Cooking cow (or pig) feet is how you get gelatine, which is also what Jell-O is made of, egg whites were used to filter out impurities. So really the dessert is just regular lemon jello, nothing strange about it. In fact it's more strange that nowadays many people have no idea which animal/plant the food they buy at the store even comes from.
Yes exactly. Pig skin is the source of most of the gelatin these days so they did invent it long before he actually said in the video. It was just refined in later stages.
I'm in the UK and we were quite poor when I was little. My mum used to cook using really vile cuts of meat that were all gristly and fatty because they were cheap. I marvel at her ingenuity even though I refused to eat the meat and just ate the veg and gravy. Watching this video has made me marvel again at the ingenuity of those early pioneers even though I'm awfully glad I wasn't on of them.
People back then were cut from a different cloth and had to be tough by necessity. I was told a family story when I was young about ancestor who came out west following the civil war. He was from a german/french immigrant family in Pennsylvania from that came here just before the war and after serving in the Union Army he decided to go west. He and his wife traveled in a wagon to the Midwest to settle in Minnesota. On the way nearly all of there 13 children died due to harsh winters and disease. A generation later some of their surviving children decided to leave for Colorado and this time made it with no loss of life (that I know of). This kind of journey permanently changes people due to the trip itself along with all the people and cultures they encountered on the way. If people didn't change and adapt they died. It was really as simple as that. Some of these recipes I actually grew up on and though they seemed nasty like yours at the time for older generations it was difference between life and death. Rocky Mountain Oysters are awesome by the way despite where they come from.
Growing up in the Ozarks in Arkansas, some of these foods were pretty common even until the 1990's. My grandfather said that during the great depression there wasn't a squirrel or rabbit to be found for miles.
@@elultimo102 That is so true. We as a nation have been so blessed, but with that blessing we have brought cursing upon ourselves. LORD, please forgive us. Starvation is a very serious situation even in America where we dump 40% of our food supply in the garbage. There is no excuse for wasting food. Food shortages will continue to grow if we do not support our local farmers.
Y'all forgot "Cold Flour", this was a simple mix of finely milled corn meal, with sugar & cinnamon added, it was usually sold in 1-3lb. tins at general stores & mercantiles of the day, and was ridiculously simple, filling, and nutritious. You could just eat it out of the tin, or you could add hot water to it, which of course, caused the corn flour to expand, making a very simple & tasty meal. And of course, if you had any kind of dried fruit, (a real staple of travelers in the early west), you could add the dried fruit to make it even better, (sort of a corn flour porridge). My great grandmother used to give it to us kids as a snack whenever we visited her or vice-versa. She taught me how to make it properly very early on, and I still keep mason jars of cold flour in my refrigerator, and still feed it to my relative's kids whenever they visit, they love it as much as I still do. I still have a good many of her cooking utensils, including her mayonnaise mixing jar, a tall 2 quart mason jar that has the ingredients & their amounts embossed on the jar, plus a lid with a stainless-steel crank & paddle for mixing the ingredients built into the lid. The mayonnaise never seems to go bad, even if left out to get a bit warm, (perhaps it's because there aren't all of the added chemicals that are used nowadays). But I still make my own mustard, catsup, and other homemade condiments that she gave me the recipes to, she always thought that it was a little amusing & kind of special that I was so interested in having her teach me to cook, even more than my female relatives. But I'm still making meals whose recipes are 150+ years old, and a number of my friends love it when I invite them to dinner.
@@Mistressrichards Perhaps sometime in the near future, at the moment I'm trying to help my brother deal with our 91 y.o. mother. We're finally having to put her in hospital due to two bad, very early morning falls that she took this last week.
The use of hunt for small varmints for food stuff wasn't uncommon when I was growing up in the '50's . Coming from poor farming family of 10 (2) post depression parents and (8) post war kids. We needed to be resourceful. I learned how to skin woodchuck and squirrel by age 9, My Aunt Katherine, A Cherokee tribesmen, taught me how to cook woodchuck in canned tomato stew. I thank her for the lessons she taught me on surviving on nothing.
"survive on nothing" nothing doesnt taste like meat and tomatoes nothing is the taste of world war two while both sides use ford tanks to murder the locals
@@allyhellkiller5535: I can relate. We had a cistern under the house to catch rainwater every once in a while a tank truck would come to fill it. Couldn't drink it but you could wash with it. Got our drinking water from a local ground spring. We used an out house up until I was gone and in the military in the late '60's before we got indoor plumbing. Yeah, we had a house garden, was my summer job to keep it weeded. besides other farm chores. Mom and my aunts would get together for canning weekends in the late summer and fall. Yes, I can relate.
I was raised in the 60's & my mother had to prepare most of these wild game when my father came home from hunting. Being poor put us at a disadvantage as most people we knew. She prepared most of these cowboy foods; Minus the Skunk & Rocky Mountain Orsters; Thank God. Of course as children; we hadn't a clue as to what we were eating or i would have chosen to Starve. I know one day; seeing where my dad had caged a Possum. I went to school & upon my return; saw that the Possum was no longer there, but Mom was having dinner cooking earlier than usual🙃 I remember helping my Mom making Head Cheese from the boiled head of a Pig & her adding lots of Sage to the recipe.🤕 I can say though that we never went hungry.
We grew up real poor in the N. PA mountains. Always had a big garden, hunted rabbits, squirrels, possum, woodchucks, deer ( No matter what season it happened to be) Trick is with wild game is to soak it at least overnight in a salty seasoned brine. Then boil or broast or deep fry it in lard or beef fat. Gramma and mom canned everything to put up for winter. All the men, uncles, cousins & Grampa were loggers, fellers, horsemen and worked the log trains. Real tough people back then
Actually on a farm one can harvest game at anytime as long as it is not wasted. That is the law. Keep in mind that with out farms there would be little game and property and crops need to be protected so this is the reasoning behind such laws.
@@andylyon3867 I can't imagine how difficult it would be to work a team of oxen. I hope you were able to pass that knowledge and experience on. What part of this country are you in?
@@andylyon3867 ah..c'mon. You know what. I mean. I had chickens, ducks, rabbits and a shit- headed pony. I'm just hoping someone out there that can pass on what you know.
I grew up with a lot of these! The rabbit, squirrel, the frizzle beef, head cheese( though not bear), plus some other oddities like liver, blood pudding, pig feet, sassafrass tea, toungue, jowls, etc. We ate turtle,deer, wild berries, and grapes. Coffee soup. Welsh rarebits.My parents were depression era raised so this is from an older generation.
a quick note: crushed eggshells are used to *clarify* clear broths, aspics, and gelatins, and are then strained out. they definitely were not left in the calves'-foot jellies!
@@decorousdonut I just googled it because I was curious. Clarifying brings the random bits in the stock up to the top, and you skim it off with a spoon to leave the stock more clear. So… the idea is that egg shells will help trap and bring up more bits to the top
@@decorousdonut I’m no expert, but I wonder if it’s just literally as easy as the broken egg shell’s ability to rise to the top and physically carry little veggie particles with the shell pieces…
Both of my parents grew up on a farm and they were born in 1920 and you just brought back memories of some of the crazy food my dad would sit on the table in front of us and when I was growing up you didn't say I don't want that you ate what was put in front of you or you went to be at hungry thanks for this wonderful memory
This was very good. I got the gist of pioneer food from Laura Ingalls since she was born in 1867. Her parents were part of those settlers who traveled west but they only got so far as Kansas. She tells of hardtack, griddlecakes, beans and game. I think they really depended on that cow they took along w/ them. You also get the sense that the menu didn't vary much but they were grateful for any food and considered good.
There is a Little House" cookbook that contains many of the original recipes. I've made some of them and so far they are good! Fried apples 'n onions is my favorite (excellent with pork chops)
acorns have to be watered three times and a whole day long in order to get rid of most of its tannin acids. in fact all parts of the oak tree are so rich on tannin acid, they used the leafs and acorn shells to turn skins into leather. so, in case you like to try it yourself, peel the acrons accurately and then water them for a day long, change the water three times. then chopp them and roast the bits gently, then dry them and then grind them to flour (which needs to be over turned and dried as they still contain some moist)
My grandma told me that here in Germany the people still ate acorn bread during/after World War II due to the lack of food. She told me that you may only use a mixture of 40% acorn flour and 60% regular flour, otherways it would be unhealthy -I guess because of the tannin acids. I don´t know if they watered the acorns before roasting them.
I always thought acorns were poisonous to humans. Someone must have told me that when I was young. Prob still taste better than nasty black walnuts (english walnuts are good)!
@@GrandRunemaster Maybe I expressed it in a confusing way. The leafs and bark of the oak tree have been brewed to receive tannic acid. This was the usual way to produce leather till 1940. Nowadays there are numerous chemical ways to make all kind of leathers from animal skins within 2-3 weeks instead of 12-15 months en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning_(leather)
@@timcollum5015 strangely acorns & bitter black walnuts have a similar bitterness. I hate black walnuts. Oddly enough I used to eat acorns when I was a kid. My older brother rescued to baby squirrels and they lived in our back yard so I watched them gathering acorns. I guess I thought if the squirrels could eat them so could I. Again, oddly, I'd share my cat's food also. Giving her a piece then me a piece. Id do it do often that my mom finally had to hide it from me. It was fun to me. Me & my huge Fluffy yet Siamese looking cat sharing it's food. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was barely 3-4 yrs old so it's not like I had developed any good decision making skills yet. I thought that was a good decision and I was mad at mom for hiding the Meow Mix. 🙁
Well, i am 72 and while not from the Old West I have eaten a lot of the food you mentioned here and a few that even the pioneers might not eat. I have eaten head cheese , buffalo steaks, deer, reindeer, rabbit, squirrel, mountain oysters, as well as alligator, rattlesnake, dove, quail, duck, grasshoppers, snails, mussels, crawfish, sassafras tea, postum (coffee made from grain), dandelion, hickory nuts, morel mushrooms, and hen of the wood mushrooms.
