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Article
Journal of Literary Studies
https://doi.org/10.25159/1753-5387/16409
Volume 40 | 2024 | #16049 | 22 pages
ISSN 1753-5387 (Online)
© The Author(s) 2024
Published by the Literature Association of South Africa and Unisa Press. This is an Open
Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Dining with the Duttons: Food Values and Political
Polarisation in the Yellowstone Cookbooks
Nieves Pascual Soler
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8962-5298
Valencian International University
mnpascual@universidadviu.com
Abstract
Since it premiered in June 2018, Yellowstone has become one of the most
popular series on television. Because fandom and food go together, given the
rise of popular culture cookbooks featuring main courses, sides, appetizers,
desserts, and drinks from and inspired by beloved series, it is no surprise that
two cookbooks were published recreating what the Duttons eat on Yellowstone.
This article investigates the political ideology associated with the food in the
two Yellowstone cookbooks. It draws on recent literature in the fields of
sociology, psychology, marketing communications, and consumer culture that
has explored the relationship between political affiliation and eating behaviours
demonstrating that the polarisation of political ideology extends to consumers’
preferences. It postulates that even though Yellowstone fans have been said to
lean conservative and the series has been labelled as “red state” and
“Republican,” the food in the cookbooks appeals to conservatives and liberals.
The paper reviews current research on politics and food values, examines the
paratextual relationship that exists between culinary and cinematic texts, and
addresses nutrition, taste, and price in the corpus of analysis.
Keywords: food values; political polarisation; popular culture cookbooks;
Yellowstone
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Introduction
Political polarisation, that is, the distance between the left and the right, has been on the
rise in the United States since the 1970s (Abramowitz and Saunders 2008) and has
increased apace dramatically after 2000 (Grumbach 2018). A few authors have linked
this increase to a growth in economic inequality (Payne 2017; Pearlstein 2018) and
racial and social divisions (Westwood and Peterson 2022). Others have connected
polarisation to the escalation of digital media (Settle 2018; Sunstein 2017). Some
scholars have associated it with the impact of partisan cable news networks (Duca and
Saving 2017). Whatever the cause, polarisation is a defining component of United States
politics today. “More than ever, Americans endorse their party’s stance across all
issues” (Heltzel and Laurin 2020, 179), in all aspects of everyday life, from work to
entertainment and consumption, with respect to occupations, hobbies, the films they
watch, the grocery stores they shop at, brands of preference, restaurants they dine out
at, what they drink, and the foods they eat.
Despite the influence of politics on diet and “the growing recognition of this
relationship, scarce evidence exists regarding food value preferences across the political
spectrum” (Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis 2023). Seeking to address this situation,
Antonios Tiganis et al. investigate how differences in political ideology determine
preferences for specific foods drawing on the food values model proposed by Jayson L.
Lusk and Brian C. Briggeman (2009). According to this model, the physical attributes
of an alimentary product are related to a set of underlying abstract values. Ultimately, it
is these values that motivate purchasing decisions and enable marketers to develop
advertising strategies, predict emerging trends, and improve business operations. On the
understanding that “buying a particular product or product attribute is conceptualized
as a means to obtain some desirable end state” (Lusk and Briggeman 2009, 186), food
values are defined as the end-states, consequences, or benefits in either pleasure or
utility, or both, expected by consumers. The advantage of using food values as a
measurement tool is that, unlike preferences or choices, more susceptible to contextual
influences and market developments, they are relatively stable across space and time.
Additionally, they can explain food choices across a variety of products. Specifically,
Lusk and Briggeman (2009) identified the food values of naturalness, taste, price, safety,
convenience, nutrition or health, origin, fairness, tradition, appearance, and
environmental impact.
1
Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis (2023) adopted these values to measure
conservatives’ and liberals’ preferences for food products. They administered an online
best-worst scaling questionnaire to 637 consumers who chose from among a set of 11
statements (for the 11 food values) which item they preferred the most and which they
preferred the least. The ideology of the participants was assessed by asking about their
political self-identification on a range of 1 (being very left wing) to 7 (being very right
1
Later researchers added other values such as animal welfare and novelty. See, for instance, Bazzani
et al. (2018).
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wing). Data were collected during November 2022 and analysed using a random utility
theory framework.
2
Findings “demonstrate that political ideology is associated with
heterogeneous consumer preferences regarding food values.” In principle, on average,
safety (e.g., “the extent to which consumption of food does not lead to illness”) is the
most important value to American consumers.
3
After safety, there is a group of three
values that are close in importance: nutrition, taste, and price.
4
Findings further reveal that political conservatism is positively related to tradition and
convenience (e.g., the ease with which food is cooked and consumed) and is negatively
related to environmental impact and price sensitivity. In general, conservative
consumers infer quality based on price and “favor [sic] luxury products especially when
the goal of maintaining status is activated” (Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis 2023).
