PBS "Texas Ranch House"

[Toliver]

Here's the profile of the cowboys' cook, "Nacho"

PBS' "Texas Ranch House" is an interesting program, especially from the food angle. Set in 1867, there's certainly not much variety to the cowboys' menus.

The ranch owner's wife does the cooking/oversees the cooking for the family but the cowboys have their own bunkhouse cook, Nacho.

In the second hour of last night's program, most of the cowboys were bed-ridden with stomach problems which may or may not have come from the food they consumed. Can someone confirm this? I saw in the previews that the unsanitary conditions that Nacho cooked under might become an issue.

So how did bunkhouse cooks clean up everything? And what about scurvy? There wasn't much fruit in the wild lands of Texas (a neighbor did bring a watermelon to the 4th of July celebration).

Anyone else watching? Any food historians on the board?

[kiliki]

I love these PBS history reality shows. I'm an historian, though not of food (or the nineteenth century, though I do specialize in the West). I don't know how good a job Nacho (or anyone else) can do cleaning up. People routinely got sick (and died) from poor sanitation issues until the 20th century, especially in the summer. They often called food poisoning "the summer complaint" and it was a leading cause of death among kids, usually from spoiled milk. As for scurvy (I googled for this) it takes 3 months for symptoms to appear, and they're only there 2.5 months. Also, maybe they get just enough Vitamin C via onions, potatoes and the occasional garden vegetable. Well, they probably don't get enough, but maybe enough to not get scurvy in 2.5 months.

Poor guys. I'd never sign up for one of those shows-I couldn't live on a nineteenth century (or seventeeth, as the case was in Colonial House) diet.

Edited May 2, 2006 by kiliki (log)

[Terrasanct]

I imagine people ate a lot of wild greens, which would help. I've got to watch this show. I saw a few episodes of the one they filmed here in Montana, was it Frontier House? Interesting stuff.

[Toliver]

Imagine two and a half months, working 7 days a week (with one day off for the 4th of July celebration), and your cook keeps feeding you dried beef and beans.

I wonder if they'll have their own version of the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles".

[brooklyncook]

All I can say, after watching three of the four nights of this show (the last one being tonight):

In a circumstantial-evidence way, there were ailments with Nacho, and none shown without him. It unfortunately either tells the truth (that he wasn't keeping things clean), or they edited the show to not illustrate those same problems with Shaun (Sean?), the new cook.

I have to tell you, I was on his side when he showed the camera the "sharing" that the Cooke family did with him. Half-rotted onions? I'm surprised they didn't film THAT exchange.

[Toliver]

All I can say, after watching three of the four nights of this show (the last one being tonight):

In a circumstantial-evidence way, there were ailments with Nacho, and none shown without him.  It unfortunately either tells the truth (that he wasn't keeping things clean), or they edited the show to not illustrate those same problems with Shaun (Sean?), the new cook.

I have to tell you, I was on his side when he showed the camera the "sharing" that the Cooke family did with him.  Half-rotted onions?  I'm surprised they didn't film THAT exchange.

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I just viewed my taping of the second episode where Nacho, the Cowboys' cook, was fired (which, IMHO, shouldn't have happened since he was fired because his camera confessional was overheard by the ranch owner and the guy didn't like what he heard. So Nacho was fired more for his attitude than for his poor performance). The Cooke family went through his stores and wares and found quite a number of spoiled and disgusting things so it seems likely that Nacho wasn't keeping things clean and the stomach ailment that all the cowboys got must have been food-related.

I question how realistic was it that the ranch owner would allow one of his hired hands to stop cowboy'ing and take over cooking chores for the cowboys. Doesn't make much sense since they ended up becoming short handed when another cowboy (Ian) had to leave.

Regarding my question about scurvy, kiliki was quite correct since they consumed potatoes and onions which would have provided the needed vitamin C.

