Fire up your oven and tie on your apron as you explore the wonderful recipes inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writings and the television series.
Ma was busy all day long, cooking good things for Christmas. One morning she boiled molasses and sugar together until they made a thick syrup, and Pa brought in two pans of clean, white snow from outdoors. Laura and Mary each had a pan, and Pa and Ma showed them how to pour the dark syrup in little streams on to the snow. They made...
Mr. Edwards was taking sweet potatoes out of his pockets. He said they had helped to balance the package on his head when he swam across the creek. He thought Pa and Ma might like them, with the Christmas turkey. There were nine sweet potatoes. Mr. Edwards had brought them all the way from town, too. It was just too much. Pa said so....
Those stockings weren't empty yet. Mary and Laura pulled out two small packages. They unwrapped them, and each found a little heart-shaped cake. Over their delicate brown tops was sprinkled white sugar. The sparkling grains lay like tiny drifts of snow. The cakes were too pretty to eat. Mary and Laura just looked at them. But at last...
I’m glad I put beans to soak last night,’ said Ma. She lifted the lid of the bubbling kettle and quickly popped in a spoonful of soda. The boiling beans roared, foaming up, but did not quite run over. ‘There’s a little bit of salt pork to put in them too,’ Ma said. Now and then she spooned up a few beans and blew on them. When their...
"Almanzo trudged slowly toward the hayfield with the heavy pail and a dipper. He thought to himself that the pail was too full, he might spill some of the egg-nog... He should do something to save it. So he set down the pail, he dipped the dipper full, and he drank. The cold egg-nog slid smoothly down his throat, and it made him cool...
Then they plunged their hands into the stockings again. And they pulled out two long, long, sticks of candy. It was peppermint candy, striped red and white. They looked and looked at the beautiful candy, and Laura licked her stick, just one lick. —Little House on the PrairieWhile the peppermint sticks that Mr. Edwards brought to Mary...
"'Let’s make ice-cream!' Royal shouted. Eliza Jane loved ice-cream….They set the pail in a tub and packed the snowy crushed ice around it, with salt, and they covered it all with a blanket. Every few minutes they took off the blanket and uncovered the pail, and stirred the freezing ice-cream." Farmer Boy If you’ve ever made ice cream by...
"That afternoon the finished black cashmere was carefully pressed, and then Ma made a big, white cake. Laura helped her by beating the egg whites on a platter with a fork, until Ma said they were stiff enough. "My arm is stiffer," Laura ruefully laughed, rubbing her aching right arm. "This cake must be just right,” Ma insisted. “If you...
At last, as Grandma stirred, the syrup in the saucer turned into little grains like sand, and Grandma called: ‘Quick girls! It’s graining!’ Aunt Ruby and Aunt Docia and Ma left the dance and came running. They set out pans, big pans, and little pans, and as fast as Grandma filled them with the syrup, they set out more. They set the...
"Laura kept popping corn and Ma made it into balls until the large dishpan was heaped with their sweet crispness." These Happy Golden Years Popcorn has been an irresistible snack for kids since the 19th century, and a food the Ingalls family could grow in their home garden. While there are many kinds of feed and sweet corn, some of our...
Laura and Mary made new starry papers for the shelves, and Ma made vanity cakes. —On the Banks of Plum CreekVanity Cakes Recipe: Yield six cakes Vanity cakes are the perfect treat to add to a Little House on the Prairie birthday party, unit study, or gathering. Note: this recipe is adapted from a recipe in The Little House Cookbook, but...
"You can't beat hickory-cured ham." Little House in the Big Woods In Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Pa and Uncle Henry butcher a wild pig. It's fascinating to read how not one piece of the pig is wasted. Remember when Pa takes the pig's bladder and blows it up like a balloon? It may sound gross to us today, but...
"Laura did not need to be called next morning. She was up at dawn, and all day she helped Ma bake and stew and boil the good things for next day's Christmas dinner. Early that morning Ma added water and flour to the bread sponge and set it to rise again. Laura and Carrie picked over the cranberries and washed them. Ma stewed them with...
“We would have roast goose for Thanksgiving dinner! 'Roast goose and dressing seasoned with sage,' said sister Mary.” Laura Ingalls Wilder in These Happy Golden Years As we get ready for the holiday season, it's time to start thinking about our holiday dinner menu. Will you serve a Christmas ham, wild turkey or a juicy game hen?...
“Then Laura gathered up all the paper wrappings, and she helped Ma set on the table the big platter of golden fried mush, a plate of hot biscuits, a dish of fried potatoes, a bowl of codfish gravy and a glass dish full of dried-apple sauce. ...and nothing could taste better than hot biscuits and applesauce.” By the Shores of Silver Lake...
