I stumbled upon your videos and I must say that I absolutely love him! My husband and I live off grid and the struggle is real 😀 we do love living the way that we do and it really makes you appreciate all that we have. Although we are slowly gaining the comforts of home through solar and propane. We have no running water, we cook from scratch, grow and raise our food. And your videos are just wonderful to watch and gives me new ideas. I have started making my own clothes and learning new skills. I am definitely going to try this steak and bacon pie!
Oh wow you are living the life 🙌🏻🔥 I love it! Sounds like you guys are well on your way to having the complete setup for success. I very much believe in what you’re doing. Spent my 20s living that way & I miss it. Thanks for watching these videos & being a part of it all!
Hello 👋.I'm loving your old stove cooking. I was born in 1948 on to a small cabin somewhere near Sweetgrass, MT. Now I live in a self built cabin in the forest of NH. In my cabin I have a 1910 Star Kineo wood/coal cookstove. She cooks, heats my water and my cabin. I also have solar hot water for when the sun shines. I have lived here for over 20 years off grid. It's heaven I think. Thank you for adding delight to my UA-cam experience💗
Ohh I can picture how wonderful your cabin must be! Charming🔥 I lived a very similar life throughout my 20s-off grid, cooking with an old Monarch cookstove, and using a little solar for a well pump. Do you have any recipes you love cooking on your cookstove? Mine burns a bit hot but I’m loving cooking on it
@claraisley9397- Hello from Central ⛵⛵ Lakes Region New Hampshire. I too am living in the forest at the base of our family farm. There is nothing like it to be surrounded by giant hemlocks. We are both on or off grid, using NH Electric for as long as we can afford it. I am a tad younger than you , but of the same vintage :-) My favorite decade was being in my 20s in the 1970s in rural NH, following Helen and Scott Nearing, Mother Earth News and Rodale Press.Elliot Coleman is still going strong in Maine. Not all that many of us remaining to pass on the NH Old Ways. It warms my heart to see Jesse hosting this channel to share living history. ~ Diane
Hello from the shores of Lake Huron (from the great state of Michigan). I just wanted to send you an encouraging message… I absolutely adore your videos! I’m sure they take a lot of effort and time to produce; I so appreciate and admire what you and your beautiful family are doing. Thank you for allowing all of us to travel along as you embark on this journey. I have learned so much and have been inspired from your work. God bless to you and yours.
Lake Huron! Oh it must be beautiful where you are. Your comment means a lot-thank you! It does take hours of editing and planning, so I really appreciate your insight there 😉 Getting to hear the stories of people who have really lived this life has been beyond satisfying. More than I expected. Cheers to you from Montana ❄️❄️❄️
That’s a good tip, makes sense. I honestly was flying blind making this but I had so much fun. It’s a delicious, mild cake/biscuit/muffin/cookie result 😍 Its own category for sure
They truly were-that has hit home for me. Women and men had distinct roles, but both were so needed for the family unit. Everyone was valued. Love your comment. Must be an interesting line of work 🔥 My family loves researching our Scottish ancestry.
discovered your channel a couple days ago and have been binge watching. love all of this. inspiring me to get back cooking on my 1909 wood cook stove more and search for some old cookbooks like yours. keep this up. i hope young kids get exposed.
Oh how fantastic you have an early cookstove too! 🙌🏻 They are such beauties 🔥 Hope you get to use yours and soak up the sounds/feeling. Yes, I hope some younger people find the channel too-and see what the generations before them knew as day to day life. They’re probably too busy on their Tic Toks 😉
New to your channel and I just love it ...your content reminds me of my grandmother's old ways. She taught in a one room school house. Miss her so much...bless your family
I lov your videos i have two wood stoves my only heat but sure lov it some times wish for a cook stove this history is so so wonderful i hope you keep your chanel this way so many have gone to commercial im 71 but i still lov learning i live on a farm in minnesota my driveway is 1/4 mile long so i prepare and can thankyou for awsome videos
Thank you for your beautiful comment 🔥 I agree, I dislike it very much when channels get sponsors and sell out. We don’t plan to go that route. I like the community we have going here ❤️ Cheers from a snowy Montana
Your steak&bacon pie looked fabulous. You have a much better command of pie crust than I. Thank you so much for referencing your audience. It means so much for us who are elderly and living alone to feel a personal connection to someone or something that refreshes good memories of years long past. It all leads to mixed feelings. On the one hand, I want to see your channel grow and bring you great rewards for your extraordinary efforts, but as I've seen with others, once things go viral, the personal connection goes away. It grows too big to keep up. Let's hope for a happy medium where we can continue to feel like we are sitting on a bench in the cabin with your family, adding bits and pieces to the conversation. Maybe bring in firewood or pass the coffee pot around to help in any way we can. Thank you for what you are doing.
Love your comment, I so do ❤️🔥 And I agree: I hope the channel stays this size & frankly grows no bigger. I like the journey, the beauty, and the small connections with good people. Lots of views and strangers would be a curse. 🙏 Thanks for being here to share stories; I learn so much from you and those who have really lived it (the glamorous and unglamorous parts). Cheers from a very snowy day here
Though, by Texas standards, it's a brisk, dare I say fridgid morning here. But by my northern Minnesotan upbringing, it's a beautiful, sunny morning worthy of outdoor activities. Have a wonderful weekend! ❄️🎎🛷
Once again an enjoyable video. Sometimes I incorporate lard in recipes with an old time potato masher. I've never eaten anything with bacon that wasn't good. I raise pure Berkshire pork, Australian White sheep, wagyu cross beef, farm eggs. Both my grandmothers had cookstoves...Columbian...Pitston...With todays fast pace ratrace your videos are like downshifting into 1st gear !! Have a blessed day...
Man your comment is wonderful 🙌🏻 Cheers! Great idea on the potato masher; I’ll give that a try. What fantastic breeds you are raising-I love the uniqueness. We are a bit lean on animals on the ranch at the moment but I’d love to add more breeds to it. Everything is black angus up here. Winter hardy ❄️
I am 61 and only heating my house with wood. I cut and split it myself. I also have a wood cook stove. I also use lard. And yes I render it myself. I don't vary often have to go to the store. Everyone at work tells me what things cost and I have no clue. God Bless
You cut & split your own firewood AND render lard?! You have my deep respect 🔥 It is a satisfying life, isn’t it? I miss the day to day of it but this cabin lets me dabble. Thank you for watching our small channel.
The cursive writing in the cookbook is perfect. This reminds me of my Grandmother’s handwritten notes in her own copy of the church’s cookbook. Annual cookbooks were popular and a good fundraiser.
The cookbooks are such a neat idea-I didn’t know they existed. Such high quality too. The first print on this one is 1904? I think 🤔 I love the handwriting too 😉 ❤️ I feel like I know the woman who wrote in this even though she’s a mystery to me.
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Now for the FULL experience, you need to do this in period clothing. 😃 Thank you for another interesting installment!
Thank you for your service! 🇺🇸 Montana is stunning & full of the most fascinating people. Everyone works 2 or 3 jobs to get by up here 😅 including us, but it’s all good work & worth it. If you make it to our tiny part of the state be sure to say hi
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Thank you. It has been an honor to do what I do. We are grateful for the invite, we will definitely try to make it that way at some point.
I'm professional plein air artist. Love listening too the poetry you bring to your videos. Then as a special treat Charles Russell paintings. His work of every day western life😂. Seeing his art while hearing the poetry. Makes my heart joyful. Keep the discovery of pioneer life going
Ah so pleased you appreciate his work! He’s such a big influence up here. Oh I love that you are a plein air artist 🖼️ 😍 We have many such pieces in our house but I’ve always hoped for one of Uncle Dan’s. Maybe you can come visit sometime to paint!
I love all things molasses- I'm also one of the fortunate few that do all cooking and baking on a cook woodstove- living simply brings so much joy and peace- i plan to try this recipe this weekend - thanks! With love, from a little Maine homestead ❤
Oh wow I can close my eyes and picture how wonderful a homestead in Maine must be 🔥 If you have any good recipes I should try out, send one my way? We are getting 2 to 3 feet of snow here and I maybe just want to go to the cookstove & hole-up 😉
@ravenbrown7053- Hello from Central Lakes Region New Hampshire! Well done! If I had something like an airtight Kitchen Queen, I would do all my cooking on a kitchen wood stove, except in the heat of summer. My 1930 Home Comfort requires constant feeding , even with hardwood.chunks. Like Jesse's stove, it was designed to burn coal and we had to adapt it by buying what is called a summer plate. She still takes good care of us during a power failure.
What a wonderful video! The wood fire crust is heavenly. No electric stove can compare. Thank you again for sharing and God bless you and your sweet family ❤
You had me at steak and bacon pie. Of course the drop cakes looked very tasty as well! My dad and his brothers use to joke that the reason their mother could give such hard swats was because she mixed everything by hand! I always thought that was funny! I liked the TR quote and I agree that we don’t really need the comforts we think we do. Take care and stay warm.
