13 Meals Lumberjacks Ate Back In The Day

When you take a look at the world we live in now, it's hard to imagine going back to a time when you would willingly be isolated from others to work an extremely difficult job and eat basic foods while living in a camp. But lumberjacks throughout history pushed their bodies and minds to the limit this way, saying goodbye to their families, and moving into desolate camps for months at a time to chop trees down all day with strangers. Through their efforts, Americans were able to build homes and businesses while also setting up a strong economy.

Have you ever wanted to know more about what it was like to be a lumberjack in those days? Willa Hammitt Brown, the author of "Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack"; Dixie Stewart, the secretary and treasurer of the Tahquamenon Logging Museum; and Kerry Bloedorn, the director of the Pioneer Park Historical Complex; all came together to share their expert knowledge of lumberjacks and their dietary habits. Read on so you can learn about the different types of foods lumberjacks ate in their camps, and see if you would have had the stomach to keep up with them.

Many folks today see basic homemade pancakes as a treat that they can enjoy occasionally for breakfast. But for lumberjacks, they were a huge source of power. The pancakes themselves provided lots of carbohydrates for energy, while maple syrup added an immediate burst of energy to start the lumberjacks' intense days. Pancakes were not only something that the lumberjacks could afford to eat every day without harming their insulin levels, but they were also something they needed to eat to avoid wasting away.

"The morning meal was very important for the hard-working lumberjack as they needed 5,000 to 8,000 calories daily to maintain the hard work they did in very cold weather," Dixie Stewart explained. "Pancakes with lots of butter and syrup was one of their favorites."

Willa Hammit Brown agreed that a hearty breakfast was essential for setting the men up for a successful day out in the woods. She also said that lumberjacks developed their own language, so pancakes weren't actually called pancakes. "They also had little nicknames for nearly everything (partially this is just in-group lingo, but to some extent it likely helped with language barriers among immigrants)," she said. So, what did lumberjacks call pancakes? Sweatpads! Clearly, these men were so hungry that nothing would ruin their appetite.

A lumberjack's breakfast didn't stop at pancakes. They were only a small piece of the picture. Oatmeal and other types of simple porridge also helped fill the lumberjacks up a few times a week. Stewart said, "Oatmeal and porridge were served some days too ... The camp cooks had to change up their menu so the jacks would be happy. They worked with a limited number of supplies and made it all work. The cooks were often one of the highest paid workers on the payroll."

Bloedorn expressed that being a cook in one of these camps was never a walk in the park. Not only did they have to prevent the weekly menu from becoming daunting, but they also had to make constant calculations to ensure they never ran out of staple ingredients. "Once the season started, the cook worked with what he had," she said. "In remote camps, there was no running to town for a missing ingredient. Creativity and substitutions were part of the chore, and waste was unheard of."

Brown painted a more optimistic picture, describing how — as time went on — these camps became a bit more developed. "Things got better as camps became more accessible by road and railroad," she said. She explained that in some camps, "food supplies would come once every week or two by supply wagon."

Pancakes, oatmeal, and porridge are a great start, but the lumberjacks also needed some protein for breakfast. Ham, bacon, sausage, and beans were thus frequently on the menu. However, meat of any kind was a luxury, and many camps chose to stock up on processed meats because they wouldn't go bad as fast. "Meat was rarer until the 20th century, though cured meats like jerkies and bacon were around," Brown said. "Some camps even kept a cow for dairy."

As for storage, Bloedorn explained, "Cured and smoked meats, hams, and slabs of bacon hung from the rafters of the cook shack or a dedicated smokehouse, where cold air and smoke kept them preserved." Beans, meanwhile, were the king of protein because they could be kept safely in the camps dried in bulk or (less often) in cans. The weather had much less of an impact on them compared to meat. As Bloedorn said, "Beans, a cheap and calorie-dense staple, were served at nearly every meal."

When discussing foods that always appeared on lumberjacks' plates, Stewart said that potatoes were transformed in all kinds of ways. Fried potatoes during breakfast could give the lumberjacks another yummy source of carbs.

Bloedorn said that treats like old-fashioned cake donuts were always a welcome sight at the communal breakfast table. "Doughnuts were fried in lard and a camp staple," she shared. "Nothing fancy ever, but after a twelve-hour shift in the frozen woods, nobody was complaining to get sugar anyway it came." According to Brown, lumberjacks called donuts "cold-shuts", and Stewart said that cooks had to start their days at 3 a.m. so the lumberjacks could eat by 5. Any baked goods were prepared using a wood-fired stove. "If you have never cooked on a wood stove before I will tell you it's an art controlling the temperature," she explained. "How they baked pies and bread and didn't burn everything up is amazing."

