A Story About Cattle Trail Cuisine

And A Morning Limerick

Photo by Naithen on Unsplash

A mixture of biscuits and beans

Provides me with many proteins.

For muscles and spleen

And all in between,

It puts lots of pep in my jeans.

Keep ’em rollin’

The chuck wagon was the heart of the round-up and trail drive. Cooks were often former buckaroos themselves. The cattle boss paid them well. They knew decent food was critical to a healthy, hardworking cadre of cowpunchers.

The chuck box loaded in the back of a covered wagon was a honeycomb of drawers and shelves. It held a sourdough starter, a flour sack, and larger utensils. Smaller compartments contained tin plates, ‘eatin’ irons, [utensils], and a 5-gallon coffee pot.

A hinged compartment below the chuck box stored skillets, heavy pots, and Dutch ovens. The cook cooled a water barrel mounted on the wagon by wrapping it in wet canvas or a gunny sack.

Beneath the footboard, a jockey box held emergency equipment such as hoof nippers, hammers, and horseshoes. Cowboys kept their bedrolls in the wagon bed along with other staples. In a large outfit, there was a separate wagon for bedrolls.

The chuck wagon dough keg

Sourdough, a naturally leavened bread, was a staple, and cooks stood watch over their dough keg. The dough keg collected natural yeast and bacteria that pre-fermented the dough. High heat and prolonged neglect would kill the sourdough, so no biscuits for a week.

If the weather was cold in the old days, the cook often kept a double handful of sourdough under his shirt. The bread starter required constant warmth to stay yeasty.

Cowpuncher proteins and carbs

A typical day’s food on the trail was meat, hot bread, dried fruit, and coffee for breakfast. The noon and dinner meal included roast beef, boiled beans, brown gravy, biscuits, and coffee.

Dessert could have included stewed dried fruit, spiced cake made without eggs or butter, dried fruit pies, or “spotted pup” made of rice and raisins. The name might sound unusual, but it was a beloved classic in cattle-drive cuisine.

Legend has it that a cowboy who complained about the food had to cook the next meal.

I can imagine what constructive criticism sounded like on the trail. “These beans are hard, the biscuits are raw in the middle, and the coffee tastes like mud, but it’s just how I like it.”

Photo from family archives

Sam is a retired drug counselor & keeps his Texas license current. An MA from UTA, he writes about addiction to substances, behaviors, and thistles of the soul.