ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ASHVILLE, TENN.
SOURCE: TERESA M. WALKER ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Hit the trail Julia Child. There's only room in this saddlebag for one cookbook and it's got John Wayne's grits souffle on page 179.
What's that pardner? You say it's lunchtime? Just throw another log on the campfire and open ``The All-American Cowboy Cookbook'' to Rifleman Fried Catfish, from the kitchen of Chuck Connors.
And varmints won't want to pass up Yosemite Sam's Cranberry Chicken, supplied by Sam's vocal assistant, Mel Blanc.
Authors Ken Beck and Jim Clark have gathered about 300 recipes from an array of real and theatrical cowboys, and cowgirls like Doris Day (who played Calamity Jane) and Melody ``F-Troop'' Patterson. Author Beck thinks he and partner Clark stumbled on a gold mine.
``If you grew up in the 1950s, you wanted to be a cowboy,'' said Beck, who subtitled the book ``Home Cooking on the Range.''
Beck, a reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville, first teamed with free-lancer Clark for the sitcom watchers' essential guide, ``The Andy Griffith Show,'' in 1985. Since then, the duo have compiled ``Aunt Bea's Cookbook'' and a ``Gilligan's Island'' cookbook with help from Dawn Wells (Mary Ann).
The Cowboy Cookbook surveys 175 real cowboys and pseudocowboys and 30 ranches for recipes. Chili and corn bread recipes are popular, but there's also the good taste of Clint Eastwood who donated the secrets of his award-winning pasta dish.
Part of the royalties go to cowboy actor Ben Johnson's Helping Hand, which helps children's hospitals.
Beck and Clark also packed in photos, trivia bits and quizzes. Buffs of cowboy movies can check out the ``Magnificent 77 Westerns That No Cowboy Fan Should Miss.''
Work began when the duo made a wish-list of 300 names and started sending out requests. Some responded quickly, others took some prodding.
``If we didn't have Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, there was no sense in going forward,'' Beck said.
A call to the widow of Milburn Stone (Doc on ``Gunsmoke'') produced a recipe and the home number of the elusive James Arness (Matt Dillon). Beck didn't have to use the number because Arness' business manager sent a recipe for ``Gun-Smokin' Chili.''
Clark contacted Wayne's family, and the Duke's widow, Pilar, contributed two recipes, including one for the grits souffle.
The request got lost in the mail, but Steve McQueen's daughter called six months later to add some of the favorite dishes of the actor who appeared in ``Wanted: Dead or Alive.''
Character actor Jack Elam proved more elusive. A champion poker player, Beck had hoped for a sandwich recipe only to receive a recipe for whisky on ice.
Beck and Clark had decided against an alcoholic beverages section since too many children idolize cowboys. But they decided to use Elam's recipe when his friend Gene Evans sent his recipe and cautioned them, ``If you've got a recipe from Jack Elam, take my advice: Don't eat it.''
Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger) and James Stewart are the only two cowboys on their Top 10 list not included.
``I couldn't believe nobody had done a cowboy cookbook. We researched it, and no one had done it,'' Beck said.
Actually, that's not quite true.
Byron Price, executive director of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, in Oklahoma City, Okla., "did it" quite impressively around February 1995 with his "National Cowboy Hall of Fame Chuck Wagon Cookbook" ($20, Hearst Books).
Price, through entertaining narrative and sepia-toned photos, paints a picture of cow-camp cooks who frequently also were expected to function as teamsters, barbers, bankers, dentists and doctors. You think you've got problems at mealtime?
Often, the cowboy cooks' working conditions were far from ideal. Inclement weather in the open plains traversed during cattle drives created challenges such as lack of ingredients or starting and maintaining a cooking fire. Or how about having to improvise a cook pot or stove by digging a hole in the ground, lining it with animal hide (hair side down) and heating it with rocks? No wonder the popular concoction that evolved under those circumstances is named "Son-Of-A-BStew."
Price's book sprinkles lots of interesting trivia among a good mix of old, updated and innovative recipes to form a practical and enjoyable addition to your cooking library. A couple of samples follow, reprinted with permission of William Morrow and Co. Inc.
- Food editor Almena Hughes contributed information to this story.
Recipes for:
DUKE'S HOMINY GRITS SOUFFLE - JOHN WAYNE
RIFLEMAN'S FRIED CATFISH - CHUCK CONNORS
SUNDAY MORNING HAPPY PAPPY EGGS - GREGORY PECK
YOSEMITE SAM'S CRANBERRY CHICKEN - ESTELLE AND MEL BLANC
TEXAS CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE
CORN BREAD SALAD
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Byron Price's book sprinkles lots of interestingby CNBtrivia among a mix of old, updated and innovative recipes. 2. Ken
Beck (above, left) and Jim Clark penned ``The All-American Cowboy
Cookbook'' with about 300 celebrity-cowboy recipes. 3. Fried
catfish, like that at right, was a favorite of Chuck Connors.
color.