Heritage Gateways

Official Sesquicentennial K-12 Education Project
sponsored by the Utah State Board of Education, the BYU-Public School Partnership and the Utah Education Network

Food

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Cooking: Along the Trail

Only 3 pots were needed to cook anything:

  1. Bake kettle (Dutch Oven)
  2. Frying pan
  3. Tea kettle

Sugar came in loafs (hard, cone-shaped).

Main meals were breakfast and supper (prepared at camp sites). Lunch was usually left-overs eaten during the noon rest stop.

"Hard Tack" or sea biscuits were eaten by all emigrants. Kept dry they could last for up to two years. Emigrants would make their own or purchase large quantities at the various outfitting towns along the Missouri River. These tasted like thick, hard, unsalted crackers.

Milk could be put in a churn on a wagon in the morning. The jostling during the day would turn the cream to butter by the time they stopped for the night.

More antelope were killed and eaten than buffalo.