The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories

My only issue with the book is how it's printed and bound because I prefer cookbooks on better quality paper with a binding that can handle use in the kitchen. That said, it wasn't enough to make it 4 stars. Maybe 4.5, I rounded up. The recipes are well laid out with a lot of history. It makes an excellent tool of discussion and education with students who are reading the series or families who enjoy watching re-runs of the tv show. Some of the recipes don't adapt well to things you can easily get at the supermarket, but just reading those recipes is fun and modern cooks will find the difference in technique and ingredients very interesting. We are so used to being able to get so many alternative ingredients, to having 50 kinds of oil to choose from at the grocery store, that just the use of salt pork or bacon in so many common dishes is a good conversation. Being able to discuss cooking methods, economical measures, and working with what was available are all good things to explore with your children. I got it as a way of encouraging my daughter to read the original series. It's hard getting her interested in novels sometimes, but she loves cookbooks and historical recipes. Using it that way has worked, she's been slowly going through the series and enjoying it. Highly recommended for fans of the show or the books obviously, but also a good resource for people who enjoy reenacting history. Many of the recipes are accurate for the Civil War Era.

Incredibly cute cookbook. Recipes for foods that were mentioned in the books and the author goes into details from the time eat. Perfect for Little House on the Prairie fans.

Very good book. I initially thought there would be more illustrations, but I ended up enjoying the book anyways. I find the lack of clear cut, detailed illustrations help the reader (children especially) comprehend the recipes, use imagery for the Little House book excerpts, and focus more on accurately creating the finished product. You simply cannot "look" and create, but must truly focus on the reading material. The reading is fairly simple, laid out in plain text format. Each recipe lists the name, the excerpt from the original Little House books including Farmer Boy during which said recipe was mentioned, the ingredients and instructions. I appreciate how the author introduces herself and her inspiration for creating The Little House Cookbook and the great lengths she went to to accurately piece together recipes from the Frontier time era and her source credits. The recipes call for mostly staple items so most of them will be pretty easy to acquire (e.g., flour, sugar, butter, cream, eggs). However, some of the wild game recipes may be very difficult if not impossible to acquire ingredients for (e.g., fowl, roasted pig, starlings). Still, it's a good read and will come in handy for treats for friends and family. Already I have friends who are yearning for some of the dessert and bread recipes!

My 6-year-old daughter and I are reading through the Little House series, and I gave her this cookbook for her birthday. Just this weekend she and I, along with my husband and our almost two-year-old, had our first "Prairie Day" - we used no electricity (aside from our stove, as we have no fireplace), and cooked only recipes from this book. Breakfast: codfish balls, biscuits, homemade butter (we LOVED preparing this the day before, and the buttermilk left over contributed to our biscuits), and tea/milk. I soaked the salt cod in the fridge for 2 days to ensure proper re-hydration. The codfish balls, despite my misgivings, were tasty and light. I couldn't bring myself to use lard - any recipe suggesting lard did just fine with shortening. My usually picky daughter LOVED the codfish balls. They're basically like fish and chips combined, in little bites. I will make this again, but use fresh ocean white-fish (since I can!). Lunch: sausages, lettuce with vinegar and sugar, homemade bread and butter, and lemonade, and apple turnovers. Simply delicious! I give the author total credit for the success of the bread (which I baked in advance), as her clear instructions helped me through the difficult task. Candle-lit Supper: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas, with custard pie for dessert. The only recipe that I wouldn't repeat is the fried chicken - Paula Deen's recipe is so much better, and practically authentic. This recipe really did require oven finishing, which turned the chicken from crispy to soggy. The pie was amazing, and I am no baker! We can't wait until winter to do our next Prairie Day and attempt more recipes. I read this and prepared for a week in advance, and I learned tons about history and cookery. Praises to the author for her obviously hard work! P.S. I'm a violinist, and the plan was to enjoy some fiddle music before bed. I was EXHAUSTED by supper's end, and the music and dance never happened. And I didn't even do any laundry that day!!

