Christmas dinners weren’t so easy for pioneers

Preparing an elaborate Christmas dinner for family and friends can be a logistical and technical challenge for even the best cooks. But most modern holiday feasts are a cinch compared to those cooked in the frontier West more than a century ago. “Have you ever tried plucking a goose?” asked John Rumm, curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody. “It’s not an easy process. The feathers don’t come off easily. And you have to singe the skin to get some of the quills out of there. It’s a pretty labor-intensive thing, which is why I suspect nobody eats that much goose anymore for Christmas,” he said. Settlers in remote Western frontier towns lacked most of the modern conveniences taken for granted by today’s cooks, and had limited or no access to fresh foods during the winter, Rumm said. Minnie Williams was a rancher in Red Lodge and later, Meeteetse. Her husband, Frank, was a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. One year, when planning a Christmas visit, Cody sent word ahead of his special dinner request: fried chicken. “So Cody was a man of cosmopolitan tastes. He had dined in the finest restaurants in New York and Europe. But when push came to shove, he wanted his fried chicken,” Rumm said...read more