Crackers that can break a tooth, the smoothest coffee ever, and a delicacy that proves that
absolutely NOTHING from a bull is wasted. The cowboy era might have come and gone,
but good — and practical — food is forever.
Food on cattle drives in the Old West had to meet a number of practical criteria. Since
refrigeration wasn't an option, anything carried along had to be non-perishable,
and since space was limited, it would have ideally been compact and easy to carry.
And while these constraints sometimes forced cowboys to settle for less-than-appetizing fare,
flavor was still a concern — according to History Hit, a chuckwagon cook with a good
reputation could be a powerful recruiting tool for ranchers looking for help.
"Why can't they cook for themselves?"
"Can't do much of nothing for themselves."
Among the historic foods that ticked all the boxes was smoked beef jerky. According to
People's Choice Beef Jerky, cowboys made their own jerky from either beef or from game such as elk,
deer, or bison. Theirs wasn't a refined version but it was flavorful and a good
source of protein. And modern snackers should embrace it for similar reasons:
according to Prevail, it's an easy-to-carry treat for long hikes or camping trips,
and depending on the version you choose, a perfect high-protein, paleo-friendly snack option.
Stewed beans are another old-school food associated with Old West cowboy culture.
But according to Legends of America, they weren't as central a part of the cowboy diet as popularly
depicted: While dried beans were a standard part of the chuck wagon pantry because they are
non-perishable and lightweight, rehydrating them and cooking them was a long process,
and thus not always practical for busy cook at the end of a long day.
Still, they were enjoyed by cowboys from time to time. According to food
scientist and chef Michael Murdy, one popular preparation today's
diners would enjoy is beans cooked with bacon, with Murdy explaining to Mashed -
"Pinto beans and bacon are cooked together in a Dutch oven over an open flame or a campfire,
creating a savory flavor from the bacon and an earthy note from the beans. The
high heat of the campfire adds a unique smoky flavor to the meal."
Cowboys in the Old West loved their caffeine — and they got their fix from cowboy coffee, a
rustic concoction of coarsely ground coffee boiled in a kettle over an open fire. But if you're a
serious coffee aficionado raised on the belief that you never let coffee boil, hear us out.
"Coffee is coffee but when you make it the right way folks,
it is gonna be the best cup of coffee in the world."
According to longtime cowboy cook Kent Rollins, simple cowboy coffee,
if made correctly, is a treat, with Rollins saying -
"Cowboy coffee, when it is made right, is probably the smoothest coffee in the world [...] when you
boil coffee correctly, it takes the bitterness out and boils the acid out of the bean."
So if you love coffee but don't feel like splurging on specialized equipment,
or find yourself on a camping trip or in an AirBnB with a non-functioning coffee maker,
give cowboy coffee a chance.
In recent years, there's been a fascination in the food world with ancient foodstuffs.
According to Cleantechnica, long-forgotten grains popular millennia ago have started
making frequent appearances in artisanal baked goods and other
dishes. Nutrition Today reports that even one of today's trendiest diets,
the paleo diet, is meant to replicate ancient, and presumably more healthful, eating habits.
Among the foods with ancient roots enjoyed by cowboys in the American West was pemmican,
which Britannica describes as portable bars made from rendered fat, shredded
or pulverized dried meat such as venison, and sometimes berries. According to History Hit,
it was introduced to cowboys by Native Americans. Cowboys appreciated it because it was portable,
non-perishable, and provided plenty of calories and protein in a small package.
It's since gained a reputation as a superfood. According to Mark's Daily Apple, early
20th-century anthropologist Vihljamur Stefansson traveled with an Inuit group in Alaska and lived
for weeks at a time on only pemmican and water. He later claimed that he'd never felt healthier.
Another ancient food trend, once inelegantly called, quote, "don't waste meat," has been
revived and rebranded with a romantic new name: nose-to-tail eating. According to Clean Eating,
this refers to the practice of eating every potentially edible part of a butchered animal,
quite literally from the nose to the tail. Not only does this allow daring
diners to enjoy a richer range of flavor experiences, but it's also
less wasteful and more environmentally friendly, as well as budget-friendly.
Cowboy cooks, who frequently hunted and regularly saw cattle being butchered, were among those
who followed the principles of nose-to-tail eating. Meat was precious to hungry cowboys,
and not a bit of it was wasted. For instance, Gastro Obscura reports that among the cowboys'
unenviable responsibilities was castrating young bulls, both for contraceptive purposes
and to curb their aggression. This left cowboys with large quantities of detached testicles,
so they did what cowboys always did when encountering a free source of meat: They
ate them. The standard treatment was to batter and deep-fry them. Today, the unusual treats,
nicknamed "Rocky Mountain oysters" remain a regional favorite in the American west,
and are worth checking out if you love adventure and hate food waste.
Rascal stew was another reflection of the nose-to-tail ethos in action on Old West
cattle trails. As the Art of Manliness details, the stew is composed of a variety of organ meats
that could include the heart, brains, liver, shortbreads, and marrow gut, was not only a
way to ensure not one bit of a slaughtered beast was wasted, but also a dish relished by cowboys.
Elizabeth Nelson, associate professor of history at University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, explained that fresh meat was often hard to come by on the cattle trail
since it couldn't be stored unrefrigerated and eating the rancher's inventory was discouraged,
so stews were more often made with preserved or dried meats such as salt pork. So on the
infrequent occasions fresh beef was available, every bit of it was used and enjoyed.