Some other interesting highlights...their food supplies were allowed to dwindle. It was a little scary to see that the cowboys didn't get enough to eat to make up for the huge amount of calories they were burning. You would have thought they would have consumed a lot more protein back in those days.

And the sheer joy over something as simple as apples on the supply wagon was a nice touch, as well.

[Smithy]

Imagine two and a half months, working 7 days a week (with one day off for the 4th of July celebration), and your cook keeps feeding you dried beef and beans.

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I'm sorry I missed this show. I'll have to keep an eye out for reruns.

As for needing more food - didn't someone hunt? If not, why not? Even busy ranch hands probably kept guns with them to take care of varmints.

[jsolomon]

I'm pretty sure onions and potatoes don't have much vitamin C in them.

I'd be relying on leafy vegetables and fruit for vitamin C.

[Toliver]

According to the CDC a potato can provide up to 70% of the daily requirement for Vitamin C. But the longer the potato is stored, the less Vitamin C it contains.

Onions do have Vitamin C but comparatively less.

Bell Peppers, of all things, contain quite a bit of Vitamin C. A half cup of red bell pepper can contain up to 236% of the daily requirement for Vitamin C. Green bell peppers provide 112% in comparison.

I'm not sure what they were growing in the garden that they had. I did see them cutting lettuce/greens for a meal.

As for hunting, that's an interesting sidebar. I wonder if the cowboys, working as paid ranch hands as opposed to independent workers, were allowed to hunt on the rancher's property. Located out in the far boondocks, though, I wonder how much game there is on the ranch property.

The ranch owners in the show do have pigs which were probably a food source, as opposed to the goats (milk) and cattle (future income) that they had. The narration also mentioned soap being made from the animal fat which I would assume would be from the pigs.

It's unfortunate that the PBS web site doesn't have a tour of the garden or at least a list of what was grown.

[scordelia]

They are not allowed to have guns (which they would have had in 1867), so no hunting.

But there is quite a bit of edible cacti around. Also, that stream and swimming hole nearby might have some fish.

[kiliki]

We saw the garden more in the last few episodes, and there was so much great stuff that the family ignored or wasted. I wonder if Shaun was allowed to harvest, or if he had to rely on what the family gave him? The historical expert sent in to evaluate them was horrified-apparently she had trained them on how to water, harvest,l etc before the show started and they ignored her directions. One of the girls defended this by saying, "We don't eat many vegetables at home."

I know this sounds a bit snarky, but all of the women, even the teenagers, were heavy, and I thought they would lose weight during the show. But, they went heavy on the lard and light on the vegetables, so nope.

[petite tête de chou]

We saw the garden more in the last few episodes, and there was so much great stuff that the family ignored or wasted. I wonder if Shaun was allowed to harvest, or if he had to rely on what the family gave him? The historical expert sent in to evaluate them was horrified-apparently she had trained them on how to water, harvest,l etc before the show started and they ignored her directions. One of the girls defended this by saying, "We don't eat many vegetables at home."

I know this sounds a bit snarky, but all of the women, even the teenagers, were heavy, and I thought they would lose weight during the show. But, they went heavy on the lard and light on the vegetables, so nope.

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I like snarkiness! Not only did they not maintain and harvest the garden but they didn't do the dishes for, like, a week! The fly infestation was their just desserts. And that extra weight could've been lost if they *did something* but they just layed around in their chemises... complaining.

During the final episode I thought it was pretty cool that the young man who did most of the cooking made a pan of cornbread for his family and they seemed to really enjoy it. At least *that* was a positive experience.

[kiliki]

Shaun was somehow positive through the whole thing! Maybe he impressed his family with his tortilla making, too-he got very good at it. It's hard to believe he ever wanted to have cornbread again, though. Anders, on the website, said he never wanted to see another bean in his life.

Edited May 6, 2006 by kiliki (log)

[kiliki]

Nacho talks about the food and the show from his point of view in this online chat (on the bottom right on this page). Mrs. Cooke gets her say, too.

