Western Hearths: Food for Circuit Preachers

Think of a circuit preacher in the Old West, and you might imagine a lone rider on a dusty trail with a Bible tucked into his saddlebag. This man of the cloth travels from settlement to settlement with little more than faith and grit to carry him through. And honestly, the western stereotype isn’t far from the truth.

Circuit preachers—also called circuit riders—acted as a lifeline for farflung westerners during the 1800s. They covered hundreds of miles on horseback, most often alone, to preach in sod homes, barns, schoolhouses, and wherever else their flock might gather. If that was outdoors beneath the open sky, then so be it. They navigated rough roads on a demanding schedule, all while relying on scant supplies—including food.

A circuit preacher ate what he could carry, food others offered or bartered, supplies he bartered, and whatever he could hunt or gather along the way.

Simple Food for a Purposeful Life

Many frontier families saw feeding a circuit preacher as both a duty and a blessing. A simple meal shared at a rough-hewn table might lead into a time of prayer, Scripture, and heartfelt conversation.

And when no table was available? The preacher ate what he carried. This meant portable, durable foods that kept well and didn’t require a lot of equipment to prepare—plain fare chosen for strength first and pleasure last.

Common foods in a circuit preacher’s saddlebag included:

• Oatmeal or cracked grain.
• Dried apples or other dried fruit.
• Hard biscuits or bread.
• Salt pork or bacon (when available).
• Coffee or tea.
• Occasional eggs, milk, or fresh bread offered by hospitable families.

A Breakfast Fit for the Trail

Horseback travelors in the Wild West relied on oatmeal--a lightweight, filling, and inexpensive option. They combined it with dried fruit for a comforting meal cooked over a small fire. If prepared the night before, oatmeal could be warmed before sunrise for an early start.

Accounts of trail meals and period cooking methods inspired the recipe below. It’s simplicity echoes the breakfast of a circuit preacher preparing for another long day on the road.

Trail Oatmeal with Dried Apples

A sustaining breakfast for cold mornings and early starts.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (Steel-cut oats are more period-accurate but take longer. If using them, add approximately15 minutes to the cooking time,)
• 2 cups water (or milk, if available)
• ½ cup dried apples, chopped
• 1 tablespoon molasses or honey (optional)
• A pinch of salt
• Optional additions: cinnamon, nutmeg, or a small knob of butter

Instructions

• Bring the water to a gentle boil in a pot or skillet.
• Add the oats and salt, stirring to prevent sticking.
• Reduce heat and simmer for about 10–15 minutes, until thick.
• Stir in the dried apples and continue cooking for 5 more minutes, allowing them to soften.
• Sweeten lightly with molasses or honey if you have it.
• Serve warm, with butter if available.

Why This Meal Mattered

"The Circuit Preacher" by Alfred Waud;
Harper's weekly, v. 11, 1867 Oct. 12, p. 641
public domain image
courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This isn’t fancy food. It’s not meant to impress. But it tells an important story.

Such humble fare fueled men dedicated to helping others—often without recognition. A circuit preacher might ride all day in harsh weather, preach by lamplight in the evening, and sleep under the stars. The next morning, he rose early, ate something warm if possible, and set out again.

Quiet endurance like this is a quality we admire in our favorite western historical romance characters—the steady men whose strength shows not in grand gestures, but in faithfulness to calling, community, and love. I celebrated Wild West circuit preachers by creating Shane Hayes, the hero of Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold book 1). Shane’s story honors the men who with vulnerability, passion, and zeal brought comfort and salvation to the Wild West.

Bringing It to Your Own Hearth

As you make this humble bowl of oatmeal, imagine eating it crouched beside a fading campfire with dawn lightening the sky. Remember that nourishment isn’t always about abundance—or even food. Sometimes it’s abou t fulfilling a purpose greater than yourself.

In the months ahead, the Western Hearths blog series will continue exploring the meals that sustained settlers, cowboys, minors, and families of the Old West.

For now, this simple breakfast feels like the perfect place to begin.

About Janalyn Voigt 

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. Janalyn Voigt is represented by Wordserve Literary.

Learn more about Janalyn, read the first chapters of her books, subscribe to her e-letter, and join her reader clubs at http://janalynvoigt.com.

Discover Montana Gold 

Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, the Montana Gold series explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west. 

Cooking on the Oregon Trail (A Slice of Life)

This post is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt, author of the Montana Gold historical fiction series.

