Sour Dough Starter

By revered Wyoming chief, outdoorsman, historian, writer and all-around good guy.
Neil Waring

Easy to find sour dough recipes, especially on the western sites I frequent. Here is a good Old Time Sour Dough Starter recipe.

2 cups flour

2tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. salt

1 ½ cups water

1 tbsp. vinegar

Mix up all the white stuff in a good stone crock. Pour in the water and mix-er-up

When is pretty well smoothed out pour in the sour stuff – the vinegar.

Cover with a dish towel or if you have it the new-fangled cheese cloth.

Set in a warm place, on the stove or fridge works well. It will sour in 8 to 12 hours, I like to leave it for 12. You will know when it is ready because you will smell the yeast.

There you have it Sour Dough Starter

After using add more water and flour  (at a ratio of about a cup to a cup)and it should last, if refrigerated, for years

Sourdough has also been called Chuck wagon bread, Cellar biscuits, Yeast dough, Forever dough and even Magic dough

SOUR DOUGH BISCUITS

1 1/2 c. sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. softened butter
1 cup of your good ol’ starter

Stir dry ingredients together - add butter, then add starter and mix. Roll dough 1/2" thick, cut  

Let rise about an hour  bake hot about 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Should make about a dozen, unless you cut them real big

SOUR DOUGH HOT CAKES

1 cup starter
2 cup flour
2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
3 tbsp. melted shortening
2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs

About 12 hours before serving hot cakes, mix starter, flour, milk and salt

Makes about 30 nice small cakes

 Enjoy!

Cowboy Potatoes

Cowboy Potatoes

This recipe is a takeoff of the old time Sheppard’s Pie, but no self respecting Cowboy would ever eat something named after a sheep herder-So here it is Cowboy Potatoes, could have named it something more like Sheppard’s Pie but somehow Cow Pie just didn’t have the right ring to it.

4 - 6 Slices of bacon

One cup bacon bits

One good sized onion sliced and chopped

A couple 2 or 3 pounds of taters (6 or 8 big ones)

 One cup of frozen corn - more if you have a taste for it

Salt and Pepper to taste (I don’t like much salt as the bacon takes care of the need for salt)

Paprika to taste

Brown up the bacon, but do not cook fully – save for the oven

Leave the bacon grease in the skillet (you will need the big old black one today)

Fry Potatoes and onions in bacon grease-when the potatoes have stated to soften remove from burner and stir in frozen corn and the bacon bits.

Place in oven for 20-25 minutes or until the corn is hot, soft, and yummy.

*If it is warm enough to grill you can mix everything together, wrap in foil and put on the upper rack of the grill. Let it cook while you are grilling; just remember it needs some closed lid time to cook through.

You can experiment with other stuff in this also- we add chopped carrots, pretty good and if you like some color a little parsley sure looks fine.

Happy Cookin’

*In no way does this fit any kind of heart friendly diet!

For my tongue in cheek look at a heart healthy cowboy diet click here

http://crazy-cooking.blogspot.com/2007/11/original-heart-healthy-cowboy-diet.html

Good Ol' Cowboy Food

Good Ol' Cowboy Food

By Wyoming's beloved food writer and free spirit

Neil Waring

Living in a cowboy state and being an old retired history teacher, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at what people ate in the old days, Wyoming cowboy days.

So what did cowboys eat? Well it depended on who was doing the cooking. If it was the cowboy doing the cooking most meals were the same, the three Bs, bacon, biscuits and beans, washed down strong coffee. If he was on the trail, maybe some salt pork and dried meat. If it was ranch cooking or trail drive food it was much more varied and likely tastier.

Here is what you might find in a well stocked kitchen or chuck wagon in the days of the Old West

· Flour

· Coffee

· Tea

· Salt pork

· Bacon

· Dried fruit

· Beans

· Rice

· Dried peas

· Canned tomatoes

· Canned peaches

· Condensed milk

· Corn meal and dried corn

· Sugar

· Molasses

· Vinegar

· Onion/garlic powder

· Black pepper

· Eggs

· Potatoes

· Chickens - around the ranch house and even on the trail

· Other spices such as ginger

· And of course the ranch always had beef and wild game when they could find it. Many ranches also raised a few, eatin’ hogs, even if they did not like to admit it.

Looks pretty good to me. I believe a good cook could do a lot with this list.

The Masterpiece and a Smoke Alarm

Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

I really hate it when the smoke alarm goes off when I am creating one of my kitchen masterpieces. Not sure if I need a new smoke alarm or a new recipe. You would think the smoke alarm could smell the difference between something burning and the yummy smells of my most recent culinary invention.

Oh-I burned the heck out of it and my wife said, “You know, there is a lower setting on the broiler.”

I thought about playing dumb but instead, fessed up, “there is?”

Pork Butt Rub

How to Properly Rub Pork’s Butt

-by-
Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

I have found that marinating and/or injecting a pork butt is simply a waste of time and space. I do not find any additional flavor by doing this. (My opinion) I know this might be sacrilege to long time Pork Smokers, but it is what I have found in my semi-long and checkered career as a part time meat smoker.