My maternal grandmother, on her Montana ranch near Big Timber, used to make "gingerbread" that was actually similar to cornbread or cake rather than cookie-like. It was soft and delicious, probably similar to this recipe. Unfortunately neither she or any of her daughters wrote down the recipe before she died at age 102. Even though my mom and her sisters claim to remember it, none of their efforts have resulted in the same wonderful texture or flavor as Grandma's. What a shame that recipe has been lost - but it's wonderful to see you keeping these old recipes and traditions alive! I can't wait to try this myself on my old wood stove. I wonder if this will be the closest I can get to Grandma's ginger cake.
This may be very close to it! The boiling water, melted lard-those are old school ways that do make the recipe unique. A mix between a cookie & cake. Similar to a muffin but not quite 🤔 It’s own category. I hope Mrs. Haskin’s recipe brings back some memories of your own family 😊🔥 Big Timber, too! Very neat
Cheers! So glad you’ve subscribed 🔥 I’m with you on preferring a small, honest little cabin over some giant 💰 monstrosity. It’s wild, just one year ago this cabin was abandoned on the ranch and caving in. Now it’s a little slice of heaven I can’t get enough of ❄️
We made the molasses drop cakes this morning and they were a win in the house! I doubled the batch and it made 4 dozen! My family will clean them up in no time.
You and your Cabin videos trigger such fond memories of my childhood in the forties early 50's in a rural Indiana farm community. Coal stoves, out houses, hugging the stoves in the morning. wow I thank you so much. Everything we ate in those days was homemade from scratch.❤❤❤ I was blessed and did not know it.
Beautiful comment, I love your stories & experiences ❤️ Life sounds so honest, so good. I’m sure it had terrible hardship too, but thank you for painting a picture of it for me & others. Share a recipe for me to try if you have some good ones? 😄
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue No recipes. I usually just wing it sometime awesome sometimes not so much. My family ate a lot of corn hoe cakes cornbread fried in the skillet like a pancake awesome with ham and beans a staple when I was a kid, we were monetarily dirt poor, but had plenty of food from garden and a small dairy, pork was our main meat source, it's easier to keep than beef. . We are of different cultures and different eras but still the same. Please keep the adventures coming. I relive my childhood through your experimenting with your recipes on the old cook stove. ❤❤❤❤❤ priceless.
I don’t know how I forgot…but when our girls were young…45 yrs ago, we lived in the first cabin we built in the North Idaho woods. Twas A-frame, uninsulated, a cook stove and a woodstove opposite each other in the cabin lean to areas…we kept both stoves going all night…getting up every couple hours to feed the fires. Got some coal once…that held longer. We had the kids up in a loft…was warmer up there…we used to try to get our dogs to get on the bed with us in the back of the cabin behind the kitchen. We know well the meaning of “a three dog night “ during a North Idaho winter. Dogs water bowl frozen in the morning….brisk run to the loo…hot tea or coffee as soon as we could boil the water. Ah…the memories.
Oh now THAT is truly what life on the land is like-whoa 🔥🔥🔥 You guys really did it! I know the feeling a bit-would feed my stove coal so that I could get an extra hour or so between feeding the fire at night. Got up every 3 hours. I can picture and feel what it must have been like for your family out there. What a dream, though! Your kids must have incredible memories 🙌🏻❤️ Makes me smile
Hi. 40 degrees in New Orleans. I feel sad as I miss the woodstoves on Orcas Island, WA. I adore how you are an historian in your own right. True, we are tough and can live thru endless privations. And we may have to. Love your sharing your lovely cabin, research, recipes, wood cook stove, family and ideas with us. ❤
You are so lovely, thank you for the wonderful comment. I bet Orcas was just incredible 🙌🏻🔥 What a place! Glad you can soak up some of the woodstove charm through this cabin.
A fantastic video to sit down with a cup of coffee after chores and watch. Our whole family enjoyed it. I have a funny KitchenAid story. When my husband and I were dating I told him I'd make him cookies when I came to visit if they got a KitchenAid. He said we got one! His name is Ethan (his nephew who was staying during calving). 😂I love that pan you made the cakes in, they look delicious and the meat pie looked mouth watering! We have a wood cookstove that has been just sitting in our garage for many years. I would love to get it plumbed in our house - course, you make cooking on it look easy!
Ha I love that story! 😂🙌🏻 I feel so silly looking back on younger me sometimes. You guys have an old cookstove?! Hoorah! I hope you get it cleaned up to use it & love it-the old ones are treasures 🔥
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yes they are! We actually have kind of a collection, not on purpose, they just appeared 😄We have the Monarch, an early gas stove plus two trash burners. So much character in that stuff, we love it.
Good morning Jesse- Any recipe that uses one cup of molasses is fine by me! I just made gingerbread. I'll look through some of my grandmother's Vermont cookbook and my wood stove cookbook for my favorite recipes for you. Our kitchen wood stove is snapping away as I type. I had to go through days of freezing NH weather in order to allow the stove to go cold, so I could give it a good cleaning. She's blazing away now :-)
Oh I can just picture you out there cleaning it & then cooking again 🔥😊 I need to give mine a good scouring. Thinking I’ll steel wool the surface first-I want to do as you suggested before and not use blackener. I did a test of removing what I had put on and seasoning the surface directly-I love it! Need to do the whole top next
Speaking of the Montana cold - my grandmother and mother remembered getting what they called "chilblains".- sore and peeling feet from the freezing cold and rough wool socks. They used to warm their sheets and blankets with a hot pan or even hang them near the stove before bed just to get warm. My mom remembers her mother putting hot bricks from the stove into wool socks or wrapping them in a scrap of blanket to take to bed. I don't think modern people have a clue about things like this, unless they're willing to live like the pioneers.
Oh whoa now this is some real history! I would like to talk about this in a future episode 🔥 Life, especially in the cold, was so different from our experience today. “Chilblains”… wow 😮 Strong people. Are you & family still around Big Timber? I’ve always found it a romantic place, but it’s changing isn’t it… with new people
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Unfortunately, all my Montana family members have passed away now or no longer live there. The ranch at Big Timber no longer exists; it was broken up, I believe. My grandfather's earlier ranch at Cardwell is still a ranch, and the property owner's board near the tiny town hall still listed my grandfather's name as late as the 1980s. I don't know if it's still there, but I do know an entire southern Montana mountain range shares my grandfather's name. And, as was said in that famous movie about fly-fishing: "You can take the boy out of Montana, but you can't take the Montana out of the boy." We'll always think of ourselves as Montanans at heart.
Hi Jessie, It`s a romantic way of illuminating the way of living at that time reversed in your own time in 2025, It`s a Documentary of a lifestyle from the past, How they managed to live under harsh environments and season changes. Baking and cooking the way they did before; I do really like the way you with love and tenderness show us how you manage to bake all these fine recipes on the firewood cookstove, It`s a pleasure follow you during these episodes- Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Hubertus to my friends the Jackson Family.🙏🏻🇳🇴🇳🇱💫🍀🎄🇺🇸
Hello Hubertus! Winter greetings from a very snowy part of the world 🇺🇸 Hope you are doing well & feeling well. Thank you for watching & giving such thoughtful comments. They do mean a great deal to us 🔥 Our town is buried under many feet of snow at the moment, so the next episodes may require hiking in!
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Hi Jessie, I do hope you guys come safe these winter days. I did have the same here: lots of snow and cold but nice sunny weather. Now the weather has changed to +4 to 6 degrees above zero, snow is melting, and it gets really difficult to go outside or drive to the shopping centre. It is very slippery around my house and the surrounding environment. I did release a new video where I show an update for winter 2025. Greetings and blessings, take care and stay safe warm and healthy. Hubertus.
Awesome video, we got an old recipe book (its not only a cook book but also like a guide for the house wife) that belonged to one of my great grandmother's from the early 1900s its the 18th edition, first printing was in 1885 and the last editions came out in 1960s. I noticed when we where baking christmas cookies that one or two recipes that my mom's mom handwritten is the same one that can be found in that book just her version was the double amount.
Ohh those are the best recipes, written in with notes from the hand of a real cook ❤️ You are very lucky to have that. I have nothing from either grandmother
My grandma 👵 works in a baker to help bring in money 💰 on for helping at the ranch. One of my aunt's wanted to bake and cook 🍳 here favorites. Grandma 👵 alway say you need a pinch of this a dash of that while cooking. Now I understand why, back in those days, many wear long red underwear to keep you warm. You know the ones with a butten trap flap in the back. I don't see those sold in the store nowadays. ❤ I love your videos 📹.
Love your comment 🙌🏻 Cheers! Yes! Understanding why they wore long underwear, what it FELT like to live like they did-that has been really eye opening for me 🔥
You can probably get those kind of long underwear from a store that caters to the Amish. I think it's Lehman's, in Ohio. I'll go check and come back and edit this comment if I got it wrong. I have ordered things from them and it's all been very good quality!
These look like my great grandmothers tea cakes. She made several flavors but her vanilla ones were my favorite.She made them on a cookie sheet so they were flatter and bigger than yours. I can just smell the molasses ones now though. Thank you for sharing and for a beautiful channel!
Cheers! I really appreciate your comment & love the story of your family’s tea cakes 💗🔥 This recipe threw me for a loop at first. Different way of making things. But I loved it in the end!
