Eat Like A Pioneer On The Oregon Trail With This Classic Breakfast

Fellow millennials, buckle up — we're heading to the Oregon Trail, and we need to fuel up with breakfast before we decide whether we're going to attempt to ford the river or caulk the wagon and float it across. In all seriousness though, actual life on the Oregon Trail was insanely difficult, obviously, and making decisions — including what to eat — was a matter of life and death. Pioneers who were headed west needed to fuel up for the day ahead, and breakfast mattered.

Dr. Elizabeth White Nelson, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and author and historian Allen J. Wiener spoke with The Takeout about what day-to-day sustenance was really like on the Oregon Trail. They shared that believe it or not, bacon and eggs — similar to what you might enjoy at a diner today — was commonly enjoyed for breakfast during the four to six months it took to travel the Oregon Trail. "Smoked and salted bacon was a particular favorite, and the overlanders ate it several times a day," Wiener said. Some travelers brought chickens with them on their journey, allowing them to enjoy eggs alongside salt-preserved meats.

In addition to traveling with livestock for eggs and meat, pioneers also hunted, foraged, and traded with Indigenous Americans along the way. Johnnycakes — a breakfast dish made of corn meal, flour, and milk that was created by Indigenous Americans — were also a popular option. It's likely that travelers used bacon fat to grease the pans before making carby breakfast foods, according to Nelson. If you want to eat your breakfast the pioneer way, you'll want to make some changes to your usual prep process.

If you want to go for the full Oregon Trail experience, of course, we recommend giving this a try when you're camping, or at least when you're able to set up a campfire. If you'd rather stick to the confines of your kitchen (we get it), you can still get a similar effect by using a Dutch oven to cook your bacon (or salt pork, if you're in the mood to eat like a true cowboy in the Old West), eggs, and any carb-filled delights you'd like to add to the menu (you can even buy sourdough starter that dates back to the Oregon Trail, if you'd like some authentic, incredibly old-school toast).

Start by cooking your bacon in your Dutch oven, then remove it and cook the eggs in the grease. If you'd like to fry up some johnnycakes, have at it once the eggs are done. These aren't the only options for adding carbs to your pioneer breakfast, however. As Dr. Elizabeth White Nelson told The Takeout, Oregon Trail travelers may have also enjoyed biscuits or fritters cooked in pork fat. Finally, you won't want to forget coffee — an understandable staple of the trail. On the Oregon Trail, pioneers roasted coffee beans over a fire, then pulverized them until their caffeinated goodness could be steeped into water — but we won't blame you if you take a shortcut and enjoy a cup of the good stuff from your Keurig alongside your Oregon-Trail-esque breakfast.

Static Media owns and operates Chowhound and The Takeout.