Little House on the Prairie: Fried Chicken

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comfort food, fried chicken, frontier food, laura ingalls food, laura ingalls wilder food, little house on the prairie food, prairie food

This recipe is my homage to a specific food-related memory I have from the Little House on the Prairie television series. Remember the lunch buckets Ma sent to school with Mary and Laura? The props masters chose tin buckets, covered with a piece of cloth. A strange, food-obsessed child, I always wondered what a mother in that era would have packed in a bucket! Then, during one episode, I remember Laura plops herself on the steps of the school house and pulls out… a piece of fried chicken.

In “These Happy Golden Years”, Laura writes about a dinner of fried children served with the first new peas and potatoes of July. The acid-saltwater bath, originally a butchering practice, makes a beautiful brine that adds juiceness to the meat. I used chicken tenderloins because they cook more evenly, but you can certainly use any cut of the bird, with or without bones, including pieces of whole chicken.

You may be tempted to add spices to the flour-don’t. Shake and Bake has sold us all on the false notion that the breading makes the fried chicken. The real flavor comes from the meat and the fat-and this recipe ensures that both of those elements are top quality!

First make a brine with salt and vinegar…

Then cover it with water and let it stand in the frig for at least an hour.

Once the fat is hot in the skillet, dredge your chicken through plain flour and fry!

KFC doesn’t have anything on Ma Ingalls!

Ingredients

Three to 3 and a half pounds of chicken (if using whole chicken, cut into serving-size pieces)
One tablespoon kosher salt
Two tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup flour
Four tablespoons butter
Four tablespoons shortening OR oil (I used olive oil)

Instructions

At least one hour before frying, put the chicken pieces in a large bowl with a cover. Sprinkle the salt and vinegar over the pieces and then cover them with cold water. Place in refrigerator and let stand until it’s time to fry.

Place flour in a pie pan and heat the fat (butter, shortening or oil) in a skillet over medium heat until it’s hot but not smoking. Meanwhile, drain the chicken pieces on a paper towel. When the fat is ready, dredge the chicken through the flour and then place in the skillet. Fry until the pieces are thoroughly browned. My tenderloins took five minutes on each side-larger pieces, especially those with bones, will take longer. If you are doing larger, bone-in pieces, once they’ve browned you can reduce the heat and simmer the pieces with a lid in the skillet another 10-15 minutes until the meat is no longer pink OR you can transfer the pieces to a baking dish and bake them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until they are cooked through.

The finished product. Delicious!

Enjoy!

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Little House on the Prairie: Molasses On Snow Candy

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frontier food, laura ingalls wilder candy, laura ingalls wilder food, little house on the prairie food, maple syrup snow candy, molasses candy, molasses on snow candy

Last week when I began my series of Little House on the Prairie recipes, many of my friends and readers were kind enough to share their favorite food memories from the book series. One of them mentioned the following passage from Little House in the Big Woods, and recalled that it was a recipe they’d always wanted to try.

“Ma was busy all day long, cooking good things for Christmas… One morning she boiled molasses and sugar together until they made a thick syrup, and Pa brought in two pans of clean, white snow from outdoors. Laura and Mary each had a pan, and Pa and Ma showed them how to pour the dark syrup in little streams on to the snow. They made circles, and curlicues, and squiggledy things, and these hardened at once and were candy. Laura and Mary might eat one piece each, but the rest was saved for Christmas Day.”

Prompted by my own memories of that description and with an abundance of snow available in my yard, I decided to try it! I’m using The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Muhs Walker, published in 1979, as my source.

Delicious fun!

There are three things you need to know about this recipe. 1.) It’s easy and quick, a great project to share with your children. 2.) It’s messy and you’ll need to brush your teeth after you eat it. 3.) If you don’t like the taste of molasses, you probably won’t like the end product. It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted from a modern candy store. I loved it… but I realize it’s not for everyone!

Pans of snow!

It sort of looks like tar to begin with…

My own “half-pint” did most of the work.

At a full boil now…

My daughter, concentrating on pouring slowly!

A hardened piece!

Ingredients
1 cup dark molasses (I used Blackstrap)
1/2 cup brown sugar
Snow (!)

Instructions

Fill two pans with fresh snow and leave outside to keep chilled until you’re ready to pour the mixture. I used two oversized pizza pans to hold my snow.