A lot of these sound like what my dad grew up eating in rural Georgia back in the 50s. You'll eat just about anything that has calories when you're flat broke. The funny thing is...I grew up eating S.O.S. because my dad fell in LOVE with the dish when he joined the military. (and yeah...it's pretty bad when you go into the service and the food is better than what you ate at home)
I love that stuff!! My mom even had a version made with tuna. Just the milk gravy with onions, carrots peas and whatever plus a can or two of tuna over toast or biscuits. Try it! I haven't had it in years, but, guess what's for dinner tonight???
fucking true, it was actually part of why i couldnt loose weight at first, did it by "starving" myself,and then eating healthy,and actually liking the taste for the first time, was most def a wtf moment for me, and it was by accident,after just randomly trying to eat less and then eating something healthy xD lost 100 pounds this way for whos interested enough to read this far into my rant, gained it right back thru drinking btw, cheers to that! edit.:just the grammar i knew how to fix, to not embarres(?) myself, like Just now, not infront of my new like :( everything for the fans!
In boot camp there was the "magic salt" phenomenon. You were so hungry all the time, and you had to eat so fast. Later down the line, you actually get a few minutes to eat, you can choose drinks, season your food, etc. Seasoning being salt, and or pepper. You never thought a dash of salt would turn cardboard into ambrosia? Hello Marine Corps boot camp!
I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, the farm was self supporting, beside a large garden, we had pear trees, apple trees, plum trees, hickory tree, asparagus bed, butchered a pig in fall along with chickens, ducks and geese, the only thing bought in town from the feed mill was sugar and flour in 100 pound bags. I didn't know what a grocery store was until I was in grade school, I remember well because they laughed when I asked what it was! I forgot to mention that Ma made ketchup and we else had horseradish plants! --- I prefer the grocery store--- Fred
Salmon soup is on our menu this week. One gifted can of Alaska salmon from a friend's commodities box, mirepoix, chickpeas, chopped Broccoli stems, lots of wild greens, and a bit of cooked rice makes a very nutritious and inexpensive meal that lasts for days. I like to challenge myself to cook like my grandparents did, wasting nothing.
@@timcollum5015 I like to do rustic with a modern twist. Coconut oil to sauté vegetables and a slow-cooked chicken carcass for nutritious bone broth. Everything else is locally homegrown and organic. This is a heck no to the monsanto additives.
My mom would make head cheese when we butchered a pig. It was one of my dad's favorite things. Also, calf's foot jelly gave me another chuckle because out here in the west Jell-o is still a big thing, just generally people use the boxed kind instead of rendering their own gelatin.
My Dad loved brawn. Mum would cook up a pig's head, get the meat off the bone, put the meat with strained jelly in a dish... and let it set. I remember the pigs eyes looking at me and I freaked out, I couldn't eat it. My sister once took the cooked ear and placed it between bread with mustard for my Dad's golf lunch sandwich as a joke. Dad had a good chomp at it and couldn't get his teeth through... opened the sandwich, pulled out the pig's ear and shocked everybody 😂
We still eat fried bread/pan bread/bannock, with lots of butter melted on it. It's so good! I've not had squirrel in ages, but I remember begging Mom to fry up some when Dad went hunting.
A lot of people think it will be fun to live in those days... but they tend to forget that you have to fend for yourself and walmart isn't near by to get food.
Yeah but some people dont mine not having food max around,, they look to buy a property and build a homestead live off the land, they all over RUclips..many are heading this way of life.
@@ujayet This is too funny. "Living off the land" with chainsaws, trucks, tractors, guns, dimensional lumber, bought seeds. Not to mention you don't have to worry about roving bands of bandits or a king that decides you are going to fight his battle.
I absolutely love this channel! ( Here's a secret- I haven't watched any tv in years),just surviving happily on my wonderful RUclips ! What excellent content and researched info! And the narration is phenomenal complete with incredible sarcasm that I love so much!!!
@Flecicia Jenkins • Seriously! I can't imagine having to make a living "servicing" cowboys, guess I would have just died. All that nasty makes me sick to think about it, can't imagine being there. 🤮
@@octavius8562 - Women were not allowed to open their own bank account or apply for credit until 1974 so yes 1980 women were still objectified and infantilized.
@J Breeze when I told my ob-gyn doctor I wanted my tubes tied after I had my daughter the doctor wouldn’t authorize the procedure at my request.... I had to schedule another appointment that my husband had to come to with me so he could say it was okay!!! This was only 12 years ago!!!
Some of this food was the kind of stuff I was brought up on. I lived with my Grand parents, who had lived through the depression and had to eat whatever they could get. I could skin and clean a rabbit by the time I was eight years old.
We were driving through Oklahoma several years ago. Signs for a steakhouse kept saying to try the lamb fries. It said not to ask what they were just try them. We stopped there and my wife decided to try the lamb fries. I stuck with the steak. The lamb fries were deep fried and sort of looked liked popcorn chicken. She said they were good but a little fatty. When she had eaten about half of them the waiter came by and ask how everything was. She said they the lamb fries were good but wanted to know what they really were. He looked as her like he was talking to a child and said "They are lamb testicles ma'am" and turned and walked away. My wife turned white and decided she was done eating for the evening. The rest of the evening she complained the her stomach hurt.
@@SealofApprovalTWU And versatile too! Goes great with spreads of all kinds, dipping into soups and stews, or topping with chili or baked beans. Hell, I've had hot dogs and hamburgers with it.
I have an old Finnish school textbook for home cookery and domestic skills printed in 1904. It has a jelly recipe that starts with the instruction to take a calf's head and boil it. The Foxfire Book, a nice collection of Appalachian traditions and folklore, has raccoon recipes.
My late father grew up in the depression and they actually ate possum. I asked him what it tasted like. He said "Nasty and greasy but, if you're hungry enough, you'll eat it. " I sure hope I'm never that hungry! 🤢🤮
OMG! I grew up eating half of everything here!! That should tell you how old I am!! When I was first married, back in the 70's, my husband and I use to go out hunting jack rabbits by the car lights! We would get a few to last us through the month and they are damn good eating! I grew up eating domestic rabbits and they are pretty damn good too! The hoof jelly, frying pan bread, s-o-s and many others were on the dinner table often!! Aww, good times!
Beef tea has popped up in so many novels that I've read, and I never quite knew what it was!! I always imagined it to be beef served at tea time, but this makes more sense! 😄
I come from a family of American pioneers who moved west with each generation and the opening up of new territory beginning in the mid 1700s. They didn't eat this stuff as far as I know. They had preserved food that could survive long wagon hauls, such as dried meat, beans, dried fruit, coffee, sugar, flour and lard. They supplemented it with fresh game and whatever nuts or berries they could get along the way. And whenever and wherever they settled, they immediately planted vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
I think good planning is the key. If they knew well in advance, maybe a year, they could dry and preserve plenty of food. If there was drought, failed crop, lack of finances or left hurriedly then prep was limited. It might also count on cooperation from everyone to contribute and share which may not be the case. So many variables. If your ancestors traveled with little hardship they were fortunate.
@@rebelbecky276 Trips like they took required plenty of planning. If you weren't prepared you had to wait to go. Everyone had to be able to support themselves and their families. Otherwise everyone else in the group suffered. In the early years there were trailblazers who were essentially explorers (think Daniel Boone) who were familiar with the routes, natives, water sources, etc. Later as trails became more and more traveled very large and organized wagon trains were the rule. The wagonmaster who was in charge and responsible for getting everyone thru had to be paid, plus the scouts. It was never spur of the moment.
My ex's family were original settlers in Eastern Nevada. Their family makes a dish, passed down from the mid 1800's, of bite sized potato chunks, boiled with wide egg noodles. After that's cooked and drained, they put a half stick of butter on it and tossed it with mozzarella cheese. At first I hated it but within a year, I started craving the carbs. We're divorced now but it's still one of my favorite quick dinners to make.👍
Thanks for this video! 😊👍 Loved learning more about how Pioneers made due with what they had. I also appreciated learning the basic recipes for each dish! As weird as some of these sound, they are known to be a lot healthier, with dense nutrition than we have these days. 😋👍 I have ancestors who traveled the Mormon Trail in the Martin Handcart Company. 🤠
I never had it but I've seen it made on youtube by several different people. It doesn't look too terrible but it was a whole lot of work to make I thought. At least what I saw. I can see doing it when there was no way to preserve food, but nowadays it seems like a lot of work. It might not be a bad idea to learn to do it in the event of society collapsing. You know how to survive on the land and keep food if for some reason all electricity and water services were no longer functioning. I often thought of learning edible plants and herbal medicine just in case. I doubt all of society would collapse, but you never know.
My great grandmother crossed the prairie in a covered wagon and had 7 sons who hunted. She could make any meat they brought home taste good. Our family still uses some of her "receipts."
Love how excited he sounded when he said "why not make beef tea?!" Like really genuinely excited. I mean we are all relieved to leave testicles behind, sure. I bet that beef tea was goooooooood.
A mexican coworker once gave me some homemade tacos, they were unbelievable. Then he told me it was beef tongue. at first i was a little shocked but I got over it, that was some of the best damned beef I ever had. Of course I think it helps that Hispanic folks know how to cook. The only downside was that I was at work and a cold beer would have gone well with it.
I live in an area with a large Hispanic community. We have small taco shops and taco trucks everywhere. Lengua tacos/burritos are some of the best I’ve ever had.
i was born at Ft. Campbell, KY 1953. my father was a trapper on base while a paratrooper. He used to take racoon carcases to a black man who would barbque a racoon for every one given to the cook. When he brought them home for supper, all us kids would say what is that and he would say "its turkey! eat it!". We ate it regularly and it was good. One Thanksgiving the whole family went to the messhall for turkey dinner and us kids asked what is that? referring to the turkey and the cook said its turkey! my brothers and sisters said no its not! True story! Anybody who knew Sgt.Major Robert D. "Booger" Clark would know its true.
"Bear’s head cheese." Oh no! "Despite it’s name head cheese isn’t actually cheese." *OH NO!* "It’s actually meat from the head and face of a bear!" Phew, Okay! "Anyways,here's how they used to cook and eat bull testicles." *NO!*
My great grandfather was a Texas Ranger back when they rode horses and carried six guns. At 102 he told me when I was 15 they carried other than bullets, bacon, coffee and beans.....Anything else was a luxury on the trail.