Cooking on the Oregon Trail 

A madonna of the prairies 
by Hiram Campbell Merill (b. 1866); Ivory, Percy Van E. (op. 20th c.)
Image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Imagine, for a moment, that you have just walked or ridden in a jostling wagon for twenty miles while watching over your children's safety and caring for a baby. The wagon train with which you are traveling rolls to a stop. Your muscles ache, the baby is fussing, and you're so exhausted you'd rather sleep than cook over a campfire. But you love your family. Your husband needs to tend the oxen and possibly fish or hunt to provide fresh meat. The chore of keeping all those bellies filled with nourishment belongs to you.

Oregon Trail Provisions

The Emigrants

Hatch, George W. (ca. 1805-1867); Fisher, Alvan (1792-1863) 

Image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Before you left St. Louis, the city known as the gateway to the Oregon Trail, you and your husband packed your prairie schooner full of provisions for the journey. Although food comprises half of the goods in your wagon, you found it hard to fit all your supplies in a bed measuring ten feet long by four feet wide and three feet deep, And your wagon weighed perilously close to its maximum load of 2,000 pounds. That left you no option to walk during the first part of your journey, a problem that proved painful as your feet became accustomed to walking so far. You had to cook, then, too.

The guidebook you consulted suggested you bring flour, bacon packed in bran, sugar, coffee, tea, lard, beans, rice, and dried apples and peaches. The chickens in a crate lashed to the back of the wagon give you eggs. If you hadn't brought them along, you'd be obliged to pack eggs in your cornmeal to save them from breaking. You also brought along a milk cow and have suspended buckets of cream from the bottom of the wagon to churn into butter from the jostling of the journey. Seasonings you brought along include salt, pepper, vinegar, and molasses. You also indulged in packets of commercially-prepared crackers and dried vegetable cakes.

Preparing Food on the Oregon Trail 

Cooking the Hump Roast
Alfred Jacob Miller [Public domain ]
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

You sigh and get to work, first making sure one of the children carries water from the river near the wagon encampment to top off the water barrel strapped to the wagon and for tonight's cooking. The others you send off to gather edible greens or berries, if they can be found, and whatever is available to start a cook fire. That might be firewood, buffalo dung, or (as a last resort) sagebrush. Meanwhile, you open the mess box on the back of your wagon and pull out the beans you set to soaking this morning, a slab of bacon packed in bran to keep the fat from melting in the heat, some biscuits you baked yesterday, and cornmeal for hoe cakes you'll cook in the bacon fat.

You have no table to use in preparing your food but must make do with an empty crate turned upside down, the top of a trunk, or whatever other surface you can find or make. While cooking at the fire, you take care to stay upwind to avoid the fate of those unfortunate women whose skirts blew into the flames. You add molasses, brown sugar, and bacon to the beans and suspend the pot over the fire from a tripod or place it directly on the flames. While the beans are cooking, your hands keep busy forming dough for the hoe cakes, rolling pastry for dried apple or berry pie, and making bread for tomorrow's journey. 

The camp will be awakened by a gun fired into the air early in the morning, and you'll be expected to roll out with the wagon train shortly thereafter. There will be no time to cook,. This is your chance to prepare enough to eat for tomorrow's travel and to guard against an unexpected disaster, illness, or rain storm preventing you from cooking for a day or more.

You cook as much as you can to stave off the possibility of your family's going hungry before you run out of daylight or energy (or both).

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. This multi-faceted storyteller writes in the historical fiction, romantic mystery, and epic fantasy genres. Janalyn is a history enthusiast and romantic. These elements appear in everything she writes.

Beginning with DawnSinger, the epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Hills of Nevermore, the first installment in Montana Gold, a historical romance series set during Montana's gold rush, releases in 2017.

Deceptive Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans, book 3), the final installment in a romantic suspenseseries set in an island paradise off the coast of Washington state.

    Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and her books.   

Pease Porridge (Hot or Cold) Recipe

This article is brought to you by Janalyn Irene Voigt.

Pease Porridge Hot and Cold

Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

In the pioneer kitchen, a large pot suspended over an open fire usually contained some sort of soup, and a savory porridge made of peas became a favorite. The soup would be consumed hot for the evening meal, and the leftovers cold at breakfast.

Food scraps might be added to the pot over the course of many days. Keeping the soup going like this meant that some of the ingredients could, indeed, be nine days old by the time they were eaten. Sausage or boiled bacon might be included in the soup or served on top. Pease porridge was often served with thick slices of buttered bread.

