A post from a couple weeks back featured the 1982 Camp Crook Centennial Cook Book. Friends and former students (who are, to be clear, no longer my students but are my friends) left comments about how they still use the cook book. I do too, but there are a few recipes I have never tried. My hunch is that no one else has either.
While I don’t plan to whip them up in my kitchen, they provide taste of life in Little Missouri where See Jane Run! and other books in the Tipperary County series are set. That’s why I’ll be serving them up from time to time on this blog.
Today’s offering, Stir Up in a Bucket, was briefly mentioned in the Centennial Cook Book post. It was submitted by Walter Stuart (pictured above), a thrice widowed rancher who had a tiny farm in the middle of town, right behind the school where I taught. The character Merle Laird in See Jane Run! is modeled after but not identical to Walter. More on their similarities and differences in future posts.
For now, let’s focus on the recipe for Stir Up in a Bucket. If you, dear reader, have the intestinal fortitude necessary to prepare and eat this delicacy, please leave a comment about whether it’s edible, what it is, and what it tastes like. I’m dying to know, but not enough to try it myself because dying is not at the top of my bucket list.
Readers who don’t have the intestinal fortitude to try Stir Up in a Bucket are welcome to leave a comment after reading the list of ingredients and the spare cooking instructions. It’s a head scratcher for sure, and a tiny glimpse at the ingredients available to early settlers in Tipperary County. Boy, am I glad we didn’t live there then!
Stir Up in a Bucket
1 quart flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add enough bacon grease to keep it from sticking to pan. Add water until you get a heavy batter. Pour into a frying pan. Cook until brown on the bottom and turn. Cut like a cake.
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I don’t think it looks that terrible! I’ve seen packaged goods on supermarket shelves that frighten me more.
Looks like old fashioned fry bread. But instead of making individual rounds they just dump it all in a fry pan & fry it up into one giant cake. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6880/fry-bread-i/
Walter Stuart was my grandfather, though I didn’t know him well, so it was a nice surprise to come across this little write up. I shall have to now find the stories and read them. Both of my parents grew up on the Montana/Dakota border so I imagine the stories would sound very familiar to things I heard growing up. I now live in Australia and the recipe is very similar to “damper” that the Australians of previous generations would cook in the ashes of the fire. The American Indians also had something similar called “bannock bread”.
This is my Grandad and I was at the centennial celebration. I would love to have a copy of that cookbook
Hi Christie,
How nice to meet one of Walter’s grandchildren. He sort of adopted my husband and I when we moved to Camp Crook, and we talk about him to this day. I used to have a couple extra copies of the cookbook, but I gave them to Goodwill a few years ago when we downsized and moved to a smaller home. If you know anyone who lives in Harding County, you might want to ask if they have a one they could part with. So nice to meet you!
Jolene
Hi Jason,
How nice to meet you. How did you your Montana/Dakota roots get all the way to Australia? Unfortunately, See Jane Run! is still looking for a publisher, so the book isn’t available online. However, if a publisher bites, I’ll let you know!
All the best,
Jolene