My friend, Rob Couture (his friends call him Couche), is a retired buckaroo. A buckaroo is a highly skilled cowboy. Rob worked on ranches for most of his life and our conversations often veer to the topic of cowboy cuisine. We both agree the best food is just plain and simple down-home cooking. Gourmet food is fine for city folks, but not buckaroo cowboys.
One day, Rob mentioned he had a box that contained about 1000 recipes. Since handwritten, handed-down recipes are one of my favorite things (next to actually making that thing), I asked if we could look through the box sometime. He agreed and we set a date.
After I saw the recipes, I felt like a pirate who had discovered a treasure chest. The recipes were alphabetically organized with dividers. Many recipes were from way back and on tattered paper written with faded ink; a few were over a hundred years old. Some were typed on an old-fashioned manual typewriter.
Recipes handed down from family members seemed like treasures that passed through generations of time. Some recipes were from friends who served him food that was so delicious, he just had to ask for the recipe. Some were clipped out of magazines and not tried yet (I will write about “Donkey Sauce” soon). Sometimes I asked him about the person who passed the recipe along, especially if it was handwritten. The stories added a lovely dimension and suddenly the recipe had a face as well as a name.
When we were finished with the first round, I asked Rob to write down a few of his favorites in his own penmanship. My mouth watered when I read his recipes for barbeque sauce, homemade noodles, dumplings and sourdough biscuits. All of them have a special “twist” that sets them apart from the ordinary, humdrum versions of the same recipe. Over the following weeks, I will try them out and write them up.
Near the end of our visit, he showed me a book titled “Trail Boss’s Cowboy Cookbook”. This cookbook was written in 1985 by the Society for Range Management, an international non-profit organization. This book had so many fabulous recipes from famous ranches around the world it made my head spin! Two recipes in particular stood out – Ronald Reagan’s macaroni and cheese and a Pit Barbeque for five to 600 people. If I could have only one cookbook, this would definitely be it. I ordered my own copy from Abe Books.
Stay tuned for Rob’s cookhouse recipes, just in time for summer barbeques, evening campfires and rodeo parties. Thank you, Rob for sharing your favorite recipes with me and my readers.