VEGETABLES AND LEGUMES

CUCUMBERS WITH CREAM

3 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp (15 mL) salt

1 small onion, finely chopped, or 3 green onions

1 cup (250 mL) thick cream, sour or sweet

1 tbsp (15 mL) vinegar

2 tbsp (30 mL) sugar

freshly ground pepper to taste

Serves 8 to 10

Place cucumbers in a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Set a weight on top of the cucumbers. Refrigerate for several hours, then pour off the juice. Mix onion(s), cream, vinegar, sugar, and pepper. Pour over the cucumbers.

Ranch house west of Fort Macleod, Alberta, circa 1888. GLENBOW ARCHIVES, NA-2033-1

When Bea Godden returned from England, she was met in Calgary by her fiancé, Henry Sheppard. They were married that day and started at once for their home on the Paleface Ranch, some distance away.

They travelled as far as Pine Creek Stopping Place the first night and arrived at the High River Horse Ranch about suppertime the next day. Manager Phil Weinard invited them to have supper and stay the night. In their honour, he set the table with a fine white tablecloth, silverware and beautiful cut glass—all brought from England by the previous owner. By this time the new bride was quite impressed with ranch life and sat at the table with expectations of a splendid supper. At last the first and only course was brought in—a big black iron pot full of cornmeal mush.

It was the custom of the country to invite guests “to sit up for a meal,” and there was no embarrassment or apology if there was a meagre supply of food on hand.

SCALLOPED CORN CASSEROLE

This winter vegetable dish can be served with beef, ham, pork chops, sausages, or meat loaf.

2 14-oz (398 mL) cans creamed corn

2 beaten eggs

¾ cup (175 mL) milk

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

¼ tsp (1 mL) freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup (175 mL) soda cracker crumbs

3 tbsp (45 mL) butter, melted

Serves 6

Mix corn, eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a casserole. Mix half the crackers with the corn mixture. Mix the other half with the butter, and sprinkle on top of corn mixture. Bake in a 325°F (160°C) oven for about 1 hour.

The Lachlan McKinnon children on the LK Ranch, Dalemead, circa 1910. Building the LK into a beautiful and prosperous Alberta ranch was a family enterprise. GLENBOW ARCHIVES, NA-3850-1

SCALLOPED TOMATOES

C anned tomatoes were useful on chuckwagons and in ranch kitchens. They added flavour and colour to a rather bland diet and were frequently the only available vegetable. Cowboy Bud Cotton told me that on dry trails, cowboys drank the tomato liquid to relieve their parched throats, and when the cans were empty, they served as useful containers.

1 cup (250 mL) bread, cubed

2 tbsp (30 mL) butter

2 tbsp (30 mL) onion, chopped

14-oz (398 mL) can tomatoes

3 tbsp (45 mL) brown sugar

½ tsp (2 mL) salt

½ tsp (2 mL) dried basil

Serves 3 to 4

Place the cubed bread in a casserole. Melt the butter in a saucepan and lightly sauté the onions. Pour over the bread cubes. Mix the tomatoes, sugar, salt, and basil, and pour over the bread. Cover tightly with a lid or foil and bake for approximately 30 minutes in a 350°F (180°C) oven. Serve with meat loaf, ranch steak, or pork sausages.

“The ranch house was home, school, and social centre to fifteen people, counting nine members of the family, the hired help, and a school governess who lived and held school in the big room upstairs.

“There were always extra people dropping in for a meal. Planks were added to the end of the dining room table until it became so long it extended right into the kitchen. Meals were informal, the food hearty and healthy. Nothing was wasted. A bone was turned into soup, with even the beef marrow eaten. Extra milk made cheese; doughnuts were made with extra lard; dried bread was the basis for bread pudding.

“We drove to town two or three times a year and loaded up on supplies: one hundred lbs of honey; cases of dried fruit; five barrels of apples every fall; one-hundred-lb bags of sugar and flour, each in five-bag lots.

“Most of the food came from the ranch itself. A cow and a pig were butchered and the meat put up for later use as corned beef, canned beef, hams, bacon, and sausages. Chickens were raised for eggs and for Sunday dinner. The vegetable garden provided fresh greens all summer and enough potatoes, turnips and carrots to store in the root house for winter use.

“Wild berries—saskatoons, chokecherries and gooseberries—were made into jam and preserves. Milk was separated, the cream used for butter and baking, the milk for drinking and puddings.

“There was fun as well as work. We had taffy pulls and hymn singing on Sunday nights. There were summer picnics and parties to which everyone went—children, parents, and the hired help.”