Of course, the lumberjacks needed something to wash all that breakfast down. "Coffee and tea were also part of the breakfast," Stewart said. Brown explained that these drinks were respectively called "blackjack" and "swampwater", and that keeping both the coffee and tea as dry as possible was imperative, so the cooks were careful about storage. "Coffee and tea came in tins or chests, kept dry and away from moisture," Bloedorn confirmed.

It was also acceptable to eat pie at any meal, and sometimes the lumberjacks would add some to their plates during breakfast. The key ingredient in these pies was prunes, which were called "lumberjack strawberries" according to Stewart. "Prunes were certainly popular for keeping the men regular," Brown said.

Since meat was a rarity, one clever ingredient that cooks kept on hand was dried beef that could be rehydrated with a tasty cream sauce. Nowadays, this dish is known as creamed chipped beef, and is typically served on toast. But a preserved menu from a lumberjack camp in the early 1900s features creamed dried beef served with fried cornmeal mush, butter boiled potatoes, syrup bread, orange marmalade, oatmeal cookies, and coffee. That might sound like a strange combination of foods for breakfast, but the men presumably enjoyed it.

Brown explained that the camp's success often hinged on the cook and his team. "The cook was incredibly important; pay and work were nearly identical at all lumber camps, so cooks were a competitive edge," she said. "Men would follow particularly good cooks to a camp and would even leave a camp with bad food to find a better one." Stewart concurred, "The best camps were the ones with the best food."

Bloedorn warned, "A bad cook could empty a camp. A great one kept men fed, content, and coming back next season. The success of a lumber camp started and stopped in the kitchen!"

Once the lumberjacks filled their bellies with all of those breakfast dishes, they could get moving. When lunchtime finally rolled around, the men remained in the forest to eat. If time is money for the average working person, then sunlight was money for the lumberjacks. "Men worked from see to no-see, that is dawn to dusk, and in winter that wasn't very many hours," Brown shared. "Cooks or cooks assistance would take a wagon called the swing-dingle (do not ask me why) to the cut with stew and dried-fruit pies."

Bloedorn said that the cooks' goal was to make the heartiest soup possible, and in that regard, split pea soup reigned supreme. "It was thick, filling, and easy to make in bulk from dried split peas and salt pork," she said. "Bean soup ran a close second. Beef or pork bone broth with root vegetables like turnip, carrot, and onion was common, and potato soup was a cheap, calorie-dense option." She mused that basically anything was okay when it came to using up ingredients. Throwing veggies and any meat into the pot would suffice.

Stewart explained that root vegetables made up the bulk of these soups. "Potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, onions, and rutabaga were the vegetables used by the camps as they were easy to store in a root cellar for most of the winter," she said.

Some men in these lumberjack camps were also talented hunters. When time and luck allowed, they were able to feast on fresh meat, which was definitely a luxury. Stewart said that it was common for the cooks to use wild game meat in stews, specifically. Boiling the meat would help soften the texture.

Bloedorn said that the winter actually helped the cooks because the freezing temperatures ensured that any game that was hunted could remain edible for long stretches of time. She explained that, "whole animals were hung outdoors or in an unheated shed and simply frozen solid until needed."

The idea of working outside during winter might sound awful, but some things worked out for the best this way. The teams were able to get into a flow and complete the job with ease. Bloedorn continued, "The freeze preserved food, hardened the ground for hauling timber, and locked the rivers solid until the spring log drives. The whole operation was built around the cold, and the camp cook stocked his pantry accordingly."

In addition to soup, Stewart said that lunch for lumberjacks could have included sandwiches, coffee, tea, and donuts. Essentially, the men could have a second go at anything that wasn't finished during breakfast.

Bloedorn explained that sometimes, the cooks and their teams would have to lug lunch out to the lumberjacks over a mile away from the kitchen. Therefore, she said, "It was simple and portable: cold salt pork or leftover meat sandwiched in thick bread, baked beans, and cookies or pie for quick energy. Hot tea or coffee came along in a jug to warm up the jacks." And even if lunch felt a bit repetitive, Brown said that it wasn't an issue. "The good thing is that, as the men said, hunger was the best sauce. A typical jack would be burning up to 6,000 calories a day — they'd eat what they were given."

While all three experts agreed that the lumberjacks never cooked their own meals, there are some historical interviews that revealed that some camps allowed the men to pack their own lunches. The cooks would set everything out and let the men choose whatever they fancied. Some men made peanut butter sandwiches, while others debated over sweet treats like pie, cookies, or donuts. "Cookies were portable, handheld, and were given out like currency," Bloedorn mused.

