We're all familiar with cowboy scenes from the Old West, with a big pot over a camp fire filled with beans or stew that Cookie (the cowboy cook) had prepared. And at the old homestead, whether you were cooking over an open fire or had the newest range to feed 20 ranch hands, the stew pot was one of the most important items in the kitchen. Nowadays, we have the crock pot. Brent Younger has taken some of the old recipes that he has come across from the late 1800s and early 1900s and up-dated them for today's kitchen (along with a few newer ones too) and created COWBOY CROCK POT COOKING. Some of these recipes would have been rustled up by “Cookie” on cattle drives and a lot of them were regular fare on the ranch. The cowboy diet was a wholesome diet. People worked long and hard; no-one cared about calories or low fat, so don't expect to see that here. Meats would have been tougher than we're used to — animals weren't pumped up with hormones and fed stuff they were never meant to eat — and slow cooking would have been the best way to make a meal tender. That said, cooking in a crock pot today is a good way to save some money because you can use cheaper cuts of meat and still enjoy a really delicious and hearty meal. Try Pot Rustler's Stew, Quick and Easy Cowpoke Chicken, or live a little dangerously and go for Old Fart Baked Beans.
