10 Pioneer Recipes We Need To Know
As I see the price of groceries continues to rise, I feel the need for all of us to learn and use a bunch of “cook at home” skills, including how to make meals like these 10 pioneer recipes. I am very concerned with the economy of our country, and the world for that matter. If this generation hasn’t learned to cook from scratch, how can they teach their kids?
Getting takeout doesn’t cut it when teaching our family how to cook. And what about manners? Am I old-fashioned or what? Where have all the manners gone? There is something about having a conversation around a table. Okay, I will get off my soapbox. Let’s have fun with these 10 pioneer recipes!
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how popular my pioneer-related posts have been. I think most of us have a great deal of respect for the early settlers of our country, and many of us want to learn how to emulate their grit, passion, and willingness to be self-sufficient.
Our ancestors didn’t have grocery stores around the corner like most of us have. They had to cook from scratch because that was the only way they could survive. They could make meals with a few ingredients just to fill their bellies.
Related: 10 Pioneer Skills That We Need
Kitchen Items I Recommend Every Kitchen Has:
- Cookie Sheets
- 9 by 13-inch Baking pans
- Danish Whisk
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
- Spatulas
- Pan Cake Turners
- Cast Iron Frying Pan or cast iron skillet
- 6-Quart Dutch Oven (this one is basically for outside cooking, but it’s critical to have)
- Cheese Grater
- Pastry Cutter
- 4-quart Saucepan and a 6-quart Saucepan
- Good Quality Knives
- Cutting Boards (I just got these and I love them)
- A Large Pot
Ingredients Needed For Recipes
Most of these are in your Pantry or Refrigerator:
- Flour
- Butter
- Sugar
- Rice
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Parsley
- Eggs
- Salt and Pepper
- Shortening
- Milk
- Cream
- Sour Milk
- Cinnamon
- Honey
- Whole Wheat Flour
- Cabbage
- Chicken
- Pork Chops
- Apples
10 Pioneer Recipes
1. Potato Pancakes
I grew up eating potato pancakes, these look very similar to the ones my mom made for me growing up.
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon minced parsley
- 6 potatoes, grated (drained)
- shortening
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Stir the flour with the salt, baking powder, and pepper. In another bowl combine the eggs, onions, and parsley. Put both mixtures in one bowl, add the potatoes. Make into patties and fry in 1/4 inch shortening until golden brown or browned to your choice.
2. Scottish Shortbread
I could almost call this Norwegian Shortbread, I grew up on homemade shortbread in a Norwegian family. My mom used molasses in many of her recipes in place of sugar. I do that from time to time, you may want to give it a try.
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour
-
Grab a bowl and cream the butter and sugar. Then add the flour. Press the mixture into greased 9 by 13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares while hot.
3. English Tea Biscuits
Has anyone made tea biscuits? This was a really popular pioneer recipe, as were most biscuit varieties like soda biscuits.
- 2 cups flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons shortening
- 3/4 cup milk
-
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the shortening using a pastry cutter. Add the milk. Flour the countertop and place the dough on the counter. Roll and pat the dough out to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter. Place them in a greased pan and bake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes.
4. Crepes
I love making crepes, for dessert, or with chicken a la king. These are so easy to make and so versatile. Pioneers MAY have used lard instead of shortening. I remember lard in many of my mom’s recipes, but it’s not my favorite ingredient choice.
- 1-1/2 cups milk
- 1 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon shortening
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
-
Grab a medium-sized bowl and combine the milk, flour, eggs, shortening, and salt. Heat greased skillet and spoon 3 tablespoons of the batter on the skillet. Roll the batter around the pan by tilting the pan. Cook one side until brown and flip the crepe over and cook the other side until lightly brown. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve with fresh fruit, jam, and whipped cream.
5. Homemade Soda Crackers
If you find making bread hard for you, try making crackers. These are really easy to make. These are very similar to hardtack which I recently wrote about.
- 4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sour milk
-
Grab a large mixing bowl, and combine flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the milk and butter and mix until it's a stiff dough. Flour the countertop, and punch the dough on the floured countertop, turning it over a few times. Roll out very thin and cut into squares. Prick with a fork. Bake at 400 degrees until the edges are lightly brown. I use a greased cookie sheet to bake mine.
