Cowboy Beans

Before we get to the Beans the subject of
Bacon has to be part of the conversation.

Definitions:
Cured: preserved meat or fish by means of smoking, drying, salting, or pickling until cooked without using fire directly applied to the meats or fish.

Back Meat: the sides and back of the pig.
     
Bacon: 1) From Boucan; A part of the frame used in smoking and/or drying meat/fish.
             2) Back meat salted and smoked until cured

Remuda: A small herd of horses that are saddle ready and from which cowboys choose the horse they will use that day. From the Spanish "to change horses."

The word bacon became the more widely used term thanks to shipwrecked sailors who made their way to various Caribbean islands and since live pigs were carried on ships for food, they too made it shore. Ultimately the pigs were slaughtered, then smoked and cured and traded to passing ships for the things needed for further survival.

The phrase "back meat" was the common usage for most Europeans and of course those men and women who settled in America.

However, it is easy to see why the word bacon became the more popular name if you just imagine yourself in Texas in the post Civil War years and you walk into a Café and order back meat and eggs over easy; no telling what you might be served.

The Beans: Cowboy Beans were usually Pinto beans but red beans and navy beans were also in use during those early days of the Western Frontier.

There were two ways the cowboy had his beans:

If you were a loner and just drifting, you would stop near a creek (if you were from East of the Mississippi) or crick (if you were raised West of the Mississippi). The loner would wash a double handful of beans in the crick and toss them into a pot of boiling water and when tender he would drain most of the water, add the drippings from the bacon he'd already fried and let that cook a bit more then add the now bacon flavored beans to the pan of bacon and eat his dinner. Sometimes he even had some fresh biscuits cooked in a dutch oven or fried bread if not.

The trail drive beans were prepared a little differently: At the beginning of the drive the chuck wagon cook would put about ten pounds or so of beans into a sealable pot or jar and let it soak for the day. When the drive would stop for the night those beans were removed after draining out the water into another pot.(Water was never wasted on these drives but given to the Remuda horses during dry times. Since there were often 5000 head of cattle in the drive it was impossible to water them so if water was within ten miles of the drive after one of these dry camps, the cattle would pick up the smell and stampede toward that water ). Then fresh water was poured over the pot of soaked beans, and added to the pot were wild onions and sometimes dried chili peppers and tomatoes.

A portable iron tripod was then erected over the fire pit and the pot of beans hung over the fire and boiled until tender and most of the water boiled away leaving a nice, slightly thickened, sauce with beans. While the cowboys were eating, the cook would then get the sealable pot readied with fresh beans and water and put aside to be used at the next days stop.

This routine never varied but was sometimes delayed by Indian or Outlaw attacks, Stampedes, or lack of water and dry camp was necessary. More about that in a future Post entitled "The Chuck Wagon."
Dad

Frontier Cooking

Definitions:

Frontier: The border between settled and unsettled lands.

Great Appalachian Mountains: The mountain range East of the Mississippi River; it includes the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland Mountains. They run North and South.

Cumberland Gap: The gap in the Cumberland Mountains that allowed heavy wagons laden with trade goods and people through the Mountain range and was the primary means by which the frontier further expanded West.

Much has been written about that time, including the exploits of Daniel Boone and his exploration and adventures in Ohio, where he lived, but the Frontier I want to talk about is the Post Civil War era. "The old West", especially the campfire cooking used by the honest man and outlaw alike.

What they all had in common, and had the added benefit of fitting easily in Saddle Bags was coffee, beans, bacon and flour for biscuits.

This article will start with the coffee.

Prior to Arbuckle Coffee, which was introduced in 1864, the roasting of coffee beans was so erratic that coffee beans were sold green and the buyer had to do the roasting. Just one burnt bean would spoil the whole batch.

John Arbuckle invented a way to consistently roast the beans so that none of them burned or became over-roasted. He then packaged whole beans in one pound bags and sold them. So wildly successful were these beans that at one point he was roasting over 800,000 pounds of beans a year, just to keep up with the demand.

He also patented a "glaze" that was sprayed on the roasted beans that kept them fresh until used and his Brand called Arioso Became known as "cowboy coffee". Today's production also includes Arioso ground coffee, decaf whole beans and decaf ground coffee.

Early coffee was not ground, more accurate is that it was crushed. A handful of beans placed in middle of a square of clothe, folded up into a sort of flat bag, a rock or butt of a revolver was then applied. The crushed result was added to a pot of boiling water and made so strong that in cowboy slang the coffee was only drinkable if it was strong enough to float a horseshoe.

