Pioneers settled the frontiers of North America in the late 18th and 19th centuries. They grew their own food and often gathered wild plants, fruits and hunted animals. A staple food was apple butter, made by boiling apple cider and chunks of apples over an open fire for hours until thickened. It was often cooked communally and stored in crocks for winter. Today apple butter is made similarly in slow cookers. Other common pioneer foods included corn, potatoes, beans and meat like deer, turkey and pork. Cooking was done over open fires fueled by wood or buffalo dung.

1. Pioneer Days: Apple Butter Kelsey Mitsdarffer Kelsey Zehr

3. Compare the way individuals in the community lived in the past to the way they live in the present.

4. 1.1.2 :

5. Compare past and present similarities and differences in daily life by using biographies, oral histories, and folklore.

6. 1.1.9:

9. It took more than one open fire to make apple butter, so there had to be at least three fires going at once and a lot of help!

10. At one fire they filled the kettle with the cider, and they boiled it down until half of the cider was gone and then they dumped in the quartered apples. Several pennies were sometimes added to help keep the butter from sticking on the bottom of the kettle.

12. At yet a third fire they would be boiling down the cider to make sugar.

13. In the old days apple butter was never sweetened with anything except the natural flavor of the boiled down cider. To boil down cider to sugar took many gallons of cider and long, long hours of cooking.

14. The butter was cooked to a thick red sauce as apples were added several times during the day. Then they would stir in the sugar made from boiling down cider. Next came the spices. Cinnamon, or cloves, and nutmeg were often used.

15. In the old days, there was usually a group standing around the kettle humming, singing, or talking. Stirring the apple butter was an important job and somebody had to be doing it all the time. The old method for doing it was "twice around the outside and through the middle once" with a long paddle.

17. 3. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours. Turn down the heat, and cook on low for about 9 hours. Check the apples at the 5 hour mark. They should be very soft and there s be a large amount of juice. 4. Place some of the apples and juices in a blender with a ladle; don't fill more than halfway. Process fruit until smooth, stopping every few seconds to allow steam to escape. Continue blending until all apples have been processed, putting the processed fruit in a bowl as you go. 5. Pour the mixture back into the slow cooker. Cook uncovered on high anywhere from 1 to 4 hours; if you want to add any more spice to the mixture, do it now. 6. Preserve the apple butter by canning or skip the canning procedure and place the hot butter in jars, bottles, or smaller containers to give promptly as gifts.

19. Plain

20. On meat

21. With nuts

22. With fruit

24. Fruit trees took time to grow, so it took a few years to have their own apples, but other wild berries and fruits were picked.

25. In the forest, there was meat from deer, bear, turkey, squirrel and wild pigeons. The pioneer farmers also raised chickens, hogs, sheep and cattle.

27. Cassell’s Dictionary of Cooking, 1870 describes its origin as American. However; German immigrants in America made the concoction so frequently that it became such a valued meal accompaniment on colonist’s tables.

29. What is another popular pioneer recipe? Chuckwagon beans This is a cattle trail recipe from the Midwest. Although this was originally done on the campfire, it might be best if you bow to modern convenience and do the cooking on a stove top. A 16-ounce package of dry pinto beans9 cups of water Two large onions, peeled and chopped up 2 teaspoons of salt ½ teaspoon of oregano ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, or two cloves of sliced garlic ¼ teaspoon of pepper 1 tablespoon of brown sugar or molasses (add this last, and put in a little more if you like.) INGREDIENTS

33. http://library.thinkquest.org/6400/

34. http://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/276/27/

35. http://www.oregonpioneers.com/ortrail.htm

36. http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq.html