Texas Home Cooking Page 16
To grill the steaks outdoors, fire up enough charcoal to form a single layer of coals beneath the meat. At the same time, put a few handfuls of mesquite chips in water to soak. When the coals are covered with gray ash, spread the mesquite chips on top. Place the steaks over the hot coals, and cover the grill, with the dampers open.
To pan-fry the steaks, warm a cast-iron skillet over high heat. Place the steaks in the skillet.
Cook the steaks to the desired doneness, about 6 to 8 minutes per side for medium rare. Some of the old cowboys preferred their meat just short of briquette stage, but that's a waste of a T-bone, a better cut of meat than the original cowhands had.
After removing the steaks from the heat, let them sit for about 5 minutes. Pour any accumulated pan juice over them, and serve them.
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Houston's first restaurant with high culinary aspirations was Maxim's, opened in 1947. At the time it was the only place in the city that put sauce on food or served Belgian endive. While the menu was mainly haute cuisine, the most popular dish at business lunches was chicken-fried steak. When a French chef chided Camille Bermann, the owner of Maxim's, about offering such an unworthy entrée, Bermann flashed diamond-and-sapphire cuff links and proudly replied that he owed the gems to that lowly chuck.
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Sonofabitch Stew
The sonofabitch was a special treat in cowboy country from the beginning, one of the few things the hands favored over a fried steak. They didn't get a sonofabitch often because it takes a day to cook and requires a calf's marrow gut, the connecting tube between the two stomachs of a cud-chewing animal. In a calf the marrow gut contains milk solids that give the stew its distinctive flavor. In case you can get this essential ingredient, we've given the recipe components in precise amounts. On the range, of course, cowboys simply killed a calf and used the quantities they found inside. They might have skipped some of the recommended steps, too, and perhaps added other ingredients like a skinned tongue or a "skunk egg" (onion).
1 pound beef heart, cut in small pieces
1 cup beef suet
1 whole calf marrow gut, cut into small rings
¼ pound beef liver, chopped
½ pound beef kidneys, cubed
2 tablespoons ground dried red chile, preferably ancho or New Mexican
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
1 pound veal sweetbreads, membranes removed, cubed
1 pound beef brains
½ cup all-purpose flour
Serves 6 to 8
Place the heart in a small pan, cover it with water, and boil it for 30 minutes.
Melt ¾ cup of the suet over a low fire in a Dutch oven or a large cast-iron skillet. Brown the marrow gut and liver. Add the boiled heart, kidneys, chile, salt, and pepper, and cover the mixture with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook 6 to 7 hours, until the meat is tender and the liquid is creamy. Add the sweetbreads for the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Prepare the brains separately by removing the membranes, dredging the brains in flour, and cooking them in the remaining ¼ cup suet until they are beady in appearance. Add them to the stew just before serving.
Calf Fries
Once a year at the spring roundup, cowboys castrated and branded calves. They threw the freshly severed testicles into the branding-iron fire until the tough skin-like muscle on the outside split. When a cowboy got hungry, he peeled a testicle and ate it like a roasted chestnut. In polite company cowboys called the treat Rocky Mountain oysters, but it's better known today as "fries," in reference to the modern manner of preparation.
If you can get fresh testicles, they're as delicate as sweetbreads, and even the more common frozen ones are delicious after marinating in this way. Turkey testicles, though smaller, taste similar and can be substituted.
2 pounds calf or turkey testicles, skinned
MARINADE
½ cup dry red wine
⅓ cup oil, preferably canola or corn
⅓ cup soy sauce
½ medium onion, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup medium-grind cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Oil, preferably peanut, for deep frying
Thaw the testicles, if necessary, and cut them into medallions. Put them in a bowl. Mix the marinade ingredients, pour the marinade over the testicles, and marinate the testicles for four hours in the refrigerator.
Mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Roll each testicle in the mixture, dip it back in the marinade, and then roll it again in the flour.
Heat at least 3 inches of oil to 350° F. Place the testicles in the oil, using care not to splash yourself. Cook the testicles just until they are golden brown and tender. Don't overcook them, or they'll be tough. Serve the fries immediately. If you don't tell them, city guests will never guess what they're eating.
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The first known Texas cookbook—published in 1883—doesn't include any batter-fried steaks. The closest recipe is one called "A Nice Way to Prepare Steak," which says to pound the meat well, fry it in a "very hot, dry" pan, and use the juice with butter, pepper, and salt to make a gravy that is poured over the steak.
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Camp Potatoes
Chuck wagons didn't usually carry many potatoes because they would spoil. When possible, the cowboys set out with a small supply, and then consumed them early, often cooked in this way. Today, of course, potatoes are an essential part of a chicken-fry platter, as basic as cowhide to a football.
