What Food was Served at Wild West Saloons?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Go to squarespace.co... to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of
a website or domain.
Support the Channel with Patreon ► / tastinghistory
For more on the ghost town, Cerro Gordo, watch Ghost Town Living:
/ @ghosttownliving
For more great videos on the old west, check out the channel Arizona Ghostriders: • Batwing Doors in Old W...
Recipe at www.tastinghis...
Order the TASTING HISTORY COOKBOOK: amzn.to/42O10Lx
Merch ► crowdmade.com/...
Instagram ► / tastinghistorywithmaxm...
Twitter ► / tastinghistory1
Tiktok ► TastingHistory
Reddit ► / tastinghistory
Discord ► / discord
Amazon Wish List ► amzn.to/3i0mwGt
Send mail to:
Tasting History
22647 Ventura Blvd, Suite 323
Los Angeles, CA 91364
**Some of the links are from companies from which Tasting History will earn an affiliate commission. These help to support the channel at no cost to you.
Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose
#tastinghistory
Follow along in my England adventures while i'm kitchenless at: instagram.com/tastinghistorywithmaxmiller/ and for more behind the scenes banter check out my side channel: th-cam.com/video/3oIhbqtfFiU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=Z_lBmQTpjrHVwdPf
Free or discounted breakfasts with the purchase of a drink are still quite common at bars in Canada.
Home made beans are delicious!!! Salt pork is still a staple in the South
East. My Gramma would boil the salt pork first, then pan fry til crispy...yum....and then add it to the beans... I am going to try this recipe.
In Balkans we often eat raw (obviously smoked) bacon. I've never had salted pork. What's a difference between those two?
TANSTAAFL! (see Robert Heinlein)
Let me think about.
pea soup with bacon on rye bread
My dad owned bars up until the late 80's. He always offered free food, from small sandwiches, baked beans, to stuffed bell peppers. His bar was always packed. A smart bar practice...
yeah that's smart business!
Back when I was poor, I would often go to a local pub that served free snacks, buy a beer and eat my meal for the day for free. Great system! Lots of bars served snacks so I could go to different bars different days. Not a bad deal!
Called tapas in Spain
When I moved in with my first girlfriend after college, we were pretty poor with no air conditioning in south Texas. We would frequent the local country bar as they had air conditioning, finger foods and 50 cent well drinks. Entertainment a meal and cheap drinks what more can you ask for. Those were simpler times for sure.
A good bar always has food - so does a good party!
"There's gold in them there hills!"
I sleep
"There's free lunches of pork and beans"
I wake
If you’re guaranteed a good meal there’s no need for gold lol
**REAL SHIT**
@@rlt9492 only if you can afford the alcohol to get that free meal there
u can’t eat cash ;).
Exactly my thought
I wonder what they did about freeloaders? @@rlt9492
I think Cookie from Disney's Atlantis the Lost Empire said it best.
"I got yer four food groups right here! Bacon, Beans, Whiskey, and Lard!"
Cilantro!? What in the cockadoodle is Cilantro?
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the thumbnail 😂
"Lettuce? LETTUCE!?"
Ahhhhh! What more could there possibly be!
Cookie, the men need your four basic food groups…
I'm 85, my Mom made the best beans and pork ever. With home baked bread still warm from the oven. All the milk we could devour.
That sounds like it would be heavenly after a long day of working in the cold!
your ass is not 85 bro stop the cap
@@baljeetsingh_i and your ass is rude
@@baljeetsingh_i better not ever diss my boy roger rowsell
Oh, and the aroma of baking bread would whet the appetite!
Fun fact. The Free Meal is still a thing in some Italian Bars. The one I went to did it on Wednesdays. You Buy a Glass of Wine, and you can Get a Bowl of Pasta from a huge Pasta vessel that sits on the counter. It was used heavily by University Students back then haha.
Now gone. No more bella vita!😂😂😂
@@grbadalamenti So sad.
Also in Spain and Mexico. Little snacks, sandwiches, etc.
It's also sort of a thing in Japan as well.
I actually wondered if this concept still existed, given how profitable food can be. That's awesome.
Max, what I can only describe as the "Spaghetti Western lighting" is really doing it for you.
No lies detected
I thought something looked different
Agreed!
Man's this close to having the Southwest Yellow Filter, now ya mention it.
I kinda hope he does a spaghetti recipe while still in the saloon, PURELY for the pun.
"I saw a performance leaving me in awe, and dismay. It was a man...eating his dinner".
Those words couldn't have been delivered any better by anyone else
Man was eating food, EW
I’m sure he made “aghast posh man” noises the whole time lol
Imagine if he saw a Cajun putting the hurt on a crawfish boil
@@rlt9492 Several "harrumphs" as well, I'm sure.
Dramatic Europeans haven't changed in centuries evidently
Remember an italian spaghetti western movie with Terence Hill playing Trinity. He arrives at a saloon and asked for beans with sausage, and the plate was humongous. I asked my mom to do it, which she never did, but did it once later on. Really cool.
😄👍 So many Terence Hill films have his character ravenously eating a plate of beans! 😁
Terence didn't ate nothing the day before to make the scene more realistic.
@@apeine I remember that scene very well. The cook brought a plate and a big pan of beans; Trinity pushed the plate away took the pan and scoffed the beans.
