The Texas Cowboy Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos (PB) (2007)

Robb Walsh digs deep into the culinary culture of the Texas cowpunchers, beginning with the Mexican vaqueros and their chile-based cuisine. Walsh gives overdue credit to the largely unsung black cowboys (one in four cowboys was black, and many of those were cooks). Cowgirls also played a role, and there is even a chapter on Urban Cowboys and an interview with the owner of Gilley's, setting for the John Travolta--Debra Winger film.

Here are a mouthwatering variety of recipes that include campfire and chuckwagon favorites as well as the sophisticated creations of the New Cowboy Cuisine:

- Meats and poultry: sirloin guisada, cinnamon chicken, coffee-rubbed tenderloin
- Stews and one-pot meals: chili, gumbo, fideo con carne
- Sides: scalloped potatoes, onion rings, pole beans, field peas
- Desserts and breads: peach cobbler, sourdough biscuits, old-fashioned preserves

Through over a hundred evocative photos and a hundred recipes, historical sources, and the words of the cowboys (and cowgirls) themselves, the food lore of the Lone Star cowboy is brought vividly to life.