They also exhibit a predilection for preserving traditional consumption patterns, which
is consistent with previous studies “indicating conservatives’ inclination towards local
experience, balance, order, … avoidance toward uncertainty” and avoidance of novel
foods or neophobia (Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis 2023). In fact, for neophobia
two specific motivations have been investigated: disgust or “disliked sensory
characteristics” and the perception that new foods “come from the outside of one’s own
culture or subculture, being introduced to one’s environment by social outgroups, such
as immigrants” (Guidetti, Carraro, and Cavazza 2022). Additionally, individuals
embracing conservative views place a high importance on convenience which, in turn,
“is linked to support for genetically modified food …, brand love for fast-food retailers,”
and environmentally unfriendly eating habits such as eating a lot of red meat (Tiganis,
Chrysochou, and Krystallis 2023). In this sense, it is relevant to highlight the number of
studies showing that people endorsing a conservative ideology eat more meat, “are less
likely to be vegetarian, and hold more negative attitudes toward vegetarians compared
with people holding liberal views” (Guidetti, Carraro, and Cavazza 2022).
For its part, political liberalism is negatively related to price and taste, and is positively
related to environmental impact, fairness, and nutritional content. With regard to price
value, while liberals are price conscious, they are generally willing to pay a premium
for organic food and for ensuring that all parties involved in the production of the food
equally benefit from the process (read: fairness). As expected, consumers with high
green consumption values display a strong preference for nutrition (or the amount and
type of fat, protein, vitamins, etc.), naturalness (i.e., the extent to which food is produced
without the use of modern technologies or pesticides), and origin (where the agricultural
2
Although the empirical data collection took place in Greece, the findings reported by Tiganis et al.
support “previous findings that consumer preferences for food values exhibit relative stability across
various countries, such as the USA, Canada, China, Mexico, and Norway” (Tiganis, Chrysochou,
and Krystallis 2023).
3
All definitions of values are taken from Lusk and Briggeman (2009).
4
There were some people in the sample who picked these issues as most important every time the
issue appeared in one of the 11 best-worst questions. This does not mean, as we see in the
observations that follow, that they rank high for all consumers.
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commodities are grown). One interesting observation is that even though taste is found
to rank high in average importance it is of low value for people concerned with the effect
of food production on the environment. Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis (2023) do
not delve into the value of taste for consumers on the right of the political spectrum, but
Giovanna Piracci et al. (2023) provide evidence that those who tend to exhibit less
preference for sustainable food products are more likely to care about the pleasure
involved in food consumption and to assign utility to appearance. After all, there is no
evidence that organically grown food tastes better than its conventional counterpart.
Additionally, whereas sustainability principles are strongly aligned with self-
transcendence and social benefit, the value of taste is strongly aligned with self-
actualisation and private profitability.
It is clear from the above that some values reinforce each other while others are mutually
exclusive. Thus, for example, people for whom tradition is important might not be
concerned about unfamiliar food or nutrition; people for whom taste and appearance are
important may not care about the environment; and people who are not concerned about
price will likely want to consume luxury dishes but may not care about novelty and
excitement. Extending this line of thinking, the present article investigates the polarising
role of political ideology in the food contained in two of the cookbooks inspired by
Yellowstone, a drama television series about “the enduring cowboys of the American
West” (Guilbeau 2023, 11). It explores the correlation between politics and cooking
using food values. To that end, the article follows prior research in interpreting political
ideology as both party affiliation (membership in or identification with an organised
political party) and political orientation (positioning oneself along a continuum of ideas
and beliefs about governments, rules, and laws). Although there is variation in political
orientation within parties (Schiffer 2000), “party identification and political orientation
often overlap” (Garneau and Schwadel 2022, 2). Accordingly, I use the terms
“conservative,” “Republican,” “right wing,” and “political right” interchangeably to
describe individuals and groups who defend established institutions and promote the
preservation of traditional values and customs. I apply the terms “liberal,” “Democrat,”
“left wing,” and “political left” to people who support progressive reforms, and seek
greater social and economic equality.
5
For the sake of clarity in exposition, considering average priorities, food values are
grouped into three categories: nutrition, taste, and price. The value of safety is excluded
because, as a rule, cookbooks offer readers little advice about reducing food-safety risks
(Levine, Chaifetz, and Chapman 2017). The nutrition value is interpreted more broadly,
5
In the United States, the term “liberal” describes people on the left of the political spectrum (Bell and
Stanley 2012, 17–112). On the connection between “liberal” and “left wing,” see Heit and Nicholson
(2010). They examine liberalism and conservatism as the two major ideologies in the United States.
They argue that in the American context conservatives are likely to be identified with Republicans
and liberals with Democrats, even though “the liberal–conservative distinction might be weaker than
the Democrat–Republican distinction because liberal and conservative are more like trait adjectives,
whereas Democrat and Republican are more like richly structured categories” (2010, 1508).