4 medium baking potatoes, peeled
6 slices slab bacon, diced
1½ cups warm water
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Serves 4
Soak the potatoes in cold water for 30 minutes.
While the potatoes soak, fry the bacon in a large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat until the bacon is browned and crisp. Remove it with a slotted spoon, drain it, and set it aside.
Drain the potatoes gently, and cut them into ¼-inch cubes. Add them to the bacon drippings, and pour the water over. Add the salt and pepper, and stir. Simmer the potatoes over low heat until the liquid is gone, about 30 minutes, stirring them up from the bottom frequently. The potatoes taste better if they are a little crusty, but don't let them stick or burn. If they get dry before becoming tender, add a little more water.
Stir in the reserved bacon, and serve the potatoes hot.
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Cowboys wanted their steaks fried, big, and well done, which is what they got on the range. There are a lot of stories about ranch hands going into a city and getting steaks that were broiled, or small, or still pink inside. In one oft-told tale a cowboy sent back a steak to be cooked more, commenting, "I've seen cows git well that was hurt wors'n that."
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Deceitful Beans
Easy to carry on trail drives, dried beans were popular with the cowboys, who called them such nicknames as "Mexican strawberries" and "whistle berries." The cook didn't have a wide range of ways to add flavor, but he managed well with what was available. We named this basic recipe in honor of the cowboy who labeled beans "deceitful"—" 'cause they talk behind your back." For a modern variation with less of the deceit, see Cowpoke Pintos ([>]).
2 cups beans, preferably pintos
¼ pound salt pork, rinsed and cut in 1-inch squares ¼ inch thick
6 cups water, or more, as needed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons unsulphured dark molasses
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground dried red chile, preferably ancho or New Mexican
1 teaspoon salt
Serves 6 to 8
Pick through the beans and rinse them, removing any gravel or grit. Soak the beans in water, enough to
cover them by several inches, preferably overnight. (See [>] for a quick-soak alternative.)
Place the salt pork in the bottom of a stockpot or a large, heavy saucepan. Drain the beans, add them to the pot, and cover them with 6 cups water. Add all the other ingredients except the salt, cover the pot, and bring the beans to a simmer. Simmer them over low heat for 1 hour.
Stir the beans up from the bottom, and check the liquid level. If there is not at least an inch more water than beans, add enough hot water to bring it to that level. Continue simmering the beans, checking every 30 minutes for the next two hours, and then every 15 minutes until they are finished, and adding water as needed to keep the level just above the beans. Add the salt near the end of the cooking time. The beans are done when they are soft and creamy but not mushy, with each bean retaining its shape. This should take a total cooking time of about 4 hours (the hardness of the water, the altitude, and the particular beans' obstinacy can all affect the timing). There should be extra liquid at the completion of the cooking, although the beans should not be soupy.
Cowboys always ate their beans with a spoon, and had sourdough biscuits and coffee on the side.
Sourdough Biscuits
A range cook's measure as a man was the qualitg of his sourdough biscuits. Many Texans still pride themselves on making these airy and slightly sour treats, though few follow the camp tradition of baking them over an open fire in a Dutch oven covered with glowing coals. If you don't already have sourdough starter, see the following recipe.
1 cup soft-wheat flour, preferably White Lily
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
Scant ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sourdough starter
3 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter
Makes 1 dozen biscuits
Preheat the oven to 425° F.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a medium bowl. Add the starter, and stir with a sturdy spoon until the flour is incorporated in the dough. It will remain sticky.
Flour a pastry board or your counter. Grease or flour your hands to make kneading the dough easier. Turn the dough out, and knead lightly a few times, just until it is smooth. The dough will remain soft. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of eggs, or, for a more modern look, roll out the dough and cut it with a biscuit cutter.
Melt the bacon drippings (for real range flavor) or butter in a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven. Dip one side of the biscuit in the fat, and then put it in the pan with its other side down. (Or melt the fat in a small dish, dip each biscuit in the fat, then place the biscuit on a baking sheet.) Arrange the biscuits so they just touch one another, which helps them rise.
Bake the biscuits 15 minutes. Serve them immediately.
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Cowboys loved their sourdough biscuits so much they nicknamed them "dough-gods." When they wanted to nettle the cook, a common pastime, they might call his biscuits "sinkers," "hot rocks," or "dobies," the latter a reference to the density and weight of adobe bricks.
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Sourdough Starter
Sourdough gets its start from the wild yeast in the air. Many contemporary recipes call for using packaged yeast, but the starter will develop a more interesting flavor without it. We like the approach of Jacqueline Higuera McMahan, a cookbook author who suggests using organic grapes. Their natural sugar helps feed the natural yeast to activate the starter. It takes 7 to 10 days to develop a good starter, but it can last you a lifetime.
