Ranchos - Introduction

James Walker, Vaqueros in a Horse Corral, oil painting

The first major effort by Europeans to settle the Pacific coast was the Spanish establishment of the missions from 1769 to 1822.   They also established presidios to provide protection against foreigners and pueblos to help provide agricultural products to the presidios and build the Spanish population. 

Settlers were given land, and ships brought supplies to support these groups.  These changes introduced European fruits and vegetables, brought cattle and horses, and trained the Native Americans in agricultural practices and European cooking techniques.

After Mexico gained its independence from Spain, the Mexican period of California began. 

Supply ships stopped coming altogether but the ports opened up to foreign trade, and because custom duties were so high, smuggling was common. 

Starting in 1833 the missions were secularized – they were broken up and their resources (land, cattle, and equipment) were to be distributed primarily to the Native American neophytes, although that didn’t happen the way it was ordered. 

Often the land was offered for sale to citizens and some was given to the military.  It was also was given as land grants to Californios:  Spanish-speaking people who already lived in California.   These ranchos were permanent grants and big enough to allow the recipients to focus on raising cattle and sheep.   Native Americans who were trained by the missions were hired for their agricultural skills.

The ranchos, the people who ran them, and the culture they created defined the Mexican period enough to also call it the Rancho period.  It spans 1821 to 1848, from Mexican independence to the start of the Gold Rush. 

My Intent

In my exploration of the foods of the Rancho period, I hope to find records of what people had, what was imported, and how it was fixed.  For example, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. wrote about food he had in Monterey in 1842 and San Diego in 1847. 

One resource I have started exploring already is a cookbook written by Encarnación Pinedo.  Although she was born in 1848, at the end of the Rancho period, and her book was published in 1898, she was a child of a prominent Californio family in Northern California and raised in its culture.  She wrote her book to preserve that heritage for her nieces, who were being raised in an Anglo household. 

Miss Pinedo’s book, El cocinero español, “The Spanish Cook”, is the only known collection of Rancho recipes and considered an important resource of the period.  I am translating it and trying some of the recipes.