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acknowledging the positive role of food on individual health. The taste value is
combined with appearance because visual features affect our perception of taste
(Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence 2015). In this sense, research has shown that visual
attributes create expectations for taste and that aesthetically pleasing dishes tend to be
experienced as tastier than dishes without aesthetic appeal (Zellner et al. 2014). I relate
each category to specific dishes: meat and vegetarian; organic and convenience;
ordinary and luxury. As may already be apparent from the discussion above, a type of
food is considered a luxury when it marks social distinction because it is uncommon or
not-ordinary (Tiganis, Chrysochou, and Krystallis 2023; Van der Veen 2003). I
postulate that even though Yellowstone fans have been said to lean conservative and the
series has been labelled as “prestige TV for conservatives” (Horton 2022; Mathews
2018;), “red-state television” (Wanzo 2022), and “Republican” (Poniewozik 2022),
recipes in these cookbooks appeal to conservatives and liberals. Before proceeding, it is
worth briefly commenting on the cultural values of food, the intersections of food and
television, and “popular culture cookbooks” (as the cookbooks that are spin-offs from a
television series, films, video games or literature are commonly called). In what follows,
I address how television cookbooks extend the food content of the original media text,
focussing on the paratextual relation that exists between culinary and cinematic texts.
Popular Culture Cookbooks as Paratexts
The cultural values of food have been amply explored by scholars in anthropology
(Barthes 1973; Douglas 1984; Lévi-Strauss 1970, 1978), history (Mennell 1985),
linguistics (Jurafsky 2014), literary criticism (Boyce and Fitzpatrick 2017), nutrition
(Nestle 2013), philosophy (Heldke 1992), sociology (Bourdieu 1984), and women’s and
gender studies (Counihan 1999). From the perspective of cultural studies, anthologies
such as the Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies (Albala 2013), Food and
Cultural Studies (Ashley et al. 2004), Food and Culture: A Reader (Counihan and Van
Esterik 1997), and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Food and Popular Culture (Lebesco
and Naccarato 2017) have delved into how food practices shape individual and
communal identities, power relations, and historical processes, highlighting that food is
not merely sustenance but a main component of social organisation. From the area of
media studies, notable researchers such as Peri Bradley (2016), Kathleen Collins (2009),
and Sarah Murray (2013) have investigated the “meteoric rise in contemporary food
television” (Murray 2013, 187) and its impact on the alimentary habits of audiences.
In the field of culinary arts, cookbooks have been analysed as objects of social inquiry
(Appadurai 1988; Bower 1997; Curtin 1992; Floyd and Forster 2003; Symons 1998,
2000; Theophano 2002; Tobias 1998; Zafar 1999). In this respect, Douglas Brownlie,
Paul Hewer, and Suzanne Horne, citing from Daniel Miller’s Material Culture and
Mass Consumption (1987), argue that cookbooks “represent culture because they are an
integral part of that process of objectification by which we create ourselves as an
industrial society, our identities, our social affiliations, our lived everyday practices”
(Brownlie, Hewer, and Horne 2005, 8). Jessamyn Neuhaus corroborates this when
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writing that “every cookbook, more or less consciously is a work of social history,”
offering “vivid examples of what we might appropriately term a cultural text: recipes
are loaded with meaning particular to their time and place” (1999, 536). Similarly, Jack
Goody claims that cookbooks are related not only to structures of production and
distribution, but “to the system of class or stratification and to its political ramifications”
(1982, 37).
While relatively little has been written on popular culture cookbooks, recent
contributions have investigated the developmental links between cookbooks and
television (Geddes 2023), the repurposing of material from television cooking
programmes to cookbooks (Bonner 2009), and how spin-off cookbooks reproduce the
iconography of the original source, and “its ideology, which is both physically realized
[sic] and incorporated in the recipes” (Borsy 2022, 211). Especially useful for the
purposes at hand is Madison Magladry’s essay “Eat your Favourite TV Show: Politics
and Play in Fan Cooking” (2018), in which she claims that popular culture cookbooks
work as paratexts to the extent that “they invite physical embodiment of a once-
peripheral element of the source text [and] make it present” (Magladry 2018, 115).
Critical theorist Gérard Genette defines “paratexts” as the productions that accompany
a literary text. He writes:
One does not always know if one should consider that they [paratexts] belong to the text
or not, but in any case they surround it and prolong it, precisely in order to present it, in
the usual sense of this verb, but also in its strongest meaning: to make present, to assure
its presence in the world, its “reception” and its consumption. … Rather than with a
limit or a sealed frontier, we are dealing in this case with a threshold … which offers to
anyone and everyone the possibility either of entering or of turning back. (Genette 1991,
261, original italics)
Taking as point of departure the idea that television shows and cookbooks are texts,
Magladry shows that the latter text extends the food details of the former text presenting
readers with the opportunity of entering a beloved imaginary place via recreating what
the characters eat. By doing so, fans can dine with their favourite characters at home,
share in their struggles, and experience their feelings and thoughts. In the words of
writer Swamini Narkar (2023): “When you’re eating what a character eats, you are in
the most obvious way putting yourself in their shoes, giving the feeling that you, as the
viewer, are truly part of the fictional universe.” Because food is “peripheral” to this
fictional universe, cookbook authors build on the dishes already seen on-screen, further
developing them, and including others of their own that relate to the show.
