Burgoo myth; Ancestry additions; Chicago Tribune

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

BURGOO

   The earliest "burgoo" (not the Kentucky stew) citations from the early 1700s are on Literature Online.
   I just looked through about 10 volumes of Henry Clay's papers (not online?), but didn't find "burgoo."
   This is from THE KENTUCKY ENCYCLOPEDIA (University Press of Kentucky, 1992), pg. 142:

BURGOO.  The word "burgoo" may have originated as burghul (now usually bulgur), the term for a Turkish wheat pilaf used for porridge by British sailors as early as 1740.  Its use as the name of a Kentucky stew is traced to Gus Jaubert, of John Hunt Morgan's calvary, who applied it to field rations he concocted and later prepared for political gatherings.


http://labellecuisine.com/Archives/Main%20Dish/Kentucky%20Burgoo.htm
  Burgoo is as traditional to Kentucky as the Mint Julep, and, like the Julep, it is served at Kentucky Derby festivities.  Oddly, the originator of the recipe was a French chef named Gus Jaubert, who served Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his cavalrymen during the War Between the States (as the Civil War is known south of the Mason-Dixon line).  The original recipe, it is said, was made with blackbirds, and Jaubert, his French-accented English further hampered by a hairlip, pronounced 'blackbird stew' in such a way that it came out 'Burgoo.'


http://www.educatetheusa.com/kentucky/burgoo2.htm
   The word "burgoo" is believed to have originated in the 17th century when sailors subsisted on an oatmeal-like porridge made from a Middle Eastern grain, bulgar (or bulghur) wheat.
   My favorite cookbook, Marion Brown's Southern Cookbook, mentions that Burgoo is said to be a version of a stew once served to crews on sailing vessels and introduced in Kentucky around 1810 by Colonel Gus Jaubert.


(GOOGLE GROUPS)
From: Bruce M Tindall -- Personal Account (tindall at rock.concert.net)
Subject: Re: Burgoo? Chowder?
View: Complete Thread (11 articles)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Date: 1994-01-22 20:54:14 PST

>From "Goodfood" by Jane and Michael Stern (Knopf, 1983) --
"Burgoo, a western Kentucky specialty, was invented during the Civil War, some say by a Lexington chef named Gus Jaubert for the Confederate troops, others contend by a Union soldier with a speech impediment who threw blackbirds into a pot and tried to call it bird stew.  Whatever its origins, burgoo means one thing to the people around Owensboro.  It is a conglomeration of pork, beef, mutton, and chicken, stewed together in a tomato sauce with okra, cabbage, peppers, potatoes, and at least that many more vegetables, set on fire with Tabasco and cayenne pepper. As served in area restaurants, burgoo lacks its traditional game meat (opossum or squirrel) but it is nonetheless a gutsy all-American dish, best sampled at a workingman's cafe such as George's [George's Bar-B-Q,
East 4th and Montgomery Ave., Owensboro, Ky.]".  The Sterns also recommend Shady Rest, in the same town, for their mutton as well as their burgoo.

Bruce "ask me about real barbecue" Tindall


   This is all, as usual, miserable.
   Jaubert didn't invent anything in 1810.  I don't think he was alive in 1810.
   Jaubert didn't coin "burgoo" because he couldn't pronounce "blackbird stew."  O.K., he was French.  But still, "burgoo" was an existing food word.
   DARE A-C has been around since the mid-1980s.  It was stated there that "burgoo" was used about a decade before the Civil War.  You think the KENTUCKY ENCYCLOPEDIA (1992) and the Sterns would somehow know this.
   Anyway, I found "burgoo" in the 1840s and I trying to do better.  We'll see what SPIRIT OF THE TIMES has, whenever APS ONLINE gets around to that publication.  Betcha "burgoo" is also there.

---------------------------------------------------------------
ANCESTRY ADDITIONS

   Ancestry.com has added these newspapers.  Alas, no 1913-1917 California "jazz."


The Arcadia Tribune newspaper was located in Arcadia, California. This database is a fully searchable text version of the newspaper for the following years: 1917-18, 1931-37, and 1940.

The Modesto Evening News newspaper was located in Modesto, California. This database is a fully searchable text version of the newspaper for the following years: 1913-17.

The Modesto News newspaper was located in Modesto, California. This database is a fully searchable text version of the newspaper for the following years: 1913.

---------------------------------------------------------------
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

   The New York Times is, according to recent reports, adding a newspaper "reader representative" or "ombudsman."  Based on my experiences with ombudmen at the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post, this doesn't mean that the newspaper will correct errors or even respond to readers at all.  It only means that newspapers pretend to.
   I'm still waiting for the Chicago Tribune ombudsman to respond.  (I'm still waiting for the Chicago Public Library, too.  I wait years to give work away for free.  Boy, does life suck.)  Anyway, it's interesting to see the Chicago Tribune accept my "Big Apple" work.  Once again this summer, my work appears without any credit whatsoever:


Nicknames no native would ever use:[RedEye Edition]
Chris Malcolm, RedEye. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Jun 6, 2003.  pg. 3
COVER STORY.

Once during a World Series game in Los Angeles between the Yankees and Dodgers, a Dodgers fan held up a sign that read "Welcome back from the Rotten Apple." This would have been a much more clever dig at New Yorkers if New Yorkers actually called their city "The Big Apple." They don't.

The term was originally used by a columnist writing in the '20s about horse jockeys who dreamed of racing in "the Big Apple." In 1971, New York City adopted the term for tourism to attract more visitors, which explains why New Yorkers instantly hated the tag.

Chicago's version? "Chi-town." There are two reasons no one uses "Chi-town:" One, it's dumb. Two, if you did use it, you would be pummeled by people who think it's dumb. That's the Chicago way.

"Windy City" is equally offensive, even though it's plastered on shot glasses and T-shirts all over town. Using "Windy City" is like using the old line: "Don't like the weather in Chicago? Wait five minutes." Yes, and in those five minutes, you will be escorted to Indiana and dropped off at the border by the proper authorities.