Conclusion

In conclusion, my analysis of the food in the Little House series shows the different purposes that they serve. In the literary context, the food helps to establish the personalities and statuses of characters such as Almanzo serving up his buckwheat pancakes and Nellie being associated with the vanity cakes. The preparation of it also helps to portray the Ingalls family as hard-working and efficient with the choices they make when it comes to food, which helps the reader to both sympathise with them and admire them as a quintessential American pioneer family. In the historical context, the food highlights differences in attitudes and technology as well as the social status being people living in different areas.

When making the food, I found it to be rather labour-intensive, with the buckwheat pancakes and pumpkin pie in particular having to be started on the night before. This could be do to the food being made without modern technology that would speed up the process, but it could also be because the Ingalls had less free time and therefore it would not matter how long the recipes took. There were also times where the end result would not match up with the book's description due to artistic licences taken, most notably with the vanity cakes. Despite all this, the end results would be excellent and when tasting them, I could imagine myself as one of the family members trying it out.

Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable project. I loved looking back at the books through the lens of food and it was fascinating to discover how they used food different to how they do now. I also discovered new ways of looking at particular scenes such as the buckwheat pancakes scene in The Long Winter and in particular, I enjoyed trying the recipes out for myself!