 

A nursery rhyme and popular singing game played by children featuring this staple of the pioneer kitchen carried into modern times.

Pease Porridge Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb. split peas
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 1/2 lb. cubed uncooked bacon
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 Tbs. mint, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• water to cover
• salt and pepper to taste

Note: You can add other vegetables and herbs for different flavors. Sage is another herb that goes well with peas.

Optional Toppings

• fried and crumbled bacon
• diced shallots
• diced green onions
• chopped mint, mint leaves, mint flowers

Steps

1. Soak the peas according to the package directions.
2. Drain the soaked peas.
3. In a large pot, cover the peas with fresh water.
4. Add the salt, pepper, carrots, bacon, and shallots.
5. Bring the pot to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for about 2½ hours, adding more water as needed.
7. Add the mint in the last 10 minutes of cooking.
8. Ladle the pease porridge into bowls and garnish with mint leaves and mint flowers, if desired.
9. Serve this soup with optional toppings and buttered bread or rolls
10. Enjoy!

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. This multi-faceted storyteller writes in the historical fiction, romantic mystery, and epic fantasy genres. Janalyn is a history enthusiast and romantic. These elements appear in everything she writes.

Beginning with DawnSinger, the epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Hills of Nevermore, the first installment in Montana Gold, a historical romance series set during Montana's gold rush, releases in 2017.

Deceptive Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans, book 3), the final installment in a romantic suspense series set in an island paradise off the coast of Washington state, releases August 1, 2016.

    Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and her books.   

Johnny Cakes Recipe

This post is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt.

One staple of the American frontier came to early settlers by way of Native Americans. Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620 lost most of the wheat they’ carried with them to spoilage. The Pawtuxet Indians prevented their starvation by teaching them how to grow and pound corn into meal from which they made cakes.

Pioneer Kitchen Image from an old catalog ca. 1873
by Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

No one is exactly sure how johnny cakes came to be named. Several theories exist. Some believe that the name represents a slurring of “Shawnee cakes”  (another name for johnny cakes). Others say that the Indian term for “corn cake”, “janiken,” gave rise to the name. johnny cakes also were known as “journey cakes” for their portability. Other names for cornmeal flatbread include johnnycakes, ashcake, battercake, cornpone, corn cake, hoe cake, hoecake, mush bread, pone, jonakin, and jonikin.

Many variations exist, but the simplest johnny cakes recipe includes only cornmeal, boiling water, and salt. I use yellow cornmeal since I like the taste best, however a traditional johnny cakes recipe often call for white cornmeal. Keep the batter fairly thin. This ensures that your johnny cakes won’t be doughy in the middle. You only want them about 1/4-inch  thick. They can be baked in a greased pan or fried. Frying in bacon grease follows a long tradition, but butter works as well. Enjoy them drizzled with maple syrup.

Johnny Cake Recipe

Image by Douglas Perkins (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup milk
• Bacon grease or butter
• Maple Syrup

Instructions

1. Place cornmeal in a mixing bowl or liquid measuring cup with a spout for pouring.
2. Stir salt into cornmeal.
3. Add boiling water and mix.
4. Add 1/2 cup milk and mix just until blended.
5. Heat bacon grease or butter in a skillet or iron frying pan.
6. Pour batter into skillet to make a 4-inch cake.
7. Let cook until brown around the edges.
8. Loosen the cake with a spatula and flip.
9. Cake the other side until brown.
10. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers.

Look for her upcoming western historical fiction releases in the Montana Gold series.

This multi-faceted author also writes in the romantic mystery genre. Deceptive Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans) releases this month.

Beginning with DawnSinger, Janalyn's epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and her writing at http://janalynvoigt.com.

Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Cowboy Candy & 5 Chapters Giveaway

Old-fashioned peppermint candy

Peppermints seemed to be a favorite cowboy candy in the Old West, when available. They were tasty, portable, and at least the cowboys thought they covered up the smell of other vices. And they provided other uses too.

Medicinal Uses of Peppermint

While the origin of peppermint candy is unclear, historical accounts reveal peppermint oils have been used since ancient times to calm the stomach and for other remedies. Farmers in Europe began commercially growing the plant, which is a natural cross between watermint and spearmint, in the late 1700s.

