This is an unusual historic cookbook of hunting, camping, and grilling recipes - all related to iron and foundry work. Late in 1939 Editor Russell Hunt had a good idea. Why not dress up his foundrymen’s magazine with recipes by the ironworkers themselves? Many like him, were avid campers, hunters, and fishermen, or least backyard grill masters and cooks. As his magazine
Pig Iron Rough Notes
went all over the country and indeed into several foreign countries, Hunt was sure his readers would respond with enthusiasm. And they did. Over the next twenty years
Pig Iron Rough Notes
would sport 64 recipes from the South, Texas, the Midwest, Australia, all with the basic theme of outdoor cooking - and equipment made of iron! These unpretentious and hearty dishes are heavy on barbeque (including three recipes for Brunswick stew, one designed to feed a crew of ten hungry ironworkers) and other grilling, but with unexpected surprises - a recipe for making Chinese-style tea shares space comfortably with a guide to muskrat stew. So pull up a grill, strap some meat to it, and enjoy. Skin, decapitate and remove entrails, being careful not to puncture musk gland. Cut into 2
pieces. Place in cast iron pot and simmer until tender, allowing 2 cups of water for each cup of meat, adding ½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper for each cup of meat. Take another cast iron pot and heat fat (olive oil is best), allowing ¼ cup fat to each cup of meat. Add to fat one large chopped onion for each cup of meat. When onion is brown, add one can of tomatoes and one green pepper chopped finely. Simmer while muskrat is cooking. When muskrat is tender, pour sauce into muskrat pot. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes for each can of tomatoes added. Serve hot directly from pot. Corn sticks or hushpuppies are very good with this dish.
Readers who may not have muskrats running around their front yards can easily substitute veal or lean pork with excellent results.
- From the
Pig Iron Rough Notes , 1948.
