Round up the chuck wagon! From "rascal stew" to
"worm castles," the things cowboys ate on the trail might surprise you.
Cowboys who were lucky enough to ride with a chuck wagon and a cook,
affectionately known as "Cookie," knew they'd never go hungry.
"Life on the trail wasn't easy. But without the chuck wagon, it would never have been possible."
Cookie knew how to stock his wagon with items that were easy to carry and store.
This made things like cured meats, coffee, lard, and potatoes popular choices. But by
far the number one dish was beans. Pinto beans were the primary choice of cooks on the trail,
though kidney beans and white beans were also used. But whatever the variety,
dried beans were the perfect cowboy food – super portable,
cheap, and nutritious. Dried beans kept for a long time and provided an excellent source of protein,
making these little powerhouses a satisfying meal on the range. Not fancy, but filling.
"Can't get full on fancy!"
While plain old beans may not sound appetizing, Cookie always had a few
tricks up his sleeve. Beans were often cooked with chili peppers to add spice and flavor,
turning something plain into a flavorful "bowl of red," otherwise known as chili.
"Five alarm chili, eh?"
"Mmhm."
"One, two…"
If beans have a downside, it's that once they're cooked,
they have to be eaten right away, because out on the trail, there's obviously no refrigeration,
which makes it quite challenging to keep food cold and fresh.
Cowboys enjoyed pork often in the form of salt pork, also known as sowbelly,
and bacon. Because it was easy to produce in large quantities, pork was a staple food from
the days of the early settlers. Pork belly comes from the fatty underbelly of the pig,
as does bacon. But sowbelly is a thick slab of meat that's high in fat,
tender, and uncured. Bacon is usually a type of pork belly,
but it's sliced into thin strips, though it may also come from other parts of the pig.
Without refrigeration, meat that the cowboys ate had to be preserved in some way. Cowboys
were always on the move, so old-fashioned methods of refrigeration wouldn't work.
And that's where salting comes in. Salting meat dries and preserves it,
and the simplest way to do this is to lay out the pieces of sowbelly on a layer of
salt and then cover it with more salt, leaving it until the meat has dried.
While the term "hot rocks" may sound like a bunch of stolen gems, it's actually a biscuit — an
incredibly hard biscuit that's been baked to remove every last drop of moisture. Made with only
three ingredients – flour, water, and salt –these were also known as "hardtack," or sometimes,
"sheet iron crackers." These biscuits were baked multiple times until they were rock hard,
and they did remain edible for years – but that doesn't mean they were tasty.
Also a staple for soldiers during the Civil War, hardtack was often soaked in water and fried in
bacon fat or lard before serving. The hard and brittle crackers were made more palatable by
adding liquid, such as water, milk, or coffee. Dunking hardtack in coffee was a very common
practice for some very good reasons. First, it softened up the rock-hard crackers. Second,
the hot temperature helped kill the maggots and worms that often took up residence in the
hardtack, which were sometimes called "worm castles" for just this reason.
"You're eating maggots. How do they taste?"
Once the bugs were skimmed off the top, the soldiers,
or cowboys, could enjoy their coffee and…coffee-flavored bread.
Beef jerky helped cowboys sustain their energy on long cattle drives. They enjoyed
other types of jerky produced with different meats, too. Smoked beef jerky was the most
common way cowboys consumed beef, given that it lasted much longer than fresh.
By the late 1800s when the cowboy era was in full swing in the American West,
jerky had been around for a very long time — hundreds of years, in fact. In those days,
jerky was made by using a variety of techniques to cure, smoke, and dry the meat. The sun, smoke,
wind, and salt were all methods used to create this shelf-stable meat. And while beef jerky is
still made in a very similar way today, the cowboy version was drier, more brittle, and much saltier.
Dried fruit was a must-have for any well-equipped chuck wagon. It helped to liven up the usual fare,
providing something sweet along with the savory. As with many other frontier foods, drying was
achieved by placing fruit in the sun, where it would shrivel and harden into chewy goodness.