You can still grind your own coffee with an electric coffee grinder or a manual coffee grinder. While the manual grinder can be a little labor intensive, it is well worth having when on a camping trip or when without power, as our early cowboys lived daily.

more to come.

More about Soup

The oldest food prepared by Homo Sapiens was probably meat cooked over an open fire. But I'll bet that not far behind was a good bowl of soup.

Recently, in China, while excavating for an airport, a bronze cooking pot, sealed tightly, was uncovered and when examined by Archeologists the pot was opened and liquid soup was within, along with some bones. Sounds like someone was making stock and just after I had that thought I wondered what had happened that the soup wasn't consumed. The pot dated to 2500 years ago.

Another discovery that dated to 6000 years ago was the recipe for Hippopotamus soup.

More toward the present but long before the Americas were discovered and settled, Europeans had moved fire inside the home by way of a Stone Fireplace and chimney to remove the smoke generated by the burning wood and later, coal. At the sides of the fireplace were imbedded iron rods of varying lengths that held pots of various size but soup was the primary food and remained so for centuries. That same fireplace setup was also used in the Americas and was the principal way to cook meals until the iron stove was invented. The Ben Franklin stove was probably the first. You can probably find a picture of one if you do the search.

A Note on Stock and Soups

Definitions:

Soup: Liquid food made up of Water, Vegetables, Meat, Fish etc.

Thin Soup: The remaining liquid from boiled meats,vegetables or fish. When thoroughly boiled the contents are removed and the remaining liquid is the "thin soup".

Broth: A thin soup, containing all of the vitamins, minerals and flavor of the thin soup contents.

Stock: 1) Broth.
           2) Water in which meat, fish or vegetables have been cooked and then removed, leaving behind the vitamin and mineral rich water. The primary use for stock is the base for soups, stews and gravies.

As you can see from the definitions, boiling meats and vegetables and then throwing out the water is not exactly a good plan unless you are also regularly taking vitamin and mineral supplements.

I like to save the water, now stock, and freeze it for future use. To do this, after removing the contents let the stock cool and then use empty plastic jars (Mayo jars are good) fill them 3/4 full since water expands when frozen, cap them and into the freezer.

To make a quick stock from scratch:
It is difficult to find the necessary trimmings in the well picked apart, modern day packaged meat, but you can still find packages of marrow bones, excellent for gravies as well as soups and stews. You can still find turkey and chicken neck bones which are good for veg soup and of course any recipe calling for chicken stock. Just boil the bones for 2-3 hrs.
For Gravy or Soup:
2qts cold water.
Any leftover steak bones can go directly to the pot of water.

Bake for one hr, marrow bones then remove them and the juice remaining, let cool to room temp and then add to the pot of cold water. Add a tablespoon of vinegar.
Bring the Pot to a rapid boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 4 hrs. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp and remove the bones. pour the broth into used plastic jars, Mayo jars are good, and either refrigerate or freeze.
Note: If you refrigerate add a pinch of salt to the broth as that will help preserve the broth for up to a week.

A Note about Water

It sounds like it should be just turn on the faucet, fill your cup or pot and all will be well but that is not always so.

First: we'll define the terms that we must use:

Water: a compound made up of two gaseous atoms of Hydrogen and one  gaseous atom of Oxygen equals one molecule of water.

Molecule: The smallest part of a compound that can exist independently and it is made of one or more atoms.

Ozone: A created, (by lightning or other type of electricity), form of oxygen which consists of three oxygen atoms per molecule. It has the unique ability to destroy pathogens in air and water. Created by lightning it cleans the atmosphere and in water in kills any pathogens present thus sterilizing the water.

Pathogen: Any disease causing micro-organism or virus.

Alkali: chemical compound that reacts with acids to form salts. Lye and Ammonia are salts as is Sodium chloride (table salt). Some salts also neutralizes some acids and all are soluble in water. Desert cities have the problem of alkali water.

Soft water: water that has been treated and excess salts, other minerals and pathogens removed.

Hard water: water containing certain salts and other compounds.

Water for cooking is preferably soft water as it is tasteless and takes on the flavor of whatever food is being cooked or mixed in it. Alkali, for example, will leave a bitter taste and if food is cooked in it the bitterness will remain. A cup of coffee made from alkali water is nearly undrinkable.

Bottled water is usually ozonized and that is why it tastes so good and it has the added benefit of having no pathogens in it to worry about.

If you are out camping and are depending on the water from streams, lakes or creeks, (Water from a Beaver Dam pond is full of pathogens since the water in it is also the toilet of the beaver) and you are unsure of its purity, add to one gallon of water, 8-10 drops of bleach and if you didn't bring any bleach, add 3-5 drops of iodine, mix it well and let stand a few minutes before drinking or cooking with it.