6. Homemade Graham Crackers
I can’t wait to try making these graham crackers again. I have freshly ground whole wheat flour, so these will be easy to make. I love that they are made with honey. Remember, in pioneer times the granulated sugar we use now wasn’t available. I wish we all tried using honey as a sweetener more often.
- 3 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1/2 cup honey
-
Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Melt the honey and butter in a small saucepan. Combine both mixtures and mix together with your hands. Do not overmix. Grease a cookie sheet and roll the dough in the cookie sheet to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut squares and prick them with a fork. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
7. Fried Cabbage
I’m starting to feel a bit old because my mom made several of these recipes. I grew up on fried cabbage, did you? Note the use of bacon grease in the recipe. Some people would refer to this ingredient as bacon fat, but it all works and tastes the same.
- 1 head cabbage, chopped
- 1/2 pound bacon
- 1 medium chopped onion
- salt and pepper to taste
-
Cook the bacon in the frying pan you will use to cook the cabbage. Cook the bacon until crispy. Leave some bacon grease in the frying pan. Add the onion with the bacon in the pan. Next, add the cabbage and simmer in the frying pan until tender. Salt and Pepper to taste.
8. Wagon Fried Chicken
Who loves fried chicken? Oh my gosh, my mouth is watering! This recipe is a keeper, I promise! Don’t think about the grease! I also like to make this recipe using buttermilk in place of regular milk. It makes for a unique flavor, but the overall taste and texture should be loved by your whole family!
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- salt and pepper
- 12 pieces of chicken
- 1-1/2 cups flour
- skillet with 2/3 full melted shortening
-
Beat the eggs with the milk. Salt and pepper the chicken really well. Dip each piece of chicken in the egg/milk mixture. Dredge the chicken in flour. Remove excess flour by shaking the chicken pieces. Place in the hot shortening and brown on each side over medium heat. Then flip the chicken pieces over and cook the other side until golden brown. Drain the grease on paper towels.
9. Pork Chops With Apples
This recipe is the reason I love cast iron pans! I swear everything tastes better cooked in cast iron, right?
- 6 pork chops
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 3-4 unpeeled, apples, cored, and sliced
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter
-
Brown the pork chops in the shortening. Grease a baking pan and place the sliced apples in the bottom. Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Put tiny bits of butter over the apples. Place the browned pork chops on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes.
10. Grandma’s Rice Pudding
Mark grew up on rice pudding, but didn’t like it when his mom put raisins in it. Did you grow up with rice pudding? With or without raisins?
- 6 cups milk
- 3/4 cup white rice
- 1 cup cream
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
-
Bring the milk to a boil, add the rice and reduce the heat to simmer. Cook one hour, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat. Combine the cream, sugar, yolks, vanilla, and salt with the rice mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon when serving.
Some Other Pioneer Foods You May Want to Try
There are so many other foods the pioneers liked as a part of their meals. Do some research and check out these and others you’d like to make and serve:
- Cornbread
- Biscuits and Gravy
- Stews of all Kinds
- Jerky from Various Types of Meat, Including Venison
- Fruit Pies – Cherry is My Favorite
- Jams and Jellies
- Potato Cakes
- Apple Butter
- Home Prepared Syrup
Did Pioneers Eat Vegetables with Their Meals?
As with so many food items, keeping vegetables fresh enough to eat during the pioneer treks was a tough task. One thing most settlers tried to do once they reached their destination was to plant a garden. Often that was a priority over building a hut or cabin. At least with a garden, there was hope for enough foodstuffs to stay alive.
Did Pioneers Use a Lot of Flour in Meal Preparation?
You’ll notice that flour was a key ingredient in most of the recipes referenced above. Having flour was critical to survival.
Are Pioneer Recipes Healthy?
I’m not sure the recipes we’ve referenced in this post have all the vitamins we try to see our family consume each day. They also may not have the types of calories that are good for us. I do know that with the rigors of the trip and the physical challenges they faced each day, they burned a bunch of calories!
