Today for studying about Lewis and Clark, I have a fun cooking idea. Look at my page Lewis and Clark Fun Homeschool Unit Study and Lapbook for more ideas.
Another reason for circling back to unit studies you have done before is that you can use resources you may not have had a chance to use the first time.
We used one of those resources today when studying Lewis and Clark because we did some cooking on the “trail”.
I have The Lewis and Clark Cookbook: Historic Recipes from the Corps of Discovery and Jefferson’s America book and we couldn’t wait to dive into it today.
Lewis and Clark: Hungry, though in a Land of Plenty
What I love about this book is it gave a tally about how many animals were eaten.
Look at a few of them: deer, 1001, grizzly bear 43, beaver 113, bison 227 and turkeys 9 to name a few of them.
Too, we found it interesting that food was abundant.
The group went to bed hungry many nights because they would have rain that would ruin their drying meat or they would miss shooting the game.
The book also has journal entries from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We read quite a few of them.
Here is the quote for this recipe:
(misspelling the same way it was in their journals)
November 30, 1805. (Sacagawea) gave me a piece of bread made of flour which She had reserved for her child and carefully kept untill this time, which has unfortunately got wet, and a little Sour. This bread I eat with great satisfaction,it being the only mouthfull, I had tasted for Several months past. – Clark.
Also, the preface was just chock full of information to help us understand how ingredients were made and to the recipes were created using authentic ingredients they would have during pioneering times.
Tiny has become a bread eater so he looked for a recipe to make some bread, but found one for buttermilk biscuits.
Look at these buttermilk biscuits Tiny made up real quick.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small parts
3/4 cup buttermilk (Remember if you don’t have buttermilk, just add lemon or vinegar to regular milk . I do this all the time, but I knew Tiny wanted to make this, so I grabbed buttermilk for it.)
In a bowl, he stirred together the dry ingredients. Added in the cold butter until it was coarse.
Next, he added the buttermilk until the dough came together.
I tried to not bud in too much like knowing if he mixes it too much, it won’t come out right.
So I kept quiet and let him enjoy the thrill of cooking.
Then he turned the dough out onto the counter and pat it down about an inch.
He used our cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits and we baked them in a cast iron pot for 20 minutes on a 450 degree oven.
Then of course, adding a bit of modern twist to it like some sour cherry preserves didn’t hurt either.
Tiny decided he loved this recipe and I just had to show the rest of what is in this book.
MORE LEWIS AND CLARK ACTIVITIES
- Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
- How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink
- 7 Fun Sacagawea Facts For Kids | How To Make Lewis & Clark & Sacagawea Peg Dolls
- Spectacular Lewis And Clark Plants Drawings | 7 Quick Botany Art Lessons
- What Plants And Animals Did Lewis And Clark Discover on their Famous Trek & Bitterroot Craft
You can see the journal entries at the end of each recipe.
The beautiful photography made it more than just a cookbook, which I loved as he can go along and read more about the expedition.
There are really simple things to cook like biscuits and baked beans and then things that are harder to find like roast duck.
Living here closer to the city too, we have quite a few butcher shops that sell wild game like bison, which I would love to try.
Tiny wasn’t interested in bison, but doesn’t mean we couldn’t try it.
I have no idea what the price would be, but it would make for a great feast at the end of the unit.
GRAB THESE OTHER RESOURCES AND HANDS-ON IDEAS
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I love your comment at the beginning. I’ve always done that-gone back to studies we’ve completed before. Sometimes it’s because they still seem interested in the subject, their learning wasn’t complete just because the school year ended. Or something reignites their interest. Sometimes it’s just because I found a really cool resource on a topic we’ve already studied that makes it seem worthwhile to revisit. Glad to see others do that too. I worry that the evaluator might think we’re just being lazy, doing the same topics repeatedly!
I hear ya Stephanie, but it reminded me of how much review public school does and they KEEP doing it even when it’s enough..
At least we return when like you said our child’s interest is ignited again or we have a new resource..Like you said sometimes we just need to move on and come back later to use more of our resources, which in that case makes it double the fun right? lol
Who’d think you were lazy for doing that? They think you’re an awesome teacher teaching something of value…
I have not seen a cookbook like this in all my millions of ones I collect. Very interesting! Thank you for the post.
Oh my goodness Pamela, it is so cool…..can’t even begin to tell you…but we love history with cooking and especially love the journal quotes throughout..