Luella Goddard on the Bow River Horse Ranch near Cochrane, Alberta, circa early 1900s. Women usually made their own clothes and were skilled in the art of needlework. GLENBOW ARCHIVES, NA-2084-30

DILLED CARROTS

W hen the Fenton Ranch holds its production sale in November, up to three hundred people turn out to inspect the cattle and ranch operations, Judy Rutledge Fenton told me in a 1981 interview in Irma, Alberta. As most of the people have travelled a great distance, it is customary to provide a roast-beef dinner at noon and a snack later in the afternoon before the guests leave for home. Six 18-pound roasts of beef, which have been in the oven since 4:00 AM, are carved and served with baked potatoes, a variety of salads, dill pickles, dilled carrots, and bread. Sixty pies or thirty jelly rolls or twenty cakes are sliced for dessert. Gallons of coffee and juice are available for drinking.

8 garlic cloves

16 sprigs of dill

8 lbs (4 kg) straight 3-inch (8 cm) baby carrots

8 cups (2 L) white vinegar

8 cups (2 L) water

1 cup (250 mL) pickling salt

1 tsp (5 mL) white pepper

1 tsp (5 mL) mustard seed

Put a small piece of garlic and a piece of dill in the bottom of each of 8 hot, sterilized quart (litre) jars. Place clean, whole carrots in each jar. Place another piece of dill on top.

Bring to a boil the vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and mustard seed. Pour over the carrots to within ½ inch (1 cm) of the top. Tighten lid. Keep in a cool storage area.

CREAMED ONIONS

This vegetable dish is a good accompaniment for ranch-style steak.

8 medium onions

3 tbsp (45 mL) butter

3 tbsp (45 mL) flour

2 cups (500 mL) milk

½ tsp (2 mL) salt

pinch pepper

¼ tsp (1 mL) nutmeg

½ cup (125 mL) cracker crumbs

2 tbsp (30 mL) melted butter

parmesan cheese

Peel onions and place in a pot with a large amount of boiling, salted water. Boil uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes, until onions are tender but still retaining their form. Drain and transfer onions to a buttered casserole dish.

To prepare cream sauce, melt butter and stir in flour. When blended, add milk slowly while stirring. Cook on low heat until thick. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour sauce over onions.

Mix cracker crumbs and melted butter, and spread topping over onions. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the mixture.

Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until onions and sauce are hot and the crumbs lightly browned. Plan for 1 to 2 onions per person.

MARINATED ONIONS IN SOUR CREAM

Serve marinated onions in a bowl for guests to spoon onto open-faced hot beef sandwiches or beef on a bun.

2 large onions, finely sliced

½ cup (125 mL) vinegar

½ cup (125 mL) water

¾ cup (175 mL) sugar

1 cup (250 mL) sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

Serves 10

Cover the onions w ith vinegar, water, and sugar to marinate. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Drain well. Mix with sour cream, salt, and pepper.

PICKLED BEETS

This was a popular pickle, probably because beets are easy to grow. Small young beets are best, but large beets can be used successfully too.

6 lbs (3 kg) beets

4 cups (1 L) vinegar

2 cups (500 mL) water

3 cups (750 mL) sugar

1 tbsp (15 mL) mixed pickling spices

Makes approximately 8 pint (0.5 L) jars

Cook beets in boiling water until tender (this may take up to 2 hours). Peel. If beets are large, cut them into thick slices; if small, leave whole. Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Pack beets into sterilized jars and cover with hot liquid. Seal and store in a cool place.

TURNIP PUFF

I n Leaves from the Medicine Tree, High River pioneers recalled a popular stopping place. As there were no hotels and restaurants, bullwhackers and cowboys liked to stay at Joe Trollinger’s Stopping House on Mosquito Creek, halfway between Fort Macleod and Calgary. Joe’s wife, Lucy, grew a vegetable garden, which was unusual for those times. Her menus included generous piles of turnips and provided a welcome change to the early rangeland diet of sowbelly and beans.

Turnips continued to be a staple food on winter menus, as they were one of the few vegetables that kept well in the basements and root cellars of the early ranch homes. This recipe is rather special and could be served for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

4 cups (l L) boiled, mashed turnips

4 tbsp (60 mL) butter

2 tsp (10 mL) sugar

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

pinch of nutmeg

pepper to taste

2 eggs, separated

Add the butter, sugar, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and egg yolks to the turnips. Beat together. Whip the egg whites until stiff, as for meringue, and fold into the turnip mixture. Pile into a buttered 1½-quart (1.5 L) casserole dish and bake at 300° to 350°F (150° to 180°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

A branding scene at Bar U Ranch, circa 1919. Note the fire, the branding irons, and the wrestlers holding the animals down. Local First Nations people worked as wrestlers for the day and helped with many other operations on the ranch. GLENBOW ARCHIVES, NB-16-260

Brands and brandings are important in the life of the ranching community. Each ranch has its own registered brand, specific in its shape and location on the animal. The brand denotes ownership, controls cattle rustling, and prevents disputes with neighbouring ranches.

