Customer Reviews

The Little House Cookbook

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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I have always been fascinated by the pioneer era, and I also love cookbooks featuring traditional recipes. When I was recently given this book as a gift, I knew it would be right up my alley. I dove right in and read it from cover to cover.

It's a fascinating book with, surprisingly, more space dedicated to historical information than to the actual recipes. The book is divided into chapters by type of food; for example, Staples From the Country Store, Foods From the Woods, Wilds and Waters, Foods From Gardens and Orchards, and Thirst Quenchers and Treats. Each chapter begins with an essay detailing the historical information of that type of food at that time.These essays are so interesting!

Then before each recipe is a quote (mentioning the dish) from one of the books, and an explanation of how the dish would have been prepared at that time, by either Ma Ingalls or Mother Wilder. Every single recipe in the book (I think there are 100) is for a food which is mentioned in one of the books--so these recipes are truly authentic pioneer recipes, not modern interpretations of what pioneers ate.

Some recipes are there more for interest than for anything. For example, it's unlikely that I'm going to make stewed jackrabbit anytime soon...but there are many recipes here that I do want to try, especially the breads, cakes and pies.

One thing I found most remarkable about this book was the simplicity of the recipes. People in the past made food to nourish themselves--good, simple food with few ingredients. Spices and flavourings were used sparingly if at all. This is what I personally like. Today's recipes in comparison seem too fussy and fancy, with too many flavours and ingredients masking the simple flavours of the foods themselves.

A cherished addition to my cookbook collection, equally delightful and useful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is enamoured with the Little House books, even if it is read only for the historical information.

This is not just a cookbook, it's an interactive history book, and an in-depth analysis of Laura Wilder's Little House books. Here we see the abundant, lush supply of high-quality food available on the dairy farm where Almanzo grew up contrasted with the catch-as-catch-can meals Laura's mother was forced to cobble together (starling pie, anyone?). We are reminded of the heroism of two teenagers - Almanzo and his brother - that saved dozens of families from starvation, and see clearly in her loving detail of food, how much Laura valued having enough of it.
I grew up in a rural area in the 1960's. How we prepared food then was often not far off from how it was done in the Little House cookbook, believe it or not. So I've used the recipes - like that for mincemeat pie - to inform my own cooking.
The soft pencil illustrations by Garth Williams - reproduced from the Little House books - are radiant and exquisitely simple. Their little details point out Williams' depth of research for source material for these pictures.
The Little House Cookbook was an inspiration to read the Little House books again, through adult eyes this time. Prepare to be surprised and amazed when you read them again.

This is a really helpful resource not just of old recipes but of informaton on all aspects of food in their lives. You learn how, where and with what they made their food prep. It is a very interesting and enjoyable book to read.

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.

The little house cookbook is a collection of foods and recipes mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House novel series. This book is chock full of fantastic recipes, anecdotes, and stories. The author translates the recipes for modern cooks, and includes historical background and information on each recipe's origins.

This book will be great for young readers, or for readers interested in learning more about the time period and the foods that Laura Ingalls enjoyed. The illustrations done in graphite pencil were cute and charming.

Overall, an excellent book, sure to delight young and old!

Oftentimes, off-shoot books like these are dismal failures as others attempt to capitalize upon the popularity of successful publications. The Little House Cookbook is most definitely an exception; the author obviously put a lot of thought, effort and research into creating this book, which provides detailed background and historical information in addition to recreations of foods from the Little House Series. My mom first gave me this book when I was a little girl and I still pull it of the shelf 15 years later to read.

Chapters cover a wide variety of categories, from staples from the country store, to foods from the wild, to foods from the barnyard and sweets. Learn how to make cheese (from the Big Woods), butter, sourdough bread, cracklings, blackbird pie and vinegar pie. I honestly don't think any foods from the LH series have been left out. The author almost always includes a passage from the series for each recipe. Illustrations from the original series are also included. Highly, highly recommended, particularly if you're interested in foods from the frontier area or are just an avid LH fan.

I read all of Laura Ingalls' books to my children when we started out as homesteaders in 1993. When I found this cookbook, I was thrilled. The recipes were fun to try, and when we had our own "long hard winter", the books kept our spirits up! I never thought apples 'n onions would taste so good, or had fun watching the beans bubble up when the baking soda was added (good science lesson for homeschoolers). Really enjoy the book

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!

Wow! What a great book! I never thought that I could get so much useful information out of one cookbook. This was obviously well researched, and lovingly written. This is not a kid's book. This is a good book to share WITH your kids.

Wow! What a great book! I never thought that I could get so much useful information out of one cookbook. This was obviously well researched, and lovingly written. This is not a kid's book. This is a good book to share WITH your kids.