A couple years ago, my husband and I took a short trip to the Wilson’s Creek Battlefield, the site of a Confederate victory against the Union in 1861. As much as I enjoy traversing Civil War battlefields, I’m usually itching to get to the visitor center’s bookstore to see what I can add to my ever growing library! Thus it was that while perusing the Wilson’s Creek bookstore, I came across a small cookbook entitled, An Army Wife’s Cookbook: With Household Hints and Home Remedies by Alice Kirk Grierson.
According to the introduction, written by Mary L. Williams, Alice Grierson was a frontier army wife, but yet a rather unusual one (p. 4). While most army wives endure the arduous (and sometimes seemingly endless) processes of packing, moving, unpacking, cleaning, settling, then uprooting again, and so on, Alice would often skip these steps. She would let her servants take care of the more difficult parts of army wife life while she visited family and friends in comfort and style (p. 4). But, before I present Alice’s life as a charmed one, she did endure her fair share of anxieties. As stated by her granddaughters in a brief introduction to the cookbook, Alice’s husband, Benjamin, served with the Union Army throughout the majority of the Civil War before he then joined the post-war army in 1866 (p. 2). As an army wife myself, I can hardly imagine the anxieties Alice felt as she waited for news from Ben during the war. But, just as the Union survived the trials of civil strife, so did their marital union. Ben returned home safely, and he, Alice, and their four children experienced the trials and joys of frontier army life (p. 2).
Recently, I pulled Alice’s cookbook off my bookshelf to glance through the recipes. While the cookbook is quite small, Alice’s original collection included about six hundred recipes, according to Williams, many of which were simply repeats of others (p. 4). One recipe that caught my eye is titled “Muffins, Sour Milk.” Since I had a good deal of sour milk sitting in my refrigerator, I thought this recipe might be a fun one to try!
Alice’s original recipe included in the cookbook calls for very simple ingredients: a pint of sour milk, mixed with an egg-sized piece of butter, a teaspoon of baking soda, salt, and “enough flour to make a stiff batter” (p. 15). After mixing these ingredients together, the recipe says that the batter should be baked in tins; however, the modernized version of the recipe, included beneath the original, directs otherwise. Williams’s introduction states that the National Park Service wives and others tested many of these recipes (p. 4). So, the modernized directions state that the muffins should not be baked in tins, but should be placed on greased baking sheets (p. 15).
Well, I decided to try to follow Alice’s original directions. I broke out my muffin tins and turquoise muffin cups with white polka dots (very historically accurate, of course!) and dutifully filled the tins. Alas, that was a mistake. Never have I ever had a muffin stick to paper as vehemently as these muffins! The batter essentially formed a glue to the paper, to my great dismay. But, oh well! This is how one learns! I baked the muffins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes.
Even with the sticking problems, the muffins are quite nice. As you might suspect from reading the ingredients, they have an extremely simple flavor profile that puts them delightfully in the comfort food category. To me, they taste almost exactly like a pancake in a muffin form. Since I adore pancakes, I was rather happy with this result! My daughter was not a fan of them plain, but she seems to really enjoy them when served warm with a healthy pat of butter and a hefty drizzle of maple syrup. If I make these again, I might add some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, or just a little vanilla extract. And, to avoid the sticking issue, I would bake them like a drop cookie on greased parchment paper, which would then probably require reducing the baking time by a few minutes.
If you like pancakes, I would definitely recommend this recipe! Moreover, I would also highly recommend Alice’s cookbook. It provides a small window into the life of a frontier army wife, and it is filled with many fun recipes, which the NPS did a great job of making accessible for modern kitchens.
Notes:
“Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield Missouri.” National Park Service. January 30, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/wicr/index.htm.
Grierson, Alice Kirk. An Army Wife’s Cookbook: With Household Hints and Home Remedies. Edited by Mary L. Williams. N.p.: Western National Parks Association, 1972.
Williams, Mary L. Introduction to An Army Wife’s Cookbook, 4-5. By Alice Kirk Grierson. Edited by Mary L. Williams. N.p.: Western National Parks Association, 1972.
Grierson, Alice Kirk and Sarah Joy Grierson. Introduction to An Army Wife’s Cookbook, 2. By Alice Kirk Grierson. Edited by Mary L. Williams. N.p.: Western National Parks Association, 1972.
Living in History 