Now the sun and the wind were hotter and Laura’s legs quivered while she made them trample the hay….She was thirsty, then she was thirstier, and then she was so thirsty that she could think of nothing else. Nothing was ever so good as that cool wetness going down her throat. Ma had sent them ginger-water. —The Long WinterBefore our...
Our Recommended Reading for Children & Young Adults and Recommended Reading for Adults articles have been popular resources for readers interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. Here is a brief overview of The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories. Buy Now!...
“Thanksgiving dinner was good. Pa had shot a wild goose for it. Ma had to stew the goose because there was no fireplace, and no oven in the little stove. But she made dumplings in the gravy. There were corn dodgers and mashed potatoes. There were butter, and milk, and stewed dried plums. And three grains of parched corn lay beside each...
"All day long while the girls were in school, Ma made preserves of the red tomatoes, of the purple husk tomatoes, and of the golden ground-cherries. She made pickles of the green tomatoes that would not have time to ripen before it froze. The house was full of the syrupy scent of preserves and the spicy odor of pickles." Little Town on...
"Eliza Jane opened the dinner-pail on her desk. It held...four delicious apple turnovers, their plump crusts filled with melting slices of apple and spicy brown juice." Farmer Boy Apples were a popular fruit for many pioneers because they stored well and could be used in a variety of ways. Every respectable pioneer garden would have...
“Laura and Pa went back to the house, carrying those flopping fish. Ma’s eyes were round when she saw them. Pa cut off their heads and stripped out their insides and showed Laura how to scale fish. He scaled three, and she scaled almost all of one. Ma rolled them in meal and fried them in fat, and they all ate those good fish for...
Hurry and get the work done,” said Ma. “And then, Laura, you go to the corn-patch and bring me a green pumpkin. I’m going to make a pie!” “A pie! But how…” Mary said, and Laura said, “A green pumpkin pie? I never heard of such a thing, Ma.” “Neither did I,” said Ma. “But we wouldn’t do much if we didn’t do things that nobody ever heard...
Laura always wondered why bread made of corn meal was called johnny-cake. It wasn’t cake. Ma didn’t know, unless the Northern soldiers called it johnny-cake because the people in the South, where they fought, ate so much of it. They called the Southern soldiers Johnny Rebs. Maybe they called the Southern bread, cake, just for fun. Ma...
“There was pie plant in the garden; she must make a couple of pies.” The First Four Years After years of living on the plains with her parents, Laura finally settled into a house of her own with Almanzo. In The First Four Years, we learn about Laura’s life as a new wife on the South Dakota prairie. When Laura was getting ready to cook...
When all the trading was done, the storekeeper gave Mary and Laura each a piece of candy. They were so astonished and so pleased that they just stood looking at their candies. —Little House in the Big WoodsRock candy or sugar candy has been around for centuries, so it’s almost certain that Laura and Mary would have seen something...
"When they came to a plum thicket they set down their big pails. They filled their little pails with plums and emptied them into the big pails till they were full." On the Banks of Plum Creek Laura loved exploring the plum thickets with her sister Mary and would carefully shake the trees so that only the ripe plums would fall. Mary...
"A glossy white cloth covered the table. On it was a beautiful sugar-white cake and tall glasses... ‘Is your lemonade sweet enough?’ Mrs. Oleson asked. So Laura knew that it was lemonade in the glasses. She had never tasted anything like it." On the Banks of Plum Creek Lemonade is a timeless beverage that even little Laura...
In a classic episode of “Little House on the Prairie,” (Back to School Part 2, Season 6, Episode 2) Laura offers to cook dinner for a special date between Nellie and the handsome bachelor in town, Almanzo Wilder. Nellie’s not the only one with her eye on Almanzo, so Laura has an ulterior motive. She wants to end things between Nellie...
There are many challenges that come from life on a farm, but there’s a big payoff, too. Food on the table at a farmhouse is as good as it comes. In Farmer Boy, the third book in the Little House on the Prairie series, we learn about life on the Wilder family farm in Upstate New York. Food was plentiful, and Almanzo’s mother was known...
"But best of all Almanzo liked the spicy apple pie, with its thick, rich juice and its crumbly crust. He ate two big wedges of the pie." Farmer Boy Apple pie is an American classic. People have been enjoying this warm, comforting dish for generations. We typically think of it as a dessert, but in the pioneering era it was also enjoyed...
You can't help but think about food as you read through the Little House books - so much of a pioneer's life revolved around growing and acquiring food on a seasonal cycle. Indeed, large passages of the books are dedicated to the description of food and meals. So it's no surprise that one of the books inspired by the Little House series...