I love that scene! I used to watch it every time I made beans at home.
I heard the same thing
I have not, in general, been enjoying TH-cam pretty much forcing people to watch ads, but the timing of the particular ad on my computer just after the point when Max asks "What can you expect to get when walking into an Old West saloon?" ... "Purina Cat Chow!" definitely was good for a laugh.
you need an ad blocker. they still send nasty messages warning you you'll get blocked from watching youtube, just turn the ad blocker off for a day or two and you can see a bunch of videos without the nasty messages again. but the ad blockers are always working to update their own software and they at least slow down the level of ads you get.
@@mikepette4422 Hell, they don't even stop you from using the site anymore. I just refresh the page until it lets me watch the video. I only have to refresh once or twice.
AdBlock +. No ads.
@nattyfatty6.0uBlockOrigin.
Also, I'm sad I can't have adblock on mobile.
Ads are how TH-cam and Google get paid, but they're also how Max gets paid (in addition to Squarespace/NordVPN/Factor/etc). Support our boy, live with the ads. Or go YT Premium, Max gets a cut of that too.
If this were TV, you'd be watching commercials. If it were cable, you'd be paying the cable company. If you think Max's content is at least as good as those, be nice and help him get paid. Ain't nobody doing none of this for free.
My baked beans recipe is super simple. I go to the grocery store and buy a big can of baked beans, then pour them into a pan and heat them up. Just like mom used to make.
That is a very boring recipe... your mom didn't 'dress 'em up'?
Are you my long-lost sibling!? (My mom can't cook worth crap.)
My mom did the same thing. She would get those huge cans from Sam's Club...
Bushes Baked Beans..
Heat it up with hot dogs..
That was dinner..
🤣🤣🤣🤣
On buttered toast I hope
How tf do you dress up canned beans? The whole point so you dont have to, cause theyre already dressed up. Unless you want to put a bit more seasoning for taste.@@lynnodonnell4764
My favorite version involves frying the pork in the pan, frying onion in the pork fat, then adding the washed and parboiled beans to that same
pan with the molasses and spices. Then it's assembled and baked, served over corn bread and topped with chilis. That's how I had it in New Mexico.
🤤
Awesome. Thank you!
That frying first step is the way.
Delicious! I do mine more of a tex mex/Canadian style, with bacon, onion, jalapeños and maple syrup and tomato paste. Cook for 6hrs...oh I'm hungry now!
My favorite version involves getting a can opener, opening the can of pork and beans, emptying it out into a bowl, and nuking it in the microwave for 90 sec. I then eat it with several slices of buttered white bread. Then I fart copiously for the rest of the night.
I’m so happy to see Max get success he deserves with his channel. One of my favorite TH-cam channels.
😢😢😢😢
OK. That Englishman's horrified description of the man eating was hilarious! I love the voice Max puts on for these readings. LOL!
The fact the American ate all that food in five minutes, even if hyperbole, is ridiculous! But I guess when you’re working like hell you’d probably eat up a storm
Ha ha. I wonder if they milked it for all it's worth.
@chalmersmathew4831 I was thinking he just sounds really hungry. As an Englishman (who dose a physical job) myself I have eaten like this. Not quite the assortment this man had but with as much relish and enjoyment.
@@danielbeaney4407 Alternatively it could have been that he was used to not having much time to sit and eat, but there is plenty of time and space to stand and drink. So like it was mentioned in one of the quotes you came, drank and ate quick, then left the spot for the next.
It traumatised him so much he spent the next few years wondering around asking everyone he met if they'd seen someone called "Gavin"
The free lunch concept really reminds me of medieval europe. taverns always had a house stew on the fire. all patrons can help themself as long as they kept drinking
Yep. Its a very old practice.
Old world hospitality carried far away from home!
@@IronianKnightUniveral hospitality.
Visit Rome get free bread, visit native american tribes get fed (at least before hostilities began), there are other examples I know of but its almost universal to feed people, for free or nearly so if your capable.
The modern additude towards food as something earned and hard won is an unsual, and antisocial break from what appesrs to be a base human drive, and something that would be very very safe to bet would end.
But that said... If it goes against the grain of humanity itself.... welllll maybe find a way to make a profit feeding people for free, you'll be rich
@@AnonymousAnarchist2 Yep, it's almost as if those peoples that were not touched by certain aggressive cultural ideals were quite friendly and peaceful so long as their right to exist was respected. Like humans are, by nature, happy to bond and share resources with others if there isn't a terrible scarcity. Makes you wonder what the world might look like if certain people hadn't imposed an artificial scarcity in a world of greater-than-ever plenty for profit and control purposes. I like your idea about turning such principles in on themselves! Good day to you.
The classic bar peanuts/pretzels
God imagine rocking up to the local pub and they just have a small Chinese buffet in the corner. Sounds like heaven.
There’s actually places like that…usually places that host strippers
Still places like this in San Francisco.
@@marktechsciWhere? I need to see this! I’m near by.
I find it funny that most "Chinese" dishes are more American than "traditional American" food.
@@joshuasill4765i think it just goes to show that America really is the home of immigrants
"You're a good man, Arthur Morgan."
