Doc Stevens

Tondeleo: One Saturday in September after playing at a small festival in Virginia, Doc and Marilyn and the band invited about fifty or so friends over for deer steaks and corn on the cob and baked potatoes and whatever else people could bring. None of them had eaten all day, other than a couple of hot dogs at the festival, so they were starved.

Doc, Thurman, Welch and Big Dave had the grills going and were handing out one deer steak after another. I couldn’t imagine how they were cooking them so quickly. Then, when I actually got to eat one, I was stupefied! 

It was the most tender, buttery steak I have ever eaten. And that says a lot because I eat in a lot of fine restaurants and attend some very classy events.

They served food for more than fifty people in a matter of less than a half hour. It was catered as efficiently as any event I have ever been to.

There were beer coolers all around the grills. That’s where the meat was kept prior to being thrown on the grill. But the corn on the cob and baked potatoes were just pulled out of the coolers and put on the polystyrene plates. And, they were excellent. So, I had to ask Doc what their secret was. This food was ALL excellent!

Doc: Ain’t no secret to it, Tondy. It’s just “cooler cookin’.”

Tondy: Cooler cooking? How does that work? I have never heard of it!

Doc: Well, everybody down here knows about it. Ain’t nothing to it.

Here’s how it works. You take your steaks and rub your seasoning on ‘em. We use mostly black pepper, woostershear sauce, and maybe some salt. Not much. Then we put each one in a ziploc sandwich bag.

After that we toss ‘em in a beer cooler with water that’s about 150 degrees and let them sit in there for an hour or so. We put these in a couple hours ago, while we were getting the grills goin’. That hot water cooks the food, makin’ it as hot as the water is.

After about an hour, you take the steaks out of the bag and pat ‘em dry and throw them on the grill for about a half minute on each side, so they get seared. Just till they got the marks from the grill on ‘em. Only takes 30 seconds or so. That’s how we served all those people so quick.

Done the same thing with the corn on the cob, except you don’t need no bags with that and it only takes about 15 minutes. Pour hot water about 150 degrees in the cooler and then put the corn on the cob in. It’s done in 15 minutes.

Same way with the potatoes, too. But I leave ‘em in for more than an hour. Maybe two. I dunno. Then we set ‘em on the edge of the grill to get a little smoke flavor to ‘em.

We done it with the beans too. We put the beans in bags and then in a beer cooler with hot water. Just dish ‘em up right outta the bag. But we DO add a couple of cans of coke, chopped onions and some relish to ‘em for flavor.

Plus you ain’t need to have no ‘lectric cords all over the place. We heat the water either on the stove or over a fire, cause all it’s gotta be is about 150 degrees – not boilin’ so it’s easy. Sometimes we use a immersion heater for it.

Aint nothing to feedin’ 50 or a hundred people, Tondy. Just get the food, some zip lock bags and some coolers. And hot water and a grill. And plates and plastic spoons and forks. And something to drink.

We do the same thing at Christmas and all the holidays when you got kinfolk and friends comin’ over. DO the same things for weddin’s and family reunions. It’s the only way poor people can feed a whole lot of folks at once. I bet y’all aint do that over to England!

Tondeleo: I admitted that we don’t. Or that at least I had never heard of doing that. And, I must confess that is the easiest and simplest way  I have EVER heard for feeding large groups of people. And all of it was delicious. My steak was about an inch thick, and rare from one edge to the other – with just a bit of smoke taste. It was absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait to try this when I get back to England!

Tondeleo: Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday which means that they get together with friends and family and eat too much. Americans eat too much most days as it is, but on Thanksgiving, eating too much is the primary purpose of getting together with their friends. It is a communal gluttony.

Traditionally, they consume vast amounts of turkey, ham, dressing, cranberry jelly, pumpkin pie and whatever else the friends bring to contribute to their sumptuous baccalaurean festivities.

I rang up Doc to ask him what were the plans for their Thanksgiving meal.

Doc: Well, we’re havin’ some friends over to eat and play music an’ then eat some more. Big Dave’s comin’ over with some of his friends, an’ Thurman Goodlett an’ his girlfriend Amy an’ that boy what Marilyn’s seein’ Gavin, he’s comin’ over an’ whoever else drops in. It’ll be a good time.

Tondeleo: So, Doc, are you having the traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey with all the trimmings and all of that?

Doc: Well, we’re gonna do the best we can. I usually make my special which is two cans of Hormel chili mixed with two cans of Manwich.

[Editorial note: Hormel is a brand name that makes various tinned meat products. Their “chili” is a high fat, high sodium version of Chili Con Carne. Manwich is a product that is a catsup based sauce that is intended to be mixed with a pound of minced beef.]

We mix that up and put cheese sauce on it. I got a secret, Tondy. I use Campbell’s Cheddar cheese soup for my cheese sauce. The other part of the secret is this. You don’t add no water to it. Just heat up two cans of it right outta the can. I learnt that one from a gal I knew what worked at Earl’s Truck Stop over to Bel Alton, back in the 80’s.

Marilyn is makin’ up her tuna loaf what she serves on a bed of lettuce. It ain’t really a bed. It’s just lettuce spread out on a tray an’ she puts the tuna loaf on it. It looks fancy an’ you know how Marilyn likes fancy.

She goes all out cooking on Thanksgiving, Tondy. She puts cut up pickles in it and chopped up boiled eggs and onions and instead of mayonnaise, she puts in ranch dressing and a little mustard. Then she puts it in her bread pan and cooks it in the oven. Her mama taught her how to do that.

We’ll have that, an’ ice tea, tater chips an’ dip, an’ probally ice cream.

Big Dave’ll bring some deer meat. He’ll soak it in beer and black pepper and Old Bay overnight an’ then smoke it in his smoker for another day. He’s a good cook, Tondy, a real good cook.

Then I guess Thurman’ll bring some apple cider or somethin’ and Gavin’ll bring somethin’ too. He’s pretty good with catfish. He deep fries it an’ we put the cheese sauce on it. That boy can fish and he can cook. He’s all right in my book, an’ Marilyn’s half cuckoo over him.

Tondeleo: Doc, I don’t hear anything about vegetables. Are you only having meat? No veggies?

Doc: Veggies? Uhhh… veggies. Uh, yeah I guess we could get Marilyn to fry up some potatoes an’ carrots. Fried carrots is good. An’ probally some greens cooked up with pigs feet. That ain’t too bad.

We’ll eat it an’ probally all take a nap out on the porch or in our trucks if it’s colder. Sun comin’ in through the glass makes you feel good and sleepy.

After that, we’ll get out the guitars an’ probally sing an’ play music an’ Thurman’ll dance an’ then later we might look at some tv. I don’t know. But it’ll be good an’ we’ll be real thankful. The good Lord’s been mighty good to us this year. Mighty good. We got strength an’ health. We got a roof over our heads, ‘lectric, food on the table an’ friends an’ loved ones. It don’t get no better’n that, Tondy. We’re thankful to the good Lord up above.

Y’all ain’t even got no Thanksgivin’ over there to that England, Tondy, but we got it ‘cause we’re thankful.