Oil of peppermint contains menthol that is an antiseptic and anesthetic. Chewing a few peppermint leaves is thought to relieve a toothache. Indigestion, cold and flu sufferers can find some relief by drinking peppermint tea. However, peppermint tea can cause insomnia and it is therefore best avoided at night.

Peppermint oil is useful in combating flatulence and mild indigestion. Many over-the-counter stomach aids contain peppermint to both enhance the taste as well as the effectiveness of the medicine. However, in a strange bit of irony, peppermint is something of a trigger food for many suffering from acid reflux and may cause their symptoms to worsen.

History of Peppermint in the United States

When European settlers came to America they found that the American

Modern Wrapped Peppermints

Indians were already aware of the importance of mint, though they were growing different species of mint, native to North America. The settlers brought peppermint and other non-native mints with them and they quickly became naturalized and spread.

Some sources state commercial peppermint history in the United States is believed to have begun in Wayne County, New York in the early part of the 1800s. Others mention the first commercial growing of peppermint in the U.S. began in 1790 in the state of Massachusetts. 

Smith Kendon developed Altoids® in 1780 to relieve intestinal discomfort.

Homemade Peppermint Pillows

A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with colored stripes, was published in 1844. The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes.

The growing popularity of mint flavored toothpaste, gum, and candy at the turn-of-the twentieth century created a domestic market for high quality peppermint and spearmint oil.

In 1912, Clarence Crane of Cleveland, Ohio invented a mint flavored hard candy that had a strong resemblance to a lifesaving ring that you throw out to someone in distress in the water. In the 1930s, LifeSavers® salesmen made their rounds in distinctive cars shaped like a roll of LifeSavers® candy. They experimented with a variety of flavors, but Pep-O-Mint, flavored with mint, was always one of their most popular flavors.

Peppermint in the Bible

Mint was so valued in Egypt that it was used as a form of currency. In the Bible (Luke 11:39) Jesus tells the Pharisees: But woe unto you, Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

Other cowboy candy:

In 1847 Oliver Chase invented a machine for cutting lozenges and the fabled Necco Wafer® was born.

In the 1880s Wunderle Candy Company created candy corn.

In 1890 The Piedmont Candy Company manufactured Red Bird Peppermint Puffs in Lexington, North Carolina

In 1891 Claus Doscher opened Doscher Brothers Confections and a few years later introduced taffy after first tasting it in France

In 1893 William Wrigley, Jr. introduced Juicy Fruit® Chewing Gum and Wrigley's Spearmint® Chewing Gum

In 1893 Thomas Richardson introduced Pastel Mints at a department store in Philadelphia, PA

In 1896 Leo Hirshfield, a New York confectioner, introduced Tootsie Rolls®, named after his daughter's nickname, "Tootsie."

In 1890, legend claims an unnamed Southern lady made taffy but added the wrong ingredient resulting in the first batch of peanut brittle

Cowboy Candy Jalapenos

Modern versions of cowboy candy include Pickled Jalapenos and Candied Jalapenos, a combination of maraschino cherries and jalapeno peppers in sweet pickle brine. You can eat this treat with cream cheese on crackers or on a juicy hamburger. 

Find recipes here: 

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/09/candied-jalapenos-cowboy-candy/

or here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/candied-jalapeno-or-cowboy-candy-453141

Or there’s cowboy coffee stirred with a peppermint stick.

Favorite cowboy desserts in the Old West days on the trail were Hounds Ears,

Cowboy Candy with
cream cheese & cracker

Whirlups & Pooch. Find bonafide recipes for these delights on my website: http://www.blybooks.com/2010/01/cowboy-dessert/

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janet Chester Bly

About Author & Free 5 Chapters Giveaway Offer…

Janet Chester Bly has written and co-written 32 books with her late husband, award-winning western author Stephen Bly. She and her three sons completed Stephen’s last historical novel for him, Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot. Read about the story here: http://www.blybooks.com/category/finishing-dads-novel/.

New release Wind in the Wires, Book 1, Trails of Reba Cahill, is her

Wind in the Wires

first solo adult novel. It’s a contemporary western mystery. It’s a road adventure with a touch of romance. She calls it CowgirlLit. 

Find Wind in the Wires here:

Amazon.com   Nook Book  Barnes&Noble  BlyBooks.com

For free 5 Chapters of Windin the Wires to receive right now, sign up for Bly Books Almost Monthly News here: https://blybooks.leadpages.net/5-chapters-witw-optin/