Cowboy Pork and Beans recipes

[Janne]

And Cocaine!

Had the Puritans had access to that stuff then the US would be different today.

In fact, Cocaine and the Sugar cane are intimately related.
You get caries from sugar and Cocaine was used to anesthetize the tooth before it was filled, roottreated or removed.

Adding sugar/molases is very North American. The Iberic peninsula cultures do not add any, nor in rest of Europe except in Sweden (and Finland ?) where a sweetened bean dish is traditional.
(Bruna Bönor in Swedish)

Eaten with fried salt pork/ bacon.

 

[Robson Valley]

Hard to find much of anything in North American convenience foods without added sugar = high fructose corn syrup.
I can cook to control all of that. Molasses is low sugar because almost all sugar which could be crystallized has bee removed!

Brown sugar. Golden sugar. Demerara sugar. They are all sugars with bagasse crap added back into them.
The sugar company websites describe the process.

Don't know why, don't care. Hot corn bread out of the oven with molasses is a permanent memory.
But it needs to be reinforced once a month, needs a few shots of Tabasco Jalapeno to be of breakfast value.

 

[Chris the Cat]

Some great stuff here , thanks so much cats!
I shall get on it and report back.
Cheers.
C

 

[santaman2000]

....Adding sugar/molases is very North American.....

So are most of the common beans eaten today. Now all, but most: Black Beans, Kidney Beans (also called Red Beans) Navy Beans. In particular the beans used to make Baked Beans (the only bean dish I know of that calls for sugar or molasses in the recipe) although I believe that dish originated in South America rather than North America.

 

[Janne]

So are most of the common beans eaten today. Now all, but most: Black Beans, Kidney Beans (also called Red Beans) Navy Beans. In particular the beans used to make Baked Beans (the only bean dish I know of that calls for sugar or molasses in the recipe) although I believe that dish originated in South America rather than North America.

Well, no. We do not add sugars when we cook a bean dish in Europe, the Swedish Bruna Bonor excluded.
Might be the odd receipe of course I have not eaten !

British Baked Beans contain much less sugar than the N.American one.

 

[bobnewboy]

British Baked Beans contain much less sugar than the N.American one.

Mmmmmmmmm, baked beans....! Yum

 

[Janne]

Mmmmmmmmm, baked beans....! Yum

Yes! YES!!

We can buy them here, imported from UK. You do not want to know the price of one can........
But, worth every Cent!

 

[santaman2000]

Well, no. We do not add sugars when we cook a bean dish in Europe, the Swedish Bruna Bonor excluded.
Might be the odd receipe of course I have not eaten !

British Baked Beans contain much less sugar than the N.American one.

I never said you did add sugar in Europe. LOL. I was following your comment that adding sugar was a North American thing with an observation that so are most beans in common use today. Well ---- North and South America anyway.

I looked up British baked beans and apparently they follow the original recipe for American canned ones in the 1920s. It would also appear that tastes on both sides of the Atlantic are changing (the less sweet British ones are now being imported more here and the other American competitors are sending more to the UK)

But regarding the OP's question, I don't think either European nor US East Coast baked beans would qualify as an authentic "cowboy" bean dish; although loads of restaurants do serve some from of baked beans labeled "cowboy baked beans."

Which brings a question for Robson Valley, or any other Canadian following this thread (particularly Canadians from the Plains Provinces) Cattle ranching/farming seems to be as big or bigger there than the US; so were there comparable cattle drives there and if so, what would have been their dishes/recipes? Reading to research this thread has revealed that on the East Coast both the far northern US states and the Eastern Canadian provinces sweetened bean dishes with maple syrup. So what about the Plains (cattle raising) provinces?

 

[Janne]

Understand, Santa!

The Cowboy beans dish is a relative to several European dishes.
The French Cassoulet for example. Of course, the Cowboy cooks had limited supply, limited time and very hungry crew, so they simplified the original European receipes.

I suspect that the Cowboy cooks cooked the casserole overnight in the embers. They had no time to cook it fully after the days trek. Maybe it was a dish they ate for breakfast too?

In the old Germanic cuisine these style dishes were called Eintopf.
All available ingredients in one pot. Slow cooking.


Beans and the other legumes were a staple before the new South American imports.

The one I make is very basic, very filling and quite delicious.

