Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 10 Jun 2025Slow-cooked pinto beans and dense cast iron skillet cornbread
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1896The cook for a cattle drive, often called “cookie”, was usually a former cowboy himself, having aged out of the profession by 25. They’d wake up around 3:00 AM to get breakfast ready, then pack up and drive ahead about 15 miles to prepare supper.
These beans are very simple, and surprisingly delicious. Honestly, the garlic doesn’t do a whole lot (who only uses half a clove?), but they’re still very good. Feel free to use however hot a red pepper you like, and the beans are a perfect accompaniment to the Chuck Wagon Cornbread (below). Mighty fine, indeed.
FRIJOLES.
1 cup Mexican beans.
1/2 clove garlic.
1 long red pepper.
1 thin small slice bacon.
Soak beans over night; boil slowly until soft—from eight to ten hours. Add red pepper, garlic, and bacon, and bake.
— Manual for Army Cooks, 1896
Ingredients:
1 cup (150 g) dried pinto beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1 thin slice bacon, chopped
1 long fresh red pepper*, choppedInstructions:
- Cover the beans with water and soak overnight.
- Drain the beans and put them in an oven-safe pot. Cover them with plenty of water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. When they’re simmering, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 90 minutes.
- When the 90 minutes are almost up, preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- After the beans have simmered for 90 minutes, stir in the salt, garlic, bacon, and red pepper. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven and bake it for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour in the oven, remove the lid and bake for another 90 minutes. You want most of the liquid to have cooked off. If the liquid cooks off too quickly, add a little bit of water so that it doesn’t cook dry in the 90 minutes.
- Serve them forth with Chuck Wagon Cornbread.
Slow-cooked pinto beans and dense cast iron skillet cornbread
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1896The invention of the chuck wagon is credited to Charles Goodnight, who in 1866 had the idea of putting all the cowboys’ food into one wagon and having a cook come along to prepare it for them. The chuck wagon had special storage for cooking utensils and ingredients, mainly preserved meat, flour, coffee, and cornmeal, as well as fold-down cooking surfaces.
The chuck wagon also had some Dutch ovens, which is what cornbread like this was baked in. The absence of leavener makes this cornbread quite dense, but the flavor is really nice. I baked mine in a cast iron skillet, but if you have a Dutch oven, go ahead and give it a go in that.
CORN BREAD OR HOE CAKE
1 quart meal.
2 tablespoonfuls melted lard.
2 teaspoonfuls salt.
Sufficient warm water (but not hot enough to scald meal) or warm milk to make a thick batter.
— Manual for Army Cooks, 1896Ingredients:
4 cups (580 g) cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups (700 ml) milk or water, more or less as needed, I used milk
2 tablespoons lardInstructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Grease a 10″ to 12″ (25 cm to 30 cm) cast iron skillet well with lard.
- In a large bowl, mix the cornmeal and salt together.
- Heat the milk until it’s just warm to the touch and melt the lard.
- Pour about half of the warm milk into the cornmeal and stir it in. Stir in more milk a little at a time until the batter is a little thicker than pancake batter.
- Stir in the melted lard.
- Pour the batter into the greased cast iron skillet and smooth it out.
- Bake for about 40 minutes or until the edges start to pull away from the pan.
- Serve them forth with Chuck Wagon Beans.
November 17, 2025
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