3 года назад
Neat comment. I've been reading Louis Lamour books and love that era. I wonder if the bacon was drier than what is in the stores today? Surely. And I have a feeling it wasn't all just from the belly of the pig, but any smoked and salted pork available. That salt and fat would definitely help the beans.
I actually made vinegar pie from a recipe out of the Time-Life 'The Old West' series of books. (They're great!) It's basically custard pie, but the vinegar gives it a nice tangy zip that borders on fruity tasting. Vinegar was a staple of pioneers for a million and one ailments and it's cleaning properties.
I had Italian-style "head cheese" (pork) once in a deli sandwich, and since I didn't have to look too closely at the, uh, different textural bits, I found it delicious. Beef tongue "lengua" tacos or burritos are also just wonderful. I'd be willing to try most of these dishes. If I absolutely had to. A couple of warnings though: If you decide you want to try sorrel, go easy on it. Lots of oxalic acid. Apparently that can contribute to kidney stones. I'm not sure if all acorns are a problem, but at least in California, the acorns have to be soaked and leached of tannins before roasting and grinding, or they'll make you sick as a dog. The Native Americans figured out a method, and we'd be well advised not to ignore people who did it for centuries.
If you ever try to process acorns into flour, try to find acorns from a WHITE OAK as they mature quickly and the tannins have less time to develop, hence white oak acorns contain lower amounts of tannins,.
I use wood sorrel as an acidic ingredient when I don't have lemon on hand! It grows in my backyard. Its good to know wild substitutes for things when we don't have the real thing
Another great wild option for adding acidity to your food is sumac. Towards the end of summer, touch the red berries and taste your hand to see if it's sour; if so, snap off as many clusters as you can carry, then take them home to prepare. My favorite method is soaking them in cold water*, but then saving the water with every batch so that is becomes concentrated, much like lemon juice but arguably more neutral in flavor. Freezes great, too. Word of warning: the sour sap of the berries likes to cling to your hands after swishing the berries around (I haven't tried using gloves, as the sumac is prickly and I assume it would just pierce through them), so I use a combination of soap, water and canola oil to help remove it. *I've been told that it's best not to prepare sumac like you would tea by boiling it, as you would end up ingesting too many tannins that way.
When I was a wee boy of 10-11 I went to stay with aunt and uncle on their hog farm. One night a supper I said this meat is really good what is it? She simply replied that they were mountain oysters and I said is that hog balls, her reply was yep. She said I turned every shade of blue there was and then asked for more please.
I hope you have someone to make it for you.. I love to make things like this- but I have no one to cook for! Biscuits and gravy is so good, but for one? I'm working on it. Every one has a neighbor that needs a little attention. Is this a way to start?
I'm Polish and we also have a traditional holiday dish made with meat, veggies and jello. It can be pork or chicken with peas and carrots cooked in a jello base. We would pour white vinegar on it. If you go to any European store they still sell it. My dad also buys and eats Polish head cheese.
I recommend this channel for anyone on a diet. Having said that, it's actually a great channel with a lot of information and very interesting content. Shirley
anyone else is surprised how disgusting cooking actually is, and has a new-found admiration for the women that figured all this stuff out and were having to bear actually doing it?
@@MrShnazer no one is claiming one is more noble, but women tended to do the dirty work of preparing food back then. In a lot of native coming-of-age ceremonies in fact, for girls, their celebration of entering adulthood involves them skinning and preparing the body of a slaughtered animal. So they can learn how to make use of its body and how to prepare the edible parts of its body for consumption. Because that’s just traditionally what women did for thousands of years in those cultures. The men would bring home the animal, the women would make it into food And supplies.
The same is true in ancient European societies. Men would bring home the Corpses of animals, and women would get to work making use of it. Pretty much an even division of responsibilities.
When you have a hungry family you - men and women - will find a way to feed them. These shows, like naked and afraid are a joke. Why would anyone lay around the camp all day and wait for someone else to bring something? And why is it that meat is the only thing on the menu? And am I crazy but what about hygiene? Perhaps I'm too critical, but every one needs to work- together. Every one is needed. Laying about camp is not allowed.
@034bloodas It depends on the culture. In ancient tribal cultures the dressing of animals was mostly done by women. That’s because the work of the men usually took them away from home for very long periods of time, all day to several days, and they would only stay for a few days during their working seasons and that was mostly reserved for rest/recovery because they were going to need to hit the field again soon. Women were literally home makers back then lol today it’s more of a decorative sense when we say that, but back then they literally *made* the home. Everything in it. The clothes, the dishes, the tools, the blankets, the food, even most of the structures, They built it. Lol yes the men did the heavy lifting as needed, and generally managed hunting, defense and exploration since it was dangerous and physically demanding and the women used what the men brought home to craft. It was a pretty efficient system. Both groups had a pretty well defined list of responsibilities. Once you get further into time though in the workplace for men got closer and closer to home, things started to get more even in the average household. And men started go more into crafts work since farming made it less necessary for everybody to work to gather food so the leftover men who weren’t needed to farm or hunt got to specialize in trades and boom, you have professional craftworkers. At home it was Shared duties and whatnot, since men weren’t gone all the time doing crazy strenuous activity like their tribal ancestors anymore (farming is hard work but it’s not chasing caribou on foot for 50 miles hard) lol.
When I was a kid.. pickled pig feet was a delicacy we kids begged mom to get in a jar at the grocery...an hell I've eaten many a jackrabbit ..I used to make a sausage from them and serve it in patties along with eggs an spuds all fried in a skillet
During the Civil War, some prisoners of war were forced to eat rats to survive. And they claimed that rats didn’t taste that bad, tasted almost like chicken.
@@michaelmckenna6464 So what's the difference between rat and squirrel, besides the tail? Both are rodents, and in the wild, wouldn't their diets be similar? Just curious, but I'm not that hungry now, for some reason. LOL
@@elultimo102 rats and squirrels are both rodents. But while squirrels live on a diet of nuts, rats eat almost anything and everything. So squirrel meat has a nuttier taste. It’s like penguins. Because they live on a diet of fish, roasted penguin, which explorers of the Arctic subsisted on, looked like roasted chicken but tasted more like fish.
@@elultimo102 The TallShip Glenlee (1896) at the Maritime Museum of Glasgow, Scotland is one of the historic ships that sailed up near the Arctic where Sailors subsisted on penguins and fish. It was the tour guide who explained that penguin tasted like fish. But I doubt if she ever ate penguin either. LOL
"Pioneer" foods that I have eaten: (1) Head cheese (2) Rocky Mountain oysters (3) Rabbit (4) Squirrel (5) Racoon (6) Muskrat (7) Possum "Pioneer" foods that I would like to eat: (1) Son-of-a-b*tch stew
I'm definitely going to need to put that last one on my to eat list. As to the rest, I've tried everything but muskrat and possum so far. Game meat and fresh fish are always tasty options.
My boss in the shop where I worked would occasionally invite a worker or two to lunch at his house nearby. He was a big time hunter, so you never knew what you were gonna get. I've eaten possum, squirrel, rabbit, buffalo, elk, Pronghorn antelope, deer and bear at his house. His wife was a great cook and believed that every kind of meat required a good gravy to make it more edible! It helped a lot with the bear and possum!
Very cool AND informative video..THANKS! After spending 14 years in the Army, I've had the S.O.S. a couple of times and find that it's still pretty tasty to this day!!
When I was a kid in the 50's we ate jack rabbit. Because in west Texas that was the only meat source available to hunt other than cotton tail. If you were lucky you might on occasion get a cotton tail. but I remember jack rabbit as being as tough as leather.
Read comedy of coffin on kindle written by Avijit Kabiraj. Introduction: It's a tale of two jobless boys, who were offered a job by the mafia boss that they can't refuse, their job is to bury a dead chef.
I've had half of this menu at least once growing up... Hell, my grandparents raised rabbits as a meat source and that meat was sometimes ground and cooked with gravy for SOS.
Thought it would have been easier to cover, "what didn't they eat." My grandpa had a taste for some traditional old world food. Some of which wasn't to bad. Other times, he would say. When you get hungry, you'll eat.
Squirrel and rabbit are delicious. I could definitely survive on them if I had too. Down here in the south we still have designated hunting seasons for both. Rabbit is very lean due to their diet and active lifestyle. Squirrels are also lean for the same reason but there is a slight sweetness to the meat. My grandmother still makes squirrel gumbo and squirrel gravy during hunting season. I love that stuff. The acorn bread intrigued me. I have so many oaks around my place, I might give it a shot just to see how it tastes.
When I ate squirrel the taste was ok, but it was like eating a skinned rat with all the bones. I really didn't care for it at all. It just seemed like a lot of work for such a small amount of meat. But I am sure it was different back when protein was in short supply and you needed those nutrients, it was worth it. It tasted like chicken. To me, I'd rather have chicken. It has a lot more meat on it.
To be honest, we have similar versions of these recipes in Romania. First jelly recipe is made here with pork, chicken or beef and with a lot of garlic and it is called piftie. The one with all the pig parts and some jelly to keep it together is called tobă. We even have the stew with all those organs, made with pig or sheep and it is called tochitură.
My Romanian grandmother passed away when I was six, but I still remember her food. She used to make many of those Romanian recipes, and I missed them. It wasn't until I begged my mother to make some of those that she told me what they were. I never knew my grandmother made up silly names for them so we wouldn't know what they were made of! 70 years later, I can still taste them in my mind.
A lot of these recipes go way back in my family. I remember hearing my parents talk about this stuff and even making a couple of these. This is exactly what my ancestors ate, I assume.
Calves foot jelly, or Aspic has been around since 1375, around the middle ages and has been served in both in Europe and America for a very long time. If you were out on the trail, it could become hard to find towns with mercantile's who could sell you the supplies that you would need to continue on the trail with. Due to vast open spaces, that stretch for hundreds of miles with no settlements around, which made it difficult to procure supplies. Citrus was very expensive to purchase in the 18th and early 19th century, due to the scarcity and difficult shipping, including growing methods.