Watched this vid cause I’m on that RDR2 kick
😂 RDR2 forever
Sounds like a plan
I found your channel recently, and as a history nerd who loves to cook I enjoy the content immensely. I am also very hearing impaired and you have the best captions of anyone I've seen here on TH-cam. I love that there is no guessing at what was said, the inclusion of the non-English words, not just [foreign language] and also the 'nom noms' the emoticon faces. It makes the shows such a joy to watch.
Yay, glad you're finding them useful. Jose cleans up the subtitles every week and then Google translates them into other languages for international audiences.
Welcome aboard.
@@TastingHistory I often watch at work, and the excellent subtitles allow me to follow along really well. Thank you!
I often turn Max's subtitles on, just for more of his jokes 😆
@@TastingHistory Chat GPT is probably easier to translate to many languages and keep or include the correct formatting
@@sternteacher2092 ChatGPT is also incredibly bad for the environment - google it for proof!
Bean eating scene from "They Call Me Trinity" is absolutely legendary.
Haha I saw this video and immediately thought of Trinity and Nobody
Terence Hill was legendary.
Those beans and bread look so good
Blazing Saddles!
Trinity: "How much do I owe you?"
Barkeep: "Nada, nothing. On the house."
Trinity: "Thanks, the beans weren't much good anyway."
I remember not too long ago when you announced you were quitting your job to focus on this channel full time. We're all grateful you did! Proud of ya
I love the old west and never got to actually enjoy authentic period dishes. Thanks to you, I've enjoyed meals from history's most notable tables. Thanks a million. 🎉🎉🎉
Honestly my biggest takeaway, even more than saloon food being free, is that mixologist isn't some modern bs term but has been around for a while.
If you knew how to make 19th century turpentine and tobacco-spiked swill taste good, you were a bonafide food scientist. Makes sense they'd come up with a flattering name for those people early on.
@@Kumo-s6f very cool tho
I love my regional culture. A damn shame the transplants can't learn to love it as well.
@@flyboymike111357 no it isn’t. They’re not supposed to like it. They were placed with intention to undermine it. It’s not a shame. It’s a plan. And it’s working.
Sadly
For me its the mental image of cowboys and prospectors eating chow mein or enjoying german wurst sausage with tall mugs of frothy beer !
suddenly Sokka getting instantly wasted off "cactus juice" makes a lot more sense in light of the term's etymology explained here 😂😂😂
@@gwennorthcutt421 probably peyote cactus containing mescaline, found in Mexico and the US
*NOTHIN'S QUENCHIER*
@@DJWeapon8it's the quenchiest!
@@hakanbrakankrakanand several trichocereus species from South America. They grow great in the southwestern US and California if you're into that sort of thing.
@@nottarealguy3954 I'm in an entirely wrong climate for it unfortunately
When I was a college student in Cambridge, MA in the early 1970s we discovered a neighborhood bar that had free roast beef sandwiches on Thursday, and the patrons all knew where the potato chips and peanuts were kept the rest of the time. Then a story about the bar was published in an alternative weekly, and all the free food went away.
Greasy hippies ruining yet another great thing. No shock, from the 1970s.
Someone's always got to take advantage and screw it up for the rest of us!! Most college towns had really really cheap breakfast places, run by hippies. fill you up for class.
@@patrickbateman312yep. It's good when you do it, but everyone else is a greasy hippy.
When I took my first job training that wasn't just part of the apprenticeship, they told us the big software company that held the courses had had "free" lunch... until it appeared in a guide about trucker reststops or something (it has been 20 years). They ended that pretty quickly.
Obviously lunch wasn't free, just included in the training cost, but they hadn't checked if you were part of a training before that. By then, the simply handed out proof so you still got your daily food.
this is a channel i did not think i needed but it combines 2 of my favourite passions! you sir are a diamond
This video made me think of my father. He was born in 1912 and I was born late in his life and listened to his stories of what life was like back then. His father owned a lumber company in mid southern Canada and his boys he sent there after moving to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to work various jobs, my father included. My father as a boy was always assigned to work in the cook house with a crew of men making meals for all the lumberjacks using he said, " Huge pots, bigger then I could put my arms around." Great pots of goulash, soups and baked beans were on the menu often and he said it would take two men to carry these massive pots of food. He made baked beans for me once when I was a child and remember the taste of molasse and brown sugar, he put thick slices of bacon on the top all baked golden brown, delicious. I don't have the recipe unfortunately but have some memories of his stories and treasure those. Perhaps you could make a episode about the lumber camps around that time period and the food they ate and how it was made.
Yum!! Great story! And those bacon and beans sound truly heart warming!
I'd love to hear more of your Dad's stories! I bet you have some good ones, too.
Thanks for sharing
Curious... My dad was born in 1918. I was his youngest born in 1978. What year were you born?
The Northern New England "Beanhole" beans are really amazing. Basically molasses, beans and pork, cooked underground. We enjoyed the summer beanhole festivals.
I am a chef in Las Vegas and I love learning about history and the foods that I love. Food history is something I live to learn about. Thank you for making these videos because I get to learn about the two subjects that I hold dearly to my heart.
I'm a chef for 28yrs, I also love the history behind food. So much so, that I avoided all the molecular gastronomy of twenty years ago to learn my trade in kitchens steeped in traditions. One restaurant in London, Simpsons-in-the-Strand (2nd oldest resto in the UK at the time), used to have a store room filled with a lot of stuff. While in there, I found the recipe cards from the 1930s and older. We still cooked the dishes and it was fascinating to see how they were cooking the same dishes 70yrs before. Some dishes though were out of fashion: Kidney pudding, Tripe and Onion, Turtle Soup, Mock Turtle soup (using calves head instead!)...
