Three Booya Feeds in Roseville

BOOYA!!

That's not a Halloween taunt. That's hearty eatin' by the bowlful, imminent as cooks for three Roseville booya feeds are heating up their kettles and chopping a shopping list of ingredients.

On Sunday, Roseville VFW Post 7555, 1145 Woodhill Drive, and the B-Dale Club at 2100 Dale St. N.will both start serving at 10 a.m. and keep ladleing until every tasty morsel is sold. Both charge $4 for a up to a 16-ounce serving.

At B-Dale, if you want to eat there, they'll throw in crackers. The VFW asks that you bring your own take-away containers, and will sell you a 32-ounce portion for $7.

On Sunday, Oct. 2, also at 10 a.m., the granddaddy of Roseville booyas will also be at the VFW hall, which has opened its space for the annual Roseville Fire Department'

s event because the fire hall at Lexington and Woodhill isn't adequate to hold the annual feed. Firefighters have been making the same recipe since the 1940s and expect to stir 12 kettles, each holding 35 to 50 gallons.

No two booya formulas are the same, and seasonings are kept secret. Some use oxtail; some only chicken and beef. Rutabagas? Maybe yes, maybe no.

According to Jim Hartman, VFW commander, their batch uses 60 pounds of chicken, 100 pounds of beef brisket, 50 pounds of oxtails and 50 pounds of beef shanks. Added to the meat mix after it has  been boiled and deboned are potatoes, rutabagas ("the hardest things to chop," said Hartman), celery, canned wax and green beans, whole kerney corn, peas, tomato sauce and tomato juice, all cooked in three huge kettles.

In charge of those vats is Jack Buchal, Roseville, a retired electrician and VFW member. He and his electrician buddies stay up all Saturday night, stirring every 20 minutes "You don't want scorched booya," he said.

While some booya cooks are known to drink beer through the wee hours, Buchal says that overimbibing could ruin an entire batch as tipsy vatmasters fumble seasonings.

"We drink coffee, play cribbage, and I plan to find out how late I can get pizza delivered," he said. 

Hartman describes the VFW version as more like stew than soup.

"In the old days, they used wild game -- or maybe roadkill," he laughed, recalling the roadkill stew often mentioned on "The Bob Newhart Show."

Buchal has made family-sized batches using venison and pheasant after a successful hunting season. One of his techniques, especially for large events: Whole chickens and oxtails are boiled in cheesecloth bags that can be extracted before final chopping. No fishing around in the pot to find stray bones.

Years ago in my food writing career, I did a story on local booyas, searching for a definition of the name. I stand by the theory that booya is a bastardization of the French verb to boil -- bouillir. Probably came our way via the French-Canadienne voyageurs.

Buchal thought the name's origins might be Bohemian. He also heard that early St. Paul Germans made a version of booya. Perhaps they added wurst to the mix.

B-Dale has been stirring booya for 48 years, using the same recipe for at least half that time, said Carol Turnqust, the club's bookkeeper and rental manager. She describes their version as halfway between soup and stew. Six kettles are produced during the two-day cooking process. 

The Roseville fire crew uses chicken, beef and oxtail, true to their original recipe, said Fire Chief Tim O'Neill. Retired firefighters help with cooking, ensuring that tradition is retained.

Booya hounds often get take-home in time for the Vikings game on TV, a traditional booya-eating occasion.

"A lot depends on the weather," said O'Neill. "If it's 80 degrees, the crowd is smaller, but if it's cool and rainy, everyone want booya." That makes it true Midwest comfort food.