Neither my mother or either of my grandmothers ever had a stand mixer. They had what we called a hand mixer - a non electric mixer with a crank handle, and an electric mixer - an electric portable/ hand held mixer. I used both types often growing up in the 1960's.
I have seen one and so wish I had one! It would make certain kitchen jobs like creaming butter for cookies much MUCH easier. I can look back at my silliness now, thinking that an electric mixer was the only way to bake… but (sigh) my ignorance was real 😂
@ there is a lovely Danish pattern that someone worked out. It's fancier but can also be tied back. The Faroese are the ones I grab for a quick trip outside or over my coat for extra warmth. I always feel sorry for folks in cold climates without shawls. Men used to use them too.
Haha exactly! 😂I honestly did not know I was making muffins until I had eaten one 🤦🏻♀️ I read the recipe but my brain did not register what a “drop cake” was 🤪
I am enjoying your Pioneer Skills series! So much fun. I definitely want to try the molasses drop cakes. I will have to substitute butter or palm shortening for lard, I used to use lard, but for health reasons and other I am pork free. I have a question, do you plan to put in an outhouse? how or where would uncle Dan get water? Thanks again!
Butter and palm shortening are a great substitute! (To modify an old Julia Child quote: “if you’re afraid of butter, use cream. And if not lard, use butter” 😉 ) But I absolutely understand avoiding certain foods for health reasons. Butter will work splendidly. Love that you are digging into the Pioneer Skills series!
Oh! And yes to an outhouse-plans for one this summer. And I’d love to dig a well in somewhat the fashion it was once done 🤔 (not sure if Robbie is as keen to hand-dig one though 😂)
If you think about when that cabin was built, there WEREN'T TOWN EVERY 20 to 30 miles away, they were Alone, out there in settlements or Ranches, you might drive on a buck board for 2-3 days to go get supplies for 4 -6 months
I was thinking the same thing this week! Great insight 🔥 I was also thinking that many of these people had little family and not all the amenities (like barns, animals, wagons, etc) They were far from anything/anyone. I’d like to film an episode about the loneliness and isolation, and very humble day to day.
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yeah they were busy sewing by candle light, or knitting blankets, or patch quilts, making pickles, or saurerkraut, men would be fixing tools, or harnesses, carving, but in general people went to bed when the Sun went down and woke up by first light
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue they had lofts filled with straw, or plucked feather beds, or rope beds, with a mattress stuffed with straw, lots of a woman's time was busy helping her husband outside, too, feeding animals, or washing the clothes making lye soap, chopping wood or gathering wood, carrying water, from however far away,
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue if they did have a shed or a barn, some would tie a rope from the house to the barn, bcz the snow would cause white outs, with the winds, some people couldn't see anything, if their wasn't a rope some would get lost in the snowstorm n die, just trying to go feed the animals
Cheers! It is absolutely worth living like this if you have the drive to (which sounds like you absolutely do!) If the chance comes, I say grab it with both hands 🙌🏻🔥 Love your comment
Where did you guys go to school? Where are you from? I recognized across in your house. My parents and I have the same in our homes. Keep doing what you’re doing. So awesome!
Good eyes! Yes, a crucifix is a must have for the house. My aunt & uncle gave us this one from the holy land. My husband went to Fergus high here in Montana. I went to college at The University of Chicago 🙌🏻 Where are you at?
These have the same ingredients as my Grandma's molasses/ ginger snaps. I don't know where she got the recipe but I assume it was passed to her from great grandma. They are always good. Not as good as when she cooked them, but that might be mental. I've used some primitive skills but only because I was in the Army. 20 of us in a desolate camp in the winter in Afghanistan and our generators broke. You learn a lot real quick when you don't have electricity, running water, or heat.
Oh holy smokes! To experience all that survival skill in a foreign (dangerous) country too 😮 That is next level pioneer living. My hat is off to you, friend 🫡 Thank you for your service 🇺🇸
Love watching your cooking on the prairie cook stove I would like to know if you will ever add a small bedroom on to it or make more bunk beds in the open area you have now
That’s good idea & very keeping with historical use. The cabin originally had a lean to on the north side. I think that would have been a kitchen 🤔 We are debating adding a heat stove. The bunk beds we have work great for now. Plan to use them more when winter loosens its grip on us.
I often wonder why molasses was so important to pioneers. And this one, I had to do a bit of research into. My knowledge bases was not enough. 1) One thing I did know, was that pioneers weren't like us, with our dominance of wheat grain grown. They grew a whole range of grains...rye, buckwheat, oats, barley, spelt, millet, and important in this case; sorghum. All of these; would have been more important to them, than actually wheat grain and corn. 2) Back then, before the 50s, when Montana went crazy growing sugar beats, cane sugar was very, very expensive. Something a homesteading pioneer couldn't afford. 3) But from sorghum, you can make molasses... and sugar, which forms as crystals, in boiling down the molasses. _(Brown sugar comes from molasses. It's a different process than refined sugar.)_ 4) And while honey is a better source of sweetener, there's a lot of work involved in keeping bees...and a good Montana winter can kill all your bees off. Sorghum is a plant and let grow. A lot less risky. 5) So, molasses was a byproduct; of making your own sugar. A byproduct, that you would have had a lot of. But still, something you wouldn't throw away. So, I'm going to guess; that the molasses, originally used in your drop-cakes, might have actually been Blackstrap Molasses, which has the most sugar crystals extracted from it. Would have given it more of a rather bitter/tangy, molasses taste, and a lot less sweet. Blackstrap molasses would have been; good enough for weekday cooking, especially with baked beans and such. _(Best baked beans you can make; is with blackstrap molasses.)_ And pioneers grew and ate a lot of beans. Very easy to dry and store. PS. Yes, you're getting there, with your thought process. What you're making; is a simple form of good old fashion German Gingerbread. And yes, you can make them soft, or you can make them crisp, but the original is soft...and stays soft for a long time. _(Google Lebkuchen; to see your recipe in its original form.)_ PPS: A little talk story: I was about 10...maybe 12. And us kids went to stay at friends, a log house on the prairie, for a couple days before Christmas. Each major room in that house had a fireplace, that's all that there was for heating. Thick feather duvets and pillows, but even with a fire in the fireplace, and 10in log walls, the windows were frosted over. That year, there'd not been much of a Chinook. Thanksgiving saw heavy snow, followed by heavier snow, and then even heavier snow. Snow was up to the windowsills. We went to bed with the fire dying down to embers. But woke up in the middle of the night, to wolves howling, right outside our window. We each warmed up a spot on the glass of a window pane, to look outside. What we each saw, were wolf's eyes, staring back at us, barely a foot away. It was only when the horses, secure in the barn, started making noise, that the wolves moved off. Then come morning, there were no embers left in the fireplace, and a good 1/3rd to half inch of frost on the feather duvet...and floor, chairs, clothing...everything. We debated and debated, as to who was going to get out of bed first, and start the fire. That's what homesteading is like.
You’ve done your research! I love this kind of insight into the pioneer experience. And blackstrap molasses is so good in beans. Is todays blackstrap the same as 150 years ago? I’m very curious. It can be so bitter… but perhaps that is what they liked (or had access to)
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Yes, it can be quite bitter. You can only strain for crystals so much, and then the molasses is too thick to strain. But strain they would. It's the sugar that is the value. Modern molasses is mostly made from cane or beet syrup. They are high in sugar to begin with. Sorghum is a grain, that just happens to have more sugar in it, than other grains, except corn. So sorghum molasses is different than modern molasses. It's tastes a bit more bitter, nuttier, grainier, but is a lot healthier. _(There are some who make and sell sorghum molasses... for about $10 for a 6oz to 8 oz bottle.)_ Ps. I just added a little; down memory lane pioneer story, to my first posting. I didn't know you were online.
@@michaelwittkopp3379 THAT story is incredible 🔥🔥🔥 Oh I hope others read it! What a thing to experience! Thick frost, fireplaces, and wolves at the window-a very Montana memory. WOW 😮 I’m going to fall asleep thinking of that.
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue You wrote; _"I’m going to fall asleep thinking of that."_ And then... in the middle of the night, you awake; hearing a wolf howling. Actually, I find wolves howling cool. It's kind of that primordial _"Call of the Wild."_ A call back to the wild, to a way of life, foreign, strange, alien to so many of us, yet living still deep inside of each of us...an ancestral memory.
I love your videos so much! I want to ask you something. Is there a place where you can sleep and spend the night at your cabin? Is there a bathroom somewhere? Greetings from Greece. ❤
Cheers! Yes there are bunk beds that Robbie made for the kids. We’ve enjoyed those. I’ve just put a mattress on the floor too. We are planning to put an historically inspired outhouse nearby this summer 🤔 Until then, we go with nature 😉 or back to the ranch house where Robbie’s parents live
That reminds me of my great aunt’s hand written Appalachian Apple stack cake recipe😂 They don’t tell you all the steps, and my mother does the same thing. I’m not that kind of cook friend😂
Hahaha I hear you! These old cookbooks are honestly *barely* helpful 😂 You have to already know how to do it 🤪 But I love seeing the handwritten notes ❤️ Seeing what another family made memories eating
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue My grand mother was living of a farm and you know the expression " we don't have a penny " Well my mother told me that my grand mother wanted to send a letter to her family and the stamp was 1 penny, and the let sat on the edge of the window for weeks, because they could not afford the cost of the stamp to mail it .... that it pretty crazy.