Boiling water will kill most pathogens but leave behind the Alkali's. This can sometimes be handled by adding a few,2-3, teaspoons of Vinegar or lemon juice or wine to each quart of water.

To find out how the water in your area is treated or at least, where it comes from, you should be able to log on the net and do the search for your area's water dept. or health dept.

A Note About Hamburger:

This food goes back to Eastern Europe and how far is anyone's guess and it doesn't really matter. It first turns up in America at the St Louis world fair in 1904 by the local German faction of St Louis.

The fact that hamburger is the hands down favorite fast food and probably overall most used meat in the country. That it is a handy source of protein is all that really interests me but there is one point that should be cleared up so as not to confuse anyone confronted with it.

Salisbury Steak is nothing more than a flattened out, larger portion of hamburger, even though some purists will insist that it is the chopped onions used as filler that makes it "Salisbury". Not so; Salisbury Steak was introduce by an English Doctor named Salisbury near the turn of the 18th to 19th century and onions were not involved. He used it as a prescribed daily regimen for certain types of malnutrition. That was probably due to a lack of any kind of meat in the pots of London's poor.

I happen to love a good cheeseburger and a good hamburger steak and I enjoy these two items regularly. I hope you do too.

Dad

Gluten

I saw a funny bit on late night recently: the scene was on the streets of LA and it was a fake reporter asking random people if they were "Gluten Free". Of course, all of those questioned said that they were. Then they were asked "What is gluten exactly?" and that is where the fun began. No one really knew but all had a good and sometimes hilarious answer.

So lets take the cover off and bring Gluten into the light.

GLUTEN:  A protein combination found in some cereals, especially wheat. If you have coeliac (see-lee-ack) disease you are allergic to gluten.
It also has the property of enabling dough to rise by trapping the gas that is created by the reaction of yeast to wheat or other specific cereals.

Coeliac Disease: A disease caused by the body's sensitivity to gluten that causes the digestive system the inability to handle fats/oils in the diet.
Symptoms of this disorder are diarrhea and or anemia.

Foods containing Gluten:
Note: These are just a very few listed here since there are so many. Do an Internet search to obtain a full list.

Almost all foods and pastries made from flour.
Breaded fish, Chicken fried steak and any other meats or vegetables dipped in a breaded batter.
Beer
Whisky that contains barley (malt), rye.
Wine with added malt.
Most breakfast cereals including oatmeal, cream of wheat.
As I said, these are just a few.

Dad

Fats and Oils in the Diet.

In an earlier post I touched on the importance of fat in the diet, specifically milk fat because of my earlier employment in a dairy.
I didn't go into much detail but here are some specifics:
Saturated Fats: Saturated with hydrogen atoms and does not contain double bonds between carbon atoms therefore they are not good for the heart because they raise your bad cholesterol level.
Simply put, Saturated fat is not good for us.

Un-Saturated Fat: They do contain the above mentioned double bonds with the carbon atom and so they help lower your cholesterol levels.

Trans fat: A type of fat that has to do with the configuration of molecules that has a negative effect on our health and the what is interesting is that the vast majority of trans fats are manufactured

Ok, The above is what the experts, by consensus (majority agreement), have been telling us. So why, after so many years of eating "low fat",  "no fat", skim this and that, are we not getting healthier?? Why is obesity so much on the increase?

The fact is that our body needs fat to do many things like protect the liver from harmful particles. In fact much of the fat we use is stored in the liver. It converts the vitamins that are  oil/fat soluble via the "fatty acids from useless to useful. The fats help us maintain healthy bones, lungs, skin and immune system and from 40 to 50% of the fats we use are saturated fats.
I only say this because of observing that society is not noticably doing any better by going the Low Fat etc path. But for myself I will eat as I always do without much regard for the amount of fats I eat with one exception: I stay away from trans fat. you will notice that in my cook book I don't make much distinction for or against the eating of fats.
Next Post: Gluten. Stay tuned.

Dad

Relationship Between Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and Minerals work together and accomplish more in that togetherness than each Vitamin or Mineral does on its own.

Every Mineral, when working, affects other minerals which in turn affects other minerals etc. Like dominos in a line being knocked down.
In addition, The amount of one mineral can cause other minerals to stop working which in turn can affect the  Vitamins.

For example: it has been written that men need zinc more than women because zinc affects the health of men's reproductive system, but too much zinc will suppress the body's absorption of copper and copper is needed for proper absorption into the bloodstream of iron and iron carries oxygen needed by every cell in the body. Again, another domino effect.

