A Cowboy Kind Of Thanksgiving

 Sarah McNeal is a multi-published author of time travel, paranormal, western, contemporary and historical fiction. Her stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints of Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Her website: http://www.sarahmcneal.com  

A COWBOY KIND OF THANKSGIVING

When I was about eight years old, my dad decided he didn’t want a turkey for Thanksgiving. Instead he wanted roast beef. I believe Pop was addicted to roast beef, especially pot roast made in a Dutch oven with carrots, potatoes, and onions. We had it every Sunday. Pop was obviously stuck in a rut. Turkey is like the very symbol of Thanksgiving. In my childish mind I thought we must be too poor to have a turkey. I didn’t want my friends or classmates to know we had fallen into such dire circumstances that we had to have roast beef for Thanksgiving. What kind of Thanksgiving has roast beef for Pete’s sake?

Well, turns out pioneers and cowboys would have loved some roast beef for Thanksgiving. In Laura Ingalls’ famous stories about growing up on the Great Plains during the pioneer days in America, she describes the excitement and joy in preparing a Christmas dinner (close enough to Thanksgiving as far as feasting is concerned) with no turkey or roast beef.

"Ma was busy all day long, cooking good things for Christmas. She baked salt-rising bread and r'n'Injun bread, and Swedish crackers, and huge pan of baked beans, with salt pork and molasses. She baked vinegar pies and dried-apple pies, and filled a big jar with cookies, and she let Laura and Mary lick the cake spoon."

I never heard of vinegar pie, but I did find a recipe for it and added it to the list at the end of this article.

Cowboys led a labor intensive life and needed plenty of protein to keep up their energy and strength. Here is a list of their foods:

Dried and Fresh Meat

You’d think with all that beef on the hoof they were chasing around all day, they would be eating beef every day, but not so. Fresh meat was a rare treat usually produced by hunting.

Hard Cheese

Hard cheese was dried until hard and dipped in paraffin wax. The stuff could last for months without spoiling and was nutritionally valuable in its high fat and salt content. I would have loved this ration.

Beans

Beans were provided in large quantities and were one of the most abundant foods available to traveling cowboys. Versatile beans could be made into chili, mashed beans and bean soups when cooked in a Dutch oven overnight would last for many meals and were often re-purposed, made into patties when cold and fried.

Dried Fruit

Dried fruit supplemented the starch and protein that composed the majority of the cowboy diet. Apples, raisins and apricots were the most common, but berries and prunes were also available. Watch that prune intake out there on the trail.

Biscuits

Cowboy biscuits were based on the recipe for Civil War hardtack and so resembled them in taste, texture and longevity. Meant to be palatable for a long period of time, cowboy biscuits contained only flour, water and salt. Baked for a long time at a low temperature, they became hard, brittle and very dry…not the kind of biscuits I’d be looking forward to, for certain.

Coffee

Coffee became an important staple of the cowboy diet. Used to remain alert and warm in the wilderness, coffee was prepared by boiling it directly in the water without straining. Often full of grounds, cowboy coffee was very thick and strong. 

Except for the grounds in there, I like it strong. My parents used to keep coffee going all day long until my mother had a heart attack. She couldn’t stand the smell of it after that and she switched to hot tea.

Oh, just for fun, I found some Chuck Wagon Etiquette at a website titled Legends of the Old West

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-oldwestrecipes.html

Chuckwagon Etiquette No one eats until Cookie calls When Cookie calls, everyone comes a runnin' Hungry cowboys wait for no man. They fill their plates, fill their bellies, and then move on so stragglers can fill their plates Cowboys eat first, talk later. It's okay to eat with your fingers. The food is clean If you're refilling the coffee cup and someone yells "Man at the pot." You're obliged to serve refills. Don't take the last serving unless your sure you're the last man. Food left on the plate is an insult to the cook. No running or saddling a horse near the wagon. And when you ride off, always ride down wind from the wagon. If you come across any decent firewood, bring it back to the wagon Strangers are always welcome at the wagon. Did you know?  When Cookie  was finished with his work for the day and before hitting the sack, he would always place the tongue of the chuck wagon facing north. When the trail master started in the morning he would look at the tongue and then knew what direction he would be moving the herd.

Camp Cook Names   Soggy, Pot Russler, Lean Skillet, Old Pud, Coosie, Old lady, Belly Cheater, Biscuit Roller, Dough Boxer, Dough Puncher, Greasy Belly, Grub Worm, Gut Robber, Sourdough, and more.

I’m glad to report that we only spent that one Thanksgiving with roast beef. My sister and I gave Pop so much grief over it, we reverted back to good old turkey after that. Looking back on it, I’m sure my dad thought his daughters lacked gratitude, but tradition, in my opinion, must be upheld.

Here are a few recipes of pioneer feasting foods:

Mormon Johnnycake

Here is a form of cornbread used not only by the Mormon immigrants,
as the name indicates, but quite often by most of the immigrants traveling west.
Because of the inclusion of buttermilk, a source of fresh milk was a necessity.

2-cups of yellow cornmeal
½-cup of flour
1-teaspoon baking soda
1-teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients and mix in
2-cups of buttermilk and 2-tablespoons molasses.

Pour into a greased 9” pan and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. 
To get a lighter johnnycake include two beaten eggs
and 2 tablespoons melted butter.

