Chuck Wagon

[Subdeacon Joe]

A chuckwagon on the JA Ranch, 1907. The ranch, which is the oldest ranch in the Texas Panhandle, was founded by Charles Goodnight in 1877 and at one point was more than  1,325,000 acres, though it's considerably smaller now. 

 

Taken by the great Erwin Smith

 

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1,325,000 acres = 2070+ square miles

 

yowza

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

The cook may have had the toughest job. Take a good look at that rig and imagine trying to cook grub fit to eat for a bunch of hungry hands. Don't see no figeraters or freezers handy. First one up and last one to bed I expect. Can you imagine the bitching! For all the western lore that they lived on beans, pinto beans take a LONG time to cook and not be crunchy. Especially under those circumstances. Don't know if canned beans had been invented yet, but those are barely fit to eat now. Cook would have likely been strung up. Oh wait, no trees. Those beans likely had a faint taste of buffalo chips. Notice a lack of available fire wood. Them guys had the bark on for sure.

JHC

[Subdeacon Joe]

32 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

The cook may have had the toughest job. Take a good look at that rig and imagine trying to cook grub fit to eat for a bunch of hungry hands. Don't see no figeraters or freezers handy. First one up and last one to bed I expect.

 

Then, after the morning meal, pack up and get ahead of the herd so he can start on the evening meal.

 

 

33 minutes ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

pinto beans take a LONG time to cook and not be crunchy. Especially under those circumstances.

 

Start them soaking just after breakfast and they soak all day.  First kettle over the fire when he reaches the overnight point.  

 

I don't know if they used yeast or chemical leavening on the trail, but if yeast he would have had to get the bread/biscuit dough started even before he got his fire going.

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said:

Don't know if canned beans had been invented yet,

Airtights - canned goods - showed up in the US around the 1820s, so would have long been in use during the trail drives after the war.

 

It wasn't until the 1850s, however, when somebody thought up the idea of a can opener. Before that people used a knife, or a hammer and chisel.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Some good information here

 

https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpioneer.html  

 

https://truewestmagazine.com/cowboys-a-cowtowns/

 

12 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Airtights - canned goods - showed up in the US around the 1820s, so would have long been in use during the trail drives after the war.

 

It wasn't until the 1850s, however, when somebody thought up the idea of a can opener. Before that people used a knife, or a hammer and chisel.

 

Available, but quite expensive and very heavy and bulky.   

[The Blarney Kid]

On 8/18/2022 at 6:50 PM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Then, after the morning meal, pack up and get ahead of the herd so he can start on the evening meal.

 

 

 

Start them soaking just after breakfast and they soak all day.  First kettle over the fire when he reaches the overnight point.  

 

I don't know if they used yeast or chemical leavening on the trail, but if yeast he would have had to get the bread/biscuit dough started even before he got his fire going.

They used sourdough starter for making bread and biscuits, canned foods were available but expensive, they were called airtights. Bacon and dried beef were the most common meats, with the occasional injured or unruly steer butchered for variety.

[Subdeacon Joe]

8 minutes ago, The Blarney Kid said:

They used sourdough starter for making bread and biscuits, canned foods were available but expensive, they were called airtights. Bacon and dried beef were the most common meats, with the occasional injured or unruly steer butchered for variety.

 

I've read some accounts from late in the era of cattle drives that include chemical leavening along with the sourdough starter.  

 

As well as being expensive the airtights were heavy and bulky, and weight and cubage are everything on the trail.

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

Somewhere I found an article on what the cook carried for meals. Beans, flour, corn meal, dried fruits for pies, beef jerky, salt pork, smoke cured hams, coffee, sugar, baking soda. Beef was fresh so to speak but had to be consumed pretty quickly.

 

A guy who worked for me was from the south. He asked his mom  to send him a smoke cured ham. It came wrapped in burlap. They hang in the smokehouse until eaten. No refrigeration. And boy howdy it was good.

[Rip Snorter]

The real Smithfield Hams came that way when I was a boy.  They were soaked at length in a clean laundry tub with frequent water changes before cooking.  I was in a WV farm smokehouse back in the '60's. Completely black from smoke inside with hams and sides of bacon hanging.  Old tech still works!

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

I read once that the cook was the highest paid hand on the drive.

[Grass Range]

And when you stop for the night you point the wagon tongue the direction you are going to take in the morning.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

Chuck Wagon would make a good alias.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1880s Texas per the caption on FB.