Metabolism is the interaction of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates etc, in living organisms that provide energy and nutrients needed to sustain life and livingness.

It is clear that Vitamins are needed to aid in the metabolizing of minerals.   For example: to correct something like an iron deficiency, just taking an iron supplement may not work. This could be because Vitamins C, B6, and A, all aid in the metabolizing of iron so a lack of those could be part of the cause of the anemia (iron deficiency).

Another example would be the relationship between zinc and Vit A so that a deficiency of one may cause a problem with the other. A  solution to the above two examples could be supplementing your diet with a Multi- Vitamin/Mineral tablet.

Dad

More on Vitamin Deficiencies

The following Vitamins are the fat soluble ones which means that they need to be dissolved before they can be utilized by the body. Water soluble Vitamins were discussed in yesterday's post; problems related to deficiencies were noted and here are the problems related to deficiencies of the Fat Soluble Vitamins:

Vit A....eye problems including blindness; stunting of growth in children; dry scaly skin and prone to infections.

Vit D....bone softening in adults and improper bone growth in children.

Vit E....breakdown of the re blood cells; heart disease; potential nerve damage leading to pain, numbness and weakness, especially in the hands and feet.

Vit K....inability of the blood to clot leading to internal bleeding.

Vitamin Deficiencies

Vitamin deficiency falls in just three categories:

Your diet is lacking in the correct nutrients to break down/make soluble the vitamins found in the foods you eat.

You are not eating the foods that contain the full range of essential vitamins.
You know the above two points but do not take vitamin supplements either.

Here is a table of water soluble vitamins and the consequences of being deficient in that vitamin.

B1....damages or weakening of the nerves and heart muscle.

B2.... Redness, swelling and pain of the mouth and lips, eyes and the nervous system.

B3(Niacin)....causes skin lesions, Intestinal pains and general nervous system upsets. Note: Niacin runs radiation out of the body and the flush you get when taking this Vit is the radiation coming off.

B6....skin problems such as dermatitis; depression and in severe cases, convulsions; anemia (too few red blood cells in the system).

Folic Acid....damage to red blood cells; heart palpitations; redness and swelling of mouth and in pregnant women, damaged fetus.

B12....intestinal upsets and nervousness.

Pantothenic acid....general weakness, intestinal upsets and nervousness, fatigue and nausea.

Biotin.... hair loss; dermatitis; conjunctivitis (pink eye); confusion.

Vit C.... scurvy (swollen and bleeding gums; joint pain); deep tissue bleeding and anemia.

A Note on Vitamins

Vitamins are distinct in Several ways from other important compounds such as proteins carbohydrates and lipids. Although these latter substances are also indispensable for proper body function almost all of them can be synthesized in sufficient quantities.

Vitamins cannot be synthesized sufficiently to meet the needs of the body so must be obtained from the diet or from other synthetic source and for this reason vitamins are called essential nutrients.

Vitamins need only small amounts to complete their basic function which are of a regulatory or catalytic nature.

They facilitate or control vital chemical reactions in the body's cells.

Therefore, if vitamins are not properly absorbed specific diseases can develop. The classic example of this is the use of Vit C to prevent Scurvy; the scourge of sailors and their years long voyages.

Two classes of Vitamins are: Oil/Fat soluble and water soluble; This means that the vitamin can be dissolved in oil or the oil in certain fats or in water and thus be able to be used to its full purpose.
Water soluble vitamins: Vitamin C; all of the B vitamins (B complex); Biotin and Pantothenic acid.
Oil/Fat soluble vitamins: A; D, E, K.

Dad

Fats in Food

When I was in high school one of the jobs I held was working at a dairy. The fellow in charge of pasteurizing the milk, making the ice cream and other products; cheeses etc, was quite the depository of knowledge and once you got him going he just spewed it out. What he spewed was all about fat content in milk and the importance of it in a persons diet.

One of the things he told me was that fat was necessary in helping your body digest foods because without it you couldn't get any benefit from the fat soluble vitamins. Fat also helps keep the body warm, cushions your inner organs from damage incurred from the usual jolts and jars of life and the living of it.

The pasteurizing of milk kills the micro-organisms and bacteria's that cause such diseases as Scarlet fever, Diphtheria and TB to name a few plus the bacteria's of E-Coli, Listeria (recently found in Bluebell Ice Cream) and Salmonella etc. More on this later as it relates to nearly everything in both cooking and eating.