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yep! Had to dig our own way out because the county forgets we exist 🤣. Couple really nice days and now it’s a white out again. This winter has all the ear marks of being wet 😝
I know what you mean! There is something so satisfying about this simple way of life. 🔥 But, whenever I wish to go back, I remind myself how grateful I am for modern medicine & dentistry. Other than that, the modern world is no good for us, I’d say
We do not live here day in day out (although I lived in a similar log cabin for all my 20s, off grid). I 100% agree that if I did live in here with my family I would find a way to insulate. For now though, I learn so much by experiencing the hardship that people really did feel back when this house was new. Very few people had any real insulation.
The firebox looks really small on that stove...how do you manage to keep this cabin warm enough to work or stay in .....not by that stove only ....ps...you have nice hands fog doing all that work...😊
It is a small firebox, you are right. It’s only meant for cooking, not heating. But I’m tough 😉 The stove warms me enough to be perfectly happy (if still needing my wool sweaters 🐑)
Oh fascinating! Did she cover them with anything or just cook them like a pancake on the skillet? I just got myself a late Christmas present of a large cast iron griddle & I’m excited to try some different recipes on it 😊
Is that an actual Wood-Fired cook stove or is it a coal fired cook stove?, it seems like you feed it a lot and it has a very small fire box with a large under draft vent, does it have Shaker grates?
Great questions! To be honest I think it is more built for coal-burns very fast 🤔 I had an older Monarch cookstove that I burned both wood and coal with by rotating the grates as needed. I haven’t tried moving the grates on this one. I need to study it better. It’s a South Bend Malleable.
They are true beauties. Hope you find a perfect one & enjoy every minute of cooking on it. When one comes along grab it with both hands! Getting more and more rare 🔥
My, maternal, great grandmother worked for a baker in Prague, in the Czech Republic, in the late 1800s, before she came to New York City in 1900, as a teenager. Her and her Slovakian born husband were married in New York City, that same year, and were living there for a little while, before they moved to Alberta. It must have been interesting to work in a bakery, long ago, without any modern kitchen appliances that we have today. My grandmothers, most of my aunts, and my (late) mother, were excellent cooks and bakers. That's why I like it. My paternal grandmother taught me how to make pierogies, when I was a child. My dad told me that his mom would make sandwiches for his school lunch in the 1930s, and part of the 1940s, that was made with homemade bread, butter, cucumbers and lettuce, from the garden, on the farm in Alberta. The resiliency these pioneer families had is amazing. We can learn alot from their experiences. Their faith and determination got them through harsher times. The food you made looked amazing. Perfect for these colder winter days. I still admire the spectacular views you have from your cabin windows. This was awesome. Cheers! ✌️
Beautiful, beautiful comment 🔥 What strong people! they not only survived huge changes in culture & place but made life so good for their families. Those sandwiches sound delicious! 🥬 🍞 Thank you for sharing with me and others 🙌🏻
My husbands mother and grandmother made these for Christmas only……he is in his 70’s, he loves them ……. Personally I cannot stand them, too much like a Jonny cake mated with cake ….. but it is not about me…when my husband eats them…he is 5 again…his fountain of youth.
That is an adorable story ❤️😉 And how wonderful it takes him back-Yes, it is a different consistency, isn’t it? This recipe has a mild flavor; it can’t compete with our modern sugary cakes but I will say my kids gobbled ‘em up! Love your comment, thank you🔥
Hahaha I had the same realization at the very END of baking 😂🤪 But I’ll be honest these are a bit different-still kind of their own category. But yeah, muffins is fair 😉
The self-reliance and freedom? The physical and mental health gained from hard outdoor work in the fresh air? Being close to nature? Raising and making your own food and the self-sufficiency gained by doing so instead of having to rely on ever more expensive groceries? The well-needed retreat from modern social and mental stress? The sense of community, trust, and mutuality gained from living in a harsh, remote area where everyone is familiar with the same struggles and there is no snobbery or social competition for status? Why do YOU think that so many people fantasize about living this way, and videos like these are so popular?
@ the saddest thing I've seen on the internet was during the tech bust. Young guy lost his job and was eating off the dollar menu at McDonalds. He didn't know how to cook. Contrast with my friend with a tipi, and trunks of food for his travels. We live better lives when we can feed ourselves and dress for the seasons. It's how we are supposed to live
Did not know that about making of pie crust! Keep at it, We have been lied to about all this seed oil junk! Please don't use any of it no matter if cold pressed or not. Lard or butter is food not seed oils.
Could you please put the ingredients list for those cakes in a comment? l would like to try them, maybe even try them made with Tibetan hull-less barley! Thank you!
I will check that out! Thank you 🙌🏻 My mother has recently become splendid at knitting ❤️ I lack the patience 🤦🏻♀️ but would like to discipline myself and learn to do it.
I stumbled upon your videos and I must say that I absolutely love him! My husband and I live off grid and the struggle is real 😀 we do love living the way that we do and it really makes you appreciate all that we have. Although we are slowly gaining the comforts of home through solar and propane. We have no running water, we cook from scratch, grow and raise our food. And your videos are just wonderful to watch and gives me new ideas. I have started making my own clothes and learning new skills. I am definitely going to try this steak and bacon pie!
Oh wow you are living the life 🙌🏻🔥 I love it! Sounds like you guys are well on your way to having the complete setup for success. I very much believe in what you’re doing. Spent my 20s living that way & I miss it. Thanks for watching these videos & being a part of it all!
I am addicted to your channel. I have watched the cooking segments 3 times!❤❤❤
You are wonderful 🙌🏻💗 I love that you are getting into this series-makes me smile! Thank you for everything
Stuck through??? No no, this is very fascinating, keep up the good work, this is delightful to watch...
Cheers 😊🔥❤️ Appreciate your comment very much!
Hello 👋.I'm loving your old stove cooking. I was born in 1948 on to a small cabin somewhere near Sweetgrass, MT. Now I live in a self built cabin in the forest of NH. In my cabin I have a 1910 Star Kineo wood/coal cookstove. She cooks, heats my water and my cabin. I also have solar hot water for when the sun shines. I have lived here for over 20 years off grid. It's heaven I think. Thank you for adding delight to my UA-cam experience💗
Ohh I can picture how wonderful your cabin must be! Charming🔥 I lived a very similar life throughout my 20s-off grid, cooking with an old Monarch cookstove, and using a little solar for a well pump.
Do you have any recipes you love cooking on your cookstove? Mine burns a bit hot but I’m loving cooking on it
@claraisley9397- Hello from Central ⛵⛵ Lakes Region New Hampshire. I too am living in the forest at the base of our family farm. There is nothing like it to be surrounded by giant hemlocks. We are both on or off grid, using NH Electric for as long as we can afford it. I am a tad younger than you , but of the same vintage :-) My favorite decade was being in my 20s in the 1970s in
rural NH, following Helen and Scott Nearing, Mother Earth News and Rodale Press.Elliot Coleman is still going strong in Maine. Not all that many of us remaining to pass on the NH Old Ways. It warms my heart to see Jesse hosting this channel to share living history. ~ Diane
💯❤️👍😎👍
Hello from the shores of Lake Huron (from the great state of Michigan). I just wanted to send you an encouraging message… I absolutely adore your videos! I’m sure they take a lot of effort and time to produce; I so appreciate and admire what you and your beautiful family are doing. Thank you for allowing all of us to travel along as you embark on this journey. I have learned so much and have been inspired from your work. God bless to you and yours.
Lake Huron! Oh it must be beautiful where you are. Your comment means a lot-thank you! It does take hours of editing and planning, so I really appreciate your insight there 😉
Getting to hear the stories of people who have really lived this life has been beyond satisfying. More than I expected. Cheers to you from Montana ❄️❄️❄️
You would usually hear of a drop anything in baking as being cookies, or biscuit’s. They look a lot like biscuits, and yummy too. Good for you.
That’s a good tip, makes sense. I honestly was flying blind making this but I had so much fun. It’s a delicious, mild cake/biscuit/muffin/cookie result 😍 Its own category for sure
I wish I could like this more than once.
Love your comment 🙌🏻🔥❤️
I’ve been a genealogist for most of my life. So I love your content. Really gives me a new appreciation for how hard working my female ancestors were.
They truly were-that has hit home for me. Women and men had distinct roles, but both were so needed for the family unit. Everyone was valued. Love your comment. Must be an interesting line of work 🔥 My family loves researching our Scottish ancestry.
discovered your channel a couple days ago and have been binge watching. love all of this. inspiring me to get back cooking on my 1909 wood cook stove more and search for some old cookbooks like yours. keep this up. i hope young kids get exposed.
Oh how fantastic you have an early cookstove too! 🙌🏻 They are such beauties 🔥 Hope you get to use yours and soak up the sounds/feeling.
