Recipes

Cooking with Lewis and Clark

These pages include recipes to help you experience the expedition in a whole new way.

    Sunflowers

    Helianthus annuus

    by

    The common sunflower as a staple food among the Mandans and Lemhi Shoshones did not escape the attention of the journalists. Includes two traditional Hidatsa recipes.

    Buffaloberry

    Shepherdia argentea

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    Lewis collected buffaloberry specimens which were new to science and Clark had them in a delightful tart. Native Americans had been eating the bright red berries for generations.

    Jerusalem Artichokes

    Helianthus tuberosus

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    The French explorer Samuel de Champlain found the vegetable growing in Indian gardens along the Saint Lawrence seaway and carried specimens of it back to France in 1603, where its root soon became a staple food for humans.

    Jerking Meat

    Preserving meat without refrigeration

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    What did the captains mean when they say they stopped to jerk their meat? At the time of the expedition “jerk” simply stood for “dried meat.” This article includes a recipe.

    Portable Soup

    Food of last resort

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    In the 1750s the British Navy had begun issuing 50 pounds of portable soup for every 100 sailors on long voyages, partly to vary the daily diet of salt-cured meats, and partly in the mistaken belief that it would prevent scurvy.

    Boudin Blanc

    Charbonneau's chef d'ouvre

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    Meriwether Lewis’s recitation of Charbonneau’s recipe for buffalo sausage, known as “white pudding,” serves not only as documentation of a unique frontier cuisine, but also as an example of the captain’s own brand of satire.

    Making Pemmican

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    This staple Indian food was adopted by northern explorer Alexander Mackenzie, Lewis and Clark, and the North American fur trade. This article explains how it was made, why it worked well for travelers, and how it was made and eaten. Recipe included.

    Lewis’s Suet Dumplings

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    When making suet dumplings during the portage around the falls of the Missouri, Lewis demonstrated a unique and magnanimous act of leadership. This article includes a recipe.

Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail

The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

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Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.