The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories

I've been a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan for practically my whole life and am now delighted to be reading the whole series aloud to my young daughter who loves the books as much as I. My friend told me about this cookbook and we purchased it - it is WONDERFUL!
I read the whole thing cover to cover - it is just fascinating. The author writes in a very readable, extremely interesting style. I love having all the recipes for the meals mentioned throughout the Little House books and I *love* reading the history included in this cookbook. It adds such depth and perspective to our readings of the LIW books. [This book is as much a history text as it is a cookbook - and it does great justice to both genres!]
My daughter and I have made several of the recipes from the book so far and they have all been delicious, if not exactly health conscious. :) I haven't been able to bring myself to buy Lard, but we have delighted in making some of the same foods Laura ate. My daughter is learning a HUGE amount about history through these experiences.
Buying this book is the best money I've spent in years!

This is not just a cookbook, it's an interactive history book, and an in-depth analysis of Laura Wilder's Little House books. Here we see the abundant, lush supply of high-quality food available on the dairy farm where Almanzo grew up contrasted with the catch-as-catch-can meals Laura's mother was forced to cobble together (starling pie, anyone?). We are reminded of the heroism of two teenagers - Almanzo and his brother - that saved dozens of families from starvation, and see clearly in her loving detail of food, how much Laura valued having enough of it.
I grew up in a rural area in the 1960's. How we prepared food then was often not far off from how it was done in the Little House cookbook, believe it or not. So I've used the recipes - like that for mincemeat pie - to inform my own cooking.
The soft pencil illustrations by Garth Williams - reproduced from the Little House books - are radiant and exquisitely simple. Their little details point out Williams' depth of research for source material for these pictures.
The Little House Cookbook was an inspiration to read the Little House books again, through adult eyes this time. Prepare to be surprised and amazed when you read them again.

Good points: I love the historical background and more information than is found in the original books - information on how food was prepared and such; they also explain the adaptations of ingredients from what was available then as compared to now.

There are excerpts from the original books, with original drawings. I love the historical, literary and practical context built right in.

Negative points: As another reviewer posted, the 3rd edition has a couple of incomplete recipes. VERY disappointing.

Also, as another reviewer commented - they do substitute some ingredients with modern-day available ingredients, items that were not in use in pioneer days in the same form as now (ie "white" flour then is NOT the same as white flour today - it was much healthier back then and we do not use modern white flour in our house in any form). They also state that true whole wheat flour produces dry bread, but I have not found that to be the case with the breads and other items we already make at home - it's all in the other ingredients.
Therefore, when we prepare specific recipes, we locate something that is closer to the original than what the authors suggest for substitutes - and all of our creations have turned out great!

Is this a book for children? If they are working with you - yes - but they should not do every step themselves of course. I foresee this book being more applicable to teenagers and older who have already read the Little House books and would like to go back and recall the stories - extend the experience so to speak. Younger children help out at times that they can and of course, everyone enjoys the end result!

I always wondered how Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family managed to eat in such wilderness surroundings. Food was scarce especially during the Long Winter. I'm still amazed that pioneers managed to survive such harsh conditions. This book has some good recepies especially if you are wanting to stay off the grid as much as possible.

For Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, The Little House Cookbook is a no-brainer, must-have, geek fest. As a Laurafan, I've been salivating over Ma's vanity cakes and sourdough biscuits since 1972, pining for those heart-shaped cakes sprinkled in white sugar. Chapters often feature a quote and original illustration by Garth Williams form the "Little House" series. Even the font and point size are the same. Comfort and nostalgia abound.

An admitted "Bonnethead," I read with the intention of holding a pioneer-themed dinner party. My first read made me think that Ma Ingalls was not just being modest when she said, "Hunger is the best sauce." Salt Pork. Cornmeal. Codfish. Laura Ingalls Wilder always had the knack of making ettuce with a sprinkle of vinegar and sugar sound like black truffle risotto, but The Loftus General Store of De Smet, South Dakota wasn't exactly Whole Foods. I wanted the fun of a pioneer meal and food people would enjoy.

What I discovered, while looking for recipes that wouldn't give my guests heart disease, was a good read. Barbara Walker not only knows how to cook, she is a food historian--her bibliography is four and a half pages long. In each chapter, she locates recipes within their historical context and explains every ingredient. We all know that women cooked over an iron stove, but did you know that they didn't have baking soda? I learned that tomatoes only became sweet at the turn of the century, and that Laura (who became a renowned poultry farmer in her own right) lived to see "poultry raising change from a gentlemen's sport and farm wife's pocket money to two separate industries, egg production and meat production." Today, poultry farmers use different breeds for "layers" versus "fryers."