Yes, I hope some younger people find the channel too-and see what the generations before them knew as day to day life. They’re probably too busy on their Tic Toks 😉
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue have had one for 10 years. Cooked everything Thursday night for friends and weekends just because. Love your channel.
New to your channel and I just love it ...your content reminds me of my grandmother's old ways. She taught in a one room school house. Miss her so much...bless your family
Welcome to the channel! Love your comment, thank you ❤️ Your grandmother sounds like quite the woman!
I lov your videos i have two wood stoves my only heat but sure lov it some times wish for a cook stove this history is so so wonderful i hope you keep your chanel this way so many have gone to commercial im 71 but i still lov learning i live on a farm in minnesota my driveway is 1/4 mile long so i prepare and can thankyou for awsome videos
Thank you for your beautiful comment 🔥 I agree, I dislike it very much when channels get sponsors and sell out. We don’t plan to go that route. I like the community we have going here ❤️ Cheers from a snowy Montana
Understatement, but my newest favorite channel.
🔥🔥🔥 Cheers, that means more than I can express
Your steak&bacon pie looked fabulous. You have a much better command of pie crust than I. Thank you so much for referencing your audience. It means so much for us who are elderly and living alone to feel a personal connection to someone or something that refreshes good memories of years long past. It all leads to mixed feelings. On the one hand, I want to see your channel grow and bring you great rewards for your extraordinary efforts, but as I've seen with others, once things go viral, the personal connection goes away. It grows too big to keep up. Let's hope for a happy medium where we can continue to feel like we are sitting on a bench in the cabin with your family, adding bits and pieces to the conversation. Maybe bring in firewood or pass the coffee pot around to help in any way we can. Thank you for what you are doing.
Love your comment, I so do ❤️🔥 And I agree: I hope the channel stays this size & frankly grows no bigger. I like the journey, the beauty, and the small connections with good people. Lots of views and strangers would be a curse. 🙏 Thanks for being here to share stories; I learn so much from you and those who have really lived it (the glamorous and unglamorous parts). Cheers from a very snowy day here
Though, by Texas standards, it's a brisk, dare I say fridgid morning here. But by my northern Minnesotan upbringing, it's a beautiful, sunny morning worthy of outdoor activities. Have a wonderful weekend! ❄️🎎🛷
Once again an enjoyable video. Sometimes I incorporate lard in recipes with an old time potato masher. I've never eaten anything with bacon that wasn't good. I raise pure Berkshire pork, Australian White sheep, wagyu cross beef, farm eggs. Both my grandmothers had cookstoves...Columbian...Pitston...With todays fast pace ratrace your videos are like downshifting into 1st gear !! Have a blessed day...
Man your comment is wonderful 🙌🏻 Cheers! Great idea on the potato masher; I’ll give that a try. What fantastic breeds you are raising-I love the uniqueness. We are a bit lean on animals on the ranch at the moment but I’d love to add more breeds to it. Everything is black angus up here. Winter hardy ❄️
I am 61 and only heating my house with wood. I cut and split it myself. I also have a wood cook stove. I also use lard. And yes I render it myself. I don't vary often have to go to the store. Everyone at work tells me what things cost and I have no clue. God Bless
You cut & split your own firewood AND render lard?! You have my deep respect 🔥 It is a satisfying life, isn’t it? I miss the day to day of it but this cabin lets me dabble. Thank you for watching our small channel.
Miss Opal you ARE blessed!
The cursive writing in the cookbook is perfect. This reminds me of my Grandmother’s handwritten notes in her own copy of the church’s cookbook. Annual cookbooks were popular and a good fundraiser.
The cookbooks are such a neat idea-I didn’t know they existed. Such high quality too. The first print on this one is 1904? I think 🤔 I love the handwriting too 😉 ❤️ I feel like I know the woman who wrote in this even though she’s a mystery to me.
Now for the FULL experience, you need to do this in period clothing. 😃
Thank you for another interesting installment!
😜🙌🏻 Maybe, maybe! The older I get the more willing I am to put on the gear and do re-enactments! Love your comment, cheers
My wife and I just found the channel. We want to move to Montana after my service concludes. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into the local history.
Thank you for your service! 🇺🇸 Montana is stunning & full of the most fascinating people. Everyone works 2 or 3 jobs to get by up here 😅 including us, but it’s all good work & worth it. If you make it to our tiny part of the state be sure to say hi
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Thank you. It has been an honor to do what I do. We are grateful for the invite, we will definitely try to make it that way at some point.
I'm professional plein air artist. Love listening too the poetry you bring to your videos. Then as a special treat
Charles Russell paintings. His work of every day western life😂. Seeing his art while hearing the poetry. Makes my heart joyful.
Keep the discovery of pioneer life going
Ah so pleased you appreciate his work! He’s such a big influence up here. Oh I love that you are a plein air artist 🖼️ 😍 We have many such pieces in our house but I’ve always hoped for one of Uncle Dan’s. Maybe you can come visit sometime to paint!
I love all things molasses- I'm also one of the fortunate few that do all cooking and baking on a cook woodstove- living simply brings so much joy and peace- i plan to try this recipe this weekend - thanks! With love, from a little Maine homestead ❤
Oh wow I can close my eyes and picture how wonderful a homestead in Maine must be 🔥 If you have any good recipes I should try out, send one my way? We are getting 2 to 3 feet of snow here and I maybe just want to go to the cookstove & hole-up 😉
@ravenbrown7053- Hello from Central Lakes Region New Hampshire! Well done! If I had something like an airtight Kitchen Queen, I would do all my cooking on a kitchen wood stove, except in the heat of summer. My 1930 Home Comfort requires constant feeding , even with hardwood.chunks. Like Jesse's stove, it was designed to burn coal and we had to adapt it by buying what is called a summer plate. She still takes good care of us during a power failure.
What a wonderful video! The wood fire crust is heavenly. No electric stove can compare. Thank you again for sharing and God bless you and your sweet family ❤
Wonderful comment! Thank you-and totally agree on a wood fired crust! So flaky and crisp 🔥 unbeatable!
You had me at steak and bacon pie. Of course the drop cakes looked very tasty as well! My dad and his brothers use to joke that the reason their mother could give such hard swats was because she mixed everything by hand! I always thought that was funny! I liked the TR quote and I agree that we don’t really need the comforts we think we do. Take care and stay warm.
Ha! I love that about her strong swats 😂🙌🏻 Oh I know that all the hand mixing must have helped. Love your comment!
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Thank you and keep the great videos coming.
My maternal grandmother, on her Montana ranch near Big Timber, used to make "gingerbread" that was actually similar to cornbread or cake rather than cookie-like. It was soft and delicious, probably similar to this recipe. Unfortunately neither she or any of her daughters wrote down the recipe before she died at age 102. Even though my mom and her sisters claim to remember it, none of their efforts have resulted in the same wonderful texture or flavor as Grandma's. What a shame that recipe has been lost - but it's wonderful to see you keeping these old recipes and traditions alive! I can't wait to try this myself on my old wood stove. I wonder if this will be the closest I can get to Grandma's ginger cake.
This may be very close to it! The boiling water, melted lard-those are old school ways that do make the recipe unique. A mix between a cookie & cake. Similar to a muffin but not quite 🤔 It’s own category.
I hope Mrs. Haskin’s recipe brings back some memories of your own family 😊🔥 Big Timber, too! Very neat
New subscriber. I am so jealous of your cabin! I’d take it over a two million dollar vacation house.
Cheers! So glad you’ve subscribed 🔥 I’m with you on preferring a small, honest little cabin over some giant 💰 monstrosity.
It’s wild, just one year ago this cabin was abandoned on the ranch and caving in. Now it’s a little slice of heaven I can’t get enough of ❄️
We made the molasses drop cakes this morning and they were a win in the house! I doubled the batch and it made 4 dozen! My family will clean them up in no time.
That is SO COOL! woohoo 🎉 Love that you made them!
You and your Cabin videos trigger such fond memories of my childhood in the forties early 50's in a rural Indiana farm community. Coal stoves, out houses, hugging the stoves in the morning. wow I thank you so much. Everything we ate in those days was homemade from scratch.❤❤❤ I was blessed and did not know it.
Beautiful comment, I love your stories & experiences ❤️ Life sounds so honest, so good. I’m sure it had terrible hardship too, but thank you for painting a picture of it for me & others. Share a recipe for me to try if you have some good ones? 😄
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue No recipes. I usually just wing it sometime awesome sometimes not so much. My family ate a lot of corn hoe cakes cornbread fried in the skillet like a pancake awesome with ham and beans a staple when I was a kid, we were monetarily dirt poor, but had plenty of food from garden and a small dairy, pork was our main meat source, it's easier to keep than beef. . We are of different cultures and different eras but still the same. Please keep the adventures coming. I relive my childhood through your experimenting with your recipes on the old cook stove. ❤❤❤❤❤ priceless.
Love all you said 🔥 God Bless from Montana. Expecting a mountain of snow today ❄️
When I was 18 I cooked and canned on an old stove like yours. I loved it!
Oh wow!! Canning on this absolutely scares me but I would love to try 🔥
@ start with water bathing first,then work your way into pressure canning. I’m so glad I found your channel, I absolutely love it!!!!