When I was raising my daughter I started out not knowing much about foods and cooking but had to learn fast since a dead wife is no help at all. I remembered such things as Fat content and spent a lot of time at the library learning as much as I could. I was determined to feed my child those things that would keep her healthy and growing without undue stress on her or me and I am imparting some of that with this blog and the cookbook I wrote called "The Cookbook for Single Fathers, a Journey Through No Man's Land".

Stay tuned.

Dad

Calories, Proteins, Carbohydrates.

My opinion, based upon data from as yet disproved scientific testing:

Our bodies are engines and they operate on Carbon and Oxygen; therefore all foods we ingest are converted by the glandular system into Carbon and are combined with oxygen to do all the things we require of a body; we need to replace cells, move the various body parts to do work, to play and to just lay about and do nothing for the at the very least we need to keep the heart pumping.

Calorie: A unit of heat. The amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of  a quart of water almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. This would be one calorie. Sweat is the by product of heating up the body that is "burning" calories. The sweat regulates the overall body temperature.

Protein: The building block of the cells of the body. Proteins are made up of 22 amino acids and of these, 8 are essential, aka complete, in that they cannot be synthesized (combining different elements into  unified whole). The primary source of complete proteins are meats, eggs, fish and milks, butters, and cheeses.

Carbohydrates: Often called the energy components of your diet. They are mainly found in sugars, starches and cellulose.

Over the next few posts I will take each of the above, add a few others and hopefully you will become a little more enlightened as to what you choose to eat and drink. Stay tuned.

Dad

Marinades

I received a question about marinating chicken from my contact icon and decided that since it pertains to BBQing as well I will answer that question here:

In general there a many marinades. The French and Italians probably started the ball rolling by soaking everything in wine and then adding more while cooking the items. Adding herbs and various spices soon followed and it was realized that not only did the meats and vegetables taste better it also tenderized the meats. I like that theory but my money is on the Chinese being the inventors of marinating due to the fact that rice vinegar is probably older than the whole of Europe is.

All marinades have one thing in common and that is the acid found in most food items that grow in the ground. Tomatoes and vinegar are the two most prevalent bases in all but a few marinades. Both are acidic. And it is the acid that breaks down the fibers in meat and vegetables. Add salt and you have a preservative.

Here is my favorite for Chicken:

In a very clean, empty quart jar (glass or ceramic; I re-use mayo bottles) pour in about a half jar of cooking sherry or other white wine of your choice and any will do just fine.

Add about another inch of vegetable oil (it will float on the wine and is easily seen so that you can see the inch or so; it is only used to help the wine and other spices to adhere to the chicken and not slide off during the soak.)

Mince up a clove or two of garlic, one-half onion and toss that in along with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. If you like Chicken l'Orange, add the juice of a squeezed orange to the mix then cover and give it a good shake then into the frig for about an hour.

Put a couple of boneless chicken breasts in a small glass container (glass so that the acids don't leech anything from the container) cover with the marinade and place back into the frig for at least 10 hours.

I would do the prep late at night, usually while watching the evening news and then put the now-marinated chicken in the frig for the night; first thing in the morning I would turn the chicken and back into the frig until I got home from work and then transfer the breasts onto the prepared BBQ grill.

Baste occasionly with fresh marinate and discard the already used stuff.

Hope this answers the question.

Dad

Barbeque

It is interesting that in the South and parts of the Midwest it is only acceptable to use the word barbecue if you slow cook your meat for hours in an enclosed oven-like apparatus that also sits outside. Because of that nose-in-the-air attitude I have noticed that, probably due to political correctness, those that enjoy tossing a steak on the barbecue are now saying "grilling" instead of the generic "barbecuing" that has been in use for 60 plus years; so here are some salient facts:

Barbeque is a westernized word probably from the Arawak word barbakoa meaning; frame of sticks for drying or cooking meats and fish. The Arawak were the native peoples of the Caribbean that were discovered by Columbus. The Spanish then introduced the Spanish version of the word: barbecue and it meant to cook over an open flame.

Consider then that the nose-up peoples who look down you if you dare use that sacred word barbecue when in fact you are just "grilling" just don't bother with actually understanding what they do on a daily basis but have strong opinions about what you do.

Dad

Salt is Your Friend

Yummy for the tummy; but salt is actually a sweetener and brings out flavor in foods. If you use too much it overwhelms the taste buds and spoils the flavor of the food.

To remedy this you can add small amounts of sugar, tasting as you add to get the desired flavor. But this is only good in over salted soups, stews and gravies.

If you over-salt a steak you can remove the salt with a damp napkin and try another bite to test. If at home, you can simply wash off the salt under the tap and quick fry the steak on both sides, just enough to add some of the flavor from the drippings or flame from the broiler and then re-salting to the desired taste.

Dad