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 A
Taste of the Old West
I first heard of food historian Sam
Arnold and his Denver restaurant, The Fort, in 1988 when he offered me a
recipe for Jalapeos Stuffed with Peanut Butter to include in Country
Livings article on peppers. Skeptics on the staff couldnt
believe we were considering the recipe, but when we finally tested it
(unfortunately too late for publication) everyone declared the
strange-sounding combination delicious. The Fort Cookbook
(HarperCollins: $30), by Samuel P. Arnold, includes that recipe and more
than 180 others for exotic fare such as Rocky Mountain Oysters, Pickled
Devils Claws, and Moose Nose; things with funny names such as Chicken
Livers Volkswagen, Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson, and Cha-Cha Murpheys;
and familiar Western specialties such as Tamale Pie, Cheese Tostados, and
Fry Bread. Dont be put off by the names, for theres a lot of
delectable stuff between these covers. In addition to historical notes
about the recipes (all specialties of the Fort), Mr. Arnold tells of the
events that let him to build a replica of an adobe fur-trading for near a
big red rock southwest of Denver and start his restaurant. Vintage photos
and local lore add to the experience.
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 Eating
Up The Santa Fe Trail
We are what we eat and the foods of the West
made the westerners. Samuel P. Arnold brings together food and history with the
blending of the cultures of the Indians, Mexicans and frontier Americans traced
from banal boudins to sophistircated sopaipillas. The West in general and the
Santa Fe Trail in particular brought together the foods of the Europeans and the
Indians. Arnolds recipes demonstrate how the white mans wheat flour, cow
meat, cheese, molasses, and sugar were amalgamated with the corn, chilies,
tomatoes, sunflower seeds, pumpkins and potatoes of the New World to unfluence
not only the camp fare along the Santa Fe Trail, but the menus of everyone
living on this planet. How many Americans know how E.C. Booz of Philadelphia
gave his name to whiskey? Arnold tells us. Buffalo boudins are commonly referred
to in books on the fur trade, but nobody describes their "makins better
than Sam arnold. By the way, on a par with boudins is the recipe for cooking the
nose of a moose. Travelers in the Old West discussed the food eaten on their
trips as we discuss the restaurants along our modern highways, and Eating Up the
Santa Fe Trail quotes liverally from these historic accounts. With this
publication, Arnold further establishes himself as an eminent authority on
western eating, both historic and modern.
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