Like the camp cooks out on the trail, the housewife of
the Old West spent a large part of her day preparing
meals and cleaning up after meals, with much of the time
in between taking care of other chores such as washing
clothes and just general caretaking tasks. Any helpful
hints that could make this work go a little easier were
greatly valued and passed on to those who could use
them. Here are a few pioneer shortcuts that have sur-
vived over the years.
Directions
To thin icing that is too thick, use a little milk
To
thicken icing that is too thin, use a little powdered
sugar.
To keep mashed potatoes warm for anyone late for din-
ner, place in top of a double boiler and place over hot
water
Set on stove over low heat.
To keep pickles from molding, place a small piece of
horseradish in jar on top of the pickles.
To make cake light and spongy add a tablespoon of
warm water to the egg before mixing.
When cooking sauerkraut, add one teaspoon sugar.
For special touch with fried oysters serve with finely
shredded cabbage salted with celery salt
It is very good.
When going camping take along a few cans of cream
style corn
Fry bacon crisp in a Dutch oven or heavy fry-
ing pan, then pour out all but a little of the bacon
grease
Pour in corn
After cooking for a short time,
break 3 eggs into the corn and scramble
This makes a
good breakfast along with the crisp, brown, and tender
bacon.
When frying potatoes make them 1/3 carrots for a
change
Then sprinkle a little flour over the potatoes
and carrots.
To tenderize an old hen or prairie chicken cut up into
serving pieces and slice the breast of the chicken
Soak
in a little soda water all night, rinse well in cold water,
then fry very slowly with a lid over the frying pan so as to
steam the chicken.
For a lamb roast, brown well on top of stove, then stick
6 cloves into the roast and roast very slowly until tender
The taste will be more like deer meat than lamb.
For noodle soup, use good brown gravy left from a beef
roast to make soup
Cook noodles in salt water
When
tender, pour the gravy into the water and the noodles
Add black pepper to taste.
For an extended camping trip take along a yellow rain
slicker so you can take a footbath like an old-time cow-
puncher on a roundup
Just dig a small hole in the
earth about the size of a wash basin, place slicker in the
hole, pour in warm water
Sit down and stick your feet
in the water.
For variations of fried mush boil a pot of yellow corn
meal mush, making it thick
Dip a pan into ice-cold
water then pour the mush into the pan
Let sit in a cold
place to chill
Then slice, roll in corn meal, and fry until
brown.
To whip thin cream dissolve 1 tablespoon of unflavored
gelatin in 1 tablespoon of hot water
Then add to 2 cups
of cream; chill for a few minutes, then whip.
To remove lime boil a cup of vinegar and a cup of water
in a lime-coated teakettle
This will soften the sediment
and it can easily be scraped off.
To tenderize meat add a tablespoon of vinegar to the
water in which meats are boiled.
To brown fresh potatoes sprinkle a little flour over the
pan of freshly sliced potatoes along with the pepper and
salt
This will help to brown the fresh potatoes.
To peel oranges pour boiling water over oranges and let
stand 5 minutes
This will cause the white lining to
come away with the peeling when the oranges are to be
sliced.
To scale fish more easily first dip fish into boiling
water, then scale in usual manner.
To preserve eggs an old-time patented liquid is made
like this: Take a bushel of lime, 2 pounds of salt, 1 /2
pound of cream of tartar, and water enough to form a
solution strong enough to float an egg
This liquid sup-
posedly preserves eggs for 2 years.
