A pioneer staple

No, I'm not going to talk about pioneer office supplies. By "staple," I mean a food that made up a large part of the pioneer diet. And the staple I'm going to talk about today is salt pork.

Was anyone else mystified by the references in Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books to a food called salt pork? I knew it was some kind of meat, of course, and I knew the Ingalls family ate it a lot when Pa couldn't hunt for fresh meat. However, I didn't understand its preparation or historical significance until I started researching for this blog post.

Salt pork is the same cut of meat as bacon, but it's prepared differently. Salt pork in the 1800s was soaked in brine and smoked, then packed in barrels with more brine for a long trip out West. During the ride, the meat would cure. The salt kept the pork from going bad, since there weren't any refrigerated train cars in those days.

Once the salt pork reached the pioneers, they fried it and gobbled it up. You can find a recipe for salt pork in Barbara M. Walker's Little House Cookbook. The recipe is based on the one Ma gave to Reverend Stuart in By The Shores of Silver Lake.

Knowing pioneers like the Ingalls family, we can be sure they wasted nothing, including the drippings from fried salt pork. These were often used in applications where we would use butter or oil today.

Here's an article about salt pork in the Civil War, shortly before Laura' time.

Thanks for reading Little House Club Online! Come back Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for more fun from the "Little House" books.
Elizabeth