November 14, 2002

Plains Folk: Bison Boheme

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

A welcome surprise in the mail was the Bohemian-American Cookbook, sent to me by my friend Wanda Roehl. This historic work was compiled by Marie Rosicky, a Czech immigrant to Nebraska, and first published in Czech; translated by her daughter, Rose; and published by National Printing of Omaha in 1915. Rose Rosicky says she did the translation to answer requests from "the daughters of our Bohemian immigrants" who wanted "a Bohemian cook book written in the English language."

Her introduction to the cookbook is compelling reading for anyone with ethnic roots on the plains. "The Bohemian fathers and mothers deplore the fact that their children have Americanized so quickly," she notes, "that in the second generation their mother tongue is half obliterated." Still, the American-born children of immigrants wanted the comfort foods of the Old Country.

Bohemian, or Czech, immigrants settled the length of the plains.  I have walked the poppy gardens of Bohemian cooks in Saskatchewan; eaten their kolaches in Texas, Kansas, and North Dakota; and prowled their graveyards, spiked with cast-iron crosses, across the northern plains. The Czechs are most numerous, however, in Nebraska. The Bohemian Café of Omaha provides easy entry into Czech foodways.

The Czechs figure largely, too, in regional literature, especially the works of Willa Cather. Her great heroine, Antonia, was a sturdy Bohemian girl, as was the winsome Marie of O Pioneers. And remember that great Cather short story, "Neighbor Rosicky," wherein Mr. Rosicky delights in his wife’s warm kolaches.

There are many recipes in the Bohemian-American Cook Book I am not likely to use. I mean the ones featuring calf brains or instructing one to stuff a chicken with herring.  On the other hand, the book helped me resolve some longstanding issues in regard to kolache dough. I never could get it as airy as I wanted, until I consulted the kolache, or "Bohemian Tart," recipes in the book. Following the instructions for "Bohemian Tarts No. 1," I separated the eggs and beat the whites stiff before adding them gently to the dough and it came out great.

I also learned you can’t trust the specific instructions in an old cookbook translated from another language. Follow the spirit of the recipe, not the specific amounts or sequence.

I fill my kolaches with plum butter made from native plums picked in the shelterbelt. I like the blend of the old world with the new. Likewise, perusing the recipes for meat dishes, I was thinking about bison, which fills a shelf in my freezer.  I settled on the recipe for "Roast Beef with Sour Cream."

I suspect this recipe was used in the Old Country for horsemeat. This is going to get me in trouble again with my friends who raise bison, but I think bison is appropriate to fill a culinary niche in America similar to that occupied by horse in Europe.

Anyway, the recipe called for braising chunks of roast in a pan of minced bacon and chopped onion. (I added a little Bavarian herb mix, along with the salt and pepper.) Then stew the meat in a mixture of vinegar and water.  Take the meat out and add sour cream to make a tawny sauce, then put the meat back in to cook a little more. Extending the old World-New World union still further, I served the dish with Great Northern beans, which sat well with the sour sauce.

A friend has named this dish "Bison Boheme." A name that would look good on a menu.

Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2941, isern@plainsfolk.com
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu 

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