I'm definitely a foodie and I love trying new and unusual foods. I am well known at work for bringing in unusual dishes for lunch. I can't imagine how my coworkers would react if they found out I was eating leftover fried rocky mountain oysters.
Try simmering chicken bones for a couple hours. Strain it, let it cool, then skim off the fat. It makes a great base for cooking rice casserole or stew. A lot of flavor & meat is in the bones.
I'm 60. A few of these came down to my parents and in turn me. My dad said bear was very greasy and would never dream of hunting like his father did. Times changed when Kroger came to town, I guess
@@pollybird7827 There is no salmon in Chicago. It's a very cold place in the winter. They have to stay warm. Not many bears in Illinois anymore, I wouldn't think.
Thank goodness I was born later. Bless them all for their fortitude, resilience, resourcefulness. I want to throw up. Had I been there, I would’ve starved.
"Beef tea" We actually still do this in the Netherlands. When you got a cold or a flu and you can't be arsed to make some chickensoup you make "een kopje boullion" A cup of stock essentially. You use dried weak stock. similar to portable soup and the stuff in powdered soups like cup a soup. There's even brands that sell the powdered form with a small amount of paracetamol specifically for when yer under the weather. It's a standard component of dutch army rations; satchets of beef tea powder. Delicious, quickening, and also valuable as "currency" to trade with soldiers from other nations on UN missions.
Is this a an original RUclips series, or did WH start on the History, Discovery, or Travel channel? It’s done so well in terms of presentation, education, humor & entertainment, I feel as if I’ve seen it on a major tv network? Edit: Who narrates this? Well done, whoever you are.
I know very little about the old West diets/foods, found this video of profound historical value. One point I thought missed... The humble Rattlesnake....! The scarcity of lemons in California , very surprising given the merchant ships in and out of Oregon, Los Angeles, San Diego and mid century San Francisco, in relation to Scurvy. Or were Oranges used, or indeed grown in California at that time...? Thankyou Weird History, excellent video 👍
Lol I grew up eating venison, rabbit, squirrel, quail, dove , I’ve tried bear , and gator I was a little less than impressed with them . Rabbit , and quail are far better than chicken , dove gets by, but for me , nothing to write home about ....
"Honey, on the way back from buffalo hunting, would you stop and get me a lemon for the calf foot jelly pudding? If the avocados aren't from Peru, don't bother. Would you also look for gluten-free pearl barley... And steelcut oats, that's the only type Mikey will eat".
Yeah I can't picture lemons or white wine and herbs lasting more than a few days of hard travel back then. Maybe the lemons were preserved like they do in Italy but as the cook I'd have finished that wine bottle on the first night.
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Cooking cow (or pig) feet is how you get gelatine, which is also what Jell-O is made of, egg whites were used to filter out impurities. So really the dessert is just regular lemon jello, nothing strange about it. In fact it's more strange that nowadays many people have no idea which animal/plant the food they buy at the store even comes from.
Don’t forget the untold number of ground up bugs in our coffee, bread, and so on.
And candy
thank you i was looking for this comment!!
Yes exactly. Pig skin is the source of most of the gelatin these days so they did invent it long before he actually said in the video. It was just refined in later stages.
Glad someone also noticed this
I'm in the UK and we were quite poor when I was little. My mum used to cook using really vile cuts of meat that were all gristly and fatty because they were cheap. I marvel at her ingenuity even though I refused to eat the meat and just ate the veg and gravy. Watching this video has made me marvel again at the ingenuity of those early pioneers even though I'm awfully glad I wasn't on of them.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?😆
People back then were cut from a different cloth and had to be tough by necessity. I was told a family story when I was young about ancestor who came out west following the civil war. He was from a german/french immigrant family in Pennsylvania from that came here just before the war and after serving in the Union Army he decided to go west. He and his wife traveled in a wagon to the Midwest to settle in Minnesota. On the way nearly all of there 13 children died due to harsh winters and disease. A generation later some of their surviving children decided to leave for Colorado and this time made it with no loss of life (that I know of). This kind of journey permanently changes people due to the trip itself along with all the people and cultures they encountered on the way. If people didn't change and adapt they died. It was really as simple as that. Some of these recipes I actually grew up on and though they seemed nasty like yours at the time for older generations it was difference between life and death. Rocky Mountain Oysters are awesome by the way despite where they come from.
@@MOTOMINING 🤣 Some of the puddings were gristly and fatty.
I was the opposite I left the veg and loved the Frey Bentos gristle bits
Growing up in the Ozarks in Arkansas, some of these foods were pretty common even until the 1990's. My grandfather said that during the great depression there wasn't a squirrel or rabbit to be found for miles.
Old timers tell stories about squirrels just about being wiped out by depression dining in Southern Illinois.
@@ericschneider8524 Where are you from?
My grandma was still making squirrel soup in the 70-80’s…….it was the eyes staring out of the pot, that got me!
DAD'S family from South Missouri north Arkansas. He told me about grandma's roast persimmons and possum.
I like how these pioneers never waste anything. Some we should all strive for today.
Tough men bring about good times.
Good times make soft men.
Soft men bring hard times.
Hard times make tough men.
Something like 40% of food is dumped----sad.
@@elultimo102 That is so true. We as a nation have been so blessed, but with that blessing we have brought cursing upon ourselves. LORD, please forgive us. Starvation is a very serious situation even in America where we dump 40% of our food supply in the garbage. There is no excuse for wasting food. Food shortages will continue to grow if we do not support our local farmers.
they survived on pie 'n' ears
To not waste is to not have abundance, to not have abundance is to have scarcity, to have scarcity is to not waste.
When I was In Wyoming, I ordered “Rocky Mountain Oysters” and got through 2 orders before I found out they were balls.
The heart wants what it wants.
And?
Damn dude
It takes balls to eat them. Respect.
Best fried food on the planet. Now pig uterus is on another level.
Y'all forgot "Cold Flour", this was a simple mix of finely milled corn meal, with sugar & cinnamon added, it was usually sold in 1-3lb. tins at general stores & mercantiles of the day, and was ridiculously simple, filling, and nutritious. You could just eat it out of the tin, or you could add hot water to it, which of course, caused the corn flour to expand, making a very simple & tasty meal. And of course, if you had any kind of dried fruit, (a real staple of travelers in the early west), you could add the dried fruit to make it even better, (sort of a corn flour porridge).
My great grandmother used to give it to us kids as a snack whenever we visited her or vice-versa. She taught me how to make it properly very early on, and I still keep mason jars of cold flour in my refrigerator, and still feed it to my relative's kids whenever they visit, they love it as much as I still do. I still have a good many of her cooking utensils, including her mayonnaise mixing jar, a tall 2 quart mason jar that has the ingredients & their amounts embossed on the jar, plus a lid with a stainless-steel crank & paddle for mixing the ingredients built into the lid. The mayonnaise never seems to go bad, even if left out to get a bit warm, (perhaps it's because there aren't all of the added chemicals that are used nowadays).
But I still make my own mustard, catsup, and other homemade condiments that she gave me the recipes to, she always thought that it was a little amusing & kind of special that I was so interested in having her teach me to cook, even more than my female relatives. But I'm still making meals whose recipes are 150+ years old, and a number of my friends love it when I invite them to dinner.
You should make a you tube video on how to make all those old time foods
@@Mistressrichards Perhaps sometime in the near future, at the moment I'm trying to help my brother deal with our 91 y.o. mother. We're finally having to put her in hospital due to two bad, very early morning falls that she took this last week.
Cold Flour,???... that sounds great...I may try it sometime... Peace
The use of hunt for small varmints for food stuff wasn't uncommon when I was growing up in the '50's . Coming from poor farming family of 10 (2) post depression parents and (8) post war kids. We needed to be resourceful. I learned how to skin woodchuck and squirrel by age 9, My Aunt Katherine, A Cherokee tribesmen, taught me how to cook woodchuck in canned tomato stew. I thank her for the lessons she taught me on surviving on nothing.
"survive on nothing" nothing doesnt taste like meat and tomatoes
nothing is the taste of world war two while both sides use ford tanks to murder the locals
Yes the good ole days will be back again
We did not have electricity or water in the house until the mid 70's.We hunted,fished,foraged and grew gardens.
@@allyhellkiller5535 mid 1700's?
@@allyhellkiller5535: I can relate. We had a cistern under the house to catch rainwater every once in a while a tank truck would come to fill it. Couldn't drink it but you could wash with it. Got our drinking water from a local ground spring. We used an out house up until I was gone and in the military in the late '60's before we got indoor plumbing. Yeah, we had a house garden, was my summer job to keep it weeded. besides other farm chores. Mom and my aunts would get together for canning weekends in the late summer and fall. Yes, I can relate.
Beef tea actually sounds really good, a nice cup of beef broth and some hard bread would be a real treat out on the cold prairie at night
I guess it wouldn't be much different from drinking the broth of Ramen noodles now that you say it lol maybe less salty
We have beef broth in the UK its very common
So "beef tea" would be the same as beef broth?
You’re alright boah.
Bovril
I was raised in the 60's & my mother had to prepare most of these wild game when my father came home from hunting. Being poor put us at a disadvantage as most people we knew. She prepared most of these cowboy foods; Minus the Skunk & Rocky Mountain Orsters; Thank God. Of course as children; we hadn't a clue as to what we were eating or i would have chosen to Starve. I know one day; seeing where my dad had caged a Possum. I went to school & upon my return; saw that the Possum was no longer there, but Mom was having dinner cooking earlier than usual🙃 I remember helping my Mom making Head Cheese from the boiled head of a Pig & her adding lots of Sage to the recipe.🤕 I can say though that we never went hungry.
Bet you guys never had diabetes
We grew up real poor in the N. PA mountains. Always had a big garden, hunted rabbits, squirrels, possum, woodchucks, deer ( No matter what season it happened to be) Trick is with wild game is to soak it at least overnight in a salty seasoned brine. Then boil or broast or deep fry it in lard or beef fat. Gramma and mom canned everything to put up for winter. All the men, uncles, cousins & Grampa were loggers, fellers, horsemen and worked the log trains. Real tough people back then
Hunting no matter the season? So... poaching?
