The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-04-13
JIMMIE HAYES WAS
FRONTIER CHEF
ART OF COOKERY IN
LUMBER AND RAILROAD
CAMPS; A FIGHTER
Champion Flipper of F1apjacks of
all the West and Master of the
MulIigan; His Lightning Pot Pie;
Now a Chauffeur.

Ten years have elapsed since Jim
my Hayes invested his savings in an
automobile and started taxi bust
ness in Anaconda. Prior to that time
the machinery he was most familiar
with were cookstove and double
bit axe. The cookstove was his
means of earning a livelihood and he
used the axe to keep the kitchen clear
of lum berjacks, railroaders and skin
ners.
| Jimmy learned the art of cookery
in the lumber camps in Minnesota
and after achieving considerable Gull
mary fame in that neck of the woods,
emigrated to Montana, in 1888. He
outfits, sportsmen and on ranches I'M
| til 1912 when he became the head
cook for a railroad construction crew
in the Georgetown district.
And according to the hieroglyphics
carved on the trees along the B. A. &
P. right of way in the vicinity of
Southern Cross he was some cook. He
says so himself, and stands ready to
challenge present day chefs with
theircrazy calories, to stand-up and
knock-down cooking match, winner
take all, Jim says cooking is like
swimming-you never forget.
AS cook, Jim was considered the
personification of grace and wisdom.
He could start Tipping flapjacks at
in the morning and keep it up until
the last man had eaten, without so
much as dropping one on the floor.
Then there was his bread. Just how
he concocted his sponge, no one ever
CD fo1lrir1o
about it up around Georgetown. AS
compared with the modern chef, jim
my had them beat by city block. So
say the old timers. How many of the
present day variety know how to
make oyster fritters like Frank Juney
pitched ball-without wasting one,
not even the oyster. He didn't use
oysters. He poured lot of the oys-
ter liquor into the batter and told
the oysters to take a walk, if they
wanted to go and get some more liq-
uor. 1t was all right with him. To
put a couple oysters into each fritter,
like some cooks did, was to waste
money and unnecessarily cruel to the
oysters. To Jimmy's way of thinking,
he most use to which an oyster could
De put, was as a chaser. That was in
he old days though, because there is
nothing left for them to chase now.
Jimmy was more famous, however,
or this complete mastery of that
greatest of all dishes, mulligan. He
.ould make mulligan do almost ev-
except jump a fence or
nut a water hole in the ice. Right
before your eyes he could change 1T
nto pot pie or soup. He could, but
lie never did-before your eyes. He
lad a reputation as cook to sus-
ain, and he didn't intend giving the
ow-down on himself. But he isn't
cooking any more.
To change a mulligan into soup,
70 would take a bowl and put so
luch hot water in it, then added
ouple of spoonfuls of mulligan.
But the potpie required the high
st art. For that Jimmy took cou-
lie of the larger pieces of the meat
nd spuds in the mulligan kettle and
ut them on a plate, then wiped his
ands on a flour sack and dug the
enter out of piece of bread, put
he ring around the meat and spuds,
oshed it over with gravy and yelled:
"Potpie a la Jimmy Hayes"
Jimmy hasn't juggled frying pan
r kettle for 10 years now, but he
asn't forgotten how to do it. II
ou don't believe he can, simply make
Iquiry the next time you get ready
signal taxi.