12 Old Pioneer Recipes That Still Belong on Your Holiday Table

Jump to a recipe

1. The Two Pans
2. Johnnycake
3. Lacy-Edged Corn Pancakes
4. Potato Cakes
5. Cornmeal Mush
6. Hasty Pudding
7. Soda Biscuits
8. Side Pork and Pan Gravy
9. Molasses Stack Cake
10. Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake
11. Swiss Apple Cherry Pie
12. Spotted Pup
13. Chocolate Caramels

Can you still cook what pioneer families ate on the trail and in early settler kitchens? You can. Most of these dishes need a skillet, an oven and things already in your pantry.

I’ve sorted these pioneer recipes by where they land on a holiday table, so you can pick a bread, a side and a dessert without testing the whole list. The measures come from the old recipes, and a few were never exact. Where an old step doesn’t work in a modern kitchen, you’ll see what changed and why.

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The Two Pans That Do Most of the Work

A heavy pan holds steady heat, and that’s what these old recipes were built around. A cast iron skillet fries potato cakes and corn pancakes evenly. A lidded Dutch oven bakes johnnycake and spotted pup the way a wagon cook would have.

If you’re buying one pan for this list, a 12 inch cast iron skillet covers the cakes, the pancakes and the gravy. It’s heavy, so a smaller skillet is easier if you’ll be flipping a lot.

If you already own one heavy pan, start there. You don’t need both to make most of this list.

Pantry Staples to Have on Hand

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How to Pick Your Pioneer Recipes

Start with the meal, not the list. A cornmeal bread plus a dessert gives you an old-fashioned spread without crowding your oven. Add the pork and gravy if you want a savory dish too.

Breads and Cornmeal

Cornmeal kept well on the trail, so it shows up in almost every camp meal. These six breads are the easiest place to start.

1. Johnnycake

Johnnycake is a sweet cornbread made with molasses and buttermilk. It bakes in one pan and slices into squares for a crowd.

Step 1: Beat the eggs. Stir in the buttermilk and molasses.

Step 2: In a second bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder.

Step 3: Melt the butter and stir it in with the wet mix, then fold in the dry mix.

Step 4: Pour the batter into a greased Dutch oven or skillet and bake until done.

CHECKPOINT: Push a toothpick into the center. It should come out clean, with no wet batter on it.

2. Lacy-Edged Corn Pancakes

These thin cakes crisp at the edges in hot fat. They’re good with soup, greens or beans.

Step 1: Mix the cornmeal, baking soda and salt.

Step 2: Stir in the egg and buttermilk to make a thin batter.

Step 3: Melt the fat in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.

Step 4: Drop the batter by the tablespoon, leaving space between cakes so they spread.

Step 5: Flip when the edges look lacy and brown.

STOP POINT: Hot fat can spit when batter hits it. Keep the handle turned in and little ones back from the stove before you pour.

3. Potato Cakes

Potatoes stored well, and these cakes turned a few of them into breakfast for a family.

Step 1: Peel and grate the potatoes.

Step 2: Stir in the salt, milk, eggs and flour.

Step 3: Spoon the mix into a hot pan with melted shortening.

Step 4: Cook until both sides are golden brown.

CHECKPOINT: Press the center with a spatula. It should feel firm, not wet.

4. Cornmeal Mush

Mush was the trail breakfast. It’s also the start of a second dish: chill the leftovers, slice them and fry them in a little fat.

Step 1: Add the currants to the boiling water.

Step 2: Sprinkle in the cornmeal slowly while you stir.

Step 3: Stir in the lard and salt.

Step 4: Keep stirring until it’s thick and smooth, then spoon into bowls.

STOP POINT: Thick mush bubbles and spits. Use a long spoon and stir from the side, not over the pot.

5. Hasty Pudding

Early English settlers made this with cornmeal when wheat was short. It’s plainer than mush and goes well under a spoon of molasses.

Step 1: Bring the salted water to a boil.

Step 2: Pour in the cornmeal in a thin, steady stream.

Step 3: Stir the whole time so no lumps form.

Step 4: Keep stirring for 20 minutes until it’s thick and smooth.

CHECKPOINT: A spoon dragged across the bottom should leave a clear path for a second.

6. Soda Biscuits

These are the simplest biscuits on the list: flour, salt, soda and a sour liquid. Baking soda needs an acid to make bubbles. Sour milk or buttermilk gives it that acid, so the biscuits rise and don’t taste soapy.

Step 1: Heat the oven to 425°F.

Step 2: Mix the flour, salt and baking soda.

Step 3: Stir in the buttermilk a spoonful at a time until the dough holds together.

Step 4: Roll it out and cut circles.

Step 5: Bake for 15 minutes until the edges turn brown.

READ MORE: Homemade Biscuits Recipe

Mains and Gravy

Most trail cooks had cured pork, and nothing went to waste. The drippings became gravy.

7. Side Pork and Pan Gravy

Old recipe books call this Mormon gravy. It’s a milk gravy made in the same pan as the pork, so you get every browned bit.

Step 1: Fry the pork slices until crisp. Set them aside and keep them warm.

Step 2: Pour off the fat and measure 4 tablespoons back into the pan.

Step 3: Stir in the flour and let it brown a little.

