Question about food

Reading through my draft, I wondered... how familiar would Heyes and Curry have been with rice?

Great question, Radiogaga! Given rice production in the US began in the Carolina colonies in the 1600s and spread to others (Georgia, Louisiana, et al.) through the years, the boys likely would have been familiar with the grain. As well, the immigration of Chinese laborers in the 1860s to help with the building of the transcontinental railroad would have further introduced it. A search provided a lot of links, and the one below nicely covers the early history of US rice production.

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/our_offices/research_stations/Rice/Features/Publications/The+History+of+US+Rice+Production++Part+1.htm

I bought a cookbook in Yuma last summer called Arizona Territory Cook Book: Recipes from 1864 - 1912. In the section for cowboy recipes, it has the following (P. 87):

And then, we'd always have some rice, and you'd make what the cowboys would call a "pie." A pie was rice and raisins. You just take dried raisins and cook the rice up and dump the raisins in, or you can do it with dried apricots either, cause that's one thing you'd use, and cowboys got to callin' that a pie. "We'll make a pie"; well, that's rice and raisins. -- Gail Gardner

On P. 88, there's a recipe for "Dutch Oven Rice Pudding with Fruit":
4 cups cold cooked rice
2 cups sugar
2 cups dried cooked apricots, peaches, or apples
1 cup boiling water

In dutch oven, start with layer of fruit and alternate layers with rice, sprinkling each layer with sugar. Pour the water over the top and bake in dutch oven with medium coals until hot. Double this recipe for round-up crew of 10-12 men.

I googled Gail Gardner and learned he was a cowboy poet (1892 - 1988) so a bit after the ASJ time period; the other recipe doesn't have a date attached but it is also in the Cowboy section. So I'd say Heyes and Curry very likely would have been familiar with rice, at least in its very simple boiled form, as seen by these two recipes.

ROFL!

Rice and raisins (well, sultanas) is my favorite dish! Dices of bacon, butter milk sauce... YUM!

But now I have to google for a dutch oven...
(Funny - that's the second dutch thing I read on the forum yet haven't got a clue what it is!)

LOL--I forgot you were Dutch! But, really, you don't know what a Dutch oven is? I have one from my grandmother. I guess I always thought it was named that because the Dutch used/popularized it. Here are some photos:

Ghislaine Emrys wrote:

LOL--I forgot you were Dutch! But, really, you don't know what a Dutch oven is? I have one from my grandmother. I guess I always thought it was named that because the Dutch used/popularized it. Here are some photos:

I bet most English don't know what English liquorice is, either... ;)
Thanks for the images - I'd call that a "braadpan" - no mention of it being dutch. *g*

Radiogaga - do you mean the black, salty strong stuff? Mind you, I'm not English.

Silverkelpie wrote:

Radiogaga - do you mean the black, salty strong stuff? Mind you, I'm not English.

Well, what we call "Engelse drop" (English licorice), is known in English as liquorice allsorts. It's not salty at all.

Radiogaga - Got you. My father used to eat really strong, little pastilles. I thought that was what you meant! He did love the stuff!

Silverkelpie wrote:

Radiogaga - Got you. My father used to eat really strong, little pastilles. I thought that was what you meant! He did love the stuff!

I knew those little black liquorice bits as Imps and I'd love to get hold of them again. Still love sherbet fountains with the liquorice stick.
Liquorice allsorts are pieces of liquorice with a sort of sugar fondant - not sure how you describe it! I like the 'horse cubes' best! Liquorice jelly with sugar bobbles! Think you need to see them!
http://www.thepinksweetshop.co.uk/lg_images/Liquorice_Allsorts%5B4%5D.jpg

My Texas grandmother said (according to my mother - my grandmother died when I was 1 year old) that cowboys rode about with one pocket full of biscuits and one pocket full of molasses to dip them in - yuck! Mother always wondered if her mother wasn't having her on about that one - would have to be mighty tightly sewn pockets to keep from getting really nasty.
HW