Nothing says the American West better than the word beef. The beef craze of the 1860s-80s inspired pioneers to create new recipes. The cattle trade...
The Beef Craze
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Sherry Monahan
Butter Me Up
"Mother said to father, while on the train and looking at the herds of cattle through the window: ‘We can be sure of one item of food and that is...
Bed and Biscuit
In 1834, Judge Joseph Huston converted his brick home in Arrow Rock, Missouri, into an inn to care for the thousands of pioneers who trekked west...
Death by Rolling Pin?
Who knew a kitchen gadget, wielded by an angry wife, could cure a drunken husband? Businessman Francis Murphy of Omaha, Nebraska, “received” the...
Drinking with the Friars
After moving to White Oaks, New Mexico, in 1886, Albert Zeigler was awaiting 10 gallons of “very fine wine,” as the pioneer put it, that ox teams...
Lady at the O.K. Corral
Lady at the O.K. Corral offers the reader a new perspective of Josephine Sarah Marcus-Earp. Author Ann Kirschner mines her own similar ethnic...
Summer Harvest Beer
Ginger beer is the favorite drink in all parts of the country for use in harvest time, and is probably the very best for such use. It is agreeable...
Hammin’ It Up Out West
"All the cookin’ o’ course was done at the fireplace…. Later, when we got pigs, father smoked ham an’ bacon for the winter. First after the hogs...
Wet Your Whistle at These Historic Saloons
"Saloon openings are all the rage. The Oriental is simply gorgeous and is pronounced the finest place of the kind this side of San Francisco." “The...
The Irish Influence
"Reader, when at the big hotels, call for the dish on the bill of fare called, ‘fillet de bouf et pommes de terre hachis a l’Hibernais,’ and you...
Sourdough
"I made a splendid batch of bread the day we came.... Besides the bother of making bread so often, we have to make the yeast here about once a week....
Fine Fruitcakes
"Inmates of various boarding-houses shudder to think of the vast amount of turkey and fruitcake leftover from the feast of yesterday,” wrote San...