@ Thank you! Maybe this summer I will have to try it & share 🙌🏻 Love your comment
Oh my goodness!! How utterly delightful to follow along with you on this recipe mystery! ❤👏
Cheers! I was absolutely walking blind on this one but I love the result-hit with the family 😋
Not to mention their beautiful penmanship! ❤
Absolutely! So beautiful
I don’t know how I forgot…but when our girls were young…45 yrs ago, we lived in the first cabin we built in the North Idaho woods. Twas A-frame, uninsulated, a cook stove and a woodstove opposite each other in the cabin lean to areas…we kept both stoves going all night…getting up every couple hours to feed the fires. Got some coal once…that held longer. We had the kids up in a loft…was warmer up there…we used to try to get our dogs to get on the bed with us in the back of the cabin behind the kitchen. We know well the meaning of “a three dog night “ during a North Idaho winter. Dogs water bowl frozen in the morning….brisk run to the loo…hot tea or coffee as soon as we could boil the water. Ah…the memories.
Oh now THAT is truly what life on the land is like-whoa 🔥🔥🔥 You guys really did it! I know the feeling a bit-would feed my stove coal so that I could get an extra hour or so between feeding the fire at night. Got up every 3 hours. I can picture and feel what it must have been like for your family out there. What a dream, though! Your kids must have incredible memories 🙌🏻❤️ Makes me smile
Teddy was the ultimate outdoors man.
He sure was 💪🏼🏔️ Amazing man
Yes he was. Of course I also like Bridger, Carson, Sublette, and others of their era.
@ Hoorah. 🫡
Hi. 40 degrees in New Orleans. I feel sad as I miss the woodstoves on Orcas Island, WA.
I adore how you are an historian in your own right. True, we are tough and can live thru endless privations. And we may have to. Love your sharing your lovely cabin, research, recipes, wood cook stove, family and ideas with us. ❤
You are so lovely, thank you for the wonderful comment. I bet Orcas was just incredible 🙌🏻🔥 What a place! Glad you can soak up some of the woodstove charm through this cabin.
A fantastic video to sit down with a cup of coffee after chores and watch. Our whole family enjoyed it. I have a funny KitchenAid story. When my husband and I were dating I told him I'd make him cookies when I came to visit if they got a KitchenAid. He said we got one! His name is Ethan (his nephew who was staying during calving). 😂I love that pan you made the cakes in, they look delicious and the meat pie looked mouth watering! We have a wood cookstove that has been just sitting in our garage for many years. I would love to get it plumbed in our house - course, you make cooking on it look easy!
Ha I love that story! 😂🙌🏻 I feel so silly looking back on younger me sometimes. You guys have an old cookstove?! Hoorah! I hope you get it cleaned up to use it & love it-the old ones are treasures 🔥
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yes they are! We actually have kind of a collection, not on purpose, they just appeared 😄We have the Monarch, an early gas stove plus two trash burners. So much character in that stuff, we love it.
Good morning Jesse- Any recipe that uses one cup of molasses is fine by me! I just made gingerbread. I'll look through some of my grandmother's Vermont cookbook and my wood stove cookbook for my favorite recipes for you. Our kitchen wood stove is snapping away as I type. I had to go through days of freezing NH weather in order to allow the stove to go cold, so I could give it a good cleaning. She's blazing away now :-)
Oh I can just picture you out there cleaning it & then cooking again 🔥😊 I need to give mine a good scouring. Thinking I’ll steel wool the surface first-I want to do as you suggested before and not use blackener. I did a test of removing what I had put on and seasoning the surface directly-I love it! Need to do the whole top next
That's such a nice old stove, mmmm steak n bacon pie that sounds good. My Mom never measured Anything, and she was a Good cook
The best cooks just know the feel 🔥 I’d like to get to where I can do that. Lovely comment, thank you!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I’m going to try that drop cake recipe. Sounds like a really delicious drop cake
Cheers! It’s a unique recipe-I’ve never tried a boiling water cake before. 🔥 Hope you get a kick out of it! Thank you for your wonderful comment.
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue We made the recipe successfully. Took 22 minutes @ 350 degrees for them be fully cooked. My wife and myself enjoyed them.
Looks delicious 😋!!!! I look watching your videos, what a way of life, sure it had to have been hard but a much better life I think!
I agree-a much more satisfying life 🔥❤️ Love your comment!
Whoever the lady was that wrote the recipe by hand in a cookbook, I’m sure smiling down upon you ma’am
God Bless you 🥲
I’m loving the old recipes. My favourites go into my daily journal, hopefully historically kept for generations.
That is excellent! 🔥 You realize that your work, your recipes, may indeed carry on for many generations & be more loved with time
Speaking of the Montana cold - my grandmother and mother remembered getting what they called "chilblains".- sore and peeling feet from the freezing cold and rough wool socks. They used to warm their sheets and blankets with a hot pan or even hang them near the stove before bed just to get warm. My mom remembers her mother putting hot bricks from the stove into wool socks or wrapping them in a scrap of blanket to take to bed. I don't think modern people have a clue about things like this, unless they're willing to live like the pioneers.
Oh whoa now this is some real history! I would like to talk about this in a future episode 🔥 Life, especially in the cold, was so different from our experience today. “Chilblains”… wow 😮 Strong people. Are you & family still around Big Timber? I’ve always found it a romantic place, but it’s changing isn’t it… with new people
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Unfortunately, all my Montana family members have passed away now or no longer live there. The ranch at Big Timber no longer exists; it was broken up, I believe. My grandfather's earlier ranch at Cardwell is still a ranch, and the property owner's board near the tiny town hall still listed my grandfather's name as late as the 1980s. I don't know if it's still there, but I do know an entire southern Montana mountain range shares my grandfather's name.
And, as was said in that famous movie about fly-fishing: "You can take the boy out of Montana, but you can't take the Montana out of the boy." We'll always think of ourselves as Montanans at heart.
Indeed you are real Montanans 🔥🙌🏻 Well cheers from the center of the state. Got 2’ of snow the last day and a half. Town is pretty well shut down
Love, love , love these vids.
Means so much! Seriously, thank you for the encouragement ❤️🔥
My Grandma's 3 way ginger cookies are made very similar. One of my favorites.❤
Oh how wonderful! Does she use boiling water in hers? I had never done that before but the cakes are very tender, even a couple days later
Yes, and many cakes were made that way also. @@Montana_Ranch_Rescue
Hi Jessie, It`s a romantic way of illuminating the way of living at that time reversed in your own time in 2025, It`s a Documentary of a lifestyle from the past, How they managed to live under harsh environments and season changes. Baking and cooking the way they did before; I do really like the way you with love and tenderness show us how you manage to bake all these fine recipes on the firewood cookstove, It`s a pleasure follow you during these episodes-
Thanks for sharing. Greetings from Hubertus to my friends the Jackson Family.🙏🏻🇳🇴🇳🇱💫🍀🎄🇺🇸
Hello Hubertus! Winter greetings from a very snowy part of the world 🇺🇸 Hope you are doing well & feeling well. Thank you for watching & giving such thoughtful comments. They do mean a great deal to us 🔥 Our town is buried under many feet of snow at the moment, so the next episodes may require hiking in!
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Hi Jessie, I do hope you guys come safe these winter days. I did have the same here: lots of snow and cold but nice sunny weather. Now the weather has changed to +4 to 6 degrees above zero, snow is melting, and it gets really difficult to go outside or drive to the shopping centre. It is very slippery around my house and the surrounding environment. I did release a new video where I show an update for winter 2025. Greetings and blessings, take care and stay safe warm and healthy. Hubertus.
@ Ah you stay safe ❄️❄️❄️ wonderful, Hubertus, I will check out your video-must have missed it!
Very very good thank you my friend ❤
Cheers my friend 🔥 Hi from a very snowy Montana
Awesome video, we got an old recipe book (its not only a cook book but also like a guide for the house wife) that belonged to one of my great grandmother's from the early 1900s its the 18th edition, first printing was in 1885 and the last editions came out in 1960s. I noticed when we where baking christmas cookies that one or two recipes that my mom's mom handwritten is the same one that can be found in that book just her version was the double amount.
Ohh those are the best recipes, written in with notes from the hand of a real cook ❤️ You are very lucky to have that. I have nothing from either grandmother
My grandma 👵 works in a baker to help bring in money 💰 on for helping at the ranch. One of my aunt's wanted to bake and cook 🍳 here favorites. Grandma 👵 alway say you need a pinch of this a dash of that while cooking. Now I understand why, back in those days, many wear long red underwear to keep you warm. You know the ones with a butten trap flap in the back. I don't see those sold in the store nowadays. ❤ I love your videos 📹.
Love your comment 🙌🏻 Cheers! Yes! Understanding why they wore long underwear, what it FELT like to live like they did-that has been really eye opening for me 🔥
You can probably get those kind of long underwear from a store that caters to the Amish. I think it's Lehman's, in Ohio. I'll go check and come back and edit this comment if I got it wrong. I have ordered things from them and it's all been very good quality!
