Texas Cowboy Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos

Texas cowboys are the stuff of legend — immortalized in ruggedly picturesque images from Madison Avenue to Hollywood. Cowboy cooking has the same romanticized mythology, with the same oversimplified reputation (think campfire coffee, cowboy steaks, and ranch dressing). In reality, the food of the Texas cattle raisers came from a wide variety of ethnicities and spans four centuries.

Robb Walsh digs deep into the culinary culture of the Texas cowpunchers, beginning with the Mexican vaqueros an...