A SHANTY BOY’S MEAL- LESSON PLAN

Background Notes

The cook and his helper, “cookee,” were important persons in the lumber camp. They were kept busy—breakfast as early as 4:00am, lunch brought out to the men in the woods, and a hearty supper after the woods were dark and work was done. Sometimes a man and wife team were hired to cook for the lumber camp. The cookee called the shanty boys to eat by blowing on a long tin horn called a “gabriel.” They ate their meals in the cook shanty under a rule of silence to prevent arguments and fighting.

Breakfast might consist of friend potatoes, sowbelly, beans, sourdough pancakes with molasses syrup or gravy, hot biscuits, coffee or tea, pork sausages and other meats. Lunch, called “flaggins,” was eaten in the woods. Supper was hearty with more pork and beans, potatoes, meat and gravy, and whatever the cook could rustle up. For dessert there may be prune, raisin, dried apple, or lemon pie. “Vinegar pie” was a simple dessert. Occasionally some camps would hire a man to hunt and fish for the camp.

Objectives

• Students will be able to list foods eaten by the shanty boys in the lumber camps.

• Students will be able to tell why silence was the rule followed during the lumber camp meals.

• Students will be able to express like or dislike of the foods eaten by shanty boys.

Materials Needed

Foods such as those eaten by the shanty boys: pork and beans, pancakes, gravy, baking powder biscuits, potatoes (fried or boiled), pork sausages, etc…, coffee or tea, “vinegar pie” (recipe at end of lesson)

Directions

Plan a shanty boy’s meal with the students. Discuss how the hard work of the shanty boys affected the quantity of food they ate and their willingness to eat “plain” foods—especially pork and beans—day after day.

Be sure hot foods are cooked/heated well. Encourage students to try everything. Coffee and tea may be tasted. Announce the meal with trills of a horn. Enforce the silence rule during the meal. After eating and cleanup are finished, discuss the food, its variety (or lack of it), tastes, and the role played by the silence rule.

Questions for Discussion

1. How hungry would you be after a day—from sunup to sunset—of back-breaking work in the winter woods?

2. Why did lumber camps have the food they had? Why is there no mention of milk (few had a cow), oranges or other fresh fruit (some had prunes and dried fruit), or many of the foods we are used to eating (transportation and storage problems)?

3. Would a “no talking at lunch” be a good rule to avoid arguments in a school cafeteria today? Why or why not? What other ways might you avoid conflicts?

Vocabulary

• Cookee- cook’s helper

•Flaggins- lumberjack’s lunch eaten in the woods

• Gabriel horn- long tin horn used to call the shanty boys at meal time

• Shanty boys- loggers or woodsmen (named for “shanties” in which they lived); lumberjack

• Sowbelly- fat salt pork or bacon

Vinegar Pie

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

1 ½ cups boiling water

1/3 cup vinegar

1/3 cup cornstarch

Dash of nutmeg

3 eggs

1 tablespoon butter

Baked 8” or 9” pie shell

Separate eggs and beat the three egg yolks together. Stir the first five ingredients together and cook until clear and thick. Stir half the mixture into three beaten egg yolks; add mixture to remaining mix in saucepan and stir until combined; let rest off burner for one minute. Stir in a tablespoon of butter until melted. Pour into a baked pie shell.

Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society