A Dictionary of American Cuisines: Far West (In Progress)

WEST: Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Nevada

Influences: General Midwestern, Basque, Native American, Mexican

Native American Tribes: Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kootenai, Salish, Sioux, Shoshoni, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apache, Pueblo, Ute, Bannock, Goshute, Navajo, Paiute, Walapai, Washoe, Coeur D'Alene, Nez Perce, Palouse, Kalispel and Spokane Salish
Traditional Ingredients: dairy (milk, buttermilk, cream, eggs, cheese), fruits (cantaloupe, watermelon, chokecherries), grains (wheat, barley, oats), meats (bison, beef, lamb, elk, antelope, pheasant, duck, quail, beaver, turkey), lake/stream food (colorado pike minnow (endangered thanks to intentional killing to make room for trout and other non-native species), trout, walleye, bass), nuts/legumes (pine nuts, devils claw seeds), seafood (tinned oysters), vegetables (carrots, celery, onions, peas, potatoes, mushrooms, watercress, pig weeds, lambs quarters, dandelion leaves and blossoms)

Dishes: Beverages: Coffee, Chokecherry Wine (not made as much anymore), Dandelion Wine (not made as much anymore), Whiskey, Breads/Pastries: Biscuits, Country Loaf (bread made with potato water), Hot Rolls, Muffin Cakes (8 egg yolks are beaten, 1 cup of sugar is added, and then 2/3 cup of butter and creamed.  Next 1.5 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 3.5 teaspoons of baking powder are added and then baked in a muffin tin.), Ranch-Style Pan Bread (mix 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt, 6 tablespoons of shortening, lard, or bacon fat, and 1.5 cups of milk.  Bake in a square iron skillet till golden brown.), Breakfast: Denver Omelette (onions and peppers tucked between two slices of toast), Hash Browns, Roast Beef Hash, Rocky Mountain Oysters (edible offal, specifically bull testicles; usually peeled, coated in flour, pepper, and salt, and sometimes pounded flat and deep fried), Steak and Eggs, Condiments: Cranberry Jelly, Mint Jelly, Trappers Fruit (dried apples, pureed pumpkin, brown sugar, sunflower seeds, raisins, coriander seeds, salt and water are combined and simmered till tender; accompanies meat; it gets it's name because it was easy to prepare by trappers in the 19th century), Cookies/Candies/Pies: Cherry Pie, Mexican Wedding Cookies (flavored with anise seed, vanilla and cinnamon with pine nuts mixed in), Entrees: Barbeque, Denver Sandwich (AKA western sandwich; scrambled egg cooked with ham, onions, green peppers, salt and pepper; served on toast or rolls), Fried Beaver Tail (skinned and trimmed of fat, then rolled in flour and fried.  When boiled, it is considered best pickled in vinegar in a manner similar to preparing pig's feet.), Fried Turkey with Cranberry Jelly, Roast Beef, Roast Lamb with Buttermilk and Rosemary, Roast Leg of Lamb with Mint Jelly, Sausage, Sloppy Joes, Smothered Venison, Steaks, Lake/Stream Food: Skillet Trout, Pies/Cakes: Denver Red Cake, Stews/Chili: Baked Lamb Stew, Chili, Travel Food: Jerky, Pemmican, Vegetable Dishes: Buttered Peas, Peas Puree, Puff Potatoes

Quotes:

"When women settlers arrived in Colorado, they could not figure out how to make a good cake. The high altitude of the mountains prevented cakes from rising properly...high altitude baking was born...Many a Colorado cowboy had his own special biscuit mix. before stargin out on the range, he would mix together flour, salt, and leavening in a sack and tie the sack to his saddle. At mealtime he took some of the mixture, added water to achieve the right consistency, and drop the biscuit dough into a skillet greased with lard or bacon drippings"

-Taste of the States: A Food History of America

Colorado Superstitions:

1. If apple butter is made in the dark of the moon, it will not splash in cooking.

2. Make kraut in the sign of the feet, and it will always cook tender and remain sweet.

3. In  moving to another  house, take a loaf of bread and a small bag of salt to the house first; hide these articles somewhere in the house.  Privation and want will never enter that house.

4. A long thin tea-leaf in a cup of tea means a stranger is coming to see you.  If you put it on the back of your hand and stamp it with you other fist for each day of the week, you can tell when he is coming (by the way the leaf adheres to the fist).

Sources: my head, American Food: What We've Cooked, How We've Cooked It, and the Ways We've Eaten in America Through the Centuries, America the Beautiful Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the United States of America, Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods, www.wikipedia.org, www.lifeintheusa.com, http://berksweb.com/pam/, www.foodtimeline.org, www.native-languages.org/states.htm, http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods011.htm