Pioneer food

I haven't really posted what we have been doing in history for the last couple of months, however we are continuing our studies on American History.  In August 2014, we began our school year learning about the American Revolution and are currently learning about the indians, pioneers, manifest destiny, and westward expansion. I had hope we would be up to the civil war by the end of the school year but we have taken so many amazing turns in our history lessons that we will need to work through the summer in order to start the new school year on the Civi War!   Recently we have been reading lots of books, watching documentaries, doing pioneer crafts and making pioneer food.  Today I thought I would show you what the kids have been making so they get a feel of what it might be like living on the trail or in the west where food supplies are limited!


I will post the resources of where I found most of the recipes at the end of the post, in case you want to try some of these recipes!

We made Mock apple pie which is a pie with absolutely no apples in it.    These apples wee used for our fruit leather recipes:)

but lots of crackers, I was pretty leary of this recipe but to my surprise it turned out good and the kids actually liked it.  

Next we poured on a liquid that basically consisted of sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and absolutely no fruit!

added a top pie crust and baked!

The finished result...I didn't like it although it did taste just like apple pie I think it had to do with the fact that I knew what was in pie....However the kids and my husband thought it tasted just like Apple pie and like it!

Next we tried making beef jerky.  I have had the kids try store bought versions in the past and they have always hated it.  So I wasn't too sure how they would like this recipe

We got some flank steak cut it into thin strips and used a recipe to season it overnight  

Then baked it on low for 6 hours!  To my surprise the entire house loved this recipe and the kids have since asked me if they can make it again sometime!

Next we made Bannock bread which was made in a dutch oven over the camp fire

No yeast was used and it tasted good if it was hot but after it cooled a bit it was tough and very doughy

Lastly we made fruit leather which is similar to modern day fruit roll up but probably healthier  We cooked up some chopped apples in a sugar mixtures

we cheated and used a modern appliance to blend the apples until smooth

Then evenly spread the fruit mixture onto a pan

and baked for over 6 hours on low

Then cut it into strips.  Once again everyone thought they tasted great and the fruit leather didn't last very long in the house!

All of the recipes we used came from the website by Susan Kilbride which can be found here.  We also read the companion book Pioneer book.  I did a review on this book last year!  We love the books and the many activities Mrs. Kilbride has on her website to go along with the books and it helped make our history unit complete.  Next I will be posting about the many pioneer crafts we have been working on over the past few weeks!