Buckskin Cookery: A Souvenir Cookbook Compiled of Recipes Donated by Old Timers and Natives of B.C.

Buckskin Cookery: A Souvenir Cookbook Compiled of Recipes Donated by Old Timers and Natives of B.C.

Buckskin Cookery was originally self-published by Gwen Lewis of Quesnel, British Columbia, in 1957. It consists of two volumes: “The Pioneer Section” and “The Hunter Section.” In reality these two groups overlapped greatly, as many pioneers would have acquired food by hunting. The University of Alberta Libraries has the fifth printing of Volume I, done by E.M.F. Press of Three Hills, Alberta, in June 1961, and perhaps a first printing of Volume II. Though based on life in the Fraser Valley, many of the book’s recipes and observations would have applied equally to the Prairie provinces. The recipes are simple, like “Vinegar Pie,” or use wild ingredients such as pigweed or coyote. Many of the recipes are essentially narrative, particularly those marked “Indian,” suggesting that Lewis interviewed locals and transcribed their recipes as they spoke. Indeed, Lewis’s book also points to the important overlap between native foodways and pioneer survival: rose hips provided crucial vitamin C, for example, and berries might be dried by the “Indian” method (in the sun, then stored in flour sacks) to last the winter. Pioneers modified their traditional jelly and preserves recipes to use these new ingredients. The Fort Chipewyan Historical Society’s book, Fort Chipewyan Traditional Cookery, similarly suggests interplay between indigenous and settler food traditions, as in the recipe for “Beaver and Sauerkraut.” Lewis’s hints on snowshoeing, preparing Russian plaster, and killing head lice, as well as the illustrations and anecdotes that introduce some of the recipes, bring the area’s rich history to life. Lewis also drew the advertisements for the book, which include an ad for Overwaitea, at the time a B.C.-owned and -operated business that had offered “Heap Good Medicine for Housewife” since 1915. The first edition was reprinted by the Quesnel & District Museum in 1995.

Gwen Lewis

1957 (fifth printing, 1961)