Final Word
I hope today you print these 10 pioneer recipes to have ready to make when you need to cook with very few ingredients. It’s fun to discuss with your family or guests why pioneer recipes are so delicious and enjoyed on special occasions. We may need these recipes sooner than we think. Thanks for being prepared for the unexpected. May God bless this world. Stay safe and keep prepping, Linda
Other Pioneer Recipes by Linda
Copyright Images: Crepes Deposit photos_132686566_s-2019
I grew up with parents who survived and thrived during the Great Depression. My father lived on a farm so there was no shortage of food, although there might have been a shortage of things like flour and sugar. But, they always had home grown veggies and meat, milk, etc. My mother on the other hand lived a completely different life during the depression. Her father died in 1929 and there were still 7 children at home. My mother was 10 with 3 siblings younger and 3 older. Seven of her siblings were grown and either married or otherwise occupied.
Some things I grew up knowing how to do because of the way my parents lived during those times.
I remember something my mother always insisted upon when I learned how to bake was that the bowl should be clean when I removed the dough! If I left anything in the bowl – whether cake batter or bread dough – she said things like, “your little sister might not have a slice of bread.” Apparently when she was growing up and learning to bake from her mother, the bowl was scraped clean! Something to keep in mind. I still do that to this day! And, I taught my daughter this same thing.
Now, something else to keep in mind is, “Waste not Want not.” My daughter taught me a couple of things (she is pretty frugal!). She always puts vegetable scraps: peelings etc. into a large bag in the freezer and when it is full, she makes veggie broth. It is funny that she wanted to teach me how to make bone broth! I told her that I grew up making this! We just didn’t give it a name! A roast chicken or turkey for example was good for several meals! First meal – meat; second meal – ala king; third meal – soup! Even when she was growing up I did this and was able to stretch food to feed an army – not literally but you get the idea!
I guess I should get to the point here – it is not only necessary to know how to make the recipes or at least a number of these recipes but also know how to stretch what we have or will have.
I LOVE your posts, Linda. You are the only blog I consistently follow and respond to! I imagine you get really tired of reading my comments. I do tend to get a bit windy but then, you always post about things that are near and dear to my heart!
Hi Leanne, I LOVE LOVE LOVE your comments! Isn’t it funny when our kids teach us something? I love it! By the way, I have never heard that term “your little sister might not have a slice of bread.” Oh my gosh, that is such a good statement. It really does make me think about scraping my bowls even more now. Awesome!! Linda
I watched a video on another site where the gal was making bread. It was funny that she didn’t even get all of the flour mixed in! I was thinking that she might as well have not measured a thing since she wasn’t “using” everything she put in the bowl!!
Something else I thought of after reading your reply! My daughter does still leave a little cake or cookie batter in the bowl for the kiddos to “lick” the bowl. I know, I know, with eggs or uncooked flour, one shouldn’t do this but…
Hi Leanne, oh my gosh the flour has to be mixed in to make bread. Wow! I used to lick the beaters and the spatula. I’m more careful now. Linda
My parents both grew up during the depression. My Dad on a farm and my Mom smack dab in the middle of Brooklyn, NY. They both knew how to stretch a dollar and I sort-a-kinda picked up on that.
I also would lick the bowl and beaters clean. I still do (I’m 68 and healthy) and have not suffered one tiny bit from doing that. We did a lot of things back in the day that the younger generations would consider horrible. They are missing out a lot!
Hi Karl, I bet you learned a lot fro your parents!! I bet you did sort-a-kinda picked up on how to stretch a dollar! I love that statement!!! I have never seen Brooklyn, NY except on TV. I’m 69 and I still lick the beaters!!! Love it!! Linda
Just wondering because I’ve never seen a biscuit recipe with so little shortening. Is that “2 teaspoons of shortening ” right in the tea biscuit recipe?
Hi Elaine, thank you for asking. I have made typos before. I checked this recipe and it’s correct. It’s more of a cookie than a biscuit. Thanks again, Linda
These are great recipes!! Thank you!