Meanwhile, decide which container you’ll use to store the candy and cut several pieces of wax paper, one for the bottom and several for the layers of candy, depending on the size of the container.

Combine the molasses and brown sugar in a medium-sized saucepan (Use non-stick if you have one). Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium high and continue to cook, stirring constantly to avoid burning.

After five minutes of this, test the mixture by dripping a few drops from a spoon into a small glass of very cold water. If it dissolves or mixes with the water, keep cooking and test again every 2-3 minutes with fresh, cold water. You want the mixture to quickly form a hard ball and drop to the bottom of the glass. It took my mixture about 10 minutes of cooking to reach this stage. You can also use a candy thermometer to test the mixture, which should be 245 degrees F.

Remove from heat and pour into a pitcher with a nice spout-I had a batter pitcher which worked perfectly.

Fetch the pans of snow and the cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Working as quickly as you can, begin pouring the mixture in thin streams onto the snow. It takes a bit of practice to keep from pouring a huge gob onto the snow but once you get it, you can form lots of neat patterns with the mixture. I liked doing spider-web type circles. The mixture will harden quickly once on the snow. When it’s hard, remove, pat it as dry as you can with a paper towel and place it in your container. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Dark, rich candy that’s truly a taste of the frontier!

Enjoy!

Little House on the Prairie: Heart-Shaped Cakes

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frontier food, heart-shaped biscuits, heart-shaped cakes, heart-shaped cookies, laura ingalls food, laura ingalls wilder food, little house on the prairie food, prairie food, tea biscuits, tea cakes

My love of all things historic can be traced to one, monumental television series-Little House on the Prairie. As a little girl, I savored each weekly episode featuring Melissa Gilbert’s iconic portrayal of “Half Pint” and her adventurous family on the American frontier. Michael Landon made the time period seem idyllic, even with all the tragedy of natural disasters, illness, and death.

It’s no surprise that my love of TV series led to me to read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books and, consequently, to fall in love with those too, although for a different reason. The more in-depth descriptions of home life and food preparation always fascinated me!

I hadn’t really thought about Little House for a while but then this winter arrived. I live in Southern Ohio, and many natives are shocked by the snowfall and cold we’ve endured this year. I’m not really phased by it-I grew up in the northern Great Lakes region of the state. So when someone referred to this year’s snow and cold as “The Long Winter”, it made me think of Laura’s book of the same name, the unending blizzard she endured and… led me to decide on a Little House series of recipes!

I’m using The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Muhs Walker, published in 1979, as my source. Barbara does a fantastic job of pulling the description of food preparation from the books and translating them into practical recipes. She also reprinted the Garth Williams illustrations that I love from the book series.

My first recipe is from Laura’s description of Christmas in Little House on the Prairie, though I thought this would be appropriate considering the impending arrival of Valentine’s Day.

“The stockings weren’t empty yet. Mary and Laura pulled out two small packages. They unwrapped them, and each found a little heart-shaped cake. Over their delicate brown tops was sprinkled white sugar. The sparkling grains lay like tiny drifts of snow. The cakes were too pretty to eat. Mary and Laura just looked at them. But at last Laura turned her over, and she nibbled a tiny nibble from underneath, where it wouldn’t show. And the inside of that little cake was white!”

It’s a wonderful example of how Laura treasured things we take for granted now-white sugar and white flour, and a handmade cake in her stocking.

It’s easy. First, mix the dry ingredients..

Work in some butter or shortening, your choice.

Make a well and add buttermilk.

Make it into a dough ball…

Roll it out into a circle…

Cut them out and place on baking sheets!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter or shortening, chilled
1/3 cup buttermilk

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and nutmeg. Cut in the shortening or butter until the mix resembles course crumbs.
Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk. Combine with flour. If the dough is too dry, add buttermilk by the tablespoonful until you have a consistency of dough that you can roll out.
Roll the dough into an eight inch circle on a surface dusted with flour. Cut with a heart-shaped biscuit cutter. Re-roll and cut, until all the dough is used.
Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet that’s been greased with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the cakes are puffy and slightly browned.
Remove to cooling rack and either sprinkle with sugar or allow to cool completely and frost. You can also eat them plain or with jam. They’re slightly sweet and light-a great tea biscuit!

Enjoy the finished product with a Little House book and a nice cup of tea!

Enjoy!

Good topped with sugar, frosting, jam, or plain.