 

[Robson Valley]

Spent many years as a youngster on the plains. My people homesteaded in 1884 near the capital city of Regina, SK. Formerly called "Pile-O-Bones" from the buffalo bone trade.
Climate changes very quickly from south to north in Canada. Much of the northern landscape is the Boreal Forest Biome over the glaciated Precambrian Shield of solid, exposed rock.
So in an agricultural context, the country is very much an east-west sort of place. Most people live within 200 miles of the US border (49th parallel in the west.)

I froze my buns off for 30+ years in the Boreal forest Biome at 54N. When I retired, I moved to the tropical south in the mountains at 53N. Still very snowy winters.

The railroads (Canadian National and Canadian Pacific/Grand Trunk) tied the whole place together, coast to coast. Sorry, no massive cattle drives.
Just the relatively short distances to the railroad in the relatively narrow agricultural belt. I have no ideas what the stock crews might have eaten.
Huge numbers of Chinese immigrants worked on the railroad construction and then stayed. There was a "Chinese restaurant" in every whistle-stop of a village
from coast to coast. If they catered, I would not be surprised at all. Read about the Head Tax and the tunnel system beneath Moose Jaw, SK.

 

[topknot]

I've tried a couple of recipes from this book for what it worth.

Chuck wagon cooking by Stella Hughes.

[h=1][/h]

 

[santaman2000]

.....I suspect that the Cowboy cooks cooked the casserole overnight in the embers. They had no time to cook it fully after the days trek. Maybe it was a dish they ate for breakfast too? ...,.

Usually the chuck wagon wood go ahead of the cattle drive so they'd be in place for an hour or two when the cowboys arrived (horses pulling the wagon moved faster than the cattle) That said, you might be onto something suggesting they cooked them the night before. I had never thought of it before. That said, none of our beean dishes can be properly called a casserole although baked beans do come close.

 

[santaman2000]

......Beans and the other legumes were a staple before the new South American imports.......

Yeah, I know. I don't think they're what most people think of when you say "beans" now though.

 

[Robson Valley]

1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 

[Robson Valley]

"Beans" (Phaseolus vulgaris) in their many, many varieties are native to the Americas.
Just like corn/maize, different varieties thrive in different climates.
That all was sorted out by the First Nations before Columbus showed up.

Navy beans got their name as a staple variety of the early 20th century, used in the American Navy.

Lentils are legumes as well, probably native the Syrian part of the Middle East.
I keep trying but I have never been served a lentil dish that I appreciated.
Wow! Cowboy chuck wagon lentils.

 

[Janne]

Lentils are easily cooked. One traditional Central European dish is sweet and sour Lentils. Eaten usually with a fried egg and a good Frankfurter or Debrecziner.

Schaller & Weber make smoked meats and sausages as good as in Central Europe.

In Europe and the rest of EuroAsia we have originally Broad beans and Chick peas. Broad beans are very tasty.

 

[Robson Valley]

I am well aware that lentils can be cooked in miriad ways.
Must be something in the basic taste that I dislike.
I have no problems with what we collectively call "peas and beans" from all over the planet.
I would never starve but I walk right past the lentils in the store. I'll do that again, this afternoon!

There are some Arabs who fly to the little town of LaFlesche, Sask., to buy lentils.
They take the crop home in their 747 Boeing freighter. Good for them.

 

[Janne]

I guess they hide some cases of Canadian Whiskey behind the lentil sacks?

I like the small round lentils from Puy.

If you tasted my lentils you would turn Vegetarian!

 

[Robson Valley]

Out of 1,200 entries the English list of the best whiskeys for 2016 doesn't have any Scotch in the top 5.
#1 on the list is Canadian Crown Royal Northern Harvest rye whiskey.
If you have a favorite, stick with it, OK? It's really pale in nose and taste. Big disappointment.
Drank a lot of rye in a past life. Alberta Premium rye was the best.

I'm far too good with a shotgun than to need to turn to the green side.
Off to the fish shop to look at clams and mussels.
House sitting. Think I can get the place aired out before the owners return.

 

[Janne]

Depends on which list.
Japanese have snagged 1st to 10th placement on some for several years. Suntory I think it is called.

I used to like Malt. Scottish. Highland or the islands, depending on mood.
Do not drink alcohol these days. Liver needs to rejuvenate, which is slow.
Beer is not alcohol, it is food. Liquid bread.