Actually on a farm one can harvest game at anytime as long as it is not wasted. That is the law. Keep in mind that with out farms there would be little game and property and crops need to be protected so this is the reasoning behind such laws.
@@andylyon3867 I can't imagine how difficult it would be to work a team of oxen. I hope you were able to pass that knowledge and experience on. What part of this country are you in?
@@peggyhall843 can not imagine how difficult it is to work oxen? The oxen do the work not me!
@@andylyon3867 ah..c'mon. You know what. I mean. I had chickens, ducks, rabbits and a shit- headed pony. I'm just hoping someone out there that can pass on what you know.
Weird history again and again telling history better than History channel, awesome video as always.
Hi
No agenda, Weird eh? 😉
There are no aliens
History Channel is now shyt
Who?
I grew up with a lot of these! The rabbit, squirrel, the frizzle beef, head cheese( though not bear), plus some other oddities like liver, blood pudding, pig feet, sassafrass tea, toungue, jowls, etc. We ate turtle,deer, wild berries, and grapes. Coffee soup. Welsh rarebits.My parents were depression era raised so this is from an older generation.
Me: "Ah, something to watch while I eat lunch!"
A few minutes later: "I've made a terrible mistake..."
Same...
I was really enjoying the footage of frizzled beef until the skunk cut in...
You and me both, pal.
What do I think?
I think I should've given this one a miss with lunch, that's what. Yeech.
The h you’re so clever 🤪
I make similar videos on my channel! Feel free to check it out, and I would love to hear feedback about the videos. Thank you😀
a quick note: crushed eggshells are used to *clarify* clear broths, aspics, and gelatins, and are then strained out. they definitely were not left in the calves'-foot jellies!
And coffee, in the 60s my uncle used eggshells clarify perked coffee.
Can you elaborate more? Like scientifically speaking, how do the eggshells clarifies broths and such?
@@decorousdonut I just googled it because I was curious. Clarifying brings the random bits in the stock up to the top, and you skim it off with a spoon to leave the stock more clear. So… the idea is that egg shells will help trap and bring up more bits to the top
@@bleedingheartnartist Interesting... I still need to know the scientific explanation but you helped me to understand the idea. Thanks!
@@decorousdonut I’m no expert, but I wonder if it’s just literally as easy as the broken egg shell’s ability to rise to the top and physically carry little veggie particles with the shell pieces…
Both of my parents grew up on a farm and they were born in 1920 and you just brought back memories of some of the crazy food my dad would sit on the table in front of us and when I was growing up you didn't say I don't want that you ate what was put in front of you or you went to be at hungry thanks for this wonderful memory
This was very good. I got the gist of pioneer food from Laura Ingalls since she was born in 1867. Her parents were part of those settlers who traveled west but they only got so far as Kansas. She tells of hardtack, griddlecakes, beans and game. I think they really depended on that cow they took along w/ them. You also get the sense that the menu didn't vary much but they were grateful for any food and considered good.
what a different world aye?
Pancakes the Ingalls ate cornmeal tea
There is a Little House" cookbook that contains many of the original recipes. I've made some of them and so far they are good! Fried apples 'n onions is my favorite (excellent with pork chops)
acorns have to be watered three times and a whole day long in order to get rid of most of its tannin acids. in fact all parts of the oak tree are so rich on tannin acid, they used the leafs and acorn shells to turn skins into leather.
so, in case you like to try it yourself, peel the acrons accurately and then water them for a day long, change the water three times. then chopp them and roast the bits gently, then dry them and then grind them to flour (which needs to be over turned and dried as they still contain some moist)
My grandma told me that here in Germany the people still ate acorn bread during/after World War II due to the lack of food.
She told me that you may only use a mixture of 40% acorn flour and 60% regular flour, otherways it would be unhealthy -I guess because of the tannin acids.
I don´t know if they watered the acorns before roasting them.
I always thought acorns were poisonous to humans. Someone must have told me that when I was young. Prob still taste better than nasty black walnuts (english walnuts are good)!
Hi I'm just wonderinh how you would use the oak leafs and acorn shells for making leather?
@@GrandRunemaster Maybe I expressed it in a confusing way. The leafs and bark of the oak tree have been brewed to receive tannic acid. This was the usual way to produce leather till 1940. Nowadays there are numerous chemical ways to make all kind of leathers from animal skins within 2-3 weeks instead of 12-15 months
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning_(leather)
@@timcollum5015 strangely acorns & bitter black walnuts have a similar bitterness. I hate black walnuts.
Oddly enough I used to eat acorns when I was a kid. My older brother rescued to baby squirrels and they lived in our back yard so I watched them gathering acorns. I guess I thought if the squirrels could eat them so could I.
Again, oddly, I'd share my cat's food also. Giving her a piece then me a piece. Id do it do often that my mom finally had to hide it from me.
It was fun to me. Me & my huge Fluffy yet Siamese looking cat sharing it's food. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was barely 3-4 yrs old so it's not like I had developed any good decision making skills yet. I thought that was a good decision and I was mad at mom for hiding the Meow Mix. 🙁
Well, i am 72 and while not from the Old West I have eaten a lot of the food you mentioned here and a few that even the pioneers might not eat. I have eaten head cheese , buffalo steaks, deer, reindeer, rabbit, squirrel, mountain oysters, as well as alligator, rattlesnake, dove, quail, duck, grasshoppers, snails, mussels, crawfish, sassafras tea, postum (coffee made from grain), dandelion, hickory nuts, morel mushrooms, and hen of the wood mushrooms.
Wow, you ate everything. You really defined " apex predator "
@@nsxt290Yes and I find it amazing that I was able to keep my school girl figure though all of it. LOL
@@billgrandone3552 wow again... you put modern skin care& nutrition to the back seat.
A lot of these sound like what my dad grew up eating in rural Georgia back in the 50s. You'll eat just about anything that has calories when you're flat broke. The funny thing is...I grew up eating S.O.S. because my dad fell in LOVE with the dish when he joined the military. (and yeah...it's pretty bad when you go into the service and the food is better than what you ate at home)
Thank your dad for his service for me.❤️
@@lornae8683 I wish that I could, but he is in Heaven now. :) Thank you so much for your kind sentiment though.
@@raedraconis may he Rest In Peace .🙏
Yeah i am from WV and military was only time I had 3 meals a day except maybe short stay in hospital or jail. Lol but yea military has some good stuff
I love that stuff!! My mom even had a version made with tuna. Just the milk gravy with onions, carrots peas and whatever plus a can or two of tuna over toast or biscuits. Try it! I haven't had it in years, but, guess what's for dinner tonight???
As Les “Survivorman” Stroud says “You want to eat good food ? Don’t eat for 24 hours”.
I used to say something similar to my kids when they were young lol 🤣
Hunger is the best sauce.
fucking true,
it was actually part of why i couldnt loose weight at first,
did it by "starving" myself,and then eating healthy,and actually liking the taste for the first time,
was most def a wtf moment for me,
and it was by accident,after just randomly trying to eat less and then eating something healthy xD
lost 100 pounds this way for whos interested enough to read this far into my rant,
gained it right back thru drinking btw,
cheers to that!
edit.:just the grammar i knew how to fix,
to not embarres(?) myself,
like Just now,
not infront of my new like :(
everything for the fans!
In boot camp there was the "magic salt" phenomenon. You were so hungry all the time, and you had to eat so fast. Later down the line, you actually get a few minutes to eat, you can choose drinks, season your food, etc. Seasoning being salt, and or pepper. You never thought a dash of salt would turn cardboard into ambrosia? Hello Marine Corps boot camp!
@@GreedyOrange how do you gain a 100lbs by drinking?
I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, the farm was self supporting, beside a large garden, we had pear trees, apple trees, plum trees, hickory tree, asparagus bed, butchered a pig in fall along with chickens, ducks and geese, the only thing bought in town from the feed mill was sugar and flour in 100 pound bags. I didn't know what a grocery store was until I was in grade school, I remember well because they laughed when I asked what it was! I forgot to mention that Ma made ketchup and we else had horseradish plants! --- I prefer the grocery store--- Fred
Salmon soup is on our menu this week. One gifted can of Alaska salmon from a friend's commodities box, mirepoix, chickpeas, chopped Broccoli stems, lots of wild greens, and a bit of cooked rice makes a very nutritious and inexpensive meal that lasts for days. I like to challenge myself to cook like my grandparents did, wasting nothing.
That sounds great. I want to go back to rustic (but healthy) cooking.
@@timcollum5015 I like to do rustic with a modern twist. Coconut oil to sauté vegetables and a slow-cooked chicken carcass for nutritious bone broth. Everything else is locally homegrown and organic. This is a heck no to the monsanto additives.
That sounds amazing! I should make myself a pot of that this week.
@@VarangianGuard13 And be sure to use all the broth from the can. For soup I remove the larger bones, too.
That's sounds good
My mom would make head cheese when we butchered a pig. It was one of my dad's favorite things. Also, calf's foot jelly gave me another chuckle because out here in the west Jell-o is still a big thing, just generally people use the boxed kind instead of rendering their own gelatin.
In Italy they call that Sorpresatta
@@marieelisa1 Wait really?
My Dad loved brawn. Mum would cook up a pig's head, get the meat off the bone, put the meat with strained jelly in a dish... and let it set. I remember the pigs eyes looking at me and I freaked out, I couldn't eat it. My sister once took the cooked ear and placed it between bread with mustard for my Dad's golf lunch sandwich as a joke. Dad had a good chomp at it and couldn't get his teeth through... opened the sandwich, pulled out the pig's ear and shocked everybody 😂
Always loved that my mom was from Poland and made Head Cheese every year. I loved it and still make it.
When I was very young I remember Souse Head or Souse Cheese.
Seems like one name may have been Souse Head Cheese but it was a long time ago.
We still eat fried bread/pan bread/bannock, with lots of butter melted on it. It's so good! I've not had squirrel in ages, but I remember begging Mom to fry up some when Dad went hunting.
in our country (Romania), the bannock we calling it ”turta”.
@@emanuelmihai554 Just from one video I learned that what I call fried bread or pan bread is also called "bannock" or "turta". I'm getting educated!
