While doing the research for the Butter in the Well series, the author found old recipes and home remedies along with the family and community histories. The recipes had been handwritten in old ledger books, on scraps of paper, in margins of old cookbooks, and forever etched in the memories of the pioneer's children Hubalek interviewed. As a result, Egg Gravy is a collection of recipes the pioneer women used during their homesteading days. Most of the recipes can be traced back to the original women that homesteaded the real-life setting of Butter in the Well.