@@ememe1412keiner brauch Schildkröten oder Kalbsköpfe!!🤮
That’s awesome! Las Vegas’ food & restaurants are my favorite thing about the town! may I ask where you are a chef? Always looking for new places to eat when I visit!
@@pazuzu6581 Was ist mit Schweinekopf? Sülze, Presssack, Zungenwurst, presskopf, schwartenmagen... Dir schmecken diese Gerichte nicht?
Just a glance at the cover and “They call me Trinity” suddenly haunted me. Never had a man eating beans and bread in a saloon impressed me that much in my life
"Did ya see it?" *SLAP*
I love that scene. Those beans looked delicious.
@@kuroshthegreat8073 Pretty sure the beans were damn good. On the house, too.
I had the exact same thought. That scene is legendary.
That was a lot of beans and what looked like half a loaf or bread. Despite Trinitys comments, they looked pretty good.
Man that sounds incredible, I remember some local places that I used to go to growing up, and you could get all you could eat soup and salad, or a straight up buffet for not much money at all.
We need these free lunches to come back! The food sounds genuinely really good for how cheap it is.
Greg Titian from How To Drink makes the point on his Red Dead Redemption video that there had to be a ton of drinking in the Wild West that was more varied than just beer and whisky, because a not-insignificant portion of cowboys were Mexican, so there had to be tequila or similar available. And the first bartending superstar, Jerry Thomas, whose guide to cocktails still sets the standards for many of the base cocktails of today, plied his trade in the "Wild West". He also mentions that ice-cream was wildly popular in western towns, with even infamous characters like Billy the Kid and Wild Bill Hickok known to have loved it.
Pretty sure Billy The Kid loved everything since he was always on the run and the only thing he could eat was whatever he caught (game, rabbits; anything he caught was mostly meat) and he always had to watch his back, ice cream probably took him back to his carefree childhood...
In those times, I'd imagine ice cream chocolate bars various sweets and tobacco products were welcomed treats from mouths of nothing but jerky beans various stews and other trail food
Wyatt Earp loved ice cream as well.
every time someone mentions baked beans, all I can think about is the scene from Call Me Trinity, where Terence Hill absolutely destroys an entire pan of beans. It's a spectacle that amazes and makes you proper hungry. A man needs his beans.
That’s why I watched this video!
"The beans were not much good anyway"
I immediately go to *that* scene in Blazing Saddles.
@CantankerousDave "More beans, Mr. Taggart?" "I think you boys have had enough!"
Fella's gotta eat
My great grandmother Sabina owned a Saloon on E59th NYC. 1899-1920. Breads & sandwich fixin's were always laid out on the bar for patrons. She also advertised daily lunch specials. Prohibition killed a really good Saloon & brewery.
Danm prohibition! At least some business owners grouped together to create, allegedly, back doors or back rooms after closing time for the patrons to come in and have a bunch of drinks and snacks.
Last time I went to NYC with friends, we were given a small tour of an old hotel, behind it was another business, the sign was faded, but you could kind of see the name O'Gare's Insite Pub. Then the fake wall, and behind that another building and the busy street. I wonder if your great garndmother banded with other neighboring busniess owners to continue business off-off-hours. I do know for a fact anyone found buying or distributing alcohol would be arrested but some people took a gamble and suceeded in the end.
The photo at 10:38 is the Palace in Prescott, AZ. It was a favored hangout of the Earps and Doc Holliday before they went to Tombstone. Ive had a few drinks (but no beans) there myself. Its definitely worth the visit. It was restored back to how it looked in 1877.
"troubled water" - it grows more horrifying the more I think about it
Yeah, now I can't even hear that Simon & Garfunkel song anymore.
@@godofzombi Is that what the song means? Since they are singing about a bridge, I was thinking it meant something like "stormy waters", but faceplanting in a dirty puddle so some girl can walk over him? No bueno.
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 I also tought it was like "stormy waters" but now I can't unsee a river full of grease and bits of beans floating in it. Urgh.
Lake Marie - John Prine ...for some reason 😀
Makes sense that "troubled water" would trouble you, I guess. You know they must've had some real wild variants of meningitis and all floating around there.
I lived in Colorado for a time in the 1970's, each bar would try to out do the competition with offerings at happy hour, ranging from tacos and burritos, chips and salsa, jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks, pizza slices, cheese and salami with little rye bread squares, little smokies, to chicken wings, etc. etc.
Ugh businesses didn't get ruined into what they are today and every little thing is over priced
@@rudysal1429 the supply chain got overspecialized. In the old days every kitchen was expected to do anything.
Now days kitchens do nothing but reheat, and every little ingredient gets shipped 1200 miles, then processed, then shipped 1200 miles straight back. it only made sense when fuel was basically free. And every bad restaraunt is owned and wrung dry by pepsi one way or another. They make sure they're the only real winners.
Happy hours were the Best!!! Great dating opportunity!! All dressed up after work, 1/2 price drinks and good free food.. buffets, with chicken wings, tocos, salads, vegetables trays… and cute girls all dressed up..