Hi Alli, Thank you so much!! You will love these recipes! Linda
I love all of these recipes! Thank you sooo much for sharing! They are all so easy to make with few ingredients…..my favorite! :)❤️
Hi Camille, thank you so much! We may all be making these recipes sooner than later! Linda
So happy for all these recopies. My Mom was born in Scotland and raised in England. She told us of stories where the had to run from shelter to shelter to stay away from bombs. And their food was scarce . All of these recipes I was raised on. Short bread cookies are a part of my past and rice pudding, tea biscuits, we had tea and biscuits often. I have printed these recipes out so I can put them in my stash for my kids to carry on the tradition. Thank you
Hi Jerri, oh you made my day! Life is good if we can cook from scratch. I love traditions! Stay safe, Linda
I have another recipe to add to your list: it was served at Ushers Ferry, a pioneer park in Cedar Rapids, Ia. Very simple but delicious! I call it “Apple Scrapple” but I know that’s not the real name. Makes a great side dish or simple dessert. Cut 1/2# bacon into bite-size pieces and fry in cast iron skillet on medium. While bacon is cooking, slice one large onion into thin rings and add to bacon. Cut up to 3 apples into thin slices (peel on) and add to skillet. Stir until apples soften, then sprinkle about a tbs of brown sugar over all and cook until it melts. Our modern bacon is not as fatty as they used in the old days so there’s no need to drain the grease. Yum!
Hi Michelle, oh my gosh, I need to make this recipe! Thank you for the 5 stars, my friend! Yummy!!! Linda
Being able to cook meals from scratch is an important skill. I very seldom eat out, simply because I can make better at home, much cheaper.
I have been thinking about rice pudding, I wonder if I can find a recipe for a thermal cooker.
Hi Janet, oh that’s a great idea!! I wonder if Cindy Miller’s Thermal Cooker book has a recipe. I have her book but it’s in my storage unit until my home is built. I couldn’t see a table of contents on her book listed on Amazon so I don’t know for sure. Let me check around if I can find one. Linda
You’ve done it again! Great article and awesome recipes! I was raised by grandparents who went through the depression and WWII. We ate a lot of these recipes! Still do – trying to get our grandson (12 today!) to try most of these is a struggle. He’s funny – ” No thanks” then he tries something “Wow, that’s actually good.”
Keep up the good work Linda – you’re helping a lot of people!!
Hi Beth, thank you for the 5 stars and your kind words!!! I love hearing the “No Thanks” and then “Wow, that’s actually good.”!!!!! I still eat this recipe today, and I think more and more people will have to try them because we may have hard times ahead!! Linda
Greetings Linda, thank you for these valuable recipes, and also the link to other pioneer recipes!! You help a lot of people and I am glad to be a part of your community here.
I recently looked up recipes for homemade jiffy corn mix so I could avoid the extra chemicals in their mix. So I read through a few recipes and decided to make my own, I thought it’d be nice to put dry milk into the mix so I could use water, and added some oil since I didn’t cut any shortening into the mix.
Here it is……I made corn muffins and enjoyed a couple of them with butter and honey………
Janet’s Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. flour
up to 3 T. sugar
scant 1 tsp. salt
2 T. non-instant dry milk powder
scant 1 T. baking powder
Stir all dry ingredients thoroughly, makes about a cup and a half of mix. Can store in a jar with a tight lid.
__________________
For corn pancakes:
Stir into the above dry mixture….
2 T. oil
1 egg
1/3 c. flour
about 1/2 cup water (may need more water to get a pancake batter consistency)
Cook as you would any pancake.
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For 6 corn muffins:
Preheat oven to 400°. Grease a 6-muffin tin (or line with paper baking cups). Stir into dry mixture, just to combine, batter will be a bit lumpy…..
1 T. oil
1 egg
1/3 c. water
Let this mixture sit 3 to 4 minutes. Then spoon into muffin tins, about 3/4 full each. Bake until golden brown, 13 to 16 minutes, until middle bounces back when touched.
Hi Janet, thank you for the 5 stars, my friend! Oh, I love these recipes, can I make them and give you full credit for them? These recipes would be so awesome to share with pictures!! Let me know, thanks for sharing! Linda
Yes Linda! Add your special touches.
Hi Janet, thank you!! You are so cute! People will love these recipes! Linda
These sound soooo good!
If you take some of that fried cabbage (with the onions and bacon), and mix it with mashed potatoes (I use Yukon Gold, mashed with cream and lots of butter, and a bit of salt and pepper to taste)–you end up with Irish colcannon! It’s practically a meal in itself. Make a depression in the mound of colcannon and fill it with a good dollop of butter, which will melt into it.
