|
|
|
 Chuckwagon
Recipes
Click here for Recipe List
Now in my book, “Cow Chip Poetry—Lies, Lingo ‘an Lore,”
you’ve been readin’ about ‘ol Gabby fixin ‘Possum Roast’ and
Rattlesnake Soup’. Well, here’s some of his recipes I stole from his
“receipt book.” Like every chuck wagon “cookie,” he could only carry
the simplest of ingredients to fix his vittles. Stuff like corn meal,
flour and dry beans were staples. Line shack cooks varied from outfit
to outfit dependin’ on their stored supplies. On the ranch, bunkhouse
cooks had the luxury of more shelves and greater availability of
foodstuffs. So, dependin’ on the outfit, bunkhouse cowhands could be
“eatin’ high on the hog.”
In the early days, most food storage relied on curing with salt,
brine, picklin or dehydration. Around the ranch house, underground
dugouts and coolers were also used to help preserve various foods. It
depended on the resourcefulness of the cook to make do with what he
had and make it apetizin’. Besides generally havin’ constant supply of
beef, sometimes, he might add different meats fresh off the fat of the
land; rabbit, venison, wild turkey, squirrel, duck, grouse, quail,
etc. Seasonally, he would take advantage of various edible greens and
wild fruits such as ‘muskidines (a wild grapes.) and elderberries.
Even though the chuck wagon cook carried his favorite seasonings and
condiments, he also depended on gatherin’ a certain amount of his
favorite herbs and baking ingredients, such as sage, acorns, nuts,
buckwheat, etc., that is, if they were available. Cookin’ was mostly
done over open fires in Dutch ovens or skillets (fryin pans), griddles
and ‘stewers’ (stew pots or, boilin pots).
The following are authentic recipes, some over a hundred years old.
Some of the ingredients and cookin’ explanations are uncommon today.
So, most of these old recipes are of the simple ingredients and
methods used in bygone days by pioneer settlers, cowboys, trappers,
prospectors and outdoorsmen. There is also some helpful instruction on
the use of the Dutch oven.
A number of the recipes are from the Keenan Klan family. They were
pioneer settlers and cowboys of west Texas. Interestingly, as they
married in to the Mexican culture the flavors changed and became a
larapin (delicious) integration of Tex-Mex and, eventually desert
SoCal, ranch house cookin. To some like me, the best of both worlds is
southern-fried cookin with biscuits and gravy mixed with Sonoran
tortillas and beans and carne asada and some hot red chile! That even
calls for a cold beer or hot coffee!
Enjoy. Here’s a cowboy prayer to start: “God bless the meat and damn
the skin, back yer’ ears and dive in!” Ed Keenan is a featured writer for
SouthwestBlend.com
Recipe List
Regarding Origin of Recipes:
Many of the recipes I have compiled are
from the Keenan Klan or were given to me or collected over the years.
Since recipes get collected and passed around over a lifetime, it may
be that I could end up posting somebody’s family original and not know
it.
Anytime I
knowingly share someone’s truly original recipe, I am more than
happy to give credit to its creator.
ek
Dutch Barbeque MeatRoll
Summer Squash Bake
Cactus Scramble
Dutch Oven Steamer
Cowboy Corn Pudding
Turkey in a Poke
Fried Apricot
Turnovers
5 Can
Dutch Oven Soup
Baked
Beans & Sausages
Boiled
Cake
Cactus
Bloom—A Tasty Bounty
Cactus Breakfast Burrito
Camp
Fire Breakfast
Chicken or Ribs Marinade
Chicken Sausage & Pottage
Corn Meal Ham Bake
Cow Camp Stew
Dutch Oven Cookin’
Dutch Oven Steamer
Hard-time
Hash
Journey
Cake - Corn Bread
Settler’s Tater Chowder
Slow-Roasted Wild Turkey
Speckled
Pup Puddin’
Texas Camp Bread
Venison Stew
Wagon
Wheel Roast Sauce
|
