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From A Journey Through Texas, by Frederick Law Olmsted, 1857.
Beginning in East Texas:
Page 60: “Supper, consisting of pork, fresh and salt, cold corn-bread
and boiled sweet potatoes…” Page 61: “After a
breakfast, similar in all respects to the supper…[in Texas] the
meals are absolutely invariable, save that fresh pork and sweet potatoes are frequently wanting. There is always, too, the
black decoction of the South called coffee, than which it is often difficult to imagine any beverage more revolting. The bread
is made of corn-meal, stirred with water and salt, and baked in a kettle covered with coals. The corn for breakfast is frequently
unhusked at sunrise…Wheat bread, if I am not mistaken, we met with but twice, out of Austin, in our whole journey across the state.” Page 65: “At
supper we had capital mallard-ducks from the river, as well as the usual Texan diet [referring to pork and corn bread]”. Page 80: “We cooked a kettle of chocolate…” Page 84: “There was no flour in the town, except the little of which he made his cakes. “We inquired at seven stores, and at the two inns, for butter, flour, or wheat-bread,
and fresh meat. There was none in town. One inn-keeper offered us salt-beef, the only meat, except pork, in town. At the stores
we found crackers…poor raisins…When butter was to be had it came in firkins from New York.” Page 95: “Until we reached Austin, the people, in cultivation of character and style of life, were as uniform as their pork and corn
diet.”
Western Texas:
Page 132: “…a clean table set with wheat-bread,
ham, tea, and preserved fruits…” Page 144: [In New Braunfels at
a German home] “…An excellent soup is set before us, and in succession there follow two courses of meat, neither
of them pork and neither of them fried, two dishes of vegetables, salad, compote of peaches, coffee with milk, wheat bread
from the loaf, and…sweet butter.” Page 187: [In New Braunfels at a German home] “…For supper we had wheat and Indian bread,
buttermilk and eggs. At breakfast, besides the same articles, there were also pfannelkuchen, something between a pancake and
an omelet, eaten with butter and sugar.” Page 245: [near Victoria] “…In the garden were peach and fig-trees, and raspberries. Pears
on quince-stocks…The banana is cultivated here and at Indianola, but only as a curiosity…” Page 254: [in Indianola] “…vegetable gardens, which furnish…salads at all
seasons….The native oysters are large and abundant. Game of all kinds is cheap.” Page 280: [in Dhanis] “…venison, wheat-bread, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and crisp salad.” Page 318: [Eagle Pass] “..roast
kid, eggs scrambled with sausage meat, and vegetables…”
From Bacon, Beans, and Galantines by Joseph R Conlin. This book deals mostly with the California
Gold Rush; however, food descriptions should be applicable to the 1860s as well.
Page 8: “…Samuel Griswold Goodrich described a New England breakfast as ‘no evanescent thing. In a farmer’s family it consists of little less than
ham, beef, sausages, pork, bread, butter, boiled potatoes, pies, coffee, and cider.’…John Mack Faragher describes
the daily diet of a midwestern [sic] farm family of mid-century as including two kinds of meat, eggs, cheese, butter, cream
(especially in gravies), corn in one or more forms, tow kinds of bread, three or four different vegetables, jellies, preserves,
relishes, cake or pie, milk, coffee, tea.” Page 11: “By mid-century
beef was replacing pork in the Northeast but pigmeat remained the cushion of southern comfort. There were nearly two hogs
per capita in most of the southern states…A writer in Godey’s Lady’s Book sums it up: ‘[In the] South
and West…it is fat bacon and pork, fat bacon and pork only, and that continually morning, noon, and night, for all
classes, sexes, ages, and conditions; and except the boiled bacon and collards at dinner, the meat is generally fired, and
thus supersaturated with grease in the form of hog’s lard.’” Page
12: “…[Corn] was the staple of the South, eaten in mush, cooked before an open fire as ‘pone’ or
hoecake, and baked into a more or less proper bread.” Page 14: “Beans
were ubiquitous at home…” Page 16: “…common
fare during the 1840s were broccoli and artichokes. Other vegetables, of which there are numerous off-handed recipes in the
cookbooks and references in the marker reports, were asparagus, lima beans, haricot or string beans, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms,
okra, rutabagas, salsify, and spinach, as well as tomatoes. “..eating
greens and other vegetables raw seems not to have been uncommon….the common American salad was…’composed’
of a variety of vegetables and dressed with a sweetish mayonnaise-based liquor much like the substance contemporary bottlers
sometimes label ‘French Dressing.’ “Then there were the preserved
vegetables and fruits…”
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