A lot of people think it will be fun to live in those days... but they tend to forget that you have to fend for yourself and walmart isn't near by to get food.
No hygene products either.
For sure and they probably wouldn't survive 😐
There are city kids that only know that food comes from the store. I literally heard them say we don't need farmers, we can just go to the store.
Yeah but some people dont mine not having food max around,, they look to buy a property and build a homestead live off the land, they all over RUclips..many are heading this way of life.
@@ujayet This is too funny. "Living off the land" with chainsaws, trucks, tractors, guns, dimensional lumber, bought seeds. Not to mention you don't have to worry about roving bands of bandits or a king that decides you are going to fight his battle.
In the Army, my dad loved SOS. His buddies ended up giving him extra just because they hated it. He'll still make it now, 50 years later
Me too, can't find a place that makes it well....I do it on a toasted English muffin.
SOS is the best!
Shit on a Shingle is absolutely tasty! 10/10 would recommend.
Army SOS was the worst crap imaginable. C rations were like Chateaubriand by comparison.
Had SOS a couple days ago!! Yummy
I absolutely love this channel! ( Here's a secret- I haven't watched any tv in years),just surviving happily on my wonderful RUclips ! What excellent content and researched info! And the narration is phenomenal complete with incredible sarcasm that I love so much!!!
* the Donner Party slowly backs out of the room *
They would add a literal twist to the "Head Cheese" dish mentioned in the video.
You beat me to the joke 🤣
Sweet and sour grandma
You’re funny🙂
Kung pao cousin Johnny.
"The taste of soylent green varies from person to person" The Donner Party
Kwiki Gro is people!
Sounds like a Bill Gates restaurant
🤣🤣🤣
Too soon
Solent green varies from person to person? I love ya!
I'd try each of these at least once. Maybe I'm adventurous or bored, but so long as it ain't poisonous, everything should be tried once
Teaching me history better than any professor or teacher I’ve ever had. Thank you. 🖤
How do we exist still? Between cuisine, medical and bathing habits I'm surprised we didn't go out like the dinosaurs.
They went out by asteroids though. Try permian era. The bacteria killed the seas off.
@Flecicia Jenkins • Seriously! I can't imagine having to make a living "servicing" cowboys, guess I would have just died. All that nasty makes me sick to think about it, can't imagine being there. 🤮
@@octavius8562 - Women were not allowed to open their own bank account or apply for credit until 1974 so yes 1980 women were still objectified and infantilized.
Just multiplied more, there was no birth control...
@J Breeze when I told my ob-gyn doctor I wanted my tubes tied after I had my daughter the doctor wouldn’t authorize the procedure at my request.... I had to schedule another appointment that my husband had to come to with me so he could say it was okay!!! This was only 12 years ago!!!
Some of this food was the kind of stuff I was brought up on. I lived with my Grand parents, who had lived through the depression and had to eat whatever they could get. I could skin and clean a rabbit by the time I was eight years old.
We were driving through Oklahoma several years ago. Signs for a steakhouse kept saying to try the lamb fries. It said not to ask what they were just try them. We stopped there and my wife decided to try the lamb fries. I stuck with the steak. The lamb fries were deep fried and sort of looked liked popcorn chicken. She said they were good but a little fatty. When she had eaten about half of them the waiter came by and ask how everything was. She said they the lamb fries were good but wanted to know what they really were. He looked as her like he was talking to a child and said "They are lamb testicles ma'am" and turned and walked away. My wife turned white and decided she was done eating for the evening. The rest of the evening she complained the her stomach hurt.
Lmao just knowing what they were made her stomach hurt
Hahaha great story
LAMAO!!!! She should have just finished them, if they’re good before you know, they’re good after you find out nothing changed.
I liked that story the first time I saw in the Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm, which is actually in THIS VIDEO.
@@anonymoususername1091 Too bad it's not HIS story.
Frying pan bread is definitely one of the few ones that didn't make me sick just looking at.
Fry bread or flat bread...the best!
Fried bread is the bomb!!
In Canada Bannock is really popular. Served warm with some butter is great. You could also add some chocolate chips into it to make it a dessert.
@@SealofApprovalTWU And versatile too! Goes great with spreads of all kinds, dipping into soups and stews, or topping with chili or baked beans. Hell, I've had hot dogs and hamburgers with it.
Reminds me a lot of cornbread
I have an old Finnish school textbook for home cookery and domestic skills printed in 1904. It has a jelly recipe that starts with the instruction to take a calf's head and boil it.
The Foxfire Book, a nice collection of Appalachian traditions and folklore, has raccoon recipes.
My late father grew up in the depression and they actually ate possum. I asked him what it tasted like. He said "Nasty and greasy but, if you're hungry enough, you'll eat it. " I sure hope I'm never that hungry! 🤢🤮
i have had it i like it better than raccoon it is greasy.
@@miketaylor5212 whilst you can, eat in the city more. 🤣😂😅
It is nasty.
I also heard that raccoon was not good.
@@timcollum5015 it is delicious smoked, then shred it to make BBQ sandwiches.
OMG! I grew up eating half of everything here!! That should tell you how old I am!! When I was first married, back in the 70's, my husband and I use to go out hunting jack rabbits by the car lights! We would get a few to last us through the month and they are damn good eating! I grew up eating domestic rabbits and they are pretty damn good too! The hoof jelly, frying pan bread, s-o-s and many others were on the dinner table often!! Aww, good times!
Beef tea has popped up in so many novels that I've read, and I never quite knew what it was!! I always imagined it to be beef served at tea time, but this makes more sense! 😄
Hell’s yes “” I’ve been eating sos for years now!!! Just had some last month!!!! God bless you all today Shalom
Shalom
honestly looks good
😂 shalom
Mazeltov???
I come from a family of American pioneers who moved west with each generation and the opening up of new territory beginning in the mid 1700s. They didn't eat this stuff as far as I know. They had preserved food that could survive long wagon hauls, such as dried meat, beans, dried fruit, coffee, sugar, flour and lard. They supplemented it with fresh game and whatever nuts or berries they could get along the way. And whenever and wherever they settled, they immediately planted vegetable gardens and fruit trees.
Beans... lots and lots of beans
@@smoothlyamusing Yep, Blazing Saddles nailed it.
I think good planning is the key. If they knew well in advance, maybe a year, they could dry and preserve plenty of food. If there was drought, failed crop, lack of finances or left hurriedly then prep was limited. It might also count on cooperation from everyone to contribute and share which may not be the case. So many variables. If your ancestors traveled with little hardship they were fortunate.
@@rebelbecky276 Trips like they took required plenty of planning. If you weren't prepared you had to wait to go. Everyone had to be able to support themselves and their families. Otherwise everyone else in the group suffered. In the early years there were trailblazers who were essentially explorers (think Daniel Boone) who were familiar with the routes, natives, water sources, etc. Later as trails became more and more traveled very large and organized wagon trains were the rule. The wagonmaster who was in charge and responsible for getting everyone thru had to be paid, plus the scouts. It was never spur of the moment.
@@smoothlyamusing
Vanishing Point quote ??
I enjoy writing short stories about the Old West, and these type of videos save me a lot of research!
I’d like to see a video on how cans and can openers weren’t invented together.
Youd just use a knife to open the can
The preservation of food was far more important than saving a few minutes accessing the food
i wunna see a video about the chicken and the chicken egg & which one exactly came first??
@@ongie9736 Considering the chicken as we know it evolved from a long line of egg laying creatures, I would answer the egg.
I believe canned food was called "airtights".
My ex's family were original settlers in Eastern Nevada. Their family makes a dish, passed down from the mid 1800's, of bite sized potato chunks, boiled with wide egg noodles. After that's cooked and drained, they put a half stick of butter on it and tossed it with mozzarella cheese. At first I hated it but within a year, I started craving the carbs. We're divorced now but it's still one of my favorite quick dinners to make.👍
Thanks for this video! 😊👍
Loved learning more about how Pioneers made due with what they had. I also appreciated learning the basic recipes for each dish! As weird as some of these sound, they are known to be a lot healthier, with dense nutrition than we have these days. 😋👍
I have ancestors who traveled the Mormon Trail in the Martin Handcart Company. 🤠
Pemmican and hardtack... straight up. A solid reason many of us are alive today.
I make pemmican :)
@@BurchMike1 Did it taste like drywall? Mine did, i never let maggots get into it though, maybe thats what im missing.
@@FeedMeSalt tastes like greasy beef jerky. I add dried blueberries to give it some sweetness.
I never had it but I've seen it made on youtube by several different people. It doesn't look too terrible but it was a whole lot of work to make I thought. At least what I saw. I can see doing it when there was no way to preserve food, but nowadays it seems like a lot of work. It might not be a bad idea to learn to do it in the event of society collapsing. You know how to survive on the land and keep food if for some reason all electricity and water services were no longer functioning. I often thought of learning edible plants and herbal medicine just in case. I doubt all of society would collapse, but you never know.
@@rudeinterplanetjanet I definitely need to learn more about edible plants
My great grandmother crossed the prairie in a covered wagon and had 7 sons who hunted. She could make any meat they brought home taste good. Our family still uses some of her "receipts."
Recipes*? :) lovely story
@@melaniegonzalezart8506Historically, the word "receipts" was sometimes used instead of recipes. :)
Mine did the same God bless them for their will
That's amazing so fascinating 🌟🐿️
In Britain when we buy at a market we recieve a piece of paper listing everything we bought and how much we bought, we still call them "Receipts"
Love how excited he sounded when he said "why not make beef tea?!" Like really genuinely excited. I mean we are all relieved to leave testicles behind, sure. I bet that beef tea was goooooooood.
Tf u talking about?
@@SupaL33tKillar 💀💀💀💀💀💀
I Love beef tea! Use it often in the winter to sip on, that and chicken tea, add a small amount of butter, salt and pepper, dash of hot sauce, delish!
Beef tea got me through a week long stretch of not being able to keep food down when I had Covid last year.
A mexican coworker once gave me some homemade tacos, they were unbelievable. Then he told me it was beef tongue. at first i was a little shocked but I got over it, that was some of the best damned beef I ever had. Of course I think it helps that Hispanic folks know how to cook. The only downside was that I was at work and a cold beer would have gone well with it.
