MMMMM-------------------AMERICAN MEASUREMENTS------------------------
8 ea Strips thick-sliced bacon
-chopped
1/3 c All-purpose flour
1 ts Salt
1/2 ts Fresh ground black pepper
1 ts Dried thyme or sage (opt)
2 1/2 lb Beef chuck or bottom round
-cut into 1-1/2" cubes
3/4 c Onion, chopped
12 fl Strong coffee
3 tb Chili sauce or ketchup
2 tb Molasses
2 tb Worcestershire sauce
18 ea Small boiling onions; peel
24 fl Water
6 sm Red potatoes; peel; quarter
4 ea Carrots; peel, cut into
-1-1/2" lengths
Chopped fresh parsley for
-garnish; optional
In 1870, a fierce blizzard caused my great-grandfather's cattle to
drift away from his Wind Mill Ranch near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The
cattle were found in a sheltered canyon nearly twenty miles south,
in the Chalk bluffs of northeastern Colorado. Benjamin Franklin
Ketcham took this as a sign and staked his claim in what is now known
as Ketcham Canyon.
Men did the cooking on trail drives and roundups. My father's uncles
Will and Herb Ketcham -- old-style open range cowboys -- were used to
"doing for themselves". Uncle Herb could whip up a batch of biscuits
in a flash and cook almost anything in his old Dutch oven. Bacon or
coffee left from breakfast became part of a hearty stew served to
ravenous cowboys at the noon time dinner. Serve this stew with hot
biscuits.
DIRECTIONS: In a Dutch oven over medium-low heat, cook the bacon
slowly to render the fat. Remove the cooked bacon with a slotted
spoon and set aside.
Combine the flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper, and thyme. Pat the
beef cubes dry and toss with the flour mixture.
Over medium-high heat, brown the beef in the bacon drippings, working
in batches if necessary. Remove the browned meat and set it aside.
Add the chopped onion to the pan and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the
coffee, chili sauce, molasses, Worcestershire, and reserved beef and
bacon. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, stirring
occasionally.
Add the boiling onions and 3 cups of water. Simmer, covered, for 30
minutes. Stir in the potatoes, carrots, and more water, if necessary.
Continue to simmer the stew, partially covered, for about 30 minutes,
or until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Add salt to taste and
serve garnished with fresh parsley, if desired.
Source: Spirit of the West by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs; as
published in the Oregonian FoodDay; typos by Dorothy Flatman 1997
