Page:Oregon, End of the Trail.djvu/139

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originated some 70 years ago by Mrs. John James Burton, an Oregon pioneer:

MEAT PANCAKES

To a cupful of cold meat add a few raisins, chop the mixture fine and season with salt, paprika, the pulp of a lemon, nutmeg, sugar, and i teaspoon of finely chopped pepper; add an egg and heat the mixture. 3 eggs, a pint of milk, and enough flour to make a thin batter. After beating thoroughly, drop the batter in large spoonfuls on a hot and well greased frying pan. As each cake browns on one side, place some of the meat mixture on it and fold the cake over the mixture. Then place the cakes in another pan containing a little meat-stock and butter, and steam from 5 to 10 minutes.

The wild fruits of the Northwest were much used in early days, as indeed they are now. The huckleberry, blackberry, Oregon grape, elderberry, and serviceberry provided a basis for many delectable dessert dishes. Here is an old iccipe that is still much used:

HUCKLEBERRY GRIDDLE CAKES

Sift together 2 cups of flour, i teaspoon of salt, and il/2 teaspoons of baking powder. Combine with i beaten egg, 11/* cups of sour milk, and i teaspoon of soda. Then add i teaspoon of melted butter and i cup of huckleberries. Bake on hot greased griddle, and serve with syrup or thick huckleberry sauce.

An early western recipe for apple turnovers, named no doubt for some long-departed Mrs. McGinty of culinary prowess, runs as follows:

McGINTIES

Wash i pound of dried apples, removing bits of core and skin, and soak overnight. Next day stew in enough water to cover, and when soft run through a collander. Replace on stove, add enough brown sugar to make the fruit rich and *weet, and cook until thick; then cool and add il/i tablespoons of ground cinnamon. Line a dripping-pan with pie crust, put in fruit mixture and cover with upper crust, gashing the latter slightly to let the steam escape. Press edges of crust together and bake—at first in a hot oven, then reducing the heat. When done cut into diamond-shaped portions, and serve hot with cream.

Sourdough biscuits and prospector's soup were known to every oldtimer who roamed the mountains, valleys, and plains of the West in search of some likely spot in which to stake a mining claim. This is the way they were commonly prepared:

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS

Mix i pint of flour and i teaspoon of salt with i pint of warm water or canned milk. Beat into a smooth batter, and keep in a warm place