Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier

by Joseph R. Conlin

This book covers the social history of food on the western mining frontier. The table of contents is in the third photo.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole I was happy with this book. Ordered it on Amazon, and it was shorter than I expected, with lots of white space and photos. Didn't always think the photos worth the space they took. And I would have liked him to define galantines at some point! (I finally had to look them up on the Internet.) On the upside, I found the whole book pretty interesting, and there is a fair bit of information in it. The author debunks some myths about food prices and availability and the like.

The first chapter is on the American diet prior to the Gold Rush of 1849. The second chapter is about what recommendations the 49ers had before going, the third about meals on the overland trail. The fourth chapter goes into food availability for those who took ships, whether around the horn or through Panama.

The fifth chapter is about scurvy – how common it was, how they coped with it. Chapter six discusses those who turned their attention to providing food for the miners, going into prices and availability. Chapter seven discusses how the miners liked more exotic foods, and were willing to pay for them, and discusses some particular menus. Chapter eight expands on that, discussing the variety of restaurants available to miners and how common eating out was. Chapter nine discusses available ethnic cuisines; which became popular outside their ethnicities, which didn’t, and why.

One of the aspects I found most interesting was in the last chapters, where the author contrasts the diets of the loggers (conservative, cheap, and relatively plain), with that of the miners (much more open to exotics and high prices). The author speculates that this difference reflects the respective lifestyles in a financial sense -- the miners were more individualist and more interested in becoming rich, while the loggers were more conformist and willing to accept the likelihood that they'd never be rich -- but he also quotes a woman who had cooked for both groups, at different points in her life, who thought part of it was that the loggers worked in the great outdoors,building up a healthy appetite, while the miners were down in mines breathing relatively bad air and smelling nasty fumes most of their day.

This cook figured that miners liked stronger flavors and more variety simply because their appetite was stunted by other factors, despite the heavy work they did, so they needed something that would tempt the appetite in a way that the loggers did not. And while the author deals in a lot of generalities, there are also a lot of little nuggets of commentary from the time like that. I would have liked to see more food-related subjects in the index, either specific foods (galantines!) or “French cuisine” or the like. “Chinese influence on foods” is there, but not French.

There are entries on “Fruits and Vegetables” (which includes beans) and “Meats,” so maybe I just need to get a little more familiar with the Index to make good use of it. I have no gripes about the notes or the bibliography.

[Sandra Lou Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

What did they eat in the 1800s if you lived on the frontier or in a mining town? How did they go about cooking food? Conlin combed through diaries to discover answers to the above questions. He discovered that then, as now, food was the centerpiece of the day. I found it surprising to learn of the diversity in their diets. I was expecting to read about beans, bread, and eggs. When possible, our ancestors treated themselves to more sophisticated meal options.

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book serves as an easy to read introduction to the history of what miners ate, though it doesn't delve deeply into the impacts such food had on the large economy, national agriculture, or if the diet shaped anything about western culture and foodways.

[Andrea Chow · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fascinating read with really insightful reflections on how food systems and cultures of the american gold rush reflect gender, race, and class relations. very palatable with lots of pictures. i recommend!