Bacon and Beans : Ranch Country Recipes

by Stella Hughes

• ISBN13: 9780911647686
• ISBN10: 0911647686
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Trade Paper
• Publisher: Western Horseman
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

What makes this cookbook unusual are two things: First, the author is an authentic chuck-wagon cook, not just someone who, for fun, competes at chuck-wagon cooking contests held around the country although she did plenty of that too, but one who actually prepared meals for cowboys at large ranches across the West. She knows whereof she speaks when it comes to ranch-country cooking. Second, each chapter begins with a story from her ranch life experiences, much of it humorous and always entertaining. Filtered throughout are recipes, each chapter concentrating on a particular food category. There are over 200 recipes and numerous illustrations and cartoons.

Author Biography

Born in Oklahoma, Stella Hughes moved to California where she rode, taught, rodeoed, trick-rode, Roman-rode and roped thoughout her childhood. Her husband Mack spent 30 years as herd manager for the San Carlos Apaches cattle operation and Stella became a chuck-wagon cook extraordinaire. She's the author of many articles about cooking and folk medicine. Her books include Chuck Wagon Cookin' and Hashknife Cowboy: Recollections of Mack Hughes. For the latter she received the Western Writers of America Spur Award given for best nonfiction.

Table of Contents

The Uncrowned Kings

Cookin' By Guess and By Gosh

Campfires and Dutch Ovens

Day's A-Breakin'

Doughgods and Other Breads

Salads and Stuff

All But the Hide and Horns

Cookin' the Wild Ones

Hot Stuff

Y'All Come

Fluff-Duffs and Other Sweets

More for the Sweet Tooth

Break Time

Judged Competitions

Special Helps

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

From Chapter titled "Campfires and Dutch Ovens"

When I first started using Dutch ovens in a camp, I burned everything to a crisp. It's wasn't much consolation to find most amateur camp cooks have done the same. After ruining countless dollars' worth of grub in the form of charred biscuits, scorched roasts, cremated steaks, incinerated bacon and petrified eggs with lovely brown ruffles, it finally dawned on me that successful cooking in Dutch ovens is accomplished by using hot coals and not by an inferno.

My first trial-by-fire may have been less traumatic if I'd had a competent teacher, or any teacher at all. Mack, my husband of one month, while riding out of camp with the other cowboys, tossed this remark over his shoulders: "There's plenty of wood and everything you need to cook with. We won't be in 'til dark, so you have all day."

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Excerpted from Bacon and Beans: Ranch Country Recipes by Stella Hughes
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.