The Breakfast That Fed Cowboys & Soldiers | Mexican Hash Recipe

You know the best way to finish off this Mexican hash that we're cooking for breakfast would be the perfect over easy fried egg. It would. Oh my gosh, that didn't slip right through the crack it did. Culinary will get that and good thing I'm packing though, I got one in my pocket. Before it fed cowboys, before it filled dinner plates, this simple breakfast fed soldiers in the mud, marching into battle. Folks, we're making Mexican breakfast hash the cowboy way and we're digging into the wild story of how hash helped build the west. If you like bold flavors and forgotten stories, pull up a stump, because we're bringing breakfast to life. Hey folks, welcome to the wagon and I've got a quick favor to ask of you. If you like cowboys and you love history and you love food, be sure and give this video a like. It helps our channel grow, but before we just jump right into the wagon and take off down the trail and go to cooking this traditional Mexican dish called hash, I've got a question for you first. What exactly is hash? The word hash comes from the French word, hasher, meaning to chop and it was all about using what you had. Back in the 17th century in England and France, hash was a way to stretch leftovers, especially meat and potatoes into something hearty and filling. But saddle your horse, we're going back across the pond to a great turning point in American history, the Civil War. Hash became a staple because it was a simple, adaptable, and could stretch meager rations. Salt pork, dried beef, hardtack crumbs, onions if they were lucky, and root vegetables dug out of the cold, muddy, boggy ground. And that'd all get chopped, boiled, and fried into one big skillet. It wasn't fancy, but it did fill a belly. The Union and Confederate Army, both of them had designated cooks. Now that might have just been a soldier that he has picked out of the ranks, might not even know how to cook, but he had the task of feeding massive amounts of people, whether it was just in an old pot over a fire, or a big long fire trench that they cooked with. They had to get the job done. The average soldier might eat the same dish three meals in a row, and hash was one of the few ways to make yesterday's rations taste like something new. This is similar to the roll of old cookie on the chuck wagon going down the trail in the mid-1800s. It was his job to take simple ingredients and turn them into something edible to fuel them cowboys. So, both the roll of the soldier and the cowboy were harsh, facing the wrath of Mother Nature. You know, they even had a saying back in them camps. If it moves, it's stew. If it's left over, it's hash. But I'm really interested in what this Civil War hash was made with. Now that don't sound like no delicacy, but it did get the job done. So before we go down the trail and we cook this Mexican hash, I would like to recreate this hash of the Civil War and just see what it tasted like. Just by looking at it, I told Shan a while ago, them old soldiers, or even them young soldiers that didn't have many teeth, this would have been pretty hard to eat for them. But I didn't have salt pork, I used bacon. Salt pork would have probably had more of a lard base to it, to where it would have more grease to soften some of that hardtack up. Because remember, when you cook hardtack, it's preserved, it'll last thousands of years. So I'm going to put a little black pepper on there. Have we got dental insurance, Shan? It's questionable. So I'm going to have this little bite right here with a piece of hardtack. It's got a crunch. The hardtack is really crisp. You might have to cook this stuff two or three hours for it to even get tender or have a lot of grease in there to sop it up, one. But the bacon and the onion, they're definitely the stars of the show here. But the hardtack gives it a little more substance, and I think that's what they were after, to make something go further. I'm glad we made it. I'm glad things have changed to where I can make it the Mexican hash to go down the trail and feed cowboys. Because I'm afraid if I fed this to cowboys very often, they might leave camp and go somewhere else. Yeah, I'm going to pop in. I want to try it. And also, we have a hardtack video if you folks want to go back and watch that. But I mean, it's not too bad. It's not bad at all. I think if you stewed down the hardtack a little more. Yeah, I haven't eaten in three days, so I'm going to have another bite. After the war, those soldiers came home, and so did their taste for hash. It started showing up in boarding houses, taverns, and eventually the early diners popping up in cities across the country. In fact, by the 1880s, a whole class of cheap restaurants sprang up called hash houses. No-frills places serving big helpings for a dime. That's where the term comes from, and it stuck around through the 20th century. You know, hash became the great equalizer. It was not just fed to soldiers. It was also fed to factory workers. Every worker going through the city in the 20th century, but also it was fed to cowboys going down the trail. But when the cattle drive sprung up during the 1880s, and they were going through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, hash become a staple dish for the old cook also. They'd fry up anything they could scrounge. Maybe some leftover rabbit if they were lucky from the night before, taters if they had them, and chop some onions and a pinch of dried chili. Sometimes they even tossed in beans or old biscuits just to get it to stretch. You see, a cattle drive could run for two to three months, covering up to a thousand miles from Texas all the way to the Kansas railheads. As cattle drives crossed into the borderlands of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, hash started to change. Cowboys began cooking alongside them Mexican vaqueros, and those fellas knew how to spice things up. Dishes like papas con chorizo brought the heat and the depth to simple meals. Mexican chorizo was brought over by the Spanish in the 1500s, got a bold makeover in the New World with vinegar, paprika, and dried chilies. Now this is when hash started to get its real flavor. It wasn't just survival food anymore. This was something that cowboys looked forward to going down the trail. If we're going to make this hash like I think I would have made it, and probably old cook going down the trail as well, first I'm going to start with some bell pepper, red in color it is, one white onion, two poblanos, two jalapenos. Now