These look like my great grandmothers tea cakes. She made several flavors but her vanilla ones were my favorite.She made them on a cookie sheet so they were flatter and bigger than yours. I can just smell the molasses ones now though. Thank you for sharing and for a beautiful channel!
Cheers! I really appreciate your comment & love the story of your family’s tea cakes 💗🔥 This recipe threw me for a loop at first. Different way of making things. But I loved it in the end!
What do you use for pastry board.
Thank you for the poetry. Love just listening while doing needle work
I knew you’d be proud to see the poetry on this one 💗 Means a lot. I use an old piece of soapstone as my pastry board & it works really well
Neither my mother or either of my grandmothers ever had a stand mixer. They had what we called a hand mixer - a non electric mixer with a crank handle, and an electric mixer - an electric portable/ hand held mixer. I used both types often growing up in the 1960's.
I have seen one and so wish I had one! It would make certain kitchen jobs like creaming butter for cookies much MUCH easier. I can look back at my silliness now, thinking that an electric mixer was the only way to bake… but (sigh) my ignorance was real 😂
You need a shawl! I recommend a Faroese style as the "wings" can be tied back out of the way.
Oooohhh I will look that up! Spot on brilliant idea ❤️🔥
@ there is a lovely Danish pattern that someone worked out. It's fancier but can also be tied back. The Faroese are the ones I grab for a quick trip outside or over my coat for extra warmth. I always feel sorry for folks in cold climates without shawls. Men used to use them too.
Lady, where is your cuppa with those cookies! Love your vids! Ah, I was impatient!
Haha love your comment! Cheers! ☕️
muffins ,they look delicious.
Haha exactly! 😂I honestly did not know I was making muffins until I had eaten one 🤦🏻♀️ I read the recipe but my brain did not register what a “drop cake” was 🤪
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue ya them old books are hard to make out for sure,kinda like a corn dodger 🧐,do you have that in your old cookbook?🤔🤗🙌👊
No I’ll lol for it! Cheers 🔥
I am enjoying your Pioneer Skills series! So much fun. I definitely want to try the molasses drop cakes. I will have to substitute butter or palm shortening for lard, I used to use lard, but for health reasons and other I am pork free. I have a question, do you plan to put in an outhouse? how or where would uncle Dan get water? Thanks again!
Butter and palm shortening are a great substitute! (To modify an old Julia Child quote: “if you’re afraid of butter, use cream. And if not lard, use butter” 😉 )
But I absolutely understand avoiding certain foods for health reasons. Butter will work splendidly. Love that you are digging into the Pioneer Skills series!
Oh! And yes to an outhouse-plans for one this summer. And I’d love to dig a well in somewhat the fashion it was once done 🤔 (not sure if Robbie is as keen to hand-dig one though 😂)
New subscriber, well done!
Thank you, I’m so glad you are here!🔥
If you think about when that cabin was built, there WEREN'T TOWN EVERY 20 to 30 miles away, they were Alone, out there in settlements or Ranches, you might drive on a buck board for 2-3 days to go get supplies for 4 -6 months
I was thinking the same thing this week! Great insight 🔥 I was also thinking that many of these people had little family and not all the amenities (like barns, animals, wagons, etc) They were far from anything/anyone.
I’d like to film an episode about the loneliness and isolation, and very humble day to day.
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yeah they were busy sewing by candle light, or knitting blankets, or patch quilts, making pickles, or saurerkraut, men would be fixing tools, or harnesses, carving, but in general people went to bed when the Sun went down and woke up by first light
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue they had lofts filled with straw, or plucked feather beds, or rope beds, with a mattress stuffed with straw, lots of a woman's time was busy helping her husband outside, too, feeding animals, or washing the clothes making lye soap, chopping wood or gathering wood, carrying water, from however far away,
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue if they did have a shed or a barn, some would tie a rope from the house to the barn, bcz the snow would cause white outs, with the winds, some people couldn't see anything, if their wasn't a rope some would get lost in the snowstorm n die, just trying to go feed the animals
Making lye soak is on my list! And showing how on earth they did laundry out here 😩
Love yur videos.id love to live like that.
Cheers! It is absolutely worth living like this if you have the drive to (which sounds like you absolutely do!) If the chance comes, I say grab it with both hands 🙌🏻🔥 Love your comment
Where did you guys go to school? Where are you from?
I recognized across in your house. My parents and I have the same in our homes. Keep doing what you’re doing. So awesome!
Good eyes! Yes, a crucifix is a must have for the house. My aunt & uncle gave us this one from the holy land. My husband went to Fergus high here in Montana. I went to college at The University of Chicago 🙌🏻 Where are you at?
These have the same ingredients as my Grandma's molasses/ ginger snaps. I don't know where she got the recipe but I assume it was passed to her from great grandma. They are always good. Not as good as when she cooked them, but that might be mental.
I've used some primitive skills but only because I was in the Army. 20 of us in a desolate camp in the winter in Afghanistan and our generators broke. You learn a lot real quick when you don't have electricity, running water, or heat.
Oh holy smokes! To experience all that survival skill in a foreign (dangerous) country too 😮 That is next level pioneer living. My hat is off to you, friend 🫡 Thank you for your service 🇺🇸
Coming spring try a three sisters garden right by the cabin
I 100% agree! Yes! It’s already in my dreams for spring 🪴 Great comment
Love watching your cooking on the prairie cook stove I would like to know if you will ever add a small bedroom on to it or make more bunk beds in the open area you have now
That’s good idea & very keeping with historical use. The cabin originally had a lean to on the north side. I think that would have been a kitchen 🤔 We are debating adding a heat stove. The bunk beds we have work great for now. Plan to use them more when winter loosens its grip on us.
I often wonder why molasses was so important to pioneers. And this one, I had to do a bit of research into. My knowledge bases was not enough.
1) One thing I did know, was that pioneers weren't like us, with our dominance of wheat grain grown. They grew a whole range of grains...rye, buckwheat, oats, barley, spelt, millet, and important in this case; sorghum. All of these; would have been more important to them, than actually wheat grain and corn.
2) Back then, before the 50s, when Montana went crazy growing sugar beats, cane sugar was very, very expensive. Something a homesteading pioneer couldn't afford.
3) But from sorghum, you can make molasses... and sugar, which forms as crystals, in boiling down the molasses. _(Brown sugar comes from molasses. It's a different process than refined sugar.)_
4) And while honey is a better source of sweetener, there's a lot of work involved in keeping bees...and a good Montana winter can kill all your bees off. Sorghum is a plant and let grow. A lot less risky.
5) So, molasses was a byproduct; of making your own sugar. A byproduct, that you would have had a lot of. But still, something you wouldn't throw away.
So, I'm going to guess; that the molasses, originally used in your drop-cakes, might have actually been Blackstrap Molasses, which has the most sugar crystals extracted from it. Would have given it more of a rather bitter/tangy, molasses taste, and a lot less sweet. Blackstrap molasses would have been; good enough for weekday cooking, especially with baked beans and such. _(Best baked beans you can make; is with blackstrap molasses.)_ And pioneers grew and ate a lot of beans. Very easy to dry and store.
PS. Yes, you're getting there, with your thought process. What you're making; is a simple form of good old fashion German Gingerbread. And yes, you can make them soft, or you can make them crisp, but the original is soft...and stays soft for a long time. _(Google Lebkuchen; to see your recipe in its original form.)_
PPS: A little talk story:
I was about 10...maybe 12. And us kids went to stay at friends, a log house on the prairie, for a couple days before Christmas. Each major room in that house had a fireplace, that's all that there was for heating. Thick feather duvets and pillows, but even with a fire in the fireplace, and 10in log walls, the windows were frosted over.
That year, there'd not been much of a Chinook. Thanksgiving saw heavy snow, followed by heavier snow, and then even heavier snow. Snow was up to the windowsills.
We went to bed with the fire dying down to embers. But woke up in the middle of the night, to wolves howling, right outside our window. We each warmed up a spot on the glass of a window pane, to look outside. What we each saw, were wolf's eyes, staring back at us, barely a foot away. It was only when the horses, secure in the barn, started making noise, that the wolves moved off.
Then come morning, there were no embers left in the fireplace, and a good 1/3rd to half inch of frost on the feather duvet...and floor, chairs, clothing...everything. We debated and debated, as to who was going to get out of bed first, and start the fire. That's what homesteading is like.
You’ve done your research! I love this kind of insight into the pioneer experience. And blackstrap molasses is so good in beans. Is todays blackstrap the same as 150 years ago? I’m very curious. It can be so bitter… but perhaps that is what they liked (or had access to)
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue Yes, it can be quite bitter. You can only strain for crystals so much, and then the molasses is too thick to strain. But strain they would. It's the sugar that is the value.
Modern molasses is mostly made from cane or beet syrup. They are high in sugar to begin with. Sorghum is a grain, that just happens to have more sugar in it, than other grains, except corn. So sorghum molasses is different than modern molasses. It's tastes a bit more bitter, nuttier, grainier, but is a lot healthier. _(There are some who make and sell sorghum molasses... for about $10 for a 6oz to 8 oz bottle.)_
Ps. I just added a little; down memory lane pioneer story, to my first posting. I didn't know you were online.