Even the most resourceful cowboy cooks only had limited space for provisions,
and the few provisions they could bring along had to have a long shelf life.
But while an experienced cook could easily whip up a hearty meal with just these ingredients,
it would still end up a bit boring, even for a macho gang of cowboys. To break up
the monotony and add some color and novel flavor to their meals,
cowboys sometimes foraged for wild greens and herbs, according to Ask a Prepper. And the types
of herbs and greens they encountered varied by location: One day, you'd encounter watercress,
lamb's quarters, or wild asparagus, while another you might find wild garlic, chicory, or sage.
And while these plants have never gone away, they remain underappreciated by most modern
diners — which is too bad. According to Wild Edible, foraged greens are richer in essential
minerals and vitamins than commercially grown produce; plus, gathering them is a great way to
get in touch with your natural environment. But if you do decide to start foraging,
do your homework: Find an experienced forager to show you how to identify edible plants in
your area. And if you have any doubt about whether a plant is edible, leave it alone.
Cowboys regularly supplemented the food provided on the chuck wagon by hunting and
foraging for wild foodstuffs, and according to Ask a Prepper, even in the arid west,
edible wild mushrooms were available. The catch was so were a lot of poisonous wild mushrooms,
and telling them apart was no easy feat — sometimes safe and unsafe mushrooms could
look dangerously similar. For this reason, many cowboys shied away from all of them,
figuring life on the open range was dangerous enough as it was.
Still, some cowboys were willing to take that chance. Most who did hedged their
bets by limiting their foraging to visually distinctive edible mushrooms without poisonous
look-alikes. Among these were morels, blackish mushrooms with tall, lacy caps,
and fat puffball mushrooms. Today, morels are a sought-after gourmet treat in farmers' markets
on the infrequent occasions they're available, and according to giant puffball Forager Chef,
can grow to be the size of soccer balls and are easy to find in some parts of the country.
They also make for good eating: A traditional preparation is to bread and fry them, but they
also make great soups and, if sliced and rolled thin, a tasty substitute for lasagna sheets.
"You saute this in oil and garlic and butter and salt - I mean anything's
gonna be good at that point - but this is a very savory and nutty mushroom."
Of course, whatever mushroom you're foraging,
confirm with an expert that it's safe before you heat up your frying pan.
Another challenge chuckwagon cooks faced was limited cooking supplies,
with Elizabeth Nelson telling Mashed - "Most meals were cooked in a Dutch oven
or a spider (a covered skillet with cast iron legs that could be set in
the coals) or in a pot hung on an iron bar suspended over the fire."
This meant that stews were a common menu item. And it's likely there were as many variations of
cowboy stew as there were cowboy cooks. Still, a common goal of cowboy stew was to render whatever
meat it contained appetizingly tender. According to George Ranch Historical Park, in the days
before cattle were crossbred, Texas cattle tended to be lean, which meant it was at its best when
slowly stewed at a low temperature. And according to food scientist Michael Murdy, canned vegetables
such as tomatoes and carrots were another frequent component of cowboy stews. So if you want to save
money by cooking with tougher pieces of meat but don't feel like researching complicated recipes,
channel your inner chuckwagon cook and invent a stew of your own using whatever vegetables and
seasonings you have around. After all, that's how it was done on the trail.
Okay, we're not going to lie: Unless your culinary tastes run towards things that are bland, dry,
and hard enough to break a tooth, hardtack is unlikely to become your favorite. But
if you're a backpacker, camper, or live in an area where an emergency earthquake
or hurricane survival kit with a good supply of non-perishable food is a standard part of life,
hardtack should be your friend, as it was to generations of sailors and cowboys in need of
a durable food source according to the Texas Historical Commission. As its name implies,
these thick crackers — typically made from just flour, water, and salt - are hard. REALLY hard.
You can think of hardtack as akin to dry pasta: You wouldn't eat it as is,
but softened and flavored with other foods, it's filling and comforting. Cowboys back in
the day soaked hardtack in coffee or soup or other hot, wet foods to soften it enough to
become agreeable to eat, and sometimes even fried the softened pieces. And if
you're an avid camper or backpacker who regularly relies on freeze-dried,
cook-in-a-bag meals, some hardtack softened with hot water should fill you up.
Chances are, the only reason you even know sarsaparilla exists is
from watching it being ordered by an old cowboy in some movie you stumbled upon.
"You got a good sarsaparilla?" "Sioux City sarsaparilla?"
"Yeah, that's a good one."
But in the real Old West, sarsaparilla was more than just a punchline. According
to cowboy historian Chip Schweiger, the soft drink was indeed relished by cowboys,
as much for its purported health benefits as its taste. The drink, which the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel reports was made from a wild North American relative of ginseng,
was first developed in the 16th century by Spanish soldiers who considered it a cure for syphilis,
and 19th century Americans attributed any number of curative properties to the drink.
So how does it taste? According to the Sun-Sentinel, it tastes a bit like root
beer. Indeed, sarsaparilla was one of the key ingredients in some early formulations of root
beer, along with other herbs including wintergreen. According to Bundaberg,
the plant extract used in sarsaparilla has a slightly bitter flavor, which drink manufacturers
counterbalance with sweeter ingredients such as licorice. If you like root beer but wish the
flavor could be cranked up a notch, sarsaparilla could be the drink for you. It's also still said
to have health benefits for those who drink it, including alleviating pain and gastric distress.