For cookbooks to “literally materialize the fantastical” (Magladry 2018, 117) and serve
as thresholds to it, recipes are to be real, in the double sense of likely to be prepared or
made for actual cooking and authentic, as according with the “original intended meaning
and function” of the source text (Magladry 2018, 111). After all, “improbable recipes
call into question the function of the recipes themselves” (Magladry 2018, 118); and,
first and foremost, a cookbook is a technical manual. Just like any other paratext, whose
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objective is to orient the reader to the kind of reading which the author considers the
most “faithful” (Genette 1991, 267) and “pertinent” (Genette 1991, 262), cookbooks
guide viewers to the kind of cooking that authors consider most genuine to the main
text. Of course, there is not one single, legitimate interpretation of any text, and
interpretations may be contradictory. Some texts may also lend themselves better to
cookbooks because they contain more descriptions of food. Thus, to “fill in gaps in the
[primary] narrative” authors of popular culture cookbooks “pore over every element—
down to the props in recipe photos,” considering “climates and character motivations,”
as well as historical contexts, settings, cultures, and timelines “so fans can feel fully
immersed” (Priya 2021).
Fans of popular culture cookbooks are enthusiasts of popular culture and food. As a
matter of fact, fandom and food go together in that both involve the vital components
of consumption and identity. While highlighting “the broader importance of physical,
bodily practices to the fannish experience,” Rebecca Williams underscores that “fans
… turn to consumables such as food and drink as a way of expressing their fandom”
(2020, 230). Because of this intersection, given the current explosion of popular culture
cookbooks featuring meals from and inspired by very successful series like Game of
Thrones, Orange Is the New Black, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead, among many
others, it is little wonder that two cookbooks were published recreating what the Duttons
eat on Yellowstone.
6
Corpus of Study
Since it premiered on 20 June 2018, Yellowstone has become one of the most popular
series on television. According to Paramount Network Research, it averages five million
viewers per episode (Bitette 2019). Co-created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, the
series has been categorised as neo-Western, meaning that it adapts old Western motifs
to contemporary settings. The basic theme of the genre is that “the encroaching sense
of modernity [is] leaving the American Old West behind” (Benson 2019). Essentially,
Yellowstone portrays the struggle of old school cowboy John Dutton, played by Kevin
Costner, and of his family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, to preserve their
way of life and defend their land from outside developers and the bordering Broken
Rock Indian Reservation.
According to Elisa Bordin (2014), in the neo-Western genre, the hegemonic masculinity
of the cowboy is assuaged because of changes in male identity, the emancipation of
ethnic and sexual minorities, and globalised capitalism. Nonetheless, “hats, horses, and
guns” (Falconer 2009, 62) remain. One key generic convention Bordin does not
approach is cowboy food. The “sovereign” role the cook, often nicknamed “cookie,”
6
Recently, a third cookbook was released titled The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook: Dutton-Style
Dishes and Cowboy Cocktails to Keep Your Family at the Table by Rachel Riesgraf and Allison
Janse. At the time of writing this essay, the book is still unavailable and has not been included in the
corpus.
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played back in the days of cattle drives and the “supreme” power he wielded on the open
range (Adams 1972, 5), accounts for the relevance of eating in classic films, and the
number of cookbooks on the market inspired by the gustatory traditions of the Old West,
with the favourite recipes of John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Clint Eastwood, among
other famous stars (Beck and Clark 1995). Thus, it is only appropriate that many
important scenes in Yellowstone take place at the dining room table. Evidently, the
desires of the palate change, and antiquated recipes are necessarily “adapted for the
modern kitchen,” to today’s standards, in popular culture cookbooks (Chatzi 2022).
The corpus analysed in this study consists of two cookbooks ideally addressed to
American home cooks that are fans of the series. The first cookbook, Yellowstone: The
Official Dutton Ranch Family Cookbook, was released in September 2023, and is
official merchandise of the show. Written by the actor who plays the Duttons’ personal
cook, Gabriel “Gator” Guilbeau, who also happens to be a professional chef in real life
who feeds the cast and crew of the show, it contains 60 dishes that spring from the five
seasons of the show. The second cookbook, The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook:
Recipes Inspired by the Dutton Family Ranch, was released in November 2023. Written
by award-winning food photographer and recipe developer Jackie Alpers, it contains 70
recipes “that the Duttons, their pioneer forebears and their staff, would be proud to enjoy
while chewing the fat” (Alpers 2023, 2). Being neither commissioned nor authorised by
the producers, unofficial cookbooks “may better reflect the lived experiences of fans
separate from the production of tie-in media whose purpose is to extend a franchise for
economic reasons” (Magladry 2018, 112). Indeed, the Yellowstone television series is
already extending the franchise with other consumer products, including a recent line
of cowboy cuisine, available at the eatyellowstone.com webpage, which “invites you to
savor [sic] the essence of the series and taste its flavors [sic] firsthand.” Aside from their
purpose as merchandise produced to benefit from the success of the show, the common
purpose of the cookbooks under analysis is to give any viewer/reader the chance to dine
with the Duttons and “celebrate the tradition of the American Western and its modern
flag-bearer, Yellowstone, in all their glory” (Alpers 2023, 2).
7
In the following section
of this article, the values of nutrition, taste, and price embedded in the recipes contained
in these texts are examined.