All thirst inducing food
@@artmosley3337 I'd forgotten about that. You're right. Bring that back and sh*t can all the dating apps.
Those old saloons sound basically like Mexican cantinas where food comes with your drinks. In a cantina, the more drinks you order, the better and larger the food you are given.
Nice, I never knew that. American saloons typically had food just set out, no sliding scale for big drinkers. I heard about them from my Dad, who was sent to the Local, to fill his Dad's beer pail when he was a kid.
Makes sense, most of the area where saloons were would have been Mexican territory not too long ago. So naturally alot of that culture survived even when americans moved westwards.
Saloons also tended to be men only, one of the ironies of prohibition was the normalizing of men and women drinking at the same establishment which did not occur much before.
That would have been the way to do it instead of the buffet.
Makes sense since much of the Southwestern US were originally Mexican owned and still culturally Mexican influenced at that time.
I remember watching that channel where the guy bought this old mine and trying to rebuild the place. Very cool indeed. It’s amazing you went and filmed there at Cerro Gordo.
Love that when you're traveling that there is still a Pokémon to drop in.
Also, did not expect that a saloon could have an actual chef on their staff. Was just thinking it was people throwing stuff together and hoping for the best, which I imagine is also true. Professionally trained chefs never crossed my mind though!
I love how even in the middle of the Old West, Max has a partner Pokemon along with him.
How did I just watch the whole video and still missed that
Not only did the wild west have French restaurants, they also stocked 5th generation Pokémon! - until next time, on Tasting History.
Max has a voice for old time radio host. It's perfect for this content and I love it.
EXCELLANT!! I am fascinated with the old west and old west saloons in particular. Naturally, I've watched MANY videos about saloons and the fare served there. I confess, YOUR VIDEO is the very BEST I have seen- and that is saying a lot! Specifically, the research you did to debunk a lot of the myths that are common "knowledge." Your information was spot-on accurate. THANK YOU for taking the time and trouble to produce a high-quality video on this topic.
I know the road show is due to the kitchen remodel, but the new format is exciting! You might consider the occasional field trip even after the new kitchen is up and running.
You have my vote!
true, but Max missed a huge opportunity to throw in some stuff about Cerro Gordo and maybe some receipes that were found there.
It's become a weekly tradition to check TH-cam every Tuesday morning to see what Max is cooking up next!
Beans
I absolutely love pork and beans. As a squaddie in the British Army, I once lived on an RAF camp in Cyprus, and the chefs used to make the most marvellous pork and beans every Saturday lunchtime. They used what we Brits call belly or draft pork slices and cooked them until the crackling (rind) was crispy, then placed them on a bed of baked beans with a sprinkling of coriander.
military or not who doesn't love pork n beans ? where are these uncouth savages ? they need to be educated...
@nattyfatty6.0have you ever had real British bacon? If you haven't, you're really missing out. Bacon sarnies are overwhelmingly popular here, and commonly the thing that vegetarians say they miss the most.
Coriander?! Definitely a Brit. Baked beans need a splash of hot sauce or a sprinkling of cayenne pepper. Maybe cumin. Save the coriander for falafel.
@@hlynnkeith9334 Someone's not tried a Vindaloo, don't underestimate the average working class british man's heat tolerance, I've put quite a few americans to shame in such a department..
@@Delicious_J I have no doubt that what you say is true, but whence came those Americans? Minnesotans count salt as a spice. Black pepper is too hot for them. Go to New Mexico for a green chili burger. To Louisiana and Mississippi for gumbo. To Texas for chili. Not all Brits know haggis. Not all Americans know chilis. But some do know, and those who know, know more than you.
Vindaloo? Vindaloo gets its heat from kashmiri chilis. Kashmiri chilis top out at 2,000 SCU. That is sriracha level. Every day I have a soft-cooked egg . . . with Tobasco sauce. 50,000 SCU. I have more spice with breakfast than you Brits have all week.
Welcome to the big leagues, rookie.
4:00
The recipe calls for SALT pork, which watching Townsends video on the subject, showed that perhaps they did just skip cooking it until adding it to bake, because the salt pork is basically dry enough and salty enough by itself to (ALMOST) not have bacteria living in it anyways.
I always just substitute bacon for salt pork in almost any recipe that calls for it, even though salt pork is cheaper.
If I were cooking for a bunch of people, I'd use the salt pork.
Vulcan Lives
The slight Foghorn Leghorn accent Max adopts when reading the quotes is very entertaining.
*That's* what it reminds me of! Thank you!
Now listen here boy!
The "free lunch" reminds me of aperitivo in Italy - even today, if you go to a bar between 5-6pm to about 7-8pm, they have food/snacks out for patrons drinking wine/beer/cocktails. It's glorious!
That definition of troubled water gives a new meaning to "Bridge over Troubled Water". 🤣
Did I get that right? Everyone comes in and shares the same forks, sitting in a glass of water to get some beans. Then, they put the forks back in the water for the next guy.
Trouble Water. Rotting water. Rotte. Build a dam in it. Then call it Rotterdam.
Shouts to Simon & Garfunkel
I came to the Comments Section looking for this (:
I was going to say this exactly! Btw you must be old, like myself 😅
Love that you're at Cerro Gordo. That town is going places!
17:51- "How did they eat it? What did they look like..." That is a GREAT question and line of investigation. Thats why this guy is awesome. He covers everything we'd want to know!