1½ cups flour (use a soft-wheat flour like White Lily if the primary use of your flour is for biscuits; if you vary frequently between biscuits and bread, use all-purpose flour)
2 cups spring or mineral water
1 bunch unwashed organic grapes, on the stem
Additional flour and water, as required
Stir the 1½ cups flour and 2 cups water together in a large plastic or earthenware bowl. Add the bunch of grapes, pushing it down into the gooey batter. Cover the bowl lightly, with cheesecloth or a dishtowel, so that the starter continues to get air. Leave the bowl in a warm place.
Each day give the bowl another tablespoon of flour and one of water, stirring to incorporate the additions. Within a couple of days the mixture should show signs of "starting," bubbling up a bit as yeasts feed on the starch and sugar. If this doesn't happen, throw the mixture out and begin again. Continue feeding the starter each day with the flour and water. If the mixture separates, stir it back together. After about 5 days, the starter will begin to smell sour. The smell won't be unpleasant, and won't overwhelm your kitchen. Let the starter ferment another few days, continuing to feed it. You'll end up with a mass that looks like a thick pancake batter. Remove the grapes with a slotted spoon, and discard them.
Cover the starter, and refrigerate it. Take the starter out of the refrigerator the evening before you plan to use it, or even a couple of days ahead for a more sour taste to the bread or biscuits. Every time you use the starter, replenish it. For each cup of starter you remove, add ½ cup flour and ½ cup water. Let it sit on the counter again for about a day before putting it back in the refrigerator. If you don't want to use the starter at least once every week or two, just feed it that often: Pour off about a half cup of starter, and add ¼ cup flour and ¼ cup water.
Properly tended, the starter can last for years, developing more complexity over time. It can be used for sourdough pancakes, breads, and other dishes in addition to biscuits.
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Some lucky folks have sourdough starters that go back to the days of the Old West. The one we use may date to 1886, when Lafayette A. Brown supposedly carried it on a trail drive from Texas to Wyoming.
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"Here then is the Holy Trinity of Texas. What the cod and fisherman and God meant to New England, the mustang, longhorn, and cowboy meant to Texas."—Joe Frantz, Texas, a Bicentennial History
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Richard Bolt, a veteran chuck-wagon cook, said that one of his most important jobs was keeping the sourdough starter in good condition. On cold nights he wrapped his earthenware crock of starter in a blanket and slept with it. Bolt's rule was that it's "as temperamental as a woman so treat it like your wife."
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Dried and Fried Fruit Pies
The most common dessert on the range was dried fruit, usually peaches, apples, or apricots, often stewed up with plenty of sugar "Cookie" might also add sugar to biscuit dough and fry it, as a rudimentary but tolerable doughnut. Enterprising cooks, who were paid more than even the top riders and cowhands, created fried fruit pies as a combination of the two desserts. This recipe takes a few liberties with the original dish, adding jam for extra fruit taste and sweetness, and lightening up the lard pastry.
FILLING
1½ cups dried apricots
1½ cups water
½ cup apricot jam or preserves
¼ cup finely minced pecans or dry bread crumbs
1 recipe Flaky Pie Crust ([>])
Vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco, for deep frying
Sugar
Makes 8 pies
In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the apricots with the water. Simmer over low heat until the fruit is plump and soft and most of the water has been absorbed, about 25 minutes. Add more water if needed.
Drain the apricots and chop them. Mix the apricots in a small bowl with the jam or preserves, and the nuts or bread crumbs. Refrigerate the filling, if you wish, for as long as 24 hours.
Roll the pie dough out ⅛ to ¼ inch thick. Cut it into rounds with the top of a coffee can or with a large round biscuit or cookie cutter. Spread equal portions of filling on each round, moisten the dough edges lightly, and fold the rounds over into half-moon shapes. Crimp the edges with a fork.
In a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven, heat at least 4 inches of shortening to 350° F. Fry the pies in batches, turning them over midway through the cooking, after they rise to the surfa
ce. Remove them when they are golden brown and crispy, about 3 minutes. Drain them, and sprinkle them with sugar. Let them cool for at least 5 minutes before eating.
Variations: The pies can be baked rather than fried. Place them on a greased baking sheet, brush them with a little beaten egg (1 egg is enough for this batch of pies), sprinkle them with sugar, and bake them at 375° F for about 20 minutes, or until they are lightly browned.
Experiment with other dried fruit or jam fillings. Try dried peaches simmered in peach nectar with a touch of jalapeño jam, or dried apples with cider, a splash of applejack, and cinnamon.
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One cowboy commented that a chuck-wagon cook "is a sort of human that was kicked in the head by a brindle cow or a cross-grained mule when very young.... They're temperamental as wimmin too; an' like the bosses, don't need no sleep neither." —Quoted in Ramon Adams, Come and Get It