‘Little House on the Prairie:’ You Can Eat Like Laura and the Ingalls Family With Recipes From ‘The Little House Cookbook’
It wasn’t always easy to cook a family meal while living on the frontier. The Ingalls family, however, made the best of everything, with Laura Ingalls Wilder detailing several of her favorite food moments in her Little House on the Prairie novel.
Here’s what we know about the cookbook that transpired not long after.
The ‘Little House on the Prairie’ series is based on a real family living on the frontier
Life during pioneer times was challenging. After moving to Walnut Grove, the Ingalls family, as seen during the series Little House on the Prairie, builds their own house and makes it a home. The Ingalls family didn’t always have much, but Pa and Ma did their best to put food on the table for their children.
Sometimes that was vegetables, other times that was some kind of bread. In the novel, Laura Ingalls detailed the special treat it was for her family to have white sugar. For the television series, Caroline Ingalls was known for her dessert recipes throughout Walnut Grove. In one episode, despite fighting an infection, she bakes pies for a church fundraiser.
There’s a cookbook based on the recipes from the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ novel
Although Laura Ingalls Wilder rarely showcases her recipes on the Little House on the Prairie series, there are some ways for fans to eat just like the character. The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories was originally published in 1979 and continues to be available for purchase.
“This award-winning cookbook features more than 100 of the recipes that Laura Ingalls Wilder chronicles in her classic Little House books. A great gift for Little House fans and anyone who wants more information about what life on the prairie was really like, this cookbook is also a fun resource for family sharing activities,” the description on Amazon reads.
Some recipes are already available online
If you’re looking for some quick and easy frontier-inspired recipes, fans can also head to the Little House on the Prairie website, where several recipes are available. Fans can try their hand at making Cranberry and Brown Sugar with Mint Glaze Country-Style Ham or Laura’s Wedding Cake Recipe – Traditional Recipe and Blueberry Topping Variation.
These recipes are pretty close to what Laura Ingalls Wilder and the rest of her family would actually cook and eat while they were alive. Of course, today, it’s a lot easier to get the ingredients and cook them up.
The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories is available for purchase on Amazon in both hardcover and paperback. The Little House on the Prairie series has since ended, but fans can watch episodes on several television networks.