Max, brother, you holding down our Tuesday man. It's good to have a reliable friend.
The free lunch reminds of a few restaurants I've been to in Mexico where as long as you're buying drinks they will continually bring all sorts of small dishes to munch on. Little enchiladas, ceviche, small tacos, etc., etc.
cowboy culture is mostly a mix of mexican and southern culture so that makes sense
“Hey, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your videos! Your history and cooking content is truly unique, and I love the way you bring both subjects to life. I’m so glad I discovered your channel about two years ago-it’s been a real pleasure watching your work evolve. Keep up the amazing videos, and happy holidays!”
I would recommend the scene in "They Call Me Trinity" (1970), where Trinity greedily eats a whole pan of baked beans at an Old West saloon. It makes me hungry just watching it!
Was looking to see if anyone else suggested it! The first thing I thought of when he said old west saloons in movies never showed them eating, I thought immediately of "They Call Me Trinity"
@@ebrules Great minds think alike, lol! It is the number one scene.
I knew the scene but not the movie, thanks scratching the itch. He sure ate up that pan!
The actor who ate that whole pan didn't eat for a day before doing that scene. Must've tasted hella good when he chowed down and eating that whole sourdough too 😂
@@bastardhyena7882 It sure looked like he enjoyed it! 😆
This is an old jingle they used to sing in saloons, it goes something like this: "Beans beans to help your heart, the more you eat the more you fart, the more you fart the better you feel so eat more beans at every meal"
I don't know about saloons, but as kids on the playground in the 1970's we sang that ditty to jump rope or swing on the swings or doing hopscotch. Our version: "Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat em' the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel so eat your beans with ev-er-y meal!"
NO WAY!!! HAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! OMG!!! NICE!
Or alternatively
Beans beans good for your heart
The more you eat the more you fart
The more you fart the more you eat
The more you sit on the toilet seat
I’ve always heard the “beans beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you poop”
@@penrythajanitor4644 WHISKY FOR YOU!!!
Try "Deadwood". They ate on there, especially in the hotel. I was there for the entire 3rd season (out of which I'm seen for about 45 seconds). Props advised us NOT to actually eat anything, this stuff was kept at ambient temps for too long for that!
Re: saloons - Deadwood had at least 3, two wood ones and one wood framed tent.
Fun fact - all the sets for at least one John Wayne movie (and possibly all of them) were built at 7/8 scale to make him look more heroically large.
In "support your local sheriff" they ate too. I think I recall a few scences in "Hell on wheels as well".
@@maxlutz3674 Back to the future III also had saloon customers eating - it's actually a weirdly well researched movie. Probably so they could make historical easter egg jokes.
Cool!!!!
I heard they had to build at 5/8ths scale when Alex Baldwin does a western
Marion really did, and still does, represent every thing contemptible about the USA.
You're so cute! I love your "accents" and the happy faces after you sample your creations. You have a wonderful personality!
Every time I think, "There's nothing to watch on TH-cam today!" Max comes through with a banger like this, and my day is a happier one
Love how there is just a Tepig hanging out behind him on the shelf
Where do you think the pork came from?
@@LordDragox412 Nah, Tepig is there to run the oven.
Awesome episode. My grandmother's recipe (back on the rural farm in ND with the coal-fired stove) was Great Northern white beans soaked overnight, boiled until half-soft, then put in a big pot with molasses, sugar, and bacon. Finished off on the stove for several hours. We still have it every holiday, we just use a crock-pot now. 😉
This is absolutely the most delightful food channel I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing here on TH-cam. I’ve been watching Ghost Town Living the whole time. Very cool you made some episodes there. I think YT recommended your channel cause I’m subbed on Brent. ❤
The free food idea sounds very much like bars that offer free bar snacks like salted nuts or chips. I've even been to bars that had a free buffet on certain nights. It definitely encouraged people to stay longer and presumably drink more and it encouraged people to become regulars. Good for business.
Or Vegas buffets.
The free lunch carried down to Las Vegas in the 70s. I remember a dollar beer and meatball sandwich or shrimp cocktail at the Fremont.
You used to be able to eat free at most major poker rooms at all the major casino's for decades until weak politicians ordered the lockdowns brought on by media-driven fear.
I just love this channel!!! Max you are a true gentleman. Food is so much better when it's served alongside history. Feeding the body and the mind :)
Blazing Saddles did a great job of depicting eating in the old west, and with Cowboy Pork and Beans!
That movie would be really controversial today lol
@@napoleonfeanor It would NOT be allowed today! Too bad, because it did a great job of showing how stupid racists are.
"I think you boys have had enough!"
For those wondering what “ Sardellens” are , the English translation is Anchovies
That was fun. Thanks. I used to work as a "guide" in a once gold and silver mining town turned ghost town and state park called Bodie, just north of Cerro Gordo. And we would talk about the chop stands in bars and saloons (over 50 in Bodie) where miners and others would, after ordering a beer or whisky, order a steak or pork chop or who knows what kind of meat, which would be slapped onto a griddle and fried up for the patron, maybe with a side of beans or potatoes. And having lived in the Pacific Northwest and in the California Redwoods I'm also familiar with the legacy of the logging camp Cookhouse where, mostly Loggers and Millmen working mainly in company towns, could get two meals that could be surprisingly diverse and generally plentiful. Finally, throughout the resource extracting west where miners and loggers and fishermen and cattlemen roamed you would find the boarding house where locals and of course companies would lodge (room) workers at fixed rates and then feed (board) them at long tables laden with food morning and evening for workers who would then head out to the mines, mills, forests and ranges to work, or to play at the saloons and gambling houses in the evenings. Of course mills, whether for logging or mining would often run 24 hours a day so the saloons and gambling dens would be open 24 hours as well. Good stuff.