It was a common practice for the cook to stew dried fruit in the morning for breakfast,
or to serve it as a dessert in the evening. Pies were also made from stewed fruit. To make
the fruit taste better, it was sometimes soaked in water and stewed with sugar. One recipe was for a
pudding made with raisins, currants, flour, sugar, and a few other staple ingredients, all boiled
together. It was served with a variety of sauces, including one made with dried apples and currants.
Without a doubt, coffee was the lifeblood of cowboys.
Many of us today feel the same, but could we guzzle down the kind of
coffee they drank? Probably not. Long days of hard work required a strong
cup — and not one loaded down with milk, cream, sugar, and fancy toppings. Nope,
cowboys needed the invigorating power of straight black coffee, served piping hot.
"I got a special treat. We're gonna make fresh coffee!"
Southwestern cowboys preferred a brand of coffee you've probably never heard of – Arbuckle's.
Every package of Arbuckle's included a stick of peppermint candy, which may not sound like
such a big deal, but for hungry cowboys living a no-frills existence, candy was quite a treat.
Chuck wagon cooks squeezed every drop of caffeine and flavor they could out of their coffee,
piling fresh grounds on the old ones before boiling away. If you're wondering just how
strong the cowhands liked their java, check out this recipe from a 1944 book about cowboys:
"Take two pounds of Arbuckle's coffee, put in 'nough water to wet it down,
boil it for two hours, then throw in a hoss shoe. If the hoss shoe sinks, she ain't ready."
Besides coffee and a Dutch oven, Cookie's greatest asset on the range was his sourdough starter. So
while cowboys gathered around the campfire every evening to tell tall tales, Cookie was tending to
his sourdough starter. Active dry yeast wasn't something you could buy, at least not until the
early 1940's, so if Cookie wanted to make bread that would rise, he first had to make sourdough
starter. This starter would make his bread rise because it contained wild yeast. Sourdough starter
is simply a mixture of flour and water that absorbs yeast and bacteria from its environment.
On the first day, Cookie would combine flour with water, and then store it in a jar or a
bowl. The resulting mixture would be "fed" daily with a mixture of starter, water, and more flour
until it began to grow. Once the starter was established, it only needed to be fed once a week.
"Lettuce? Lettuce?!"
"It's a vegetable, Cookie. The men need the four basic food groups."
"I got your four basic food groups — beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard."
Cowboys liked adding variety to their diets by foraging for wild plants. Cattle drives
began in the spring when grass was plentiful for the moving herds. It also coincided with
berry-picking season. Berries and other fresh fruits picked along the trail were
used to make puddings, cobblers and pies. Wild grapes, sour cherries, blackberries,
currants, elderberries, wild strawberries, and blueberries were gathered, along with wild apples.
"Green apples sliced thin. Lard, flour, salt, water to bind, sugar, cinnamon, dab of butter."
For the cowboys, foraged nuts were an essential source of protein. Cowhands enjoyed acorns, pine
nuts, and other tree nuts. For seasoning food, wild herbs like sage and garlic could be gathered
as well. Depending on the environment, cacti were widely available, with prickly pear cactus
being a particular favorite. Though mushrooms were difficult to find in the driest parts of the West,
other areas had them in abundance. Although some were wary of picking mushrooms for fear of
selecting a poisonous variety, edible morels were a safe and delicious source of food.
What's a cowboy to do when he's hungry and making sourdough bread takes too
dang long? He makes pan de campo, also known as camp bread or cowboy bread. Kent Rollins,
a modern chuck wagon cook and noted expert in cowboy cuisine,
demonstrates how to make this easy recipe using only a few simple ingredients.