Texas Ranch House chat

[ingridsf]

I watched the whole thing and ended up being appalled by the family. (I also read on another website that Nacho's cooking had been improving but he went way off on the Cookes, so much so that production made the call on firing though Mr. Cooke delivered the news on camera.)

When the Comanche Chief came to trade with Mr. Cooke, they had a feast all planned. But the Chief wouldn't eat with them after his talk with Mr. Cooke. Turns out he thought Mr. Cooke was a dishonorable man. It all comes out at the table.

All the ranch hands but Shaun lost weight and secret stashes of dried fruit, chocolates and such were found in the family's ranch house. They let the vegetable rot in the garden. Needless to say, the women didn't do any preserving, and though they had tons of goat milk, didn't make goat cheese to eat or sell, as many women at the time did.

Melissa, the culinary historian, came by to help prepare for the fandango, and you could tell she was startled at the condition of the house and garden. Her reward for busting her butt cooking for 24 hours? The Cooke girls complained she left without cleaning up. Then they let the tubs of dirty dishes sit in summer heat for 8 days before they washed them.

Really, it was disgusting at the end. The women let manure let lie near the house. Between that and the dirty dishes, that was why they had the fly infestation.

[Jmahl]

I have visited ranches in Northern Mexico with no running water, no plumbing and no electric power and in some situations people eat very well and maintained their health.

It takes an entire serious of skills to do this well. Preserving food, planting and harvesting, making cheese, baking bread, raising food stock, hunting with traps and snares.

Put some city folks like me out there and they are in trouble.

Jmahl

[petite tête de chou]

True. But I doubt that the family agreed to do the show in a day. The ladies had time to acquire at least a few of the skills you mentioned. I saw little to no effort on their behalf to even attempt cheesemaking, preserving or even harvesting their plentiful garden- not much skill involved in that task. A shame really. The program could've been a lot more interesting if the "powers that be" had chosen a different family.

edited to correct spelling.

Edited May 7, 2006 by petite tête de chou (log)

[kiliki]

It seemed the families on the other house shows-particularly Frontier House-worked a lot harder storing food for winter.

[petite tête de chou]

I noticed the same thing. I've watched all these type of shows on PBS and this family was the least motivated of them all.

[ingridsf]

Everybody went through a training program geared toward their roles before filming; there are references to it throughout. The ranch hands, except for Robby, knew nothing about how to do their jobs before their training. Yet because they threw themselves into learning very hard work on the job, they managed to start the final cattle drive with 131 cattle and show up at the fort 50 miles away with 131 cattle. I was impressed.

The women, on the other hand, had basically quit doing anything at this point; they're shown playing cards in their underwear while the flies gather and the garden goes to seed, for goodness' sake. Mrs. Cooke had managed to bake some good-looking pies when she felt like it, so she clearly knew how to cook. (Pastry with a wood-stove has got to be damn hard.)

I started off feeling very sympathetic for the women, but did wonder after a while at something. The Cookes had 3 daughters aged 14 to 19. That's grown-up for the period in terms of chores. Yet they had the expense of a girl-of-all-work who was supposed to only help the family, while their financial situation was actually quite precarious. I would have thought with that much female labor available they would have been expected to earn a decent amount of money through the garden or sewing, or at least do all of the cooking and laundry for the ranch.

[Toliver]

Having read the online chats, I think this "House" series was quite different than previous PBS "House" series. The participants didn't seem to fill their 1867 roles properly and seemed all too often as too 21st Century. Also, a lot of the conflict seemed to be character-driven as opposed to nature-driven or it arose due to incomplete training.

The "well, our family doesn't eat a lot of vegetables" and the cowboys not liking the vegetables either sounds completely out of character. I imagine back in 1867 on such a ranch you ate what was put before you and you held your tongue if you didn't like it because otherwise, you'd either go hungry or shoot the cook.

