So what's Blackbird up to?

So, where were we? I've just checked Empire for Liberty pages 184 and 186. As you may recall, currently we are making those dishes that Sheriff Cliff Ryan found on his kitchen table the day after he was... spoiler alert noted... after he ran into a spot of trouble ;) 

I think we are up to the stew or the bread pudding. 

Stew sounds delicious (because I believe it was venison stew, which is new to me), but the bread pudding will be easier. I live in a big city where venison is considered an exotic meat, not your frontier staple. And we have a gluten intolerant family member, so by rights the bread pudding should be made with gluten- free bread. Not very  authentic to the time I'm thinking. 

But you know what, I'd like to know what happened with folks with gluten intolerance back in the day? Did they know what gluten intolerance was? Did they suffer from it as much as we in modern times do? Did they use less wheat-based flour and more seed-based and nut-based products? Is it our super-refined, super-douper flour that makes it harder to digest while it's resistant to disease and better for farmers to grow and sell. 

I will investigate to the best of my ability and report back. Meanwhile, if anyone has knowledge of gluten intolerance in the 1880's, please feel free to share.