Ma Pullen

     Knowing your way around the kitchen has its advantages.  Harriet Pullen was living in Seattle with 3 sons and a daughter to support and a ne'er do well bankrupt husband when the Klondike Gold Rush made the front page news.  She put her children in the care of friends and headed north to try her luck in Alaska, not as a prospector but as an entrepreneur in the culinary arts and hospitality industry.  As author Ann Chandonnet put it, "defying convention, she set off alone for a land where respectable woman were rare."

     Passing herself off as a widow for maximum respectability, her first employment was in Skagway as a cook for Captain William Moore, the town's founder.  With only $7 to her name she began work, preparing meals for builders in town and prospectors passing through, earning $3 a day.  A large tent served as both her work station and her dwelling.  In her spare time she baked dried apple pies in pie pans snipped and bent from recycled tin cans and sold them to hungry miners with a sweet tooth.  She did so well that she was soon able to purchase a team of horses and with her equine experience, went into the freight hauling business.  It turned out to be quite profitable.  With the profits she eventually purchased Moore's former mansion and converted it into the Pullen House in 1900.

     Known around town affectionately as "Ma" Pullen, Harriet created a luxury hotel of the place, importing fine china and silverware, soft beds and an even greater luxury, bathtubs.  With the help of her sons she provided top quality accommodations and high class meals for nearly half a century.  The Pullen House thrived under her watchful eye until her death in 1947.



     Here is one of her favorite recipes:

Ma Pullen's Raspberry Batter Pudding

1 1/2 cups flour                                                      1 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup milk                                                           1 Tbsp sugar

1 egg                                                                        1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt                                                            1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

Mix a batter of all the ingredients, adding the raspberries last.  Mix them in well.  Place in a buttered pudding mold and steam 30 minutes.  

Serve warm with hard sauce.

Makes 4 servings