I’m hard of hearing, so I went quite a while with the misconception that my grandmother’s recipe for mock turtle soup called for a cat head.

Somehow it didn’t seem a stewed cat’s head would yield enough meat to be noticeable in a pot of soup, but I figured maybe its taste was strong enough to lend a special savor to the other ingredients, which included five hard-boiled egg yolks.

Luckily for the neighborhood strays, I hadn’t any immediate interest in actually making mock turtle soup or, for that matter, genuine turtle soup.

My mother and I eventually straightened things out after she lent me Grandma’s well-bandaged copy of “The Mile Above the Sea Cook Book,” published during the Great Depression by the Ladies Guild of Lander, Wyo.

Turned out the recipe called for a calf head, which is bad enough from a squeamish standpoint, but considerably more understandable up in the Wind River Mountains where calves were far more plentiful than fattened house cats.

Much as anything, Grandma used her recipe book as a convenient place to paste or copy items from ladies magazines for things like Piquant Pineapple Salad and Ice Water Pickles. I know she made a lot more pickles with home-grown cucumbers than she ever did salads with expensive store-bought pineapple, but it must have felt good to serve the family something fancy every so often.

With hunting season upon us, a couple recipes contributed to the book by Grandma’s older contemporaries may still be useful, though this one struck me as something I, a non-bear eater, probably could have made up myself:

ROAST BLACK BEAR

Have roast cut from a young black bear, of the desired size. Rub thoroughly with salt, pepper and ground sage. Roast thoroughly, basting frequently so it will be moist. Serve with apple sauce as you do pork.

I guess, when baking a brute, fine details like oven temperature aren’t important.

Around here, where you have to beat the damnable deer and elk away from your roses with a stick, this next one from D.C. Nowlin of then-impoverished Jackson Hole might be worth trying:

JERKED VENISON OR ELK

Cut the lean flesh into thin strips, dip into boiling brine for half a minute, hang and smoke. I have never used “liquid smoke,” but presume it would give the desired flavor.

My way of cooking this jerked meat (when it is thoroughly dried) is to chop fine, or pound on a block into a pulp, put in a frying pan, cover with cold water and cook until it has boiled a few minutes, adding grease and black pepper. If this “mess” seems too thin, thicken with flour or bread crumbs.

Choice portions of lean elk meat, from the loin and hams, can be prepared by cutting into two-pound pieces and placing these in a vessel, in layers, each layer to be well covered with salt and sugar, half and half, and left for about ten days; then hang and smoke.

Clues about how ordinary working people really lived, even as recently as the 1930s, are hard to come by — there just never was much effort to capture details about what they ate, what it cost, how they dressed and what they did for fun. So I love things like Grandma’s recipe book for the windows they open into a bygone and ill-recorded time.

A little treasure that came my way a few years ago records in pencil was the monthly income and expenses of newlyweds living on the Lower Columbia in 1932. Together they made $99.42 that August, paying $5 rent, $1.50 for lights, $1 for water and $2.48 for milk. Betty Nurminen notes her ring cost $9, the license $4.50 and the preacher $5. In September, George’s income as a salmon fisherman dropped to $30.80, but cushioned by $120 in the bank, they went to the movies five times, paying a total of $2.10, also buying $1.30 of ice cream and 35 cents worth of candy. Medical outlay for the month consisted of 10 cents for caster oil.

I guess Betty and George’s lifestyle probably would seem pretty familiar to my coal mining/ranching grandparents, likewise living in the West in an era when there was little money, but people managed to get by anyway. Way things are going, maybe we’ll all soon get a taste of what it was like.

We at the Chinook Observer are always interested in local people and the challenges we all face. I appreciate your continuing support for our community-based news project.