June is the usual time for branding spring calves, before the animals are herded out to summer pasture. At the same time, any older stock newly acquired by the ranch are branded as well.

Ranches hold their own brandings or work with several other outfits, taking turns moving from one place to another. With help, they can brand as many as three or four hundred calves in one day.

As many as one hundred people might come to a branding, most of them to help in some way. The hosts are up early to wrangle, saddle, and bridle the horses. Work begins early, with skilled riders and their cutting horses roping calves and hauling them bawling and protesting to the corrals, where they are castrated, earmarked, inoculated, and branded. Most of the people work. Those not working sit on the corral rails and enjoy the bustle of animals, people, fires, and the outdoors.

The women on the ranch have been preparing for this event well ahead of time. Neighbours help by bringing enormous pans of cakes, cookies, and pies. Nobody comes empty-handed to a branding.

The noon meal is brought out and served buffet style from the back of a truck bed, although a few ranchers still like to keep with tradition and bring out their chuckwagon on these special occasions. Food is simple: pots of beans, a hearty stew, salads, homemade buns, choice of pie, and coffee.

Work continues until all the calves have been branded and the cows dehorned. Cows and calves are turned out on the range and the branding is finished for another year.

Now the visiting and celebrating begins. Prime rib roasts or a hip of beef have been barbecued. An assortment of salads, homemade buns, and pies—apple, rhubarb, raisin, saskatoon—are spread out on a long table. Talk turns to cattle and horses and brandings of long ago.

POTLUCK BEAN SUPPER

B aked beans are a tradition at brandings and other western celebrations. This baked-bean dish is hearty enough to be served as a main course.

2 lbs (1 kg) ground beef

2 medium onions, chopped

2 28-fl.-oz (796 mL) cans beans

⅔ cup (150 mL) brown sugar

⅓ cup (75 mL) vinegar

1 cup (250 mL) ketchup or canned tomatoes

2 tsp (10 mL) dry mustard

2 tsp (10 mL) Worcestershire sauce

Serves 8

Brown the beef. Sauté the onions. Add to beans. Combine remaining ingredients and add to bean mixture. Bake slowly in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 to 2 hours. Time will depend on the type of baking dish used. A heavy bean pot will take up to 2 hours.

BULLWHACKERS’ BAKED BEANS

2½ cups (625 mL/450 g) navy beans

½ cup (125 mL) brown sugar

½ cup (125 mL) fancy molasses

¼ cup (50 mL) cold black coffee or ¼ tsp (1 mL) instant coffee

¼ cup (50 mL) canned tomatoes

2 tsp (10 mL) dry mustard

2 tsp (10 mL) salt

½ lb (250 g) salt pork or side bacon, cubed

Serves 6

Wash the beans. Pl ace in a large pot, cover with water, and leave to soak overnight. The next day, add enough water to cover the beans and boil until just tender (¾ to 1 hour). If you have forgotten to soak the beans overnight, simmer them for approximately 2 hours or until soft. Drain.

Place the beans in a bean pot or casserole. Add remaining ingredients and enough water to cover the beans. Bake uncovered at 300°F (150°C) for 5 to 6 hours. Check occasionally during cooking and add more water if necessary, enough to keep the top beans from drying out.

Dorothy Allen-Gray, whose husband was with the RCMP for thirty years, recalls this story being told at a gathering of retired officers: One Mountie serving at a northern outpost kept himself in quick frozen dinners all winter. He baked an enormous pot of beans and then spooned them into long ladies’ stockings. These he hung on nails outside his shack, where they soon froze. When hungry, he took his axe, chopped off the required portion of frozen beans, and heated them for a quick dinner.

Bull trains consisted of five or six strings of plodding oxen and wagons that could stretch across the country for half a mile, dust drifting up in little clouds as they moved along. Each string consisted of eight or ten pairs of oxen pulling three freight wagons coupled together like railroad cars.

John D. Higinbotham, in When the West Was Young (Ryerson Press, 1933; The Herald Printers, 1978), explained that the drivers were called bullwhackers because they rode up and down the line, snapping their eighteen-strand snake whips, swearing, and shouting, “Gee up, you long-horned, slab-sided prairie perambulatory sons of perdition! Gee up or I’ll knock every hair off your measly hide!”

The bull trains covered ten miles a day and took a week to travel from Calgary to Fort Macleod. At night the oxen grazed while the men gathered buffalo chips for their cooking fires. Grub was simple—beans in a Dutch oven, buried in the embers of the fire and left to slow-cook overnight; a little sowbelly (bullwhackers and cowboys frequently referred to salt pork as “sowbelly” or “rattlesnake pork”), sliced and fried; fresh bannock, with enough baked to last the next day too; and strong black coffee.