Neo-Western Cuisine
Nutrition: Meat and Vegetarian Foods
Considering how “adamant” Sheridan is “that things do not appear fake, [including] the
cooking on the show” (Guilbeau 2023, 12), and that cowboys in the Old West ate meat
“day in and day out” (Hughes 1974, 52), it is not surprising that a lot of meat is eaten
on Yellowstone. Nor is it surprising that the menu in the cookbooks of the series is filled
7
Although it is not the topic of this article, it is interesting to note that these cookbooks, written by
male and female authors, have similar recipe lists, which opens the question of how the food
contemporary cowboys eat conditions the new masculinity performed in neo-Westerns.
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9
with meat dishes or that meat is an ingredient in starters, side dishes, and most main
courses. Served at the “three meals daily [that] are crucial for the amount of hard work
involved in” the cowboy world (Guilbeau 2023, 12), meat is used throughout these
cookbooks in classic comfort dishes, like Rancher’s Chicken and Biscuit Dumplings
(Guilbeau 2023, 82), Oregon Trail Dutch Oven Short Ribs (Alpers 2023, 105), and
Cowboy Beef Chili (Guilbeau 2023, 45), which remind of the Midwest and Texas. Meat
also features in traditional Louisiana Creole meals, such as Kickin’ Chicken Tenders
(Guilbeau 2023, 68) and Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo (Guilbeau 2023, 76). As
it turns out, Sheridan, who “is a cowboy himself in real life (and owner of the famed
6666 Ranch in Texas)” (Guilbeau 2023, 33), has an “affinity for Southern foods,
because that’s where he’s from” (Guilbeau 2023, 23). Importantly, Guilbeau’s family is
from Louisiana, so he makes “a lot of Cajun food” off set and on set (Guilbeau 2023,
12). Some meat recipes—Jimmy’s Cowboy Beef Chili (Guilbeau 2023, 45), John’s
Perfect Rib Eye Steak (46) and Jamie’s Smothered Chicken in Brown Mushroom Gravy
(73)—carry the name of the characters in the series, and are plain good family meals,
particularly appropriate for a show that “centers [sic] around family and reinforces the
importance of gathering around a dinner table to discuss the day” (Alpers 2023, 2).
Other recipes bring to memory the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico (like
Longhorn Carne Asada Burritos, in Alpers 2023, 97, and Easy Green Pozole with
Smoked Turkey or Pheasant, in Alpers 2023, 122); and “the largely Scotch-Irish settlers
of the American West” (like Cara Dutton’s Irish Stout Pot Roast in Alpers 2023, 109).
Occasionally meat is the base for a typical Native cuisine dish, like Cider-Braised
Turkey Thighs (borrowed from The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman,
in Alpers 2023, 94), and Corn Masa and Sage Dumplings in Partridge Soup (Alpers
2023, 126).
The recipes are easy to make and understand. Ingredients in both cookbooks are listed
in order of use to facilitate cooking. For the most part, instructions are straightforward,
concise, and to the point, with short preparation and cooking times. Only larger tougher
cuts of meat are braised low and slow. Each recipe begins with a story that describes
flavour and aroma qualities, gives culinary advice, and contextualises the dish.
Oftentimes it “speaks to the constant blending of cultures highlighted on Yellowstone,
illustrating what makes the West so special” (Alpers 2023, 20), educating readers about
the role of European immigrants and minority groups in the introduction of novel foods
to America during the days of Westward expansion. In this sense, we learn that chicken
fried steak, for instance, is not originally American, as is commonly believed, but was
brought to Texas in the nineteenth century by German and Austrian immigrants “who
were adapting their familiar schnitzel dishes” (Alpers 2023, 98). And that jerky was
invented by the Indigenous people in the Andes mountains and had been a staple snack
in South America long before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors (Alpers 2023, 49).
At another level, we learn from these cookbooks that cowboys ate meats (rattlesnakes)
and animal parts (hooves, cheeks, testicles, hearts, brain, and liver) that are “virtually
proscribed” in the United States today, as historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto writes in
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“The American Dream Has No Time for Offal” (2021). “So repellent” are these to
current prejudices that Americans would not sample them, he concludes (2021). From
his idyllic evocation of a Europe that earlier generations of migrants rejected, and his
nostalgia for offcuts and wild game meats, it is easy to infer that Fernández-Armesto is
writing for a politically conservative publication, The Spectator. The truth is that, in the
Old West, where men and women were stripped from “the garments of civilization,” to
quote from The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner (1921, 4),
and their lives were “sharply precipitated by the wilderness into the simplicity of
primitive [uncivilized] conditions” (1921, 9),
8
disgust was a luxury that few, if any,
could afford. Thus, in this context, “for an especially Western experience” (Alpers 2023,
49), readers are dared to expand their culinary horizons, be “brave enough to eat like
real cowboys” and put their guests to the test cooking such “adventurous Western
delicacies” (Alpers 2023, 75) as Rattlesnake Sausage Chowder (Alpers 2023, 121),
Mountain Oysters (Alpers 2023, 58), and Son-of-a-Bitch Stew (Alpers 2023, 125).
