Suggested supplies for Oregon Trail: 150 lbs. of flour, 20 lbs. of corn meal, 50 lbs. of bacon, 40 lbs. of sugar, 10 lbs. of coffee, 15 lbs. of dried fruit, 5 lbs. of salt, half a pound of saleratus (baking soda), 2 lbs. of tea, 5 lbs. of rice, and 15 lbs. of beans.
I'm just wondering what they would do with all that flour.. The idea of just mixing flour with water and cooking it over a fire doesn't sound that appetizing to me.
Flour is a major component in the making of bread. It would also be used in things like crusts for pies (along with sugar and fruit). Cornmeal does not spoil, which would make it particularly important to emigrants on the Trail, and can be used to make corn mush, or "hasty pudding."
Flour and water baked in a slow oven for roughly 2000 years makes hardtack, a mostly inedible substance that can also be used to build bridges, erect houses, makes a passable body armor, and removes bad teeth. I may be exaggerating slightly, but not much.
You missed Baking 101. Notice all the baking soda. That goes into baking powder biscuits, flapjacks, and dumplings made on the jackrabbit stew. It makes quickbreads like soda bread (best baked in a coil around a stick) and cornbread, which uses a lot of flour. Any wagon with a woman on board will probably have a crock of yeast starter for yeast bread and yeast flapjacks. The bread would be probably baked as rolls.
Back then, the basic food was breadstuffs. It was like rice in an Asian meal: the other stuff was just flavouring to it.