You'll need all-purpose flour, salt, lard, oil, and some kind of liquid,
like milk or water, to make the dough. Sift the flour, add salt,
and stir. Incorporate the lard into the flour with a spoon or your hands until crumbly. Then
create a well in the flour mixture to pour the oil. Work it into the flour,
then make another well, add the milk and knead some more, until it is no longer sticky. Rolling
the dough out into a thick circle, pop it into the Dutch oven and bake until brown, top and
bottom. Easy bread without the rising time? No wonder it was so popular with the cowboys!
Although old westerns may portray it otherwise, about twenty-five percent of cowboys were Black,
indigenous, or Hispanic. And Mexican men, enlisted by Spanish ranchers to herd cattle,
were known to be the first cowboys, called Vaqueros. So, it shouldn't be surprising to
learn that cowboys in South Texas enjoyed Tex-Mex flavors on the cattle drive. Vaquero cook-offs
are still held in places like San Antonio with prizes for the best traditional Mexican dish.
Pan de campo, as we've just seen, has roots in Mexican cuisine. Fajitas, carne guisada,
frijoles, and chili are also tasty dishes that cowboys back in the day may have enjoyed.
Seasoned Pioneers notes that chili con carne was a cowboy staple, because the bowl of red
stew was filling — especially great after long days spent herding cattle — and cheap to make.
Corn dodgers were also a staple in the Old West, and fans of the movie "True Grit" will
remember how Rooster Cogburn used them for target practice. Corn dodgers take
many different forms - some are small balls of cornbread that look like hush
puppies, while others are large and oblong like corn pone, while others are cut into squares.
As for ingredients, all you need is cornmeal, salt, and boiling water. On the trail,
they were fried in a cast iron skillet in salt pork grease, which gave them a little
extra flavor. Modern cooks may dress them up with a bit of brown sugar and butter,
syrup or honey. Meanwhile, the savory version is the perfect accompaniment to stew or gravy.
The cowboys diet was similar to that of the pioneers in many respects. While they did have
the benefit of a ready supply of beef, killing your boss's beef while moving the cattle from one
place to the next probably didn't happen often. Instead, cowboys helped the cook rustle up some
grub by hunting wild game, such as buffalo, deer, and elk, wild turkey or pheasant. The type of meat
didn't matter – it was all good protein to help keep bellies full. Even small game was fair game,
no one turned their nose up at squirrels, rabbits, even snakes and skunks! Any of these choices would
have worked for a hungry band of cowboys, because out on the range, you couldn't afford to be picky.
While the Rockies are home to some major rivers, be warned:
you will NOT find shellfish on your plate if you order Rocky Mountain oysters.
"I love oysters, but what is that?"
"That is a Rocky Mountain Oyster."
Yes, ordering these delicacies means you'll soon be receiving a plate
brimming with…testicles. That's right – and usually, they're bull testicles,
but sometimes pigs, bison, and sheep are possibilities, too.
"Most folks just don't seem to have a taste for testicles no more."
"Testicles?"
"Yes ma'am! Sheep balls."
So how did this, well, interesting tradition start? To curb aggressive behavior toward their
handlers and to each other, ranchers must castrate young bulls in the spring. But because nothing
ever got wasted in the Old West, these leftover bull bits weren't thrown away, but cooked up,
and served to the cowboys. Formerly roasted over hot coals, now, they're more likely to
be battered and deep fried. Small "oysters" are cooked whole, while larger ones are sliced into
pieces. And if you're wondering, the flavor has been described as nutty, and gamey.
Sure, you've had beef stew, but you haven't eaten like a real cowboy until
you've had "rascal stew." Also known as "son of a b—-" stew, this savory,
belly-filling blend uses nearly every part of a calf except for the animal's hide, hooves,
and horns. In addition to the tenderloin portion, cooks also added the heart, liver, brains,
gut, and marrow, plus its skinned tongue and sweetbreads. Also known as "Son of a Gun" stew,
this dish is a prime example of how cooks were trained to minimize food
waste. Cowboys loved it because it gave them a break from their usual beans and bread,
while chuck wagon cooks took pride in creating something both tasty and thrifty. Creative, too.