Laurafans will love how Walker takes on recipes that demonstrate Ma's resourcefulness during lean times. She recreates the Green Pumpkin Pie Ma baked when there were no apples to be found. Blackbirds decimating the corn crop? There's Ma, rebounding with Blackbird Pie. (Now Blackbirds are endangered, so Walker recommends substituting the new aviary pest, Starlings). She explains how to bake "Long Winter" bread, which the Ingalls family subsisted on during eight months of prairie blizzards. I admit that while reading about these recipes I probably wasn't going to make them, but I did enjoy thinking about making them.

So The Little House Cookbook is fun to read, but the America's Test Kitchen taught me that the key to a useable cookbook, versus a pretty one, is that the recipes actually work. Walker gets giant kudos for writing up the recipes so that you can recreate them. For each dish, she first describes how a pioneer would have prepared the food, and then details how to adapt these recipes to the modern kitchen. One of my favorite quotes comes from the recipe for Stewed Jackrabbit with Dumplings, "If you can't find a hunter to give you a skinned rabbit (he will want the pelt), look for a farm-raised rabbit at a German butcher shop. (Hasenpfeffer is a favorite German dish)." Thus, I learned a little more about pioneer life, German culinary culture AND the Laverne and Shirley theme song.

And as for my party? I had my fantasies. Roast Suckling Pig. Mincemeat Pie. Husk Tomato Preserves. In the end, though, I only used Walker's book for the iconic Apples `n' Onions to the letter. I cheated and used baking soda for my cornbread and biscuits. Instead of subjecting my guests to Salt Pork (kind of gross), I put out a plate of fried bacon. I did remain true to the pioneer spirit, shopping at the Farmer's Market for jellies, butternut squash and berries. I opened a jar of homemade watermelon rind pickles given to me by a friend's mother. After slaving over my brand new gas oven all day, I had an appreciation for Ma and what she went through. In the end, I like to think she would have approved of my innovative spirit. And I have no doubt that if Ma could have run down to Kroger for a ham instead raising, butchering, and curing the meat herself, she would have been all about it.

I hope that you will be as impressed with this book as I was. I was taken away with all of the background information on the preparing, cooking, and serving of food in this book. It has some very good recipes in this, as well as great documentation on the life during the time where Laura grew up. The book is also well illustrated. This has been the most impressive cookbook for children that I have seen to date in terms of extra information that goes with the cookbook. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book for their favorite Little House on the Prarie fan. This book would also be excellent for a scout troup wanting to do something a little historical. A definate must!

This is wonderful! It is for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and also for those who are interested in historic cooking - from prairie and colonial days which have their basis in so many of the cultures which settled America in the early days, and adapted for use there

This book is a very happy blend of the Laura Ingalls stories and the food which was eaten, interspersed with the recipes and how they would have been prepared and cooked. Of course Laura didn't include any of the actual recipes in her book and so they have gleaned from similar cookbooks and so on of the day. It has been adjusted to modern need for exact temperatures and measures.

I found this book so lovely to read through, not just browse through. The interest factor is great - learning what things were available, and how they were used - baking soda, yeasts, how the oven was used, what cooking items they would have had access too as well as some of the stuff we should know but forget - seasonal food avaialble. But it is good as a simple recipe book. It is an incredible look at times gome past

one of my best reads in the last few years, I also bought a Prairie cookbook which I would highly recommend as well - it is more of a recipe book than this one, but a lovely complementary book to it.

I love everything about cookbooks and my collection wouldn't be complete without, " The Little House Cookbook ". I have all The Little House books and love them to this day. This was in a time gone by and makes me very humble when I read all the accounts of the Pioneer Life. The recipes in the cookbook are simple but very good and I like to get a cup of coffee and read it like a book. It takes to back to a slower time , but really it was a lot of work for pioneer people.
Sandy Hatton

My 11year old granddaughter declared this cookbook to be the "best gift I received!" First attempt at a pound cake.

I bought this for my Mother for Christmas because she's a huge fan of the Little House series. I've asked her a couple of times if she's cooked any of the recipes and she said she doubted she would try any of them, however, she said she really enjoyed reading about the history included in this book, how things were done 'back then' and she read it more like a book than a cookbook. So that's great and it was a great present to give someone who enjoys anything about Laura Ingalls Wilder.