Review of Eating Up the Santa Fe Trail

Authors

Rex Buchanan, University of Kansas

Date of this Version

1992

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Sam Arnold's Eating Up the Santa Fe Trail is a gustatorial revisiting of mealtime along the old trail. Using various travel accounts, Arnold provides directions for making camp meals and for recreating dinners provided along the way at stops such as Bent's Fort and the Hays House at Council Grove. The recipes, written in a clear and entertaining style, cover everything from moose nose to Turkish pilaf for one hundred; Arnold helpfully suggests modem substitutes for ingredients that are no longer easily available. For readers who want to experience the pleasures and surprises of eating on the nineteenth- century Great Plains, this book is an excellent historical guide.