The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-06-30
Phassef Ceakerr.

MUcEE O843STys
Prentice 1fnlsord says: In 1s49 man,
thousand 1an we're precipitated up
On the sea III / Iernis who were igno
amt Of - principles of cookin,
and housssqnpl%. They were mel
: whose ns{a,txes III wives had alwayi
sewed on 1 buttons, baked thei
bread and u1lq their beds. These
save an OF 49, here and there. wher
eft to shift arhselves, went stzaigh
% domest culinary rack and ruin
The .'pio1leek Books Were obliged tt
bake theiF or brssA.. Drexdfm work
most of sthefn made of il Equally in
camp ifetheir bread first took the form
IF fapjssks. FiApjacks and toasted
bacon was, perhaps, the leading dish Of
''49." 1npoint of lightness the major
ity Of these pioneer Hapjacks might a:
well have been made of plaster Paris.
Flapjacks and bacon did deadly work
They filled many a lone, unmarked
grave in the foothills. at Red Mount.
ain Bar, on a mound in front of Thomp-
sons store, there are six of these un-
marked graves in a row.. Heavy flap
jacks and baeons excessive labor, in
sufficient covering during the chilly
nights. very hot days and working in
ice-cold water killed them all. The sec
ond in Importance of the pioneer dishes
of pioneer times was pork and beans.
Thousands of men, many of whom are
to-day in high repute and standing,
cooked their own beans, and in cooking
these beans committed the fundamental
error of putting in the pork to boil at the
same time with the beans and then won
dering why the beans did not soften. The
beans, under these conditions, never did
soften. The pork hardened their hearts.
In 1851 or '52 an imported culinary ru-
NOR gradually spread throughout the
mines from the lower confines of Mari
posa to the upper ones of Siskiyou, to
the effect that beans. to be properly
cooked, should be soaked in water over
night, in which water trifie of sale
ratus had been dissolved, and that no
pork should be added until some fifteen
or twenty minutes before the beans were
thoroughly done; when this pork, cut
in thin slices to the rind, in order that
it might boil tender the quicker, should
come on the stage and 60 into the pot,
whereby the agreeable flavor of the
picked pig should impart itself and
pervade the entire mass of legurninous
product This thereafter was ALWAYS
done, and hard beans ceased to be a
source of culinary and digestive dis
.turbance In 81 or '52 canned provis-
ions IN quantities commenced arriving
from the States, such as sardines, oys-
tiers, Holsters and meats. The present
perfection of canned goods had not then
been attained, and the pioneers who
attempted to luxuriate on these so-called
delicacies in many cases came to grief.
The pioneer cooking OF California was
a daily operation which tried mems
souls and bodies. They came home at
night from their work, tired and wet
from standing maybe all day in the ice
cold rsThere was often wood to
cut nd w4tev to get from a distant
sprfn and the fire to kindle, and all the
little chores'' to perform essential to
the cooking of the humblest. meal.
These tell heavily on ones strength,
especially il living alone, and there
was soon developed tendency to
live each man IN his own cabin,
-becazse mules, like other couples could
not awag 3 agree. A fire which refuses
TO bum at such time is worse trouble
to the individual than revolution in
Europe. Wewere in those days much
troubled by our stoves-when stoves
commenced coming. l lived once with
an amateur cook and an old stove. The
COOK had an infirmity of temper and
the stove was infirm all over. It.was
an Old boarding house stove, long past
Its prime. 1t had seen the dav when it
could cook for fifty people. That is
nifty people could be cooked for on and
~ It by one skilled cook. But age had
dimmed its faculties. 1t was not the
stove it had been. 1t was subject to
falling fits when it got hot-that is when
IT'S lower part was warmed, and conse-
quently expanded by heat, and before
the top was so warmed and expanded at
al, the lower portion, being thus made
WIDER temporarily than the upper,
would yawn, and the entire top with
It's array of pots, pans and kettles,
would fall into the blazing furnace un-
derneath. The profanity at such times
from this cook was fearful. His tenn
per was about the worst I ever saw.
Our little kitchen would blaze with
curses, while both of US meanwhile
snatched out of the fire, by means of
pokers, shovel and pick handles or
hands wrapped in rags, the consuming
remains of our meal. His rage used
ultimately to concentrate itself on the
little homemade pepper-box-a yeast
powder can, its top bored full of holes
shaken from an upper shelf by
lis furnishings about. used to be by him
zlcked from side to side and end to end
= the kitchen and finally, with great
tltflculty out of the back door into a
,haparral bush. from whence I would
,ring It IN after the storm was over.