Westward, Ho!

One of the great things about being the mom of an elementary student is the family interaction when it comes to school projects!  One of the great things about being the teacher is seeing all of those projects carried into class by students and parents alike...both beaming with pride on their collaborations!  Enter such a project....Westward Expansion.

"Pioneers would have stirred..."

It's not unlike my child to wait until the very last possible moment to make up her mind about what to wear, eat, play or, in this case, create for her social studies project.  Each child received a list of several ideas relating to the Manifest Destiny....skits, reports, dioramas, and (surprise) recipes.  Ok, the project list was my doing...I'm still a kid at heart and remember the fun of research and creativity.  And, yes, I've been a history geek as long as I can remember.

Finally, after days of hounding, poking and prodding, my dear child finally decided on making some pioneer food.  (Yes!)  No, really, I did not lead her in this direction....honest!  So...to the web.   Who knew there were so many pioneer recipes out there?  Hoe cakes, Brunswick Stew, pocket yams, rice cakes, potato candy (I really wanted to try this one), jerky, and doughnuts!  Well, those were some of the tame recipes....trust me, there are plenty more.

So....here's what we learned tonight about the pioneers and their vittles on the trail:

Prepping the dough for frying

Pioneer people were also called early settlers. They did not have many of the foods we have today. Almost every meal they ate had corn as one of the dishes.  They ate things like dried corn, cream corn, hull corn, dried corn mush, and sometimes they ate corn bread. Some people still eat these foods.  Another thing they had was crabapple jelly, and sun-dried fruit. Sometimes for dessert they ate huckleberry pie, and pumpkin pie. Pioneers collected blackberries, gooseberries, and blueberries. Another common pioneer food was doughnuts.

(Excerpt from Cooking on the Trail - http://library.thinkquest.org/6400/cooking.htm)

She read the recipes, studied the ingredients and directions, and decided on doughnuts.  After all, who doesn't like fried bread covered in sugar?

Yummy doughnut with brown sugar and cinnamon!

This recipe is from The Little House Cookbook.

For 2 dozen doughnuts you will need:

 2 pounds lard
1 egg
1 teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
2¼ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
a shaker full of powdered sugar
quart kettle
quart bowl
rolling pin
candy thermometer

Melt the lard in kettle over low heat.  Beat egg, baking soda, and salt into the sour cream in the bowl.  Beat in 1 cup of flour until well mixed.  Continue to work in flour, ¼ cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled.  Roll the dough in a strip about 4 by 16 by ¼ inches.  With a floured knife cut into inch strips about five eighth inch wide.
Heat the lard to 375 degrees F.  Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will stretch as you do); bring ends together and pinch them.  Drop twisted dough in hot fat.  In 2 minutes the dough should be brown on both sides, crisp and cooked through.  If browning takes more than 3 minutes, the fat is not hot enough; if browning takes less time, the fat is too hot.
Remove cooked doughnut to brown paper to drain and coat it with powdered sugar.  Continue twisting and cooking the remaining dough strips.  Serve the doughnuts immediately.