17 pioneer recipes

Drunken pioneers pasta: wagon wheels topped with sauteed peppers and onions in a quick red wine and beef-stock sauce with basil and rosemary. Pantry weeknight pasta in 25 minutes.

Mary Rogers's sourdough biscuits use an overnight starter sponge for a tender, tangy biscuit with a soft crumb. A pioneer-style overnight rise that beats any quick biscuit hands down.

Favourite Shaker sugar pie with brown sugar and flour bedded under half-and-half, vanilla, and butter pieces dotted across the top. A simple pioneer dessert that bakes into a silky no-egg custard.

Old-fashioned quick graham bread, a no-knead pioneer-style whole grain loaf with brown sugar, graham flour, and milk. Bakes up in an hour with no yeast or rising time required.

Heritage sourdough dried apple cake rolled with spiced fruit and baked in a bubbling brown sugar-cinnamon syrup. This pioneer-style recipe turns pantry staples into a sticky, fragrant dessert that feeds a crowd.

Old-fashioned vinegar taffy: a six-ingredient pulled candy with a faint tangy edge that cuts through the sweetness. Pioneer-era pulling candy that kids and adults can make together.

Old-fashioned potato sourdough starter: a yeast-and-flour starter fed with raw potato for biscuits, breads, and pancakes. Pioneer-style starter that improves with age.

Lard cake creams pure pork lard with sugar, then folds in beaten egg whites and evaporated milk for a tender, old-fashioned vanilla cake. Vintage pioneer-era recipe.

Heritage-style yeast-risen buckwheat cakes made with an overnight batter and a touch of baking soda. A pioneer-era breakfast griddle cake with deep, earthy flavor.

Stack cake is an Appalachian multi-layer molasses cake with applesauce filling spread between thin layers, topped with whipped cream and chopped nuts. A pioneer wedding-table classic.

Milk-based sourdough starter using just flour and warm milk. A two-ingredient pioneer-style starter that ferments into a tangy base for biscuits, pancakes, and rustic loaves.

Old-fashioned yeast cakes made from hops water, potato liquid, flour, and cornmeal. A pioneer-era leavening method you dry and store for homemade bread baking. Just 5 ingredients.

Old-fashioned molasses cake baked in a 9-inch square pan with raisins, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Lard and boiling water give it that dense, sticky pioneer-kitchen crumb.

If you enjoy exceptional food and after asking the moderator’s permission, would like to share an amazing recipe from progressive American cuisine pioneer Charlie Palmer. (from the Recipe Talk Forums)

Hops yeast starter brews a traditional wild-yeast bread starter from hops, malt flour, brown sugar, and water. The pre-commercial baking technique used by pioneers and old-time home bakers.

No-bake vinegar pie, the simplest pioneer pantry pie with a sweet-tart filling of cider vinegar and lemon extract. No eggs, no oven, just five ingredients and a pre-baked crust.