayin the same. Must be we will truly be facing some shortages and OUR HEAVENLY FATHER is supplying all of our needs ahead of time, PRAISE THE LORD!
Have a good one now, and please stay away from major cities at this time, as there are lots of FBI and others warning about terrorist attacks in 40 American = cities. I pray that God breaks apart, totally destroys and turns off any attacks before they even happen!
Hi Joyce, Oh my gosh, I am going to try this recipe! I love cobblers! I think many families have been blessed this year with abundant harvests. We can’t take these for granted because I totally agree with you we will see many terrorist attacks. We must pray for all major cities, friends and families who live in those areas and of course our emergency responders. God Bless our world, Linda
I meant Useful. Thanks spell check. 🙁
Hi Linda, I knew that!! 🙂 Linda
Dear Linda L.: I apologize for omitting a few extra berries that go very well in the Bumbleberry Cobbler or Pie recipe: You can also use with great success…orgranic strawberries and/or sweet cherries. Personally, we only eat organic versions of those two berries/fruits, due to the massive amt. of toxic sprays used to grow those. Really, you could use almost any sort of berry/fruit you wish in Bumbleberry Pie! The only thing would be if you choose to use some fruit that is extremely sour, you’d need more sweetener than what we use.
Hi Joyce, thanks again for the 5 stars, my sweet friend! Oh my gosh, I want to make that Bumbleberry Cobbler or pie! I love anything with berries!! Yummy! Thanks for the tip on extra sweetener if the fruit is sour. Linda
Vinegar was a staple in pioneer homes. It was useful for more than just pickling! One thing that pioneers made was shrub using vinegar and fresh fruits like apple, rhubarb, peach and berries. My daughter makes shrub every year. Then, she mixes some shrub with tonic water or club soda and ice. It is very refreshing. You can also mix it with water.
Vinegar was also used for cleaning just like many of us have gone back to since it has no harsh chemicals.
Hi Leanne, great comment about vinegar. Linda
LEANNE: PLS. give us all a recipe for you/your daughter’s “Shrub”, as I do not know of any recipes, even though I have heard of such a thing in the past. Thank you!
Jess ~ Shrub is so easy to make!!
My daughter’s best is Rhubarb Shrub – tart but also sweet! Her basic recipe is to fill a jar – pint or quart with finely chopped fresh rhubarb, a cup of sugar and a cup of vinegar. She places the rhubarb in the jar with the sugar and shakes it well. Then lets it sit on the counter for several days – 4-5. She shakes the jar several times each day. She also presses the mixture to release juice. After the 4-5 days, she strains the mixture and presses as much juice out of the rhubarb as she can. Then she adds apple cider vinegar – equal parts with the juice. So if she has 2 cups of juice, she adds 2 cups of vinegar. She likes to let it sit in the fridge for a several days before using it to let the juice/vinegar mature.
To serve, she places a tablespoon of shrub in a glass with ice and tops it off with sparkling water, tonic water or club soda.
Other fruits are basically done the same. You can add herbs, combine fruits, add spices as desired. I would, however, start with just fruit. After you get a good feel for making the shrub, you can start experimenting.
A good website for shrub making: https://thedomesticwildflower.com/8-shrub-recipes/
Also, you can add alcohol to your shrub drink – like rum or vodka for a cocktail. I haven’t done this as I rarely ever drink alcohol – would rather save alcohol for making tinctures and elixers for health!!
Hi Leanne, thank you for sharing the “shrub” recipe! YUMMY! Linda
Leanne: Thanks very much for sharing the shrub recipe! I do not use that much sugar for anything, but will try to make something similar if I can. Here is an important recipe from Dr. Bridgit Danner, (if stupid spell check doesn’t keep undoing what I’ve typed that is), who has released a “detox” recipe, which is supposed to be extremely good for getting toxins out of the body, especially good for weed killers, etc.:
Quoted from https://www.bridgitdanner.com/
“ACV Limeade:
2 drops Young Living lime oil
2 teaspoons raw apple cider vinegar
7 drops liquid stevia (can even use lemon liquid stevia to make it lemon-lime flavor!)
12 oz. cold water
1 lime, squeezed”
I have used this recipe and it was so YUMMY, I was so glad to be drinking it AND it made me feel so great!!
Hi Joyce, oh thank you for sharing this recipe! I love it! Linda
Hi Joyce, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend. I can see Leanne has shared the “Shrub” recipe! Yay! Linda
Jess ~
Read your recipe for the limeade. Sounds good but I think what I would do instead of commercial lime essential oil would be to take the skin of the squeezed lime and get my lime oil from the fresh skin!! Just me but I think it would taste fresher. And I generally don’t ingest commercial essential oils. I would also make sure that the lime is organic and well washed before squeezing it and getting the lime oil from the skin.
Leanne:
Whatever floats you boat, but the YL lime oils are fresh distilled from organic lime skins without heat so that they are not damaged in the distilling process. Plus, I can tell you this recipe has AMAZING flavor! Besides, to get the same effect and proportion of lime oil for medicinal purpose from fresh squeezed would take about 35-40 lime skins! Distilled oils are made from MANY of the original fruit skins. With that in mind, I am unsure that just fresh squeezing would give the same results, as it would be so diluted in regards to the amt of oil provided. However, if that is what you prefer, the taste rather than the detox results, go for it! I am certain your idea would result in a lovely limeade. By the way, this recipe is not mine. It comes from a famous researcher/doctor, Bridgit Danner who is a big-time specialist in detoxing, which is the reason why I would bother to use it.
Like I said before,whatever you wish. If you just want a yummy beverage, go for it. What I gave everyone (above) is an official detox drink from an expert.