I'm not taking the seeds out of them, because I don't think old cookie would have done that either. So you see me throw them peppers on old Bertha over there and roll them around, and finally I needed to get them to where they would even sear a little more, so I just cut them, flatten them out, put them on there and let her do the work. Brought them over here, and what is it? The handy dandy hash knife. Now old cookie had one of these on the wagon, I guarantee you it was a versatile tool that he used every day. So many times people tell me when they see this, this is an Ulu, like the Alaskans, the Eskimos use when there's cleaning fish, cleaning seals, but it is a hash knife. The handle comes up further on both sides, the handle is up on top, leaving you more control and more accuracy really. Now you can still use this if you want to flesh something, but this is totally different than an Ulu. During the cattle drive era, from 1866 to 1890, chuck wagon cooks prepared a meal a day for a crew of 10 to 15 cowboys, often using limited tools and ingredients. The hash knife was a key utensil used for chopping vegetables, but also for chopping leftover meat. It made quick work of hard or frozen food, even under rugged trail conditions. The hash knife brand became one of the most recognized brands in cattle ranching history, especially in Arizona and Texas. The hash knife outfit of the Aztec Land and Cattle Company, founded in 1884, ran tens of thousands of cattle across northern Arizona. Though unrelated to the kitchen knife directly, the brand name is inspired by the cook's tool, and we've used it on the wagon as long as I've had it. The first one I ever got came from an old retired Texas Ranger that was his great-great-grandmother's. Tom Willoughby, a great friend of mine, but a great blacksmith, makes these for us, so if you're interested, you be sure and check it out. But hey, we need to get to putting this hash together, so let's go to frying some potatoes. I've got me a 10-inch skillet here, had me just a little dab of oil in there, let it get good and hot. Now I'm frying the red-skinned potatoes. Be sure and leave that skin on there, but also the red bell peppers at the same time. We're just going to let them begin to brown up just a little bit, not get crumb crisp yet because everything goes in the hash from this start on. The peppers will go in, more seasoning will go in, and then last with the chorizo, so it's just a process that keeps happening. Now while that's all simmering along over on Obertha, let's talk about chorizo. Now chorizo most of the time back then was being handmade, they was making it in bulk. Cook would go by there, pick him some up, take it down the trail, or he was just using whatever meat come down the game trail to put in his hash. But today we're using a Mexican chorizo, we are, but it is ground. Now I have a video if you want to go back on how we made homemade chorizo, but I want to make this convenient for y'all because there is beef chorizo, there is pork chorizo, but this comes in little casings. Make sure you get them removed before you go to cooking with them and just run them out of here. Homemade, I guarantee you, is the best. If you'll go back and watch that video, makes a great hash, but also makes a great chorizo burger. And instead of using ground chorizo, if you want to use sliced chorizo and slice it pretty thin, that would work even better. Well, when them potatoes have begun to soften, and let's just see if they have, they have and they're hot, we're going to sprinkle with a little smoked paprika, a little bit of cumin, and a little bit of oregano, I'm sorry, a little bit of ground cumin, and a little bit of dried cilantro. Now if you'd rather have fresh, you go ahead. Me and fresh, we don't get along. Now that right there is a meal in itself. Get you a flour tortilla and go to town, but folks, we ain't near through yet. We're fixing to put that chorizo in here, and when I do it that way, I just need you to make you a well right down here in the middle because we need that chorizo to be cooking as soon as it gets in there, then we'll incorporate it with all the veggies. So in it goes, and most store-bought chorizo that I ever had ends up having a little more grease to it than what the homemade would, so just keep chopping up through here, it'll eventually get to where it's cooking, it'll begin to crumble, and it'll incorporate well. Now to finish this off, we need to put some eggs on top there, and we're going to do it sunny side up we are. Now you can do it fried if you would rather, but let's get to cracking. It is well greased and it is hot. Crack gingerly. You've seen what happened. There goes the first one. As soon as you can, it gets shaped. Get a lid on it because that's going to help it steam, everything's going to get done. When that sets and you see it, that egg is sunny side up, the sun is coming up, and it's going right on the breakfast hash. Now if you're just doing this and you want a fried egg over easy, same method. Make sure it's greased, crack it there, put that lid, but when you see it get lacy around, the edges and set up, turn that rascal ever so gently, but grease that spatula before you do. And it ain't got to cook long on that other side before it goes right there, and that yolk will bust. It's going to be so pretty. Ain't this a beautiful dish that we have created here. I mean, and folks, when it comes to arranging the plate, I need y'all to know most of the time it is sham that makes it look good, but the eggs, oh, sunny side up, the chorizo, and so all the potatoes, the vegetables, we're going to get us just a little bit of that egg in here, Duker, right there at the bottom, mm, my gosh, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. The thing that sort of rings the bell right off the bat is the smokiness of the chorizo flavor, but also that poblano pepper, and then here it come, tingling right there in the back of your taste buds, it is the jalapeno, it is. Folks, this is not just breakfast. This is a story on a plate. From wartime to the wagon, this meal kept them fed, it did, but it is with pride, honesty, and privilege that I tip my hat to all our servicemen and women and all the veterans that have kept the old Gloria flying. Rest of you, get on up in here. I'm going to give you two hugs, one from wartime, and one from the wagon. There's the first one, and here's that one from the wagon, slapper in the butt, ooh. God bless you each and every one, and I'll see you down the Mexican Hash Breakfast Trail.