What Did Cowboys Really Eat In The Old West?

Round up the chuck wagon! From "rascal stew" to "worm castles," the things cowboys ate on the trail might surprise you.

#Cowboys #OldWest #Diet

Beans | 0:00
Salt pork and bacon | 1:39
Hard biscuits | 2:32
Beef | 3:49
Dried fruit | 4:35
Coffee | 5:22
Sourdough | 6:36
Foraged plants | 7:29
Pan de campo | 8:54
Mexican cuisine | 9:52
Corn dodgers | 10:47
Wild animals | 11:26
Rocky Mountain oysters | 12:08
Rascal stew | 13:23

[MashedFood]

What are your favorite things to eat when out on the road?

[CowboyKentRollins]

I see you used some footage of my wagon at 14:12, it has been redone since this was shot for CBS

[j.l.emerson]

For camping, hot water cornbread. It's made with cornmeal, salt & boiling water. Stir til you have a thick batter. Fry spoonfuls of it in bacon grease or lard. Serve it hot with a dab of butter & some molasses. It's yummy!

[Hillers]

At 11:08 ...Corn dodgers where called Hushpuppies where I grew up...And I still love them!!!!

[zenjon]

I made hardtack for a canoe trip. We broke it up into chunks and boiled it in a can of beans. It became almost like a dumpling and was really good

[jenniferstewarts]

Surprised they didn't mention Pemmican. Pemmican isn't jerky, its a mixture of dried meat, lard, formed into bars, the stuff lasts for months if fruits and nuts were added to... years if it ws just the meat and tallow as the nuts and fruit would often turn much faster.

it was often combined with flower and potatoes... or... hard tack... to form thick stews.

[miko]

My grandpa Webb was a real cowboy. His Crew rounded up longhorns in Texas. They got one 20$ gold coin for every cow. They drove them up the Chisholm trail. One year they were trapped by a freak snowstorm and ran out of food. They cut off and ate the tails of many of the couple hundred cow's. They were shipped by train into Los Angeles. Grandpa lived to almost a hundred years. He was healthy and farmed his land in CA. Almost till the day he died. He became a mounted sheriff, and rode the Rose parade every year for around 60 years. He was a real Clint Eastwood type man.

[Hidfors]

I got yer four basic food groups right here. Beans, bacon, whisky and lard! xD

[phyllishogan]

A treat at our house, a big pot of beans, pan fried potatoes with onion, and a big pan of corn bread cooked in my 100 year old iron skillet. Served with a slab of onion pepper sauce and chow chow. Save enough cornbread for later to pour cold milk and eat

[nellosnook]

1. Thank you for this excellent episode!
2. Very enlightening! 👍

[toddabbott]

They often travelled with dried goods like coffee, flour, rice, backing soda, spices, salt, sugar, cornmeal, beans, peas, or even fruit. Most root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, onions, radishes... Dried or smoked meat or fish of all kinds. Nuts, seeds, and cheese were not that uncommon. Sometimes you would get pickled vegetables too as they could last weeks. You could even have some molasses or maple syrup or some boiled sweets. Stews and baked beans... dishes with everything cooked up in one pot was the staple. Some could cook well and you might see skillet bread or campfire bread (cooked in a paper lined pot) or dumplings (in a stew stead of potatoes). Even some breads in a covered pot were possible. A lot really depended on money... and skill.

You had to boil the salted meats though as they were just too salty to eat. This made things like bake beans, stews, peas potage... easy to make. Foraging was a big thing in many areas based on the time of the year. Things like dandelion greens, curled ferns, rams, mushrooms, cattails, berries. Hunting and trapping animals along the trip also provided fresh meat that could be cooked on a spit or fried in a pan.

[billrose]

Thanks for including Mr Nightlinger in the clips! One of my favorite western characters of all time!

[paulgee]

There were never maggots in Hard Tack unless it was made with lard. Plus maggots only come from fly eggs. And they need moisture to grow and survive.
I suppose she could mean weevil larva.

[sailorbychoice]

3:00 Hard tack was traditionally baked 4 times to get _all_ of the water out so it would last almost indefinitely if kept dry. Pilot Crackers (for soup) are the same recipe, but baked only two times instead of four. Taste is almost the same but takes longer for Hardtack to soften in soup.

[shelleygeraths]

When I was a kid I use to get Cow tongue sandwiches. Those was good eating, especially if it was on homemade bread.

[mr.c]

That was a really good video. We need to get back to the basics.

[xxsecondsxx]

Sourdough is a living organism!!!
I was a baker for 15 years. Had to learn A LOT to be certified through corporate.
Panera breads sourdough is like (not sure what year it is now) but it was started and created in '84.
You add ingredients and the let it sit! The organisms mold and build! They lop off a huge piece n the leave the rest and repeat daily!

[ColdWarPrepper]

It was great with Cowboy Kent Rollins serving coffee and ending with UT's mascot Bevo.

[internziko]

Anybody else think all this cowboy food sounds delicious?

[bloqk]

Pinto beans are a remarkable food staple, in that the blandness of the bean can have it absorbing and taking-on the dominant flavor of the food being served.
If you have a pasta dish that is served with tomato, alfredo, or pesto sauces; when adding cooked pinto beans to it, the beans will take on the flavor of the respective sauces and seasonings. So, that means the pasta dish is being fortified with additional protein and fiber; with the blandness of the beans not detracting from the flavor of the served food item.
You can do the same with soups, too,