I smoke at 220-250 for two hours with hickory chips and then 2 hours with apple or cherry - finish in the oven or a big-ol’-roaster. Finish at 240ish may take up to 6 or 8 more hours. Keep meat with the fatty side up throughout the smoking and roasting process. (I really like the word fatty, don’t get to use it much- quit trying to picture what I must look like).

Wait someone has a question about their butt ??

 Well, here is the answer - A Pork Butt is actually the Boston Butt cut (maybe a career in cowboy poetry is calling) why it is called that is a mystery to this old cowboy, the cut comes from the front shoulder.

-Here’s The Rub-

ü 2 Tbs Paprika

ü 4 Tbs Light Brown Sugar

ü 1 Tbs Salt

ü 1 Tbs Black Pepper

ü 1 tsp Garlic Powder

ü 1 tsp Ground Coriander

ü 1 tsp Onion Powder

ü ¼ tsp Ground Sage

ü 1/8 tsp ground Clove (we could say dash here)

ü Mix very well before using

-How to use-

Get your butt up to room temperature (about 90 minutes out of fridge)

*Slather your butt with yellow mustard* (about two tablespoons will be enough) then rub the entire butt with the mix. Press it in pretty good and fill any little cavities you find. Do all sides and use the entire rub (this is for an 8-12 lb butt, a pretty big butt actually)

Using the mustard and getting the rub coated well will help create those very tasty burnt ends—if you are a smoker or eater of fine BBQ you know what I am talkin’ about here.

*This is not a late night cable show

Happy Eatin’

New Fangled Apple Butter

New Fangled Apple Butter

-Almost like mom used to make –

-by-
Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen, award winning author, retired politician and honored citizen.

Well another Christmas has come and gone and we have a new year, forgot which one, but it is new.

Look over at the big table in the dining room and what do you see, sure, it’s the same every year a basket full of wrinkling apples. We all love apples at Christmas, but we never eat them, not any more. When we were kids things like apples, oranges and soda pop were treats, not any more, now we have them all the time.

“What do we do with all the left over apples,” Thanks for asking.

 Don’t you hate throwing away or composting something that should have been eaten three weeks ago? Well you can still eat it, maybe not as a crunchy apple, but how about some new fangled, old fashioned Apple Butter?

It’s easy, it’s tasty and it’s really kind of fun to make. (It refers to the Apple Butter)

-Here’s the how and what you need stuff-

·        Apples, as few as 4 or 5 will work, more if you have them

·        Crock Pot

·        Cinnamon

·        Clove (if you like it—I do)

·        That’s it – NO SUGAR NEEDED

 

ü Peel apples-this is important as peels do not cook down worth a darn and then those little bitty pieces will get stuck in your teeth and you will have to pull them out before you put teeth in a glass of water for the night.

ü Cut your peeled apples into small chunks (about an inch by two) and not more than a ½ inch thick.

ü Put a tiny amount of water in the bottom of the crock pot, just enough to cover—no more.

ü Toss in apples

ü Turn on high for two hours or until apples soften to a state where they can be easily mashed (or if you prefer-smashed)

ü Mash with fork, spoon or potato masher, or you can get in there and walk around, wine making style, if your crock pot is large enough and you are mashing a few thousand apples.

ü Turn crock pot to lowest setting-mix in cinnamon to taste and as much clove as you can stand—too much and it will make your mouth numb, kind of cool really

ü Leave on lowest setting for 8-10 hours (all night?)

ü In the morning turn the setting up and cook all day, checking, stirring and tasting every two hours. (do not let it burn and stick around the edges)

ü When the excess water has cooked off you have apple butter (it’s just applesauce until then)

There you have it an old fashioned treat made in a new fangled way.

ENJOY AND HAPPY COOKIN’

 

 

Next Year?

Jan 1, 2013 – Going on official record – “I love the New Year and I love New Year’s Resolutions.”

6:00 a.m. - Eight hours of sleep, healthy, balanced breakfast, went for a walk, did my stretching and lifting workout, spent some hobby time, did some putting away and picking up in my workshop.

8:00 a.m. - New Years are great-reinvigorating, life anew

9:00 a.m. - Feel like I need a nap, have a bit of an upset stomach, my shoulders, hips and feet ache.

10:00 a.m. – Doing much better now, reclining on the couch, watching first of many New Year’s Day Bowl Games, still resting after my workout, and dreaming about the next year.

11:00 a.m. - Very soar, dull pain starting on top of my head and ending on the bottom of my feet, not feeling well at all, will take a handful of pain killers and continue resting on couch.

I really do not like New Year’s—except for the Football

Noon – Drinking soda, eating chips and peanuts, still resting on couch, feeling some better, game has reached halftime, watching shootout on the Western Channel until second half starts.

“Maybe Next Year, never have liked New Years stuff, too much hype, just another day for this ol’ cowboy”

-Happy New Year-