In the Yellowstone cookbooks, encounter with the “primitive conditions” is constructed
as a natural experience where “natural” means “inherent in the very constitution of a
person” or “innate; not acquired or assumed” (Oxford English Dictionary). Specifically,
what is innate is eating meat of all kinds, adventurous and not. Nowhere does this
become clearer than when Guilbeau remembers the last evening of shooting for Season
3. After grilling rib-eyes all day, for a moment he looked “out at the Montana landscape
as the sun was going down and it was spectacular.” Then he turned his “attention to the
crew and cast” to realise that “just about everyone had a steak in their hands. Literally
in their hands! Not a plate and not using a knife and fork—just about everyone [he]
could see was eating a steak like an apple!” He concludes with: “If that’s not
Yellowstone, I don’t know what it is!” (2023, 46). Leaving aside the confusion of actors
and fans alike immersing themselves into the characters’ lives, motivations, and
circumstances through food, the implication is that Yellowstone is about scorning former
misconceptions and returning to a situation “between savagery and civilization” (Turner
1921, 3) when individuals regain touch with who they really are, their essence, their
“inner … Dutton” (Alpers 2023, 66).
9
Research shows that nutritional benefits do not form the basis of meat eating and that
“high levels of food neophobia” represent “an obstacle to fruit and vegetable
consumption” as well as to, by extension, “acceptance of meat substitutes” (Guidetti,
Carraro, and Cavazza 2022). While neither Guilbeau nor Alpers incorporate a
breakdown into grams of protein, carbohydrates, fat, sodium, fibre, and calories per
8
The colonisers of America considered the cultures and practices of Indigenous peoples as
“primitive,” which should be read within the context of today as meaning “unfamiliar to European
conceptions.” At the time, the word “primitive” chimed with problematic colonial notions about
“modernity” that are currently viewed as harmful and ignorant.
9
Noticeable is the constructedness of the notion of “inner self” within fan merchandise, in service of
what are some very essentialised cultural values about identity and one’s relationship with the
environment.
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serving into each recipe, they do promote “sustainable and traditional” food practices
(Alpers 2023, 6), implying that traditional food is healthy, which is important given the
strong relationship between environmental impact and health in diets from the consumer
perspective, as Piracci et al. have shown (2023). To the value of environmental impact,
I will return below. For now, it is of interest that the authors of these cookbooks
expressly use the words “health” and “healthy,” which indicate a preference for wellness
food product attributes, to convey a positive message about the key nutrients in Grilled
Portobello Mushroom Burgers (where mushroom substitutes for beef, in Guilbeau 2023,
60), Prostate-Friendly Salad with Fruits,
10
prepared on the show after John Dutton is
diagnosed with colon cancer in Season 1 (Guilbeau 2023, 19; Alpers 2023, 141), and
Summer’s Wheatgrass Smoothie, named after vegan activist Summer Higgins in Season
4 (Guilbeau 2023, 154). Made with wheatgrass, spinach, avocado, banana, almond
butter, and almond milk, the smoothie is so substantially high in calories that it is almost
a meal on its own. Likewise, fit for “cowboy-sized appetites” (Guilbeau 2023, 56) are
such staples of long cattle runs as Cowboy Beans (Alpers, 2023 146) and Lucky
Cowboy Caviar (Alpers 2023, 142) or Rodeo Cowboy Caviar (Guilbeau 2023, 116).
With dishes like “Train Station” Funeral Potatoes (Alpers 2023, 154), Gun Barrel Mac
and Cheese (Alpers 2023, 56) and Potato Corn Chowder (Guilbeau 2023, 20), thinking
of trans fats, one may wonder about their beneficial impact on overall health, no matter
how much fuel is needed to herd and tend cattle. One might also wonder about frying
“all kinds of vegetables: broccoli, green beans, onion rings, zucchini, you name it”
(Guilbeau 2023, 31). Regardless of whether what is considered healthy is necessarily
so, my point is that vegetarianism is neither evaluated negatively nor is it perceived as
a threat. Almost half of the dishes in these cookbooks (including starters, main courses,
sides, and desserts) contain no meat, poultry, game, fish, or shellfish. When they do,
recipes may be flexible enough to accommodate the identity of readers who are
vegetarian.
Taste: Organic and Convenience Foods
One recipe that suits a vegetarian diet is Golden Squash Casserole. Not only is this “a
good vegetarian dish” if the bacon is left out, but also “a great way to cook up” the
surplus squash that “everyone on or around the Yellowstone Ranch …, all over Montana
and probably the rest of the country too” grows during the summer, so that it is not
wasted (Guilbeau 2023, 106). Both authors “hate to waste food” (Guilbeau 2023, 106),
pride themselves on not wasting any food, and adjust their cooking to what is available
during the season. In the spirit of “waste not, want not” they save leftovers that will be
recycled for another dish (Alpers 2023, 7). Cornbread dressing, for instance, is truly “a
great way to use leftover cornbread” (Guilbeau 2023, 107). Bourbon Pineapple Bread
10
According to the Vegetarian Society (https://vegsoc.org/), a vegetarian is someone who does not eat
meat, poultry, game, fish, and shellfish. Although certain types of vegetarians also avoid eggs, dairy,
and other animal by-products, I abide here by the most basic definition of this dietary practice.
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12
Pudding is made with “leftover biscuits” (Guilbeau 2023, 142), and Smash Burgers with
Braised Onion with “leftover ground beef” (Alpers 2023, 101).