Don't get me wrong, I plan to love this book a lot more when I have a daughter of my own who will (hopefully) be as enchanted with the Little House series as I was and still am. I vividly remember all the scenes involving food in the books and how much rich detail Wilder put into each description. As a very young cooking enthusiast with a runaway imagination, I saw myself plucking chickens and running around in calico trying to find a place in the taffy pull. For these reasons, I practically grabbed the book from one of my eight-year-old students' hands when she showed her library copy of it to me. I loved the pictures, the story excerpts, the idea that someone was dedicated enough to do the research and find out as much as she could about how the Wilders and the Ingallses created these unique and hearty meals. It serves as a fantastic book to curl up with and picture yourself turning a spit or making a savory pie with blackbirds (erm..), but it doesn't inspire me to get off the couch and turn a spit, or rather, construct some kind of spit-like apparatus in my kitchen. Maybe farther down the road I'll have the room in my apartment and time in my life to devote the effort to this book that it deserves. It is a treasure to me, but you won't find its recipes on my table. I know for a fact, however, that if my mother had owned it when I was a little girl, we would have done all we could to make these authentic meals. If only Barbara M. Walker would put out a "Little House for the Little Apartment" cookbook companion.

It was wonderful

I have been collecting cookbooks for years. When I came across THE LITTLE HOUSE COOKBOOK, I got it! Very interesting and useful. The recipes have illustrations, and are wonderful. Truly, very well written and put together.

I've been a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan for practically my whole life and am now delighted to be reading the whole series aloud to my young daughter who loves the books as much as I. My friend told me about this cookbook and we purchased it - it is WONDERFUL! I read the whole thing cover to cover - it is just fascinating. The author writes in a very readable, extremely interesting style. I love having all the recipes for the meals mentioned throughout the Little House books and I *love* reading the history included in this cookbook. It adds such depth and perspective to our readings of the LIW books. [This book is as much a history text as it is a cookbook - and it does great justice to both genres!] My daughter and I have made several of the recipes from the book so far and they have all been delicious, if not exactly health conscious. :) I haven't been able to bring myself to buy Lard, but we have delighted in making some of the same foods Laura ate. My daughter is learning a HUGE amount about history through these experiences. Buying this book is the best money I've spent in years!

Tolle Rezepte

Libro per gli appassionati della “Casa nella prateria”.

It was very very good and interesting. I loved the way it demonstrated the differences between cooking methods, produce e.t.c.then and now.

I grew up reading Little House on The Praire so I was excited when my niece showed interest in learning more about the serious. I would caution that this book is not for the common, everyday cook. Many of the recipes are from the days when shelf ingredients did not exist so my niece and I struggled to find some of the older items that were required in the recipe. However, the book did allow her to see how uncomplicated and process food once was and why it took so much time and love to create. It is a great book for the adventurous cook in your life. Just be prepared to substitute for some of the recipes.

J'aime beaucoup ce livre.Je n'ai pas encore traduit les textes et les recettes mais j'ai retrouvé toutes les recettes racontées dans la collections de "La petite maison dans la prairie" . Les illustrations dessinées par Garth Williams,c'était lui qui avait également illustré la série,rende nostalgique. Après la traduction je les testerai.Ce qui est bien c'est que ces recettes ne demandent pas beaucoup d'ingrédients ,ceux-ci sont faciles à trouver dans les épiceries anglaises,d'autres qu'on possède déjà dans ses réserves.Ce sont des ingrédients basiques Les cuissons sont plus rapides dans les fours actuels que dans les cuisinières au bois ou à charbon de nos grand-mères pour les plats. Et contrairement à ce que l'on pense,ils préparaient beaucoup de confiseries,(par exemple ; à base de maïs soufflés (pop-corn)). Je suis très contente d'avoir acheté ce livre!