Pan Bread the Old Western Way

Anyone who follows my blog knows I love Westerns (here’s the link to my Western Book Review category). One of my favorite authors is Robert Thomas. His 113+series about US Marshall/bounty hunter Jess Williams, who hunts only the worst of the worst outlaws, is one of my favorites. Jess Williams fights injustice, follows the law, and helps those who can’t help themselves. The stories are set during my preferred post-Civil War time frame of 1866-1899, an era in America’s west when fighting Indians had almost ended, Western law hadn’t yet solidified (US Marshalls and Town Marshalls aside) so outlaws often rode roughshod over good citizens, the Pony Express had been replaced by stagecoaches, themselves being replaced by trains, indoor toilets were the rage in the best hotels, the sewing machine was beginning to make clothing more abundant, canned goods were becoming popular (especially peaches), and so much more.

Our hero, Jess Williams, still rode his trusty horse from one western town to another, slept on the trail, and cooked his meals over an open fire. That’s what I’m going to talk about today, in this post.

Jess often eats beef jerky or peaches from a can, brews his Arbuckles in a dented coffee pot (I started drinking Arbuckles because Jess swears by it), but also likes cooking meals in a cast iron pan he carries on his pack horse. A meal he often prepares is called pan bread–unleavened bread spiced with whatever he has available. It sounds so good, my sister and I (also a Jess Williams fan) decided to try it out. I couldn’t find a recipe so I contacted the author, Robert Thomas, not expecting an answer.

Boy howdy was I wrong! He sent me instructions!

Hi Jacqui, I never wrote down a recipe, but it’s simple to make. Just take flour and water and mix it to something like a pancake batter. use an eight-inch pan and put some oil in it. (Jess would have used lard) Pour the mixture into the pan about a half inch thick and cook on very low heat.

It should start to thicken and that’s when you drop anything you want into the batter. Raisins, nuts, berries, small pieces of fruit, or nothing at all.

Once it sets up on the bottom, move to the sink and flip it to cook the other side. It should be brown on the bottom when you flip it.

Let it continue to cook until a toothpick or fork comes out clean.

Let it cool a bit and rip apart. It might take a few practice runs before you get the hang of it. Flipping it can be tricky because it fills the pan. You can even mix some corn meal into the batter if you want.

Enjoy!

Robert

Flour, water, and something for flavor. I can’t wait to taste it!

Unleavened bread in a pan

Flipped to cook other side

Ready to eat!

Thank you, Robert Thomas, for sharing your recipe!

–image from Deposit Photos

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Man vs. Nature saga, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the acclaimed Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Natural Selection, Summer 2022

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