When there was “no meat of any kind but wild” a certain trapper named Sprague turned to the backwoods mainstay: raccoon. It was “racoon for breakfast, [raccoon] for dinner, and the same for supper,” he complained, finding no relief in vegetables or sauce. When Sprague was lucky enough to come upon a bit of flour, he made his favorite delicacy, [raccoon] cake. […]

“Take what flour you have, mix with water, shorten with [racoon] oil and fry in [racoon] fat.“

Uh – yum?

I don’t know where you’re going to find this book. I’m sure I must have picked it up at work from the free shelves or something. I like it because it I am obsessed with the journey West and the early Western settlements.

The collection of journal entries about finding food, recipes, and contemporary photographs really bring the romance of life in the old West alive.

Such recipes as Birds on Toast, Pigeons in Disguise, Army Coffee for One Hundred, Walnut Catsup, Cracker Panada (a drink made for invalids by boiling crackers with wine and nutmeg), Green Corn Pudding, Dandelions, and all sorts of goodies.

The book is divided into chapters with recipes from sailors, trappers & explorers, military, overlanders (civilians on the trails West), boarding house and hotel cooking, chuck wagon and ranch cooking, calico cooks (women on farms, frontier, and in early towns), mission foods, and foods from minority groups such as Native Americans, Spanish Americans, Chinese & Japanese, and African Americans.

My favorite part are the narratives. They are so often, like the one above, told with an unquenchable sense of humor, such as this passage from Martha Summerhays, talking about her life as a young military bride:

I concluded that my New England bring up had been too serious, and I wondered if I had made a dreadful mistake in marrying into the army, or at least in following my husband to Arizona. I debated the question with myself from all sides, and decided there and then that young army women should stay at home with their mothers and fathers, and not go into such wild and uncouth places. I thought my decision irrevocable…

She then goes on to tell how she came across a can of oysters, made an oyster soup and oyster patties. The officers exclaimed and asked the army cook if he had made them. To which he “looked straight to the front and replied: ‘Yes, Sir.'” and she thought she overheard a Captain mutter to his neighbor, “To hell he did” – but she was not sure.

Que sera sera.

It’s amazing the sense of humor that people in those days had. While you come across plenty of folks who mourn the loss of family members or animals or homes, just as many tell their tales with the dry sense of humor that Mark Twain was famous for.

I guess when you haven’t got any tears left, you have to laugh instead.

You may not get hungry reading these recipes but your heart and eyes will enjoy the feast.