Log Cabin Cooking: Pioneer Recipes & Food Lore [Paperback]

Barbara Swell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2008

Peppered with authentic 19th Century photograhs, this cookbook is smothered with old-timey recipes, kitchen proverbs, even a pinch of proper pioneer etiquette! Make-do cooking recipes include Leather Britches, Ash Cake and Portable Soup, using ingredients available to settlers 150 years ago! Other goodies: hand-dipped candle making, soup warnings, molasses taffy, faux foods, zucchini clarinet and ginger beer!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Swell began cooking as a young child growing up in West Virginia. She learned to bake cookies while standing on a chair next to her mother. Her job was stirrer and beater licker. Now a child counselor and author, Barbara lives in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband Wayne and their three children Annie, Wes, and Rita.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Native Ground Music; Later edition (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883206251
• ISBN-13: 978-1883206253
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > General
  • #25 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > General
  • #55 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > History

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Log Cabin Cooking!, June 12, 2006

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Log Cabin Cooking: Pioneer Recipes & Food Lore (Paperback)

Log Cabin Cooking by Barbara Swell, a book about Pioneer Recipes & Food Lore, is a wonderful book that can be enjoyed by anybody. With only 64 pages it is amazingly full of recipes, food history, kitchen proverbs, dining etiquette, rhymes (designed to help you remember recipes) and even food insults. From wheat to corn, from meats to beverages, from how to make your butter yellow and how many ways to use corn (corn, corn, corn) this is a great read.

It only took me a day yet I wanted more. Just my luck I bought Secrets of The Great Old-Timey Cooks by the author at the same time at the same store.

With 19th century photos and drawings to add to the pioneer feeling of the book. Don't read it unless you plan to go out right afterwards to eat good, old fashion, country cooking!

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mountainman's point of view, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Log Cabin Cooking: Pioneer Recipes & Food Lore (Paperback)

This book is very good for the beginner in Early American cooking. I feel very sorry for people are afraid to try some of Barbara's recipes. The other things in her book are true to fact and most of them do work. I do E-A living demonstrations an this book will help me a lot. 3 thumbs up or what ever!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slender 65-page compendium of pioneer era recipes, March 9, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Log Cabin Cooking: Pioneer Recipes & Food Lore (Paperback)

A slender 65-page compendium of pioneer era recipes, Log Cabin Cooking by Barbara Swell also offers tips on hearth cooking, food insults, pioneer dining etiquette, kitchen provers, cake superstitions, jump rope rhymes, and "Biscuit Sayings". Readers will learn how to make a "squashaphone" and "Make-Do Cooking". Enhanced with period photography, the recipes in this little gem of a cookbook range from Sour Dough Bread, to Dandelion Salad, to Poor Man's Pudding, to Dried Sweet Apple Schnitz. Also very highly recommended are two other old-time cookbooks by Barbara Swell: Take Two & Butter 'em While They're Hot!: Heirloom Recipes & Kitchen Wisdom (1883206324, $5.95) and Secrets Of The Great Old-timey Cookbooks: Historic Recipes, Lore & Wisdom (1883206375, $5.95).