A Collection Of Everyday Frontier Recipes From The Days Of The Republic Of Texas.

Cornmeal Mush

1/2 cup Cornmeal
2-3/4 cups Water
3/4 teaspoon Salt

Sprinkle cornmeal into boiling water, stirring constantly. Add salt and cook for about half an hour.
Serve with sugar and cream. (Circa 1830)

Indian Cornmeal Cake

1-1/2 cups Yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Flour
3 teaspoons Rosewater (Vanilla)
1-2/3 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup Butter
8 Eggs

Mix the sugar, butter and eggs. Mix the cornmeal and salt together, and combine with the sugar, butter and egg mixture. Add vanilla and cinnamon and mix well. Pour into a floured cake pan and bake in a moderate oven. (Circa 1830)

Fried Squirrel

Rinse skinned squirrel in cold water and pat dry. Dip in buttermilk and then in seasoned flour, and fry in hot fat. If the squirrel is young, steaming is not necessary. Otherwise, drain off excess fat and add a cup of water and steam covered.

Make gravy in the frying pan by adding leftover seasoned flour and milk or water. Serve with biscuits and wild plum jelly. (from 1818)

Salt Pork and Gravy

Salt pork is seldom used for anything other than seasoning now, but it was a staple of the early Texans. It was boiled to remove the excess salt and then prepared.

Slice one pound of salt pork thin. Freshen it by putting the slices in cold water and bringing to a boil. Then dry the slices, slit the edges and fry to a crisp. Make cream gravy with the drippings.

Cream Gravy

Keep about 3 tablespoons of the grease and as much browned bits in the pan. While still hot, Sprinkle 1/2 cup flour in the hot oil and quickly stir with a wooden spoon, to brown the flour. gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps.

Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Country Biscuits

Take 1 quart of flour, 3 teaspoonfuls of cream of tarter, mixed well through the flour, 2 tablespoons of shortening, 1 teaspoon of soda, dissolved in enough warm water to mold the quart of flour. For large families the amounts can be doubled.

Soda Biscuits

To one quart of sour milk, add 1 teaspoon of soda, 1 teaspoon salt and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Add enough flour to make dough and roll them out

Rice Pudding

Add 1 pint of rice flour to 1 quart of milk, boil them to a pap. Beat 6 eggs and add 6 spoonsful of Havana sugar and a spoonful of butter. When well beaten together, add to the milk and flour mixture. Grease the baking pan, grate nutmeg over the mixture and bake it.

Jonny Cake
(sometime called Journey)

To 3 spoonfuls of soft boiled rice, add a small tea cup of water or milk. Then add 6 spoonfuls of rice flour. This will make a large Jonny cake or 6 waffles.

Indian Bread

Mix together, 1 quart of buttermilk, one quart of corn meal, 1 quart of course flour, (wholewheat?) 1 cup molasses, and a little soda and some salt. Mix well and bake.

Quick Pudding

Beat up 4 eggs, add a pint of milk and a little salt and stir in 4 large spoonfuls of flour and a little nutmeg and sugar to your taste. Beat it well and pour it into buttered tea cups, filling them half full. They will bake in a stove or Dutch oven in 15 minutes.

Venison Jerkey

6 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 1/2 lb. Boneless Venison

Combine all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl or, if you have one, a spare spice bottle with a shaker top.
Slice the venison with the grain into strips about 1/8 inch thick. Lay out the slices and sprinkle evenly with the seasoning mix. Pound the strips lightly, flip them over and repeat for other side.
Smoke the strips until dry.

Artifical Fried Oysters

Take young green corn, grate it in a dish. To one pint of this, add 1 egg, well beaten, a small teacup of flour, 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter, some salt and pepper. Mix it all together.

Drop tablespoons of the batter in hot fat. Fry them until light brown and butter them lightly when done.

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