Archives Test Kitchen: A Super Bowl Party Dish from 1991

[Header image: "The Dallas Cowboys Wives' Cookbook," 1991, TX 715 .D18156 1991]

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The blog series also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections.     

Welcome to Archives Test Kitchen, a blog series that brings history and archives to life with sometimes delicious, sometimes hilarious results! Our team at Special Collections is dedicated to testing out historic recipes to highlight culinary treasures within our collections. 

This week, Cartographic Archivist Madeline Lowry recreates a Jerry Jones recipe from 1991 that can be used as a dish for a Super Bowl party!

When searching for a historic recipe to recreate for the Archives Test Kitchen, I browsed through the stacks in UTA’s Special Collections hoping to find an old and tattered book from the 19^th or 20^th century that included some bizarre or forgotten dishes. Instead, an innocuous and relatively modern book with a spiral binding caught my eye – The Dallas Cowboys Wives’ Cookbook.  

This recipe book was compiled and published in 1991 by the wives of the Dallas Cowboys football team as a fundraising effort for the scholarship fund at Happy Hill Academy/Home – a residential school for at-risk youth kids in Granbury, Texas. The earliest editions of these cookbooks were created in 1979, 1980, and 1981, but then ceased publication. The Dallas wives wrote in the acknowledgements section of this 1991 cookbook, that they were excited to bring back this tradition a decade later. 

“It’s an all-new lineup for the Dallas Cowboys – new owner, new coaching staff, and all-new players, except for the venerable Bill Bates – and the fans are just as interested in knowing about this generation of Dallas Cowboys as their former favorites” (page iii).  

The cookbook includes the favorite recipes of all the administrative staff, football players, coaches, and their wives. But don’t worry – the single or unhitched members still got to provide their recipes in their own section! Biographical information for each player and their wife, such as their birthdays, colleges, awards, and hobbies, are listed and it even includes what we would call today, the “meet-cute” for each couple!  

As I scoured through the cookbook to pick a recipe to try, I thought I would pick something that could make for a good dish to bring to a Super Bowl party, as the big game is just around the corner.  I settled on Jerry Jones’ recipe – Garlic Cheese Grits Casserole. It can’t get much more southern than that! 

The recipe is simple and just requires different cheeses, margarine, and grits. Although Jones called for a tube of the Kraft jalapeno cheese, I couldn’t find this anywhere. Perhaps it’s a relic of the 90s and has since been removed from the shelves. I settled for a pepper jack cheese instead and used Boursin for the garlic cheese.  

As the grits thickened with the melted cheese and I moved it to the casserole dish, I wondered if it looked a little too bland for a party dish. Although grits are traditionally eaten with a spoon as a side dish for breakfast, I was hoping this cheesier casserole version could be used as a dip with chips – a staple for any football watching party. But I thought I would wait until the end to judge the taste instead of relying solely on the look. The taste was very good – creamy and cheesy – and not unlike a sour cream-based dip. But alas, I still felt that it was missing an extra flavor. I would recommend adding some cooked bacon and chopped chives to the mix. Then you could serve it as a dip with tortilla chips or perhaps on top of some potato bites, making it a truly southern masterpiece. And what’s more southern or Texan than good food and football?  

Not all “historic” recipes have to be exceptionally old and covered in dust. Sometimes you can look back only a few decades to find something noteworthy. And of course, the 90s were the Cowboys’ most dominant decade. Perhaps this good cooking had something to do with their incredible run. Either way, this recipe is sure to be a success at a Super Bowl LIX party this year!