Guest blogger: JL of Modern Kicks
One point I haven’t made explicit here, though Dan alluded to it, is that I’m not writing from DC as Kriston does, but from southern New England. Given that fact, and that I now have access to a Texan’s website, I can’t resist commenting on something I normally might not:
The Dutch oven — "a welcome and dependable" stalwart of chuckwagon cooking — is on its way to becoming the official state cooking implement. Texas lawmakers have previously grappled with weighty issues of bluebonnets, pecan trees, lightning whelks and jalapeño peppers. The state Senate approved a resolution Thursday to designate the three-legged cast-iron pot as a state symbol.
Mmm, chuckwagon cooking. Not a phrase that sets the mouth watering in readers of a certain age. What stands out, of course, is the silence of the barbeque lobby. Its serene indifference to the Dutch oven stands in contrast to such epic battles as that between coffee milk and frozen lemonade for state drink. I’m sure the Dutch oven has played a role in Lone Star cookery. But to see the legislature of the state of George W. Bush and Tom DeLay declare one of the exemplary tools of Yankee cuisine a chosen symbol is just touching. As the article notes, the history of the Dutch oven goes back to New England and then to those nefarious Europeans; it is, in fact, the perfect pot for making Boston baked beans or Yankee pot roast. That Texas has chosen to acknowledge the superiority of the North’s favorite braiser over the dry heat and smoke of pits is a hopeful sign of dawning civilization.
Posted by JL at April 27, 2005 11:02 AMAs the man said, "You say you're not from Texas/ Man, as if I couldn't tell." The Dallas Morning News has noted that Rep. Jesse Jones (D-Dallas) is a toadie for the campfire lobby. And if you venture to a source beyond the Dutch Oven Society, you'll find that the barbecue pit is in contention for the official state coooking implement of Texas (fast-forward to 2:02).
I don't have a problem per se with your dutch oven—I own one myself—but I'm going to have to put the brakes on this dutch oven triumphalism. Now! If there are no more ethnic slurs to attend to, I'll get out of here.
(I must admit . . . I don't know whether I've ever used the dutch oven. Works like a crockpot, right?)
Posted by: Kriston at April 27, 2005 12:38 PMThe Hon. Mr. Jones is simply a more enlightened man than most of his fellow Texans. And of course he paid for that golf trip to Scotland himself.
My favorite line from a song about Texas right comes from Jill Sobule: "You'd better not kill in Texas / 'Cause they'd just love to kill you" or something like that.
A Dutch over does indeed work like a crock pot, more or less (no electical heating unit, obviously.) It'll cook your tough cuts of meat slowly in a flavorful liquid, rendering them tender and tasty. Texans seem to also cook biscuits in them, or something that looks like biscuits. That, I hope I don't have to explain, is not done in polite society.
Posted by: JL at April 27, 2005 12:58 PMI thought that's where you farted and held the sheets down tight to expose your bedmate to the ass-fumes. So this conversation ("I don't have a problem per se with your dutch oven") is hilarious.
I've made this comment before, I'm sure of it.
Posted by: norbizness at April 27, 2005 1:37 PMWhoah, I thought we'd gotten this "pass the dutchie" shit out of our systems weeks ago! Did play it at my wedding reception though. Not.
Posted by: sarah at May 2, 2005 3:36 PM