The authors preserve ingredients by canning, pickling, and dehydrating. They advise
readers to do the same and recommend foraging greens and planting vegetables,
regardless of “whether you have a few acres, a small front garden or a flower box by
the window” (Alpers 2023, 5), because it is an economical way to feed the family, and,
within the same movement, helps protect the environment. Additionally, they advocate
for self-caught game, which, according to Guilbeau, “encourages a lifestyle living off
the land, very much in line with the lifestyle on the Dutton Ranch” (2023, 28). Alpers
concurs when she emphasises that “folks like the Duttons have been fighting for more
than a century” against “the wasteful industrialization” of the land they love with the
ultimate goal of preserving it. Thus, in her words: “If you’ve never tried hunting or
fishing …, now might be the time to get a lesson and a license” (2023, 6), unless “you’re
certain you don’t want to hunt or fish,” in which case her advice is to “try sourcing your
meat and fish directly from those who do” so that they get a fair share of the price (2023,
6). She even has suggestions about cookware and dispensing with Teflon lined pans,
which “create more waste” because they only last a year or two in good condition, in
favour of “a good cast iron pan” (2023, 5). She adds that “when you go shopping, do so
with a mind toward the source.” To make sure that the values guiding our food choices
are respectful of origin, Alpers prompts us to ask ourselves: “Was this produce locally
grown? Is it fresh, or has it come from across the continent in the back of a series of
trains and trucks? Were these chickens free-range or from a factory farm? Was this fish
pole-caught, farmed or caught in a dangerous and wasteful industrial net?” In her view,
“the answers to these questions not only mean the difference between a good dinner and
a great one—they can also make a huge difference in terms of your environmental
impact” (2023, 7).
Generally, organic food is more expensive than convenience food, which has been
“largely criticized,” be it certified organic or not, “for the negative burden imposed on
the environment compared to home-made products because of its use of water, energy,
other resources, and waste production” (Stranieri, Ricci, and Banterle 2017, 18). Liberal
consumers who care about price and tend to avoid wasting resources do state a high
willingness to pay extra for environmental labels, such as green identity and fair trade.
As seen above, in the evaluation of sustainable food products, values such as
environmental impact and fairness prevail over the value of taste, which, because of its
private dimension, scores low and has not been studied as a possible driver of purchases
that minimise ecological damage. Here, however, “the difference between good food
and great food” (Guilbeau 2023, 23; original italics) permeates both personal and social
domains, involving public good and personal pleasure at once. This becomes fully
apparent in the expectations set by the images accompanying the recipes.
There are close-ups of the Montana landscape, Yellowstone National Park, wildlife,
plants, bison, horses, cattle, ranching, cowboys, and cowgirls. In the official cookbook
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13
these shots are taken from the show, with the characters in them. By association, these
images answer the questions posed by Alpers in the affirmative, confirming to the reader
that the produce is organic. They combine with big glossy photographs of the final
dishes, in warm appetizing colours and high resolution, which allows viewers to see
textures and details of “all the glorious buttery juices” (Guilbeau 2023, 27). Sensory
words (“savory” [sic], “creamy,” “spicy,” “smoked,” “crisp,” “golden brown,” “warm”)
and superlatives (“the best,” “the finest,” “the most delicious”) highlight the exceptional
flavours of the food and make readers crave it before even tasting. Food is presented in
a way that appeals to the sense of comfort and openly invites culinary emulation. Of
note is that all the recipes look impressive on the plate, but not all of them carry
environmentally sustainable attributes or contain main ingredients that are local to the
area.
Price: Ordinary and Luxury Foods
Two examples may illustrate the use of convenience food in the Yellowstone cookbooks.
One is the recipe for Choco Chimps Cereal Treat (Alpers 2023, 26), which includes
maple syrup, peanut butter, vanilla extract, strawberries, marshmallows as a bonding
agent and, of course, the Choco Chimps that Tate, John Dutton’s grandson, eats in
Season 3, Episode 9, instead of the scrambled breakfast the chef had prepared.
11
The
second example is the recipes for Beth’s Gourmet Hamburger (or Tuna) Helper (Alpers
2023, 85; my italics) and Beth’s Cheesy Hamburger Mac Casserole (Guilbeau 2023, 63)
inspired by the dish Beth Dutton cooks for her husband, Rip Wheeler, in Season 4,
Episode 1, as an act of love.
During this episode, which begins with Beth “really getting this whole cooking thing”
(Alpers 2023, 114), she attempts making Hamburger Helper (variant: Deluxe
Cheeseburger Macaroni), but adds tuna to the mixture of dried pasta and prepackaged
seasoning because she does not have ground meat at hand. The scene is comic because
Beth, who is unaccustomed to cooking, does not know that another variant of this
product is called Tuna Helper. Be that as it may, despite her best intentions, the recipe
does not turn out very well. As expected, a version is recreated in the cookbooks, “but
a whole lot better” (Guilbeau 2023, 63), elevating Beth’s “pedestrian” (Alpers 2023,
114) dish with the addition of beef or chicken stock, grated Cheddar cheese, onion
(chopped or in flakes), and elbow macaroni (or panko), so that it feels “like a big warm
hug” (Guilbeau 2023, 63).