HI Rhonda, thank you for the 5 stars, my sweet friend! I need to make some Colcannon!! Love it! Linda
There are a couple recipes that I did not know how to cook and I didn’t know where to find the recipe. So another win for both of us. Now I will know how to make saltines and graham crackers and a few other things. I do know that I learned to make potato Pancakes at a young age because they are a Jewish Staple and Fried Cabbage and Pork Chops and fried apples were a staple in my grandmothers kitchen when she cooked his favorite German Recipes (He was a German Jew)
Hi Jackie, thank you for the 5 stars, my friend! I love potato pancakes! I grew up on them! I have some apples I was going to bake, I forgot about the fried apples!!! Linda
These simple recipes are great for living off of a home pantry. I know you are a big promoter of being able to make breads, crackers, pizza dough and even homemade pasta.
Learning to make hardtack, pemmican, dried and cured meats, and pocket soup is great but we have more choices and eating just those foods is like us eating only energy bars, fruit leathers and Ramen. This is why is also why learning to grow, dehydrate, can and ferment foods is so useful.
With regards to using what we can get, there are some videos on YouTube that use very few ingredients and a few recipes books available that could be very helpful when you are out of something and/or have only a few items in your pantry.
You hit upon so many things in this article and others that it makes me think about what I need to get or learn to do.
Hi Frank, one thing I have never done is make pemmican. What is pocket soup? That sounds interesting!!! Linda
Pocket soup is also known as “portable soup”. It’s simply soup that is cooked until all the water evaporates and you end up with dehydrated soup, except unlike bullion it ends up being a flat disk.
And then when you want soup you rehydrate it with water. It looks like fruit leather, but with a dark color and sometimes partially transparent looking or solid brown.
Naturally, I assume anyone today would carry it in a Ziplock bag or wrapped in clean cloth or butcher paper otherwise your soup will have lint in it. I’m guessing they wrapped the “soup disk” in clean muslin or maybe even waxed paper as that seems most likely.
I’m just going to mention that while I trust proven methods, it still bothers me that fats and oils go rancid, yet we also use them to preserve food. But then people make pemmican and SPAM and those last forever. I try not to think about it too much anymore and just trust the methods. 🙂 LOL
Hi Frank, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge on these portable soup disks! I love it!! Linda
Frank, I was searching out recipes a few years ago for a long (2 week) camping trip. I knew I would be able to have fresh food for the first few days in a cooler but after the ice was gone, I needed things like portable soups, etc. I ran across a website for backpacking – wish I could find it again. Anyway, they were dehydrating soups, cooked veggies, as well as fruits. I have been dehydrating for several years and do all sorts of fruits, combinations of fruits in both slices and leathers. But the interesting thing was this website called veggie “leathers” bark! So I suppose the dehydrated portable soup could be called a bark as well. I started making barks out of unseasoned mashed potatoes (no salt, butter or cream); pumpkin bark (no seasonings). I always measured out the quantities so I knew how much boiling water to add to rehydrate and added my seasonings later at camp. They worked so well. I also dehydrated cooked veggies and made a soup mix with potatoes, carrots, onion, etc., and added powdered bullion to it in individual packets.
I know pioneers took a lot of dehydrated foods with them on their way west so anything dehydrated would be something to have on hand.
Awesome…. exactly what I’d like to do. I have a Cosori dehydrator, but have not had the chance to use it. Your “barks” sound interesting.
I’ve been collecting containers for the food I would prepare. Hurricane season just started, so after this one passes, I hope to begin drying food.
Besides having shelf stable foods and powders to use at home, inspired by none other than Linda herself, I’d like to be able to make food packets, MRE’s or “meals in jars. I’m taken with how easy and useful dehydrating can be.
Hi Frank, thank you, for your kind words, my friend! I would love to hear how you like your Cosori Dehydrator, they look awesome! I love making soups in a jar. Linda
Hi Leanne, I love the term “bark”! LOL! I love soups in a jar! Or a bag for camping whatever works! Having a few on the pantry shelf helps as well. Linda