Pioneer Recipes Everyone Should Know How To Make (2024)

Have you made some pioneer recipes your ancestors made many years ago? They didn’t have the ingredients we have today, so they had to make do with what they had. And make do is what they did for sure. They had to fill the belly because they were traveling in covered wagons, in most cases, with limited access to the General Store, back in the day.

Whether it was the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, or other destinations as a goal, times were tough when it came to meal planning.

Plus, even when they got to their destination, it could have been months or years before regular food supplies or merchant stores were readily available to them to purchase ingredients to make their favorite dish.

I sometimes think we’ll be making these recipes once again if and when we have a grid down, additional disasters, or whatever you believe will happen. And they will happen, trust me.

As an example, our power grid in the US is so outdated and will take years, actually several years to replace, if it can even be done. Power outages are reported almost daily somewhere in the US.

These pioneer recipes are pretty well known, but I want to put them in printable form so you, my readers, can print them now before you need them. This is a post I wrote some years ago, but I felt the need to update it now based on the challenges I’m reading on social media and hearing about on the TV.

Of course, if you cook from scratch you know several recipes to get you by if the grocery stores are shut down for days, weeks, or months.

Typical Ingredients:

• Cornmeal
• Salt
• Baking Soda
• Molasses
• Buttermilk
• Eggs
• Rice
• Raisins
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Baking Powder
• Oil/Lard
• Flour
• Brown Sugar (1/4 cup molasses per one cup white sugar)
• Potatoes
• Milk or Cream

Pioneer Recipes

Mormon Johnny Cake

Bread is a staple in every era we read about. We all love bread as comfort food and something we know will fill us. If you have an iron pan or skillet you can cook a host of meal options at home, or out in the open.

The batter mixture for this recipe is pretty simple and easy to throw together if you have a small bowl to use, a spatula, and all the ingredients available.

Spotted Pup

Breakfast is an important meal no matter who you are and when you live. I really love using a Dutch oven to cook meals, and this is a great example. The ingredients in this recipe make for a flavorful and sweet meal option everyone will enjoy!

Soda Biscuits

My family made soda biscuits all the time. There is something awesome about making homemade biscuits. Did you grow up making them? I sure did. We would lather them with butter and homemade jam.

We would also make bacon gravy or chipped beef gravy to pour over biscuits a few times each week for dinner. As long as you have some flour available you can mix up a bread of your choice, and biscuits are generally liked by family members of all ages.

Honey Candy

My church group used to pull this honey candy all the time. Those were great times when people socialized with one another. I miss those days. Having something sweet to look forward to is always welcome after a hard day on the trail or in the office.

This recipe is fun to make as a family team whether around the kitchen table or the back of a covered wagon.

Potato Cakes

One of the recipes my family made all the time. It’s truly a cheap and filling meal. I grew up drizzling honey on mine. How did you eat yours? Life is so good with good friends and delicious food, isn’t it?

Norwegian Lefse

Lefse is one of my favorite recipes made by my great-grandmother, Danny, one of my pioneer ancestors from Norway. I love my Lefse spread with butter and brown sugar. My family prefers white sugar. My mouth is watering right now.

It’s all about memories, right? My husband hadn’t heard of Lefse until I introduced him to this recipe. When our kids were young we’d make it on weekend mornings, and they loved it! My Lefse Post

Bacon or Sausage Gravy

Biscuits and gravy are a personal favorite that I probably eat more than I should. This is a combination I grew up with because they were cheap to make and my mom could stretch a meal with more flour and milk.

I actually went to several restaurants with a friend when we lived in Southern Utah to see who made the best sausage and biscuits. We decided it was a restaurant called Black Bear Diner. They were awesome!

Some other old-time recipes you may want to research and make are hasty pudding, cornmeal mush, hard tack, Mormon gravy, corn dodgers, beef jerky, pemmican (dried meat), and a US favorite, apple pie.

Final Word

I feel strongly about learning to cook inexpensive meals because I believe hard times are coming. Please teach your family how to cook from scratch. Learning how to cook these pioneer recipes would be a great start for any family wanting to be thrifty and self-reliant during tough times as all preppers do. Thanks for prepping. May God bless this world. Linda