@@michaelwittkopp3379 THAT story is incredible 🔥🔥🔥 Oh I hope others read it! What a thing to experience! Thick frost, fireplaces, and wolves at the window-a very Montana memory. WOW 😮 I’m going to fall asleep thinking of that.
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue You wrote; _"I’m going to fall asleep thinking of that."_ And then... in the middle of the night, you awake; hearing a wolf howling.
Actually, I find wolves howling cool. It's kind of that primordial _"Call of the Wild."_ A call back to the wild, to a way of life, foreign, strange, alien to so many of us, yet living still deep inside of each of us...an ancestral memory.
I love your videos so much! I want to ask you something. Is there a place where you can sleep and spend the night at your cabin? Is there a bathroom somewhere? Greetings from Greece. ❤
Cheers! Yes there are bunk beds that Robbie made for the kids. We’ve enjoyed those. I’ve just put a mattress on the floor too. We are planning to put an historically inspired outhouse nearby this summer 🤔 Until then, we go with nature 😉 or back to the ranch house where Robbie’s parents live
I'm related to Roosevelt ❤ great video
No way?! Well you have good genetics then 🙌🏻🔥
That reminds me of my great aunt’s hand written Appalachian Apple stack cake recipe😂 They don’t tell you all the steps, and my mother does the same thing. I’m not that kind of cook friend😂
Hahaha I hear you! These old cookbooks are honestly *barely* helpful 😂 You have to already know how to do it 🤪 But I love seeing the handwritten notes ❤️ Seeing what another family made memories eating
Yep ! life was very different back then...
In good ways & bad, of course 🔥 But I know I am learning so much just by experiencing/feeling the details.
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue My grand mother was living of a farm and you know the expression " we don't have a penny " Well my mother told me that my grand mother wanted to send a letter to her family and the stamp was 1 penny, and the let sat on the edge of the window for weeks, because they could not afford the cost of the stamp to mail it .... that it pretty crazy.
Wow, I didn't know molasses ran in January😊
Haha I had to warm it for some time!
@sabbath7081- It doesn't and this snowy New Hampshire morning, I'm moving slower then the molasses in January!
So how much snow did you get? My end of the county looks like a snowpocalypse hit 😅.
Holy smokes I just snowshoed into the cabin 😅❄️ Crazy snow! We didn’t go out for 2 days, just dug & dug. But boy is today gorgeous!
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue yep! Had to dig our own way out because the county forgets we exist 🤣. Couple really nice days and now it’s a white out again. This winter has all the ear marks of being wet 😝
@@erincaywood7596 It took winter a while to get here but it sure gas arrived! Need that moisture to soak in…
Watching your videos makes me wish a little more that I's born a hunderd or more years earlier.
I know what you mean! There is something so satisfying about this simple way of life. 🔥 But, whenever I wish to go back, I remind myself how grateful I am for modern medicine & dentistry. Other than that, the modern world is no good for us, I’d say
Do y'all actually live at this cabin? I'm jealous, though I would insulate just a little to better resist the sharp changes in temperature
We do not live here day in day out (although I lived in a similar log cabin for all my 20s, off grid). I 100% agree that if I did live in here with my family I would find a way to insulate. For now though, I learn so much by experiencing the hardship that people really did feel back when this house was new. Very few people had any real insulation.
My grandmother is Mrs C Haskins
Ha no way?! Dear Mrs. Haskins left us a beautiful cookbook
The firebox looks really small on that stove...how do you manage to keep this cabin warm enough to work or stay in .....not by that stove only ....ps...you have nice hands fog doing all that work...😊
It is a small firebox, you are right. It’s only meant for cooking, not heating. But I’m tough 😉 The stove warms me enough to be perfectly happy (if still needing my wool sweaters 🐑)
My mother (RIP) made what she called drop biscuits in an iron skillet, so she didn't need to use the oven. Perhaps what these were also.
Oh fascinating! Did she cover them with anything or just cook them like a pancake on the skillet? I just got myself a late Christmas present of a large cast iron griddle & I’m excited to try some different recipes on it 😊
@@Montana_Ranch_Rescue she flipped them once. Cast iron griddle will be awesome, for cooking anything stove top.
Prairie Scones!
Yes!! Love it 🔥
Is that an actual Wood-Fired cook stove or is it a coal fired cook stove?, it seems like you feed it a lot and it has a very small fire box with a large under draft vent, does it have Shaker grates?
Great questions! To be honest I think it is more built for coal-burns very fast 🤔 I had an older Monarch cookstove that I burned both wood and coal with by rotating the grates as needed. I haven’t tried moving the grates on this one. I need to study it better. It’s a South Bend Malleable.
@Montana_Ranch_Rescue it's a dream of mine to own a wood cook stove someday, I like to see these things in operation.
They are true beauties. Hope you find a perfect one & enjoy every minute of cooking on it. When one comes along grab it with both hands! Getting more and more rare 🔥
Give me your chocolate chip cookie recipe I'm convinced my late Grandmother put molasses in her CC Cookies
I’ll have to see if this cookbook has a CC cookie recipe with molasses 😂 Could be true!
The problem with lard is the high cholesterol content.
This is true, best not to overdo it.
do you sleep over night in that cabin?
We have! It is… rough… when cold out. Sleep close to the stove. But in the deep of winter we have a warm house to go home to, and I’m grateful.
My, maternal, great grandmother worked for a baker in Prague, in the Czech Republic, in the late 1800s, before she came to New York City in 1900, as a teenager. Her and her Slovakian born husband were married in New York City, that same year, and were living there for a little while, before they moved to Alberta.
It must have been interesting to work in a bakery, long ago, without any modern kitchen appliances that we have today.
My grandmothers, most of my aunts, and my (late) mother, were excellent cooks and bakers. That's why I like it. My paternal grandmother taught me how to make pierogies, when I was a child.
My dad told me that his mom would make sandwiches for his school lunch in the 1930s, and part of the 1940s, that was made with homemade bread, butter, cucumbers and lettuce, from the garden, on the farm in Alberta.
The resiliency these pioneer families had is amazing. We can learn alot from their experiences. Their faith and determination got them through harsher times.
The food you made looked amazing. Perfect for these colder winter days. I still admire the spectacular views you have from your cabin windows. This was awesome. Cheers! ✌️
Beautiful, beautiful comment 🔥 What strong people! they not only survived huge changes in culture & place but made life so good for their families. Those sandwiches sound delicious! 🥬 🍞 Thank you for sharing with me and others 🙌🏻
My husbands mother and grandmother made these for Christmas only……he is in his 70’s, he loves them ……. Personally I cannot stand them, too much like a Jonny cake mated with cake ….. but it is not about me…when my husband eats them…he is 5 again…his fountain of youth.
That is an adorable story ❤️😉 And how wonderful it takes him back-Yes, it is a different consistency, isn’t it? This recipe has a mild flavor; it can’t compete with our modern sugary cakes but I will say my kids gobbled ‘em up! Love your comment, thank you🔥
I don't wonder it's so cold in there. You're leaving the door open too much.
Ha that’s probably true 🙃 Sometimes it’s warmer outside 😉
This sounds like muffins....
Hahaha I had the same realization at the very END of baking 😂🤪 But I’ll be honest these are a bit different-still kind of their own category. But yeah, muffins is fair 😉
It’s beautiful, but why would you want to live like this??
Ahh it may be crazy, but this little house is incredibly satisfying to cook/work in 🔥
Why would anyone want to live in a city?
The main thing is that you have this feeling of strength and competence. You can take care of yourself. And there is nothing as warm as wood heat!
The self-reliance and freedom? The physical and mental health gained from hard outdoor work in the fresh air? Being close to nature? Raising and making your own food and the self-sufficiency gained by doing so instead of having to rely on ever more expensive groceries? The well-needed retreat from modern social and mental stress? The sense of community, trust, and mutuality gained from living in a harsh, remote area where everyone is familiar with the same struggles and there is no snobbery or social competition for status? Why do YOU think that so many people fantasize about living this way, and videos like these are so popular?
@ the saddest thing I've seen on the internet was during the tech bust. Young guy lost his job and was eating off the dollar menu at McDonalds. He didn't know how to cook. Contrast with my friend with a tipi, and trunks of food for his travels. We live better lives when we can feed ourselves and dress for the seasons. It's how we are supposed to live
❤❤❤🕊️🥄🥄
🔥🔥🔥❄️❄️❄️
Did not know that about making of pie crust! Keep at it,
We have been lied to about all this seed oil junk! Please don't use any of it no matter if cold pressed or not. Lard or butter is food not seed oils.
Well said 🔥 Lard got a bad rap but it is a wonderful food. Great for baking. Like anything, don’t overdo it, right?
Could you please put the ingredients list for those cakes in a comment? l would like to try them, maybe even try them made with Tibetan hull-less barley! Thank you!
Hey that’s a brilliant idea! Let me know how it goes? 😄 I put the recipe in the description for the video-hopefully you find it there
If you'd like to knit, know the project @wooldreamers in Spain
I will check that out! Thank you 🙌🏻 My mother has recently become splendid at knitting ❤️ I lack the patience 🤦🏻♀️ but would like to discipline myself and learn to do it.