Just as a meal that comes out of a box and is cheap (Hamburger Helper costs around 1
USD) can achieve “gourmet” status when other ingredients are incorporated, using
luxury foods may not be economically justifiable. In this sense, perhaps the highest
priced dinner in the series takes place in Season 2, Episode 3: char-grilled octopus. “The
real sea creature” that Guilbeau prepares (Utley 2023) is very expensive to buy because
11
Despite being certified organic the product had already been recalled for undeclared gluten (wheat
and barley) in 2019, before the episode aired.
Soler
14
the animal cannot be farmed humanely, the meat is not domestic to the United States,
12
and scarcity is what makes certain foods valuable. Furthermore, the dish is labour
intensive. Considered a luxury in many parts of the world, it is semi-ironically served
as a “humble pie” to Jamie Dutton, after he “learns in his first abortive campaign [that]
government is a strange, many-tentacled beast” (Alpers 2023, 113), when he sits down
at the dinner table with the family. Nobody finishes the meal, and, as Guilbeau puts it:
“In no way, shape, or form would [Kevin Costner] ever eat the grilled octopus” (Phillips
2023). Noting that the actor’s eating habits are similar to Mr Dutton’s, Guilbeau
comments that when setting the dish in front of the Yellowstone patriarch, he asked
“‘Gator, what the h*** is that?’ But Kevin Costner didn’t say ‘h***’ in the moment,
dropping a full-on f-bomb in reaction to the octopus and promptly asking his dinner
companions to send a plate of potatoes his way” (Phillips 2023; asterisks in the original).
What is important is not whether Costner/Dutton is a picky eater, as Guilbeau has
remarked on several occasions (Utley 2023), or whether he has the palate to appreciate
grilled octopus, or whether the dish is too un-American. Significantly, an increase in
price is not associated with an increase in quality. Nor are luxury products favoured to
pursue and satisfy the status-maintenance goal. A central tenet of the literature on
political differences in consumption is that conservative consumers tend to use price as
a cue to assess product quality. However, the conservatism of the Duttons is articulated
against price quality judgments. Being so wealthy, they are free from the urge to
conspicuous consumption. This affluence might not be shared by fans, however.
Similarly, most fans are unlikely to have a private chef. Still, with the simplified recipe
for Grilled Octopus with Lemon and Roasted Potatoes in the official cookbook (2023,
93) we may prepare octopus in 15 minutes if we buy it cooked and frozen. By all
accounts, cooking from scratch is better, but shortcuts are welcome, as is clear from the
fans discussing how to replicate this dish on Reddit, where two years ago, in the forum
dedicated to those who remembered the octopus scene from Yellowstone, they were
recommending and exchanging pictures of Nuchar Cooked Octopus 17.6 oz bag, which
sells at Costco for a reasonable price (Distilled-Blockout 2021).
Conclusion
Liberals and conservatives differ in many ways, including in terms of their culinary
habits. Following on previous studies investigating the food values of consumers along
the political spectrum and how these values affect the choice of specific products, this
article argues that the food presented in the Yellowstone cookbooks is politically
ambiguous, combining meat and vegetarian foods, organic and convenience products,
ordinary and luxury items.
12
As per Volza’s 2023 import data, the United States imports most of its octopus from China, India,
and Spain.
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15
On the one hand, by considering meat as healthy food, the authors of these cookbooks
relate the values of nutrition and naturalness, which rank as among the most crucial for
liberals, to an ingredient favoured by conservatives who, as per the existing literature,
express low levels of concern for maintaining a balanced diet. Like conservatives, these
authors exhibit a predilection for eating according to tradition, but it is a tradition that
is open to what is unfamiliar and new. On the other hand, by finding in taste and
appearance a driver of sustainable consumption, Alpers and Guilbeau prioritise values
positively associated with conservativism in a behaviour that is characteristic of the
political left, which (unlike the right) shows deep concern for the environmental impact
of food, states a preference for fairness and is willing to pay extra for organic food.
Lastly, although there is a relationship between green consumption values and price
consciousness, price is not found to be a determinant of quality in these cookbooks. In
light of this, if these texts are seen as expanding the lore and character of the Yellowstone
series, the show might not be reflective of the conservatism that is often ascribed to it.
Furthermore, it appears that fans may also not necessarily entirely embody such an
ideology. In sum, these two cookbooks seem to reveal that the appeal of the show might
go beyond just a conservative viewer base and might also include viewers from a more
left-leaning side of the political spectrum.
In view of the growing number of popular culture cookbooks, examining the food values
in these texts adds to the theoretical and practical research on the preferences and
behaviours of consumers and fans. It also contributes to a better understanding of the
content and complexity of political categories. Despite its limited scope, this article may
provide a useful theoretical framework for future research on the relationship between
political ideology and food values in film and television-themed cookbooks.
Funding Information
The research carried out for the writing of this article has taken place within the
framework of the research projects “The Premise of Happiness: The Function of
Feelings in North American Narratives” (PID2020-113190GB-C21), funded by the
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation; and “Comida, identidad y comunidad en
la literatura infantil hispánica del siglo XXI” (CIAICO/2022/208), funded by the
Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital (Comunitat
Valenciana, Spain).
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