In the late 1800s, my ancestors came to the west to work in mines. Our family version of pork and beans was just that. Navy beans with a bit of pork and a bit of salt. Nothing else. It’s still one of my favourite meals today. I really enjoyed this particular episode.
What a fun episode! I saw an interview with Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man) talking about he and his father going to taverns in Oklahoma and sneaking food from the free lunch table to Lon Jr. while he hid under the table.
Appreciate the mention of the West’s diversity. My great grandmother, the ‘lady’ of a ranch in CA, was largely taught to cook by Chinese women, the wives of the male ranch hands.
Sounds like a good potluck right there
As a UK citizen beans are my go to vehicle for trying new spices and sauces. You know what to normally expect, and can see how a spice, herb or sauce changes the dish without wasting a heap of money
TLDR: Beans are the tutorial dish
@nattyfatty6.0 Yeah the outside perspective of uk food seems to focus on like, 4 meals and thing thats all we eat (they probably are staple meals that everyone can do, but not necessarily meals that are eaten everyday). But at least where i am i couldnt walk more then 10 minutes without seeing a restaurant based around a different countries cuisine, Probably a shop focusing on foreign food and ingredients every 30 mins maybe.
Lots of people are lazy though, if they cook at home its usually simple meals that can be cooked and served within 30 mins XD
I've seen a certain British celebrity chef come to the U.S. and cook the cowboy beans and bacon and beans etc in a Dutch Oven to the local ranch recipe which has really inspired me to cook the flavour blast!
I really enjoy cooking Baked Beans with Bacon, Caramelised Onion, Pan fried potatoes, and dash of Thai Sweet Chilli sauce, all mixed into the pot. Then served onto Yorkshire fried bread this is fried bread that has been cooked in the Bacon and Caramelised Onion juices left over in the frying pan.
This is a great American comfort meal for autumn and winter. Thanks for sharing it's history.
Which British chef?
@Boo..... I don't want to detract from Tasting history's channel, so I will not name them!
Ghost Town Living AND Tasting History together in one video? My day has been made!
ey i have good snakeoil and a bridge to sell.
I loved that southern twang when you said 'I love baked beans' It made my heart swell
Cowboy: " how about some more beans, Mr Taggart?"
Taggart: "I'd say you've had enough!"
I came here for the Blazing Saddles jokes
Damn I wanted to post that comment but actually glad to see someone else beat me to it. Doesn't he say ''shit, I'd say you boys have had enough''
@@simonh6371 No, armorer94 quoted the film correctly. Its probably the Mandela Effect, like how many thought Shirley Temple was in Annie.
I enjoyed this program ... Very educational!...
I am also watching this in a cottage by a river in England.. lol
"Well boys, just won my third game of faro!"
"What'd you win this time?"
"Two tickets for the Titanic! :D"
I instantly got flashbacks to THAT scene from 'They Call Me Trinity'. Still the best food eating asmr scene I've seen in a film.
Seconded! 😁
Me Three 😅
Bean farmers owe Terrence a huge debt.
Felt like Max was describing Red Dead Redemption 2 the whole time. This video basically descries every saloon in the game. Even the English guy looking for Gavin.
Have you seen my friend Gavin?
Great Video. Very interesting and informative. I love the old pictures.
The history of the card game Faro is fascinating and very important in the Old West. Cheating especially was a big part of it - and as casinos became regulated, Faro gradually went out of favor because when played fairly: the odds are very good for the player (Just under 50%). But it was so common and popular worldwide that entire classic works of literature were based around it, yet it's almost entirely gone from today.
you have no idea... NO IDEA, how long i wanted this episode, i love this . i havent even started watching, i love these, like the middle ages food and etiquette at the kings table was also such a nice video, stoked to watch this
My grandmother used to make her baked beans with a generous amount of molasses, brown sugar, mustard and ketchup. Never used the bacon, but when she took it to church potlucks, she never brought home a bean,
My mom always cooked hers with bacon. But I never thought it really got cooked enough. I use a liberal amount of bacon grease in mine. Flavor and fat without the odd texture.
My aunt had the same. Sadly, took the secret (proportions, brands, techniques or X factor) with her when she passed long ago. People still talk about those beans. No one’s replicated them. Lesson here: teach others.
That’s really similar to my baked beans! I’ll smash half the beans up with a masher, mix them in molasses, brown sugar, mustard, ketchup, diced onion, pour into a casserole but I cover it with strips of bacon and then bake 350F until bubbly.
I just found your channel this evening and i think this is the fourth video I've watched. You're so fun and interesting and engaging. You have a Alton Brown vibe, and i hope you take that as the immense compliment it is meant as.
Thanks for doing what you do. I'm so glad to have discovered this channel!
