Now every good outdoors event whether it be BBQ or picnic, wouldn't be complete without some lip-smacking cowboy beans. This recipe was shown to me in 1981 down in Texas on a ranch layout that would defy logic. Those feller's down their sure know the word big and this ranch was so big it would take a mounted cowboy three days ride to reach the other side. I was working for Kirby buildings at the time and my assignment was to make sure some engineered buildings that were purchased were constructed to specifications. While I was there I got a taste by a fine host to some real old fashioned chuck wagon cooking. Looking back on it now when I asked the camp cookie for the recipe for the beans he gave me a stern look and said, "If I tell ya, I’d have to kill ya." Looking at him with his apron, cowboy hat and an old .45 strapped around his waist in a holster, I sized him up and down to see if he was joking or what. He had a grizzled old face with three or four day’s scruff on it and deep-set brown eyes. The kind you can’t get a grip on no matter how hard you try. Finally, he grinned after he noticed me looking the .45 rig over and said, "Kid, the shooters for the rattlers that come trespassing under my wagon. They make for fine fare and the boss’s wife prefers them to beef." He wrote the recipe with a small pencil, sharpened with a pocket knife he had in his apron, on a piece of newspaper. They used the newspaper for you-know-what out in the big open. This is one of the delicious side dishes we were exposed to that day written on the 'bum fodder.' Sure enough, these beans went down like the titanic and the drippings were mopped up with bannock bread. I was so full I could hardly make the 100-mile dirt road drive back to civilization. Over the years, I have made these and they seem to be a big hit with crowds. Any hamburger, hot dog or potato salad will rest easy knowing these are on the plate.
Ingredients:
1lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. bacon cooked and crumbled
1 large onion diced or use, 2 tbs. onion powder
1 small green pepper diced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup catsup (Hunts)
16 oz. bottle of Homestyle chili sauce
2 tbs. prepared mustard
1/2 lb. Jimmy Dean’s regular sausage
2 -31 oz. cans of pork and beans
2 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauté the ground beef and sausage until browned. Add the onion and pepper pieces and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. If using a Dutch oven then prepare ingredients same as above and combine in the Dutch with 8 coals on bottom and 12 on top for two hours. When the kitchen or the yard starts to smell like cowboy bean heaven, then it’s time to whip out some Johnny cake and go to town on these beans. Surely you know what Johnny cake is? Well if you don't, we will show you in another recipe post. Enjoy!!
Hunting-Style Beans & Weenies
When I grew up the deer and elk hunts were the main reason a man was alive. Everything else took a back seat to the big hunts. Men would leave loved ones, farms, businesses and all else just to trek in the mountains and chase after elusive big game animals. We would become animalistic ourselves in our endeavors to procure one of these beasts and have bragging rights with fellow hunters. At a young age, I learned that when you’re hunting you sacrifice a lot of your values. The speed limit is ignored, you’re wallet is thinned to the thickness of a toothpick and your brain is temporarily indisposed. All the nice things in life that we enjoy such as good food, warm accommodations, and comfortable attire are thrown out with yesterday’s leftovers. We will even risk life and limb in the mountains just for the thrill of the hunt. I am sure glad that I finally got my brains back in my head. I think it all happened one day when my eighteen-year-old son told me to keep up or I might as well head back to the truck. I think I was fifty-one at the time. Well, gravity and the hand of time finally humbled this old hunter. Now looking back on the wild times I realize that the one thing I missed the most on the hunts was some of the handmade concocted meals that we would come up with just to have it fast and effortless. One such meal was fashioned in a can and my first exposure to it was over a campfire above 8500 feet sea level with a snow covered mountain for the scene. The top of the can was opened and placed inside the camp fire. This bubbling brew of molasses and goodness warmed more than one hunter up back in the day. Even in the Army, a can of beans & weenies were the ones we wanted in our c rations. We would trade and barter for these with anything we could use. Well, cans of beans and weenies are scarce nowadays and they may disappear altogether some day so I worked up my own version and they were a big hit at the family BBQ. Here is the method I use:
Ingredients:
2-28 oz. cans of Pork and Beans
1-16 oz. can of Pork and Beans
1- 1lb. pack of Hot dogs cut into 3/8-inch thick slices
1- tbsp. Onion powder
1- tsp. minced garlic
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 -tbs. prepared mustard
4- Slices of cooked bacon crumbled
1 tsp. Worchester sauce
Make this simple and combine everything in a 12” Dutch oven with 8 coals on bottom and 12 on top for 2-3 hours or until the coals die off. If using a slow cooker combine ingredients and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
Now around the campfire, we would slam these beans with pieces of bannock or cowboy bread. Sometimes we would scoop out these beans into slices of bread and make dripping sloppy sandwiches. These were finger licking sloppy morsels and the leftovers we wore on the front of our hunting shirts and jackets. Hell, who cares when you’re in the dark, cold and tired and you’ve been skunked for several days. It’s man versus nature and the beast is still the king. Enjoy!