Hi Jess, Joyce I added her link to the website to be safe. Thanks for sharing, Linda
Hi Leanne, oh I want some limeade right now!! I love it! Linda
I’m going to have to try your recipe for Lefse; mine’s way more complicated! I have a lefse griddle to make it easier to cook it. Hmmm…guess I’ll finally be getting it out of the box! LOL I miss my grandmother’s lefse that she used to make from Norway. I’ve tried ordering it commercially and it’s just not the same.
You’re getting snow in Southern Utah? I guess I should check the weather more often. Here in Reno, we’ve gotten tons of it lately and I’m so thankful for the self propelled snowblower we have. My back (and my husband’s) can’t take much more of the shoveling. There will definitely be no complaints of not enough water this summer but rather an abundance of cheat grass for fueling wildfires. It’s going to be a wicked wildfire season.
Time to go build another snowman!
Robbie
Hi Robbie, my great grandmother was born in Norway and this is her recipe. It’s the one my mom taught me to make. I must say, my mom’s lefse was a lot better than mine and we used the same recipe. She could roll it thinner than me. It tastes great though! Linda
‘
Robbie, yes we are getting snow, be careful with your back!! This year has been crazy with the weather! Linda
Wow, I’ve been into Loss of Grid Preparedness for years (thanks to my time in Girl Scouts and love of post apocalyptic literature), and I can’t believe I’m just now stumbling onto your site!! Very excited about these recipes and the tips from other commenters. My father actually used to make the sweet rice for me whenever I was sick as a child and my grandmother made biscuits and gravy for breakfast every time I stayed the weekend. Thanks so much for the recipes!
Hi Amy, oh I’m so glad you found my website!! I grew up on biscuits and gravy, I love hearing your grandmother used to make them for you!! Linda
glad to see someone else used to eat hamburger gravy w/ potatoes. my mom made that alot – it’s a definite comfort food for me. i’d never heard of sausage gravy/ biscuits & gravy until i was an adult.
I’m so grateful my mother always cooked from scratch, and that’s how i learned. i know i’ve gotten lazy through the years, but know i have the knowledge to go back.
i teach in an alternative school, and do some simple baking projects with my students – that’s been an eye opener for what skills people need.
thanks for your website!
Hi Kelley, thank you for your kind words. So you teach in an alternative school, awesome. How old are the kids? So you are having to teach them how to do cook, bake and meal projects. I would love to hear more. I think my readers would love to hear how important it is that we teach our kids to cook from scratch like you and I learned. Thank you so much, Linda
have you tried egg gravy ?used to be good for makin ‘eggs go further ,milk gravy & add eggs ! goes good w/ biscuits !love your recipes ,i got the lefse ,have not tried yet !
Hi Daphne, I grew up with tuna and chipped beef on toast! I will have to try it with eggs! Great tip! Linda
Most of these are recipes I am familiar with but not the Norwegian Lefse or the spotted pup. Most of the recipes I have for the other foods came from Jack’s grandmother but her recipes were all way’s listed as a pinch of this and a pinch of that or a handful. Nothing like trying to make Grandma’s recipes.
Hi Jackie, I grew up on Norwegian Lefse, I love it, but my husband never cared for it. So I make a small batch just for me. Making your grandmas recipes is the best! Linda
Don’t forget bannock! You can even cook it over a fire wrapped around a stick. You can keep the dry ingredients premixed in a bag, ready to go. Lots of recipes online. I love bacon and sausage gravy! After cooking bacon or sausage in the frying pan I add just enough water to soften the crunchy bits then scrape it up and save it up in the freezer until there’s enough for some nice gravy.
Hi Alice, I had to Google Bannock, thank you for telling me about it. That’s a great idea! I love the tip about saving the bacon or sausage bits to use later, yummy!!! Linda
Linda, Is there a way to make potato pancakes out of leftover mashed potatoes?
Hi Chris, I grew up on mashed potatoes pancakes. The trick is not to have too much milk in the leftover mashed potatoes. You can always whip an egg and add to them. Cold mashed potatoes mold better, I fry them in butter or bacon grease. They have a different texture than regular potato pancakes but I love them. Linda
What great old recipes. I bookmarked this article and printed them out to be certain I had them. Many, like sausage gravy, or Johnny cakes I already had but WOW, honey candy?
Hi Ray, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend. I love old recipes, honey candy is like homemade taffy to me. Linda
Hi, Linda: I did not see your recipe for Lefsa that you mentioned “here is” in your reply to Robbie. Did I miss it?
Thanks for resending that recipe. Not sure I exactly remember very well what Leafs is other than a type of bread, but I did used to live in MN…like for 7+ years. Have never forgotten the morning I woke up to go to work and my car was the only one on our street that started. I had mine plugged in with an electric cord and none of the neighbors did. I sure got to work late that morning after helping so many….and then walking across the long, flat parking lot that led to Controlled Data Corp. world headquarters. I’ll never forget that, nor will I ever regret moving away from there!
There were blistering winds with a 60 below windchill, and that parking lot was so humongous, it felt like you walked about 1/8 of a mile in those winds to get inside. That’s something I will NEVER forget and NEVER regret moving away from!! God Bless the Polar Bears that stay and stick it out!!
Hi Jess, let me snag it. Sometimes I forget. Lefse is like a tortilla but better in my opinion. Oh my goodness, I have never been in a 60 below windchill! Oh my gosh, that is crazy! I will add the recipe to the post, thank you for catching that. Linda https://www.foodstoragemoms.com/how-to-make-norwegian-lefse-from-scratch/