I live in an area with a large Hispanic community. We have small taco shops and taco trucks everywhere. Lengua tacos/burritos are some of the best I’ve ever had.
You should try tacos de tripa next 😋
i was born at Ft. Campbell, KY 1953. my father was a trapper on base while a paratrooper. He used to take racoon carcases to a black man who would barbque a racoon for every one given to the cook. When he brought them home for supper, all us kids would say what is that and he would say "its turkey! eat it!". We ate it regularly and it was good. One Thanksgiving the whole family went to the messhall for turkey dinner and us kids asked what is that? referring to the turkey and the cook said its turkey! my brothers and sisters said no its not! True story! Anybody who knew Sgt.Major Robert D. "Booger" Clark would know its true.
Ha, that's a good story
Ha! Its turkey!
Love this story. Thanks for sharing
Amazing so fascinating 🌟🐿️
Good story
I dont think any time in history has ever seen such will, grit, and determination from common people as did the settling of the American West
"Bear’s head cheese."
Oh no!
"Despite it’s name head cheese isn’t actually cheese."
*OH NO!*
"It’s actually meat from the head and face of a bear!"
Phew, Okay!
"Anyways,here's how they used to cook and eat bull testicles."
*NO!*
I have eaten head cheese and I have eaten bear, but never bear head cheese.
Lol, good ol' rocky mountain oysters!
Lmfao!!!
Hog head cheese is tasty. Im guessing bear head would be pretty tasty
@@metaltoy666 Yep on rye bread with a little mild yellow mustard.. YUM.
My great grandfather was a Texas Ranger back when they rode horses and carried six guns. At 102 he told me when I was 15 they carried other than bullets, bacon, coffee and beans.....Anything else was a luxury on the trail.
Neat comment. I've been reading Louis Lamour books and love that era. I wonder if the bacon was drier than what is in the stores today? Surely. And I have a feeling it wasn't all just from the belly of the pig, but any smoked and salted pork available. That salt and fat would definitely help the beans.
@ From what I gather it was salted pork cut thin.
@ Better than today for sure.
@@montanamountainmen6104 I just finished "Shalako" by Louis Lamore. I highly recommend it and all of his work!
@ I've read that , it was a great read indeed.
I actually made vinegar pie from a recipe out of the Time-Life 'The Old West' series of books. (They're great!) It's basically custard pie, but the vinegar gives it a nice tangy zip that borders on fruity tasting. Vinegar was a staple of pioneers for a million and one ailments and it's cleaning properties.
I had Italian-style "head cheese" (pork) once in a deli sandwich, and since I didn't have to look too closely at the, uh, different textural bits, I found it delicious. Beef tongue "lengua" tacos or burritos are also just wonderful. I'd be willing to try most of these dishes. If I absolutely had to.
A couple of warnings though:
If you decide you want to try sorrel, go easy on it. Lots of oxalic acid. Apparently that can contribute to kidney stones.
I'm not sure if all acorns are a problem, but at least in California, the acorns have to be soaked and leached of tannins before roasting and grinding, or they'll make you sick as a dog. The Native Americans figured out a method, and we'd be well advised not to ignore people who did it for centuries.
If you ever try to process acorns into flour, try to find acorns from a WHITE OAK as they mature quickly and the tannins have less time to develop, hence white oak acorns contain lower amounts of tannins,.
Anybody remember that scene on the movie Blazing Saddles. Got nothing to eat but beans.🍛🍛🍛
yessss
@@DyslexicMitochondria Ayy I watch your videos man, Nice to see you here
POOOOT! 💨🤢🤮
"'scuse me, while i whip this out..."
@@donHooligan he said the sheriff's near lmao
I use wood sorrel as an acidic ingredient when I don't have lemon on hand! It grows in my backyard. Its good to know wild substitutes for things when we don't have the real thing
Another great wild option for adding acidity to your food is sumac. Towards the end of summer, touch the red berries and taste your hand to see if it's sour; if so, snap off as many clusters as you can carry, then take them home to prepare. My favorite method is soaking them in cold water*, but then saving the water with every batch so that is becomes concentrated, much like lemon juice but arguably more neutral in flavor. Freezes great, too. Word of warning: the sour sap of the berries likes to cling to your hands after swishing the berries around (I haven't tried using gloves, as the sumac is prickly and I assume it would just pierce through them), so I use a combination of soap, water and canola oil to help remove it.
*I've been told that it's best not to prepare sumac like you would tea by boiling it, as you would end up ingesting too many tannins that way.
When I was a wee boy of 10-11 I went to stay with aunt and uncle on their hog farm. One night a supper I said this meat is really good what is it? She simply replied that they were mountain oysters and I said is that hog balls, her reply was yep.
She said I turned every shade of blue there was and then asked for more please.
Military veteran here. All I have to say about S.O.S. is this.
Ah my old friend. You have made an appearance.
If you had good cooks, that stuff was great!
@@beeragainsthumanity1420 Amen to that brother!
I hope you have someone to make it for you.. I love to make things like this- but I have no one to cook for! Biscuits and gravy is so good, but for one? I'm working on it. Every one has a neighbor that needs a little attention. Is this a way to start?
I love a good dish S.O.S.. The best I have ever had was on a Military base.. No one has ever made any that good so far..
Ahhhhhh yes my old favorite
I'm Polish and we also have a traditional holiday dish made with meat, veggies and jello. It can be pork or chicken with peas and carrots cooked in a jello base. We would pour white vinegar on it. If you go to any European store they still sell it. My dad also buys and eats Polish head cheese.
I recommend this channel for anyone on a diet. Having said that, it's actually a great channel with a lot of information and very interesting content. Shirley
This is the best comment I’ve ever seen pertaining to a video lol -Sandra
anyone else is surprised how disgusting cooking actually is, and has a new-found admiration for the women that figured all this stuff out and were having to bear actually doing it?
men and women worked equally hard to survive. no one is the more noble
@@MrShnazer no one is claiming one is more noble, but women tended to do the dirty work of preparing food back then. In a lot of native coming-of-age ceremonies in fact, for girls, their celebration of entering adulthood involves them skinning and preparing the body of a slaughtered animal. So they can learn how to make use of its body and how to prepare the edible parts of its body for consumption. Because that’s just traditionally what women did for thousands of years in those cultures. The men would bring home the animal, the women would make it into food And supplies.
The same is true in ancient European societies. Men would bring home the Corpses of animals, and women would get to work making use of it. Pretty much an even division of responsibilities.
When you have a hungry family you - men and women - will find a way to feed them. These shows, like naked and afraid are a joke. Why would anyone lay around the camp all day and wait for someone else to bring something? And why is it that meat is the only thing on the menu? And am I crazy but what about hygiene? Perhaps I'm too critical, but every one needs to work- together. Every one is needed. Laying about camp is not allowed.
@034bloodas It depends on the culture. In ancient tribal cultures the dressing of animals was mostly done by women. That’s because the work of the men usually took them away from home for very long periods of time, all day to several days, and they would only stay for a few days during their working seasons and that was mostly reserved for rest/recovery because they were going to need to hit the field again soon.
Women were literally home makers back then lol today it’s more of a decorative sense when we say that, but back then they literally *made* the home. Everything in it. The clothes, the dishes, the tools, the blankets, the food, even most of the structures, They built it. Lol yes the men did the heavy lifting as needed, and generally managed hunting, defense and exploration since it was dangerous and physically demanding and the women used what the men brought home to craft.
It was a pretty efficient system. Both groups had a pretty well defined list of responsibilities. Once you get further into time though in the workplace for men got closer and closer to home, things started to get more even in the average household. And men started go more into crafts work since farming made it less necessary for everybody to work to gather food so the leftover men who weren’t needed to farm or hunt got to specialize in trades and boom, you have professional craftworkers.
At home it was Shared duties and whatnot, since men weren’t gone all the time doing crazy strenuous activity like their tribal ancestors anymore (farming is hard work but it’s not chasing caribou on foot for 50 miles hard) lol.
Your side jokes commentaries are hilarious! Keep it up! =D
When I was a kid.. pickled pig feet was a delicacy we kids begged mom to get in a jar at the grocery...an hell I've eaten many a jackrabbit ..I used to make a sausage from them and serve it in patties along with eggs an spuds all fried in a skillet
Sounds yummy
My folks cooked rabbit and it was awesome.
Funny thing is that at very nice local restaurant they serve rabbit at over $60 plate!
I cant do pickled ham. yuck! Love pickled herring, pickled veggies, but nope! lol
Rabbit sausage, yum!
Pickled pigs feet? Yes please!
When you're starving you'll eat just about anything. 🤤
During the Civil War, some prisoners of war were forced to eat rats to survive. And they claimed that rats didn’t taste that bad, tasted almost like chicken.
@@michaelmckenna6464 So what's the difference between rat and squirrel, besides the tail? Both are rodents, and in the wild, wouldn't their diets be similar? Just curious, but I'm not that hungry now, for some reason. LOL
@@elultimo102 rats and squirrels are both rodents. But while squirrels live on a diet of nuts, rats eat almost anything and everything. So squirrel meat has a nuttier taste.
It’s like penguins. Because they live on a diet of fish, roasted penguin, which explorers of the Arctic subsisted on, looked like roasted chicken but tasted more like fish.
@@michaelmckenna6464 Can't say I ever ate a penguin, either. LOL
@@elultimo102 The TallShip Glenlee (1896) at the Maritime Museum of Glasgow, Scotland is one of the historic ships that sailed up near the Arctic where Sailors subsisted on penguins and fish. It was the tour guide who explained that penguin tasted like fish. But I doubt if she ever ate penguin either. LOL
Very impressed with this video. Subbed
"Pioneer" foods that I have eaten:
(1) Head cheese
(2) Rocky Mountain oysters
(3) Rabbit
(4) Squirrel
(5) Racoon
(6) Muskrat
(7) Possum
"Pioneer" foods that I would like to eat:
(1) Son-of-a-b*tch stew
Makes me think of that song lol: "Son of a bitch! If I cant get clean!"