I don't recall if it was mentioned on the show that they ate a lot of goat (as Nacho mentioned in the online chat) and thought it was interesting they did mention that baby goat was a delicacy back then.

Overall I enjoyed watching the series, but it did seem personality-conflict heavy thanks to the editing. I also got tired of watching the participants do something only to have the narrator (Randy Quaid) pipe in to say "In 1867 this would never had happened..." or "They're doing this wrong" which says to me they didn't receive the proper training before the series started. Can I get an "amen" on this?

[petite tête de chou]

I agree with you about the heavy-handed editing. Not fair to the viewer or participants. But after seeing the attitude of the Cooke family I have to wonder if extensive training would've made much of a difference. The womens get-up-and-get-'er-done was really lacking. And Mr. Cooke, well, I have little respect for the gents decisions concerning the ranch and his hired hands.

I wish that the family had to live on the ranch for a year. I think that their attitude towards the project would've been quite different. Hey, two months?! They aren't going to starve to death, they'll just get a bit uncomfortable. That garden, livestock and relationships with the Indians and cowboys would take on *quite* a bit more importance.

I completely agree with you ingridsf. With that many ladies on the ranch the sewing, garden, livestock, meals, neighborly relations, religious observances, future family planning, endless laundry, record keeping and often, home schooling it should've been a successful ranch. But not with these women, apparently. They were not up to the task. Period.

Can any of us ladies say and believe that we would do things differently? If so, what? First off, I would get rid of Mr. Cooke.

[kiliki]

I do remember on Colonial House in particular, there was a lot of "they would not have done that in the 17th century." That group sometimes had a hard time conforming to their roles (the women went on strike, some of the people refused to attend church for personal reasons), but they still did all the work they needed to do. I think this type of thing CAN be one of the most interesting things about the show. But in the Cookes' case, it seemed as if their own agenda trumped the idea behind the show every time.

[ronnie_suburban]

I finally finished up watching this series over the weekend and I really enjoyed it. I don't know enough to say that it was realistic, but the living conditions would have been pretty tough to endure for 10 weeks. That said, given the pre-existing garden and the overall set-up, eating well -- and safely -- should not have been a big problem at all.

As for Nacho, the guy was clearly someone who was not even remotely equipped for the environment. Sure, Mrs. Cooke was a total busybody but even she had his number. Maybe frontier chefs -- especially those working for unskilled business people like the Cookes -- had reputations for being grouchy or curmudgeonly but Nacho's passive-aggressive behavior likely had chefs all over the world shaking their bowed heads in shame.

I realize that they are real people who may be reading this but the Cookes were completely clueless. Rather than go with the flow and accept their fates -- fates into which they stepped voluntarily -- they all dragged their personal agendas right onto the 'frontier' with them and then their agendas dragged them down. When a family of 5 cannot tend to or harvest a vegetable garden that was planted for them, just feet from their residence, there are issues. When they cannot even milk goats that "came with" the ranch, you really have to wonder what's up. When folks would rather 'make dolls' and live in filth than perform basic chores and sanitation tasks, it's pretty clear they're not 'Ranch House' material. Mrs. Cooke spent so much time complaining about everyone else and meddling in their business, it was a simply astounding bit of irony to see her complete and total disregard for her own basic responsibilities.

Even for its slower and more awkward moments, I thought the show still did a good job of approximating how life probably was back in those times. Yes, it would have been a helluva lot of work, but countless folks endured it, many thrived and some built empires. On the flipside, during their 10-week stint, the Cookes got to the point where they could barely feed themselves. I'd love to see this concept again but with another, tougher and more capable family as the focus.

=R=

[kiliki]

I'd love to see this concept again but with another, tougher and more capable family as the focus.

If you haven't seen Frontier House, you might look into renting it (or checking it out from a library). They "lived" in Montana in ~1880 and two of the three families, at least, did a much better job remaining faithful to the concept than the Cookes did.