How many different ways could you prepare beans without getting bored? Stewart shared, "Bean soup was most likely the soup they ate most often." Brown warned that it's "no joke to cook with less-than-fresh ingredients." Still, the cooks did their best to innovate. Out of this innovation came a dish that became a staple throughout the country: beanhole beans.

Bloedorn explained that the name came from the cooking technique. "A variety of beans would be cooked in a 'bean hole'," she said. "Because dried beans need to be cooked a long time, a hole would be dug in the ground, a fire made within, and then a bean pot set on the coals and buried with more coals. It cooked often overnight, and dug for serving."

While beans were the central ingredient in this dish, the soup got its flavor from salt pork. This dish is simple, and was usually served with bread to add even more bulk during lunch. "Along with beans, bread was a MUST, and other carb heavy food items were always on the menu. Slathered in lard or fruit preserves if lucky," Bloedorn elaborated.

Once the lumberjacks came back to camp to rest for the evening, they were ready for dinner. Brown said the three pillars of this meal were potatoes, other root vegetables, and pies for dessert. Bloedorn said, "The cook pulled out all the stops," which meant the feast included "roasted or boiled salt pork, beef stew or wild game when available, alongside piles of boiled potatoes, baked beans, and dense bread."

Stewart said, "Depending on how well stocked their kitchens were, there would be several main dishes like stew, beans and salt pork, ham, potatoes (they ate potatoes every day), roasted root vegetables, fried cabbage, bread, and biscuits." Pie was a favorite, but stewed prunes and jams for the biscuits were also a nice treat.

Bloedorn elaborated that seconds were often expected because the lumberjacks were grateful to finally be off the clock. Eating was a way to unwind and refuel for yet another day of intense work in the woods.

Baked fish was also on the menu at times, especially at camps located near rivers. This simple addition to the meal rotation could work wonders for luring lumberjacks to the site. Bloedorn shared, "The reputation of the bull cook traveled fast through logging country. A skilled cook with a good table was a powerful recruiting tool, and lumber companies knew it."

The pressure didn't stop once the men were recruited. The cooks had to consistently make enough food and ensure it was tasty. Bloedorn said, "The scale alone was tough. Everything had to be made in industrial quantities, dozens of loaves of bread baked daily, entire pigs, barrels of beans, pies counted in the dozens. A cook who didn't plan right ran short, and a hungry crew was a dangerous and unhappy one."

One dinner from a 1917 logging camp menu was sure to hit the spot: It featured corn soup (which would have brought a pleasant sweetness) to start, then baked fish with mashed potatoes and creamed cabbage. And of course, the men also had tons of bread and butter to fill their stomachs, plus oatmeal pudding with milk sauce for dessert.

A 1923 lumber camp menu shared by the Maine State Museum shows what a proper dinner could have looked like when camp conditions were favorable. Those men dined on roast pork loin with mashed turnips, green peas, gravy, baked beans, and yeast bread. Brown said that "canned vegetables became increasingly popular towards the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries," so it's likely that those green peas came from a can.

Given how prevalent root vegetables were in camp kitchens, it's no surprise that the team got creative and made mashed turnips to give the men a break from potatoes. For the uninitiated, mashed turnips can be quite tasty and similar to potatoes. They have a bit of a peppery bite and a subtle sweetness compared to white potatoes.

Of course, no dinner would have been complete without dessert. Bloedorn shared, "Lots of sugar would be served at this meal: pies, puddings, or molasses cookies." For dessert, these men in Maine sipped tea while munching on pineapple pie and cookies. The pineapple pie was most definitely an exotic treat since the lumberjacks were used to prunes and the occasional apple pie. One could imagine that these men had an extra pep in their step the following day.

Rita Chiasson was a divorced mom of five who became a traveling cook for Adirondack lumberjacks to make ends meet. She was known to come up with creative meals, including a dish the men responded passionately to: home fries mashed together with hot dogs and fried in lard. We can imagine the results were crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle, and delightfully savory.

Although Chiasson may have had help, her interview (whose tape and transcript are at the Adirondack Museum) gives the impression that she worked alone. According to Bloedorn, this was possible at a small camp. "Depending on the type and size of camp, the cook could be a professional hired cook for a large camp run by a large woods operation," she said. "Or in a smaller camp it could be the foreman's wife."

Chiasson was grateful that the men were kind and respectful to her. Respect was a huge deal at these camps. Brown explained, "No talking was allowed at meals so that the men could get in and out quickly and cooks/cooks assistants could hear the calls for more food. There were tall tales of cooks who had beheaded men for talking during the meal or complaining about the food." Thankfully, Chiasson was not likely to receive such complaints. Among her superstar meals were also macaroni salad made with instant or evaporated milk, and cauliflower with milk gravy.