Almanzo's Buckwheat Pancakes

My previous posts have explored the different types of foods for different events and what these signify in the Little House books. For this however, I will be discussing how even one food item can have significance in the stories, both in literary context and in historical context.

In The Long Winter, Pa visits the Wilder brothers during a snowstorm in order to fetch wheat from them, as his family don't have any. During his stay, he is able to eat buckwheat pancakes with them. While I originally questioned why he would eat with the brothers himself and not think of his family, I believe he needed the energy more due to the work and it is a reflection of attitudes towards men at the time.

This is not the first time that buckwheat pancakes have been mentioned in the Little House series. In Farmer Boy, Almanzo and his family eat them in tall stacks for breakfast with apple pie and oatmeal. This is a surprisingly extravagant breakfast that would not be common nowadays unless we are talking about the upper classes, which shows how well-off the Wilder family is. As they are a working family, they would also need the energy for the rest of the day, which the immense amount of food provides them with. In contrast, the pancakes in The Long Winter simply come with slices of ham, highlighting the lack of food that people are able to get during the winter season. Additionally, this shows the difference between two bachelors like Almanzo and Royal looking after themselves and a family with a mother and daughters like with the Wilders preparing the food. Almanzo's mother does produce butter that she sells, but her main role is to keep house and cook. Without the mother with them, Almanzo and Royal have to learn to cook for themselves.
 

It is stated that “the pancakes were no ordinary buckwheat pancakes. Almanzo followed his mother's pancake rule and the cakes were as light as foam” (p.187). Walker assumes in The Little House Cookbook that the “pancake rule” involves making a starter the night before and them putting the rest of the mixture in later. This was the exact same method I used to recreate the buckwheat pancakes. The pancakes had a very strong flavour and whilst I assumed this was because I might have put too much yeast in originally, it has been stated that buckwheat has a strong flavour. Nevertheless, it was still an enjoyable breakfast dish and worth the hard labour.



A stack of buckwheat pancakes.

The buckwheat pancakes help to emphasise the situation of each family in the story. Almanzo and Royal, having had their claim for longer, are able to have enough food and ingredients including wheat, whilst the Ingalls cannot. Additionally, Royal works as a shopkeeper and is therefore receiving plenty of money; this ensures that they have enough food for the winter and, coupled with the fact that their father ran a successful farm helps to establish their higher social status. The fact that the Ingalls do not have pancakes and ham, like the Wilders do, and are instead relying on brown bread, which at the time was held in less regard than white bread, shows that they are in a dire situation and are starving.

The pancakes scene also gives us more insight into Almanzo. Beforehand, he made small cameos but did not properly interact with the family. This is the first time that he has any interaction with the Ingalls and his actions throughout the scene, such as offering Pa a place to sit and making sure that he is being fed well, establish him as a caring and welcoming individual – possibly to justify him getting married to Laura later on. It is also the gateway to Almanzo understanding the situation that Pa's family is in and deciding to go off on the journey to fetch the corn for them. In the footnotes for Pioneer Girl, Pamela Smith Hill says that “the action in that chapter…focuses entirely on Almanzo and Royal. This switch in perspective signals to readers that Almanzo will be a central character in The Long Winter and foreshadows his role as leading man in subsequent novels” (p. 220).