Step 4: Take the pan off the heat and stir in the milk, scraping up the browned bits.

Step 5: Return to low heat and stir until smooth and creamy.

CHECKPOINT: The gravy should coat the back of a spoon and hold a line when you run a finger through it.

Serve it over potato cakes or soda biscuits. For more ways to make it, see these grandma’s gravy recipes.

Desserts

Sugar was precious, so sweets meant a special day. These five work well for a holiday crowd.

8. Molasses Stack Cake

The story goes that guests each brought a layer to a wedding, and the family stacked them with apple butter between. You can make all the layers yourself.

Step 1: Heat the oven to 350°F.

Step 2: Mix the buttermilk, shortening, egg, molasses and baking powder.

Step 3: Sprinkle in cinnamon and nutmeg.

Step 4: Add the flour, mix well and roll the dough thin.

Step 5: Cut into circles and bake on greased sheets until golden brown.

Step 6: Stack the cooled layers with apple butter between them.

CHECKPOINT: Each layer should spring back when you touch the center.

Cover the stack and let it sit. The apple butter softens the layers as it rests.

9. Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake

This spice cake skips the ingredients that were hard to get. Boiling the raisins first plumps them and flavors the batter.

Step 1: Boil the brown sugar, cold water and raisins together.

Step 2: Stir in the salt, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and shortening.

Step 3: Boil for 3 minutes, then let it cool.

Step 4: Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water.

Step 5: Stir the soda water, flour and baking powder into the cooled mix.

Step 6: Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 350°F.

STOP POINT: Let the boiled mix cool before the soda goes in. Hot syrup makes the soda bubble out too early, and the cake bakes flat.

10. Swiss Apple Cherry Pie

Old recipe collections give this layered apple and cherry pie a Swiss name. It’s a good change from plain apple on a holiday table.

Step 1: Slice the apples thin.

Step 2: Brush the bottom crust with some of the melted butter.

Step 3: Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Step 4: Layer apples, a sprinkle of the sugar mix, then cherries. Repeat.

Step 5: Pour the rest of the butter over the top and add the top crust.

Step 6: Brush the crust with evaporated milk.

Step 7: Bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 425°F.

CHECKPOINT: Juice should bubble up through the vents in the top crust.

11. Spotted Pup

This is rice pudding from leftover rice. The raisins are the spots.

Step 1: Put the cooked rice in a Dutch oven.

Step 2: Pour in enough milk to cover the rice.

Step 3: Stir in a beaten egg.

Step 4: Season with vanilla, nutmeg, salt and sugar. Top with raisins.

Step 5: Cover and bake until the center is set.

CHECKPOINT: Shake the pot gently. The center should jiggle a little, like soft custard, not slosh.

12. Chocolate Caramels

Candy was a rare treat, and these use the cold-water test cooks relied on before thermometers.

Step 1: Put the sugar, chocolate, molasses, milk and butter in a heavy pan over low heat.

Step 2: Stir until the sugar melts, then let it boil gently. Stirring early keeps it from scorching.

Step 3: Drop a little of the mix into a cup of cold water.

Step 4: When the drop holds together as a firm ball, it’s ready.

Step 5: Stir in the vanilla and pour into an oiled pan.

Step 6: Cut into squares when it’s almost cold.

STOP POINT: Boiling sugar sticks to skin and burns deep. Keep kids out of the kitchen while it cooks, and never taste it from the spoon.

RELATED: 20 Easy Caramel Apple Recipes

Watch a Trail Meal Come Together

Want to see what wagon families packed and cooked? The video below covers what pioneers ate on the Oregon Trail. Video: Tasting History with Max Miller.

Old Method or Updated Method?

Here’s where the old recipe stays as it was and where it needs a change.

Troubleshooting

Shortcuts to Avoid

• Curing meat from an old recipe. Old recipes say a handful of salt or a spoon of saltpeter. Curing is preservation, so use a tested recipe from a university extension service with a measured cure.
• Baking soda in plain milk. You’ll get flat, soapy biscuits.
• Cutting skillet breads early. Wait for the toothpick test.
• Cooking candy with children at your elbow. Boiling sugar burns badly.

When to Ask an Expert

If you want to cure or smoke meat the way trail families did, ask your county extension office for a tested recipe or a class first. If someone at your table has a food allergy, check each recipe’s flour, eggs and milk with them before you cook.

Buy Once

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• Best: a lidded cast iron Dutch oven that fits in your oven.
• Better: a 12 inch cast iron skillet.
• Budget: a heavy baking pan you already own.

Bringing the Trail to Your Table

You don’t need a wagon or a campfire to cook like a pioneer family. A heavy pan and a short menu are enough. Start with johnnycake if you’re new to this. It’s forgiving, it feeds a crowd, and the toothpick test tells you when it’s right.

Planning the whole holiday meal? Try these pioneer woman recipes for Thanksgiving next, or take the cooking outside with foil-wrapped camping recipes.

FAQs

The Pioneer Recipe Debate

Old measures give you the real taste of the trail. Modern swaps make some dishes more reliable.

Cook it the old way or update it?

Exactly as written, for the real tasteUpdated so it works every timeOld way for breads, update the rest

Vote

Tell us which dish you’d make first and why.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 21, 2016, and was updated in November 2026.