ARCHIVED - Bon appétit!
A Celebration of Canadian Cookbooks

Educational Resources

Welcome to the Recipe Game! The Recipe Game challenges you to identify the ingredients of four mystery recipes by answering questions about the history of food and cooking. Answer each question to reveal the next ingredient in the mystery recipe.

1. Before this first ingredient could be used by the early settlers, it was separated and ground at a water-powered mill called a grist mill.

Identify the ingredient: sugar / flour / starch / onions

Ingredient Clue: The early European settlers made this product from wheat instead of the corn used by First Nations people.

The correct ingredient is flour. Start off your recipe with 750 ml (3 cups) of wheat flour. The First Nations people hand-ground their corn flour, but the first water-powered mill for wheat flour started at Port-Royal in 1607.

2. In ancient times, this next ingredient was sometimes used as money.

Identify the ingredient: salt / rocks / leaves / sugar

Ingredient Clue: This ingredient was used by early settlers in Canada to cure meat and preserve fish.

The correct ingredient is salt. You now need to add 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of salt to the flour (if you have baking powder, add 45 ml (3 tbsp.)). The first salt bed in Canada was found by mistake. In 1866 Samuel Platt was drilling for oil but found a salt bed instead.

3. Once you have mixed together the dry ingredients, you make a hole in the centre of your mixture and add this ingredient. Make sure you save some of this ingredient, because you will need to use it later to help cook your food.

Identify the ingredient: eggs / yogurt / molasses / butter

Ingredient Clue: This ingredient is a fat, an essential cooking ingredient.

The ingredient you're looking for is butter. Melt 30 ml (2 tablespoons) of butter and pour it in the hole you made in your dry ingredients, along with 375 ml (1½ cups) of water. Mix the ingredients together to make the dough. Split the dough into smaller parts and place it in a frying pan. Use some of your remaining butter to grease the pan. Don't forget to cook it on both sides.

Guess the recipe: pancakes / bannock / biscuits / baguette

Clue for Guessing Recipe Name: This food, originally from Scotland, was very important to Canada's early fur traders and settlers. Once the First Nations people were able to get milled flour, they also began to make this dish a staple of their diet.

The mystery recipe is: Bannock