I'm definitely going to need to put that last one on my to eat list.
As to the rest, I've tried everything but muskrat and possum so far. Game meat and fresh fish are always tasty options.
Shit on a shingle was one of my favorites.
Rocky mountain oysters ain't bad but not to many.
I didn't see blood noodles on the menu
I’m sorry but you can’t just slap “Mcstink” with that visual and not expect me to laugh aloud at 2 am
Lol that made me laugh too. I just wrote that comment before scrolling down and seeing yours lol
*McStink*
*Laughs uncontrollably* 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😆😆😆
My boss in the shop where I worked would occasionally invite a worker or two to lunch at his house nearby. He was a big time hunter, so you never knew what you were gonna get. I've eaten possum, squirrel, rabbit, buffalo, elk, Pronghorn antelope, deer and bear at his house. His wife was a great cook and believed that every kind of meat required a good gravy to make it more edible! It helped a lot with the bear and possum!
Very cool AND informative video..THANKS! After spending 14 years in the Army, I've had the S.O.S. a couple of times and find that it's still pretty tasty to this day!!
When I was a kid in the 50's we ate jack rabbit. Because in west Texas that was the only meat source available to hunt other than cotton tail. If you were lucky you might on occasion get a cotton tail. but I remember jack rabbit as being as tough as leather.
I am amazed that they were able to cook these foods at all with so little clean, potable water and utensils
They knew about boiling water to sanitize it back then...
There weren't as many pollutants spoiling fresh water streams. too.
@@tomsmith5216 if you got a little creek, you only need one dead animal lying int he water upstream...
@@nirfz True, but still, for the most part, streams and lakes were much cleaner than now.
@@tomsmith5216 As this is about people in "untouched" land or "wilderness" yes that's true.
Thank you for showing something from my town. The Lemon Grove Lemon.
That frying pan bread sounds pretty good.
I remember it well----I lived in Lakeside for 25 years. (Is there still the big fine for grabbing the nearby lemons from the trees?)
I lived near lemon grove
Me personally, I like them all. Wouldn't turn my nose up at one recipe.❤
I learned all of this from playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II. 🧐🤔🐿️
@thatguy 00
I commented when the video started to play. I'm subscribed and don't need to be reminded. Sure enough, he brought up squirrel 🐿️...🧟🚜
@thatguy 00
How many stars did Martha get on her vinegar pie...? 🧐🤔🎭
Read comedy of coffin on kindle written by Avijit Kabiraj. Introduction: It's a tale of two jobless boys, who were offered a job by the mafia boss that they can't refuse, their job is to bury a dead chef.
@thatguy 00
RUclips isn't known for its accuracy and performance. 🤑
Commodore 64, baby
I've had half of this menu at least once growing up... Hell, my grandparents raised rabbits as a meat source and that meat was sometimes ground and cooked with gravy for SOS.
Thought it would have been easier to cover, "what didn't they eat." My grandpa had a taste for some traditional old world food. Some of which wasn't to bad. Other times, he would say. When you get hungry, you'll eat.
"Hey whats for dinner?" "SOB stew!" Oh yum! "thrusts out plate"
Shut up and eat your stew you sob
Squirrel and rabbit are delicious. I could definitely survive on them if I had too. Down here in the south we still have designated hunting seasons for both. Rabbit is very lean due to their diet and active lifestyle. Squirrels are also lean for the same reason but there is a slight sweetness to the meat. My grandmother still makes squirrel gumbo and squirrel gravy during hunting season. I love that stuff.
The acorn bread intrigued me. I have so many oaks around my place, I might give it a shot just to see how it tastes.
Be careful when processing the acorns. It's my understanding if they aren't boiled correctly they'll make you sick.
Barbeque squirrel is absolutely outstanding!
Squirrel tastes like the dark meat of a turkey. And nope, that is not how you hunt a squirrel.
When I ate squirrel the taste was ok, but it was like eating a skinned rat with all the bones. I really didn't care for it at all. It just seemed like a lot of work for such a small amount of meat. But I am sure it was different back when protein was in short supply and you needed those nutrients, it was worth it. It tasted like chicken. To me, I'd rather have chicken. It has a lot more meat on it.
I learn more in here than I ever did in school
To be honest, we have similar versions of these recipes in Romania. First jelly recipe is made here with pork, chicken or beef and with a lot of garlic and it is called piftie. The one with all the pig parts and some jelly to keep it together is called tobă. We even have the stew with all those organs, made with pig or sheep and it is called tochitură.
Meniudo in Mexico is a soup made like the SOB stew. It's absolutely delicious, I'd love to try your dishes too.
Romanian mountain oysters- fudulii :))
My Romanian grandmother passed away when I was six, but I still remember her food. She used to make many of those Romanian recipes, and I missed them. It wasn't until I begged my mother to make some of those that she told me what they were.
I never knew my grandmother made up silly names for them so we wouldn't know what they were made of! 70 years later, I can still taste them in my mind.
@@TooLooze visit Romania. You will find those recipes in almost every restaurant/market
@@djdadu Thank you, Andrei. I would love to.
My father was a hunter, trapper, & fisherman. We had at least everything once. If you don't have to clean it, then it's no big deal.
ya know watching this, i guess, if the women cooked it, i would eat it, just don't tell me what it is lol
That scene at 0:50 made me laugh, but an informative show! Keep it up! :D
A lot of these recipes go way back in my family. I remember hearing my parents talk about this stuff and even making a couple of these. This is exactly what my ancestors ate, I assume.
Calves foot jelly, or Aspic has been around since 1375, around the middle ages and has been served in both in Europe and America for a very long time. If you were out on the trail, it could become hard to find towns with mercantile's who could sell you the supplies that you would need to continue on the trail with. Due to vast open spaces, that stretch for hundreds of miles with no settlements around, which made it difficult to procure supplies. Citrus was very expensive to purchase in the 18th and early 19th century, due to the scarcity and difficult shipping, including growing methods.
I'm definitely a foodie and I love trying new and unusual foods. I am well known at work for bringing in unusual dishes for lunch.
I can't imagine how my coworkers would react if they found out I was eating leftover fried rocky mountain oysters.
OMG, Rocky Mountain Oysters are SCRUMPTUOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🥰🥰👍👍🎄🎄🐮🐄🐄🤠🤠💖💖
"Calves foot jelly - We don't talk about it much now.." --- Just what do you think Jello IS!?!
Try simmering chicken bones for a couple hours. Strain it, let it cool, then skim off the fat. It makes a great base for cooking rice casserole or stew. A lot of flavor & meat is in the bones.
I'm 60. A few of these came down to my parents and in turn me. My dad said bear was very greasy and would never dream of hunting like his father did. Times changed when Kroger came to town, I guess
Do you think bear was greasy because of all the omega's from the salmon they ate ?
@@pollybird7827 There is no salmon in Chicago. It's a very cold place in the winter. They have to stay warm. Not many bears in Illinois anymore, I wouldn't think.
@@PeoplePlacesRocknRoll oh ok thank you 🐿️
Bear is quite tasty if you soak the meat overnight in milk....takes all the "wild" taste out of it...👍
Thank goodness I was born later. Bless them all for their fortitude, resilience, resourcefulness. I want to throw up. Had I been there, I would’ve starved.
“What early pioneers ate to survive the old west.”
Yes.
Yeah, did you read that article written for the National Lampoon informing us what men eat to survive during frontier day's.
To be fair, that's what most our ancestors did to survive. Us "modern" people are the weird ones eating lots of synthetic and artificial food.
Something tells me we're gonna be drooling over baked skunk again 😣 that's if we're lucky.
"Beef tea"
We actually still do this in the Netherlands. When you got a cold or a flu and you can't be arsed to make some chickensoup you make "een kopje boullion" A cup of stock essentially. You use dried weak stock. similar to portable soup and the stuff in powdered soups like cup a soup. There's even brands that sell the powdered form with a small amount of paracetamol specifically for when yer under the weather.
It's a standard component of dutch army rations; satchets of beef tea powder. Delicious, quickening, and also valuable as "currency" to trade with soldiers from other nations on UN missions.
If I was suddenly forced to travel back in time to this time period I would probably die of starvation
Or not. The will to live is not so easily controlled.
Once you eat these dishes and realize how good they are you would change your mind fast.
Sounds like something a coddled millenial would say. Get real.
Wel
Why? These foods look great
Is this a an original RUclips series, or did WH start on the History, Discovery, or Travel channel? It’s done so well in terms of presentation, education, humor & entertainment, I feel as if I’ve seen it on a major tv network?
Edit: Who narrates this? Well done, whoever you are.
I know very little about the old West diets/foods, found this video of profound historical value. One point I thought missed... The humble Rattlesnake....!
The scarcity of lemons in California , very surprising given the merchant ships in and out of Oregon, Los Angeles, San Diego and mid century San Francisco, in relation to Scurvy. Or were Oranges used, or indeed grown in California at that time...?
Thankyou Weird History, excellent video 👍
Lol I grew up eating venison, rabbit, squirrel, quail, dove , I’ve tried bear , and gator I was a little less than impressed with them .
Rabbit , and quail are far better than chicken , dove gets by, but for me , nothing to write home about ....
I am eating squirrel as I type.
Freezer full of venison as well
@@leeguo9443 ??
Ya gotta wrap dove in bacon before grilling
"Honey, on the way back from buffalo hunting, would you stop and get me a lemon for the calf foot jelly pudding? If the avocados aren't from Peru, don't bother. Would you also look for gluten-free pearl barley... And steelcut oats, that's the only type Mikey will eat".
And their finest cabernet sauvignon to have with our buffalo
Yeah I can't picture lemons or white wine and herbs lasting more than a few days of hard travel back then. Maybe the lemons were preserved like they do in Italy but as the cook I'd have finished that wine bottle on the first night.
"Well if it's not ORGANIC I'm NOT eating IT!" LOL
@Dana Miller Hey, that's what cooking wine is for--the cook!
Wow I love the way of writings in old books. There’s something classy, curious, clean to it.
I'm in the Navy and all of this sounds way more appetizing than what we get when we're deployed
Great screen name!