Friend made some dried meat, and used a little too much salt in the mix, with the result coming out very salty. As he had rather a lot, he sold it to the one local bar, who loved it, giving it out as bar snacks. Sales of beer basically doubled while it lasted, and they then went to a local butcher, to place an order to make it for them always.
The dried fish locally is a Bokkom, a dried sardine like fish that is almost half salt by mass, and which will keep for years with no refrigeration, just a cool dry space.
The history is so cool, I’m not American and when I go to some local bars here in the south, sometimes have like free rice and beans, or hot dogs or some local in Louisiana, now I understand where is coming from
Props to Jose for still bringing the plushie of the episode!
Who's that Pokemon?!
Love this colab with Ghost Town Living!! ❤Thanks for highlighting Cerro Gerdo - been watching it's growth for years!
Excellent episode!❤😢
I'm old enough to have been a member of the high school science fiction club. Our monthly newsletter was called TANSTAAFL, which Heinlein fans will fondly recall from a Robert Heinlein novel, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", where we took our club name from, but the saying is certainly earlier than the early 1960's.
TANSTAAFL from that book was my first tattoo. A good reminder of what free food costs.
Yataaaah! So glad someone else mentioned this, though I'm gonna have to go and read some Heinlein - I only learned about the phrase from an Econ prof
@@PaulSkySwitzer Nonono... TANSTAAFL only reminds us that anything claiming to have no payment required is actually offsetting its costs. It's traditionally upon the person partaking of the charge-less product or service; though also correctly applied to offset costs, like dealing with the end-of-life period of a product, or unrestricted usage of a collective good. 🧐
The price of freedom is officially a buck-o'five (for non-US readers, 1.05 USD). 😏
I love how he was gonna eat without manners and the next shot was him eating as delicately as usual, gotta love you Max 😂❤
I'd've eaten that fatty salt pork with just my hands, not gonna lie!
eating without manners is only available in his only fans
Max saying he will abandon table manners, yet still taking a dainty bite of the salt pork, is endlessly amusing. Never been a huge fan of pork and beans, yet now I want some.
This is officially my new favorite show. Well done. My usual fare is anime, action thrillers, and some tech info thrown in. You have my congratulations, sir, on a fantastic accomplishment and spectacularly entertaining series
As someone who loves history, food, and westerns, I found this fascinating! I love the photo you showed twice, early on showing a close up of the right hand portion, which shows about 5 men by the wall which had a small shelf along it which they were leaning on. The second time you showed it, nearer the end of the video, it was in its entirety. I love the snappy dresser about second from far right, best scarf, waistcoat and even great chapps! He really had a sense of style! Most of the food sounded really tasty. More than I would have expected. Thank you once again for an excellent video.
As a deep south cook who learned from her mother and grandmother, you should fry the salt pork first. Fry it until it's crisp. Pour the grease into the beans or cook the beans in the same pot without draining the grease. Keep the fried pork at the side. Make sure you have enough salt pork to chop up for each person to have some. Cook the beans like you say. I like to cook mine soft, too. Then serve the beans with pieces of fried pork on top along with chopped onion. Now, I make baked beans with navy beans, but prefer pintos or red beans without molasses for beans and rice.
I fry half to a crisp and ½ cook the rest. Most go in the beans with the rest on top. I use all three of those beans tho.
I like pinto beans with pork hocks, salted pork, and bacon
@@StarkofWinterfell14oh hell yeah
Yep. I'm wondering how that baked fat back's going to be...
Delicious McDonald's Mac'Bean! Patato size bean, stuffed with bean & cheese...too farty 😂😂😂
My family made pork and beans sometimes. Bussin'. I'm from Texas. And the fact that lunch at those Salons was FREE sounds like a dream.
Just found your channel and subscribed. So different from the usual 'younger person' channel on TH-cam. I really loved this one and gonna watch lots more.
I didn’t expect a Ghost Town Living crossover but I am here for it.
ey i have good snakeoil and a bridge to sell.
I thought I recognised the town name!
@@maeckiemesser6958 What do you mean? The guy who bought Cerro Gordo used his inheritance to preserve a piece of history, and I'm all for him succeeding. So far it looks like he has great long-term prospects. Why the salt?
@@masondegaulle5731 he didnt use his inheritance. he used the money he made as an upper echelon of a pr firm. futhermore he is still envolved with this firm and a whole bunch of regular investment firms from the very start, while still toting the whole just a single independent man and with just a little help of you, you could stay there next year bs.
and here lies the problem he lies about everything he can to let him or his project be seen in a better light.
there is atleast one video out there which lists the numerous inconstitencies about this whole project.
He also finds a fair amount of silver in the mine too. It is a great channel to subscribe to.
“How ‘bout more bean, Mr. Taggart?”
“I say you had enough!”
Yeah, I giggled when Max worried about the fat from pork.
Blazing Saddles!
Best. Western. Ever.
That’s why Baked Beans, Saturday breakfast onboard most Norwegian ships back in the 60’s, 70’s, a bit before and after, is called Cowboy 😊 But most ship cooks would bake it over night with a generous chunk of bacon inside. And add fried bacon with the fat from frying when serving. The recipe for this is the most asked for food recipe on Facebook pages for Norwegian seamen. And it’s fantastic.
This is the kind of content I wish there was more of, very very well educated high quality content and it keeps my attention and I don’t feel like I’m losing brain cells by the minute great work man definitely earned a subscribe from me