Thanksgiving Pudding (From an 1880 Cookbook) Pound 20 crackers fine, add 5 cups milk and let swell. Beat well 14 eggs pint sugar cup molasses 2 small nutmegs 2 TSP ground clove 3 ground cinnamon 2 TSP salt ½ TSP soda. Add to crackers. Finally add pint of raisins. Makes two puddings. Soda Biscuits Take 1lb flour, and mix it with enough milk to make a stiff dough; dissolve 1tsp carbonate of soda in a little milk; add to dough with a teaspoon of salt. Work it well together and roll out thin; cut into round biscuits, and bake them in a moderate oven. The yolk of an egg is sometimes added. Red Bean Pie Beans were a staple of the cowboy's food, particularly when he was on the trail.  Beans could be easily stored and they were inexpensive.  And although it probably wasn't known, they're also nutritious. Here is yet another way the cook could feed cowboys beans. 1-cup cooked and mashed pinto beans. 1-cup sugar.  3-beaten egg yokes.  1-teaspoon vanilla.  1-teaspoon nutmeg. Place combined ingredients in an uncooked piecrust.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Make a meringue with the leftover egg whites.  Spread over baked pie and return to oven to brown. Baked Apple Pudding The recipe below was brought out west in the 1800’s by the ancestors of Audrey Crandell of Linden, Arizona. 3 Large apples, grated 1 cup sugar 1 cube butter ½ cup nuts 1 egg 1 cup flour 1 tsp baking soda Pinch baking powder ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg Beat egg, sugar and butter. Add apples and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with cream or a white sauce. Vinegar Lemonade Mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into a 12 ounce glass of water. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sugar to taste. Note: The pioneers used vinegar for numerous reasons. One reason was to add vitamin C to their diet. Corn Muffins for Breakfast Farmer’s Almanac 1885 Pour one quart of boiling milk over one pint of fine cornmeal.  While the mixture is still hot, add one tablespoonful of butter and a little salt, stirring the batter thoroughly.  Let is stand until cool, then add a small cup of wheat flour and two well-beaten eggs.  When mixed sufficiently, put the batter into well-greased shallow tins (or, better yet, into gem pans) and bake in a brick oven for one-half hour, or until richly browned.  Serve hot. How To Fry Quick Doughnuts The following recipe for doughnuts came from the March 17, 1885 Daily Missoulian.  Obviously, anyone making these doughnuts will want to find a substitute for fat as a cooking oil. Put a frying kettle half full of fat over the fire to heat.  Shift together one pound of flour, one teaspoonful each of salt and bicarbonate of soda, and half a saltspoon full of grated nutmeg.  Beat half a pound of butter to a cream and add them to the flour.  Beat the yokes of two eggs to a cream, add them to the first-named ingredients, beat the whites to a stiff froth and reserve them.  Mix into the flour and sugar enough sour milk to make a soft dough and then quickly add the whites of the eggs.  Roll out the paste at once, shape and fry. Vinegar Pie There were two different kinds of vinegar pie, one without eggs cooked as a cobbler in a Dutch oven, and the one below which is a custard pie. A most important concern for a cook on the trail was to have items, especially for dessert, that do not require perishable items, and can have substitute ingredients. When the cook wanted to make the pie below, and ran out of sugar, he would substitute molasses, honey or syrup. ½ cup sugar  1 tablespoon butter  2 tablespoons vinegar  2 tablespoons flour  3 egg yokes (Save the whites for a meringue.)  1 cup water Line a pie pan with your favorite pie crust. Bake the crust about half done before placing the mixed ingredients into it. Bake in a slow oven until the custard is done. If you would like you can use the egg whites for a meringue, but it is not necessary. Sourdough biscuits were a delicacy whether on the trail or at the ranch. Once a cook got a good sourdough starter he cherished it like a baby. On the trail he would store it in a dark, cool place in his chuck wagon. Here is one cook's recipe for a sourdough starter. 2 cups of lukewarm potato water 2 cups flour 1 tablespoon sugar Make potato water by cutting up 2 medium-sized potatoes into cubes, and boil in cups of water until tender. Remove the potatoes and measure out two cups of the remaining liquid. (The potatoes can be used for the evening meal.) Mix the potato water, flour and sugar into a smooth paste. Set the mixture in a warm place until it doubles its original size. Slapjack This recipe came from The Old Confederacy Receipt Book of 1863. Take flour, little sugar and water, mix with or without a little yeast, the latter better if at hand, mix into paste and fry the same as fritters in clean fat. Boy in Bag 2 cups raisins 1 cup chopped walnuts (black walnuts are fine) 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed 1 cup chopped suet 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups flour 1 ½ cups milk 1 cup chopped dried fruit of any kind. Chop suet into small pieces no pieces being larger than a bean. Combine with raisins, nuts, brown sugar, and chopped dried fruit. Then mix flour, spices, and salt with baking powder. Add gradually to fruit mixture with milk, beating well. Put in flour sack or tie in large square of cloth. Put in kettle of boiling water and boil 3 hours, always keeping enough boiling water, and put on cloth to drain. After about ½ hour, untie cloth and turn pudding onto dish. Let chill. Slice and serve with hard sauce. This pudding will keep well and is similar to plum pudding. This can be made in camp with molasses instead of brown sugar. Or can be made with white sugar instead of either brown sugar or molasses. This was a great favorite with chuck wagon cooks. Thanksgiving Pudding (From an 1880 Cookbook) Pound 20 crackers fine, add 5 cups milk and let swell. Beat well 14 eggs pint sugar cup molasses 2 small nutmegs 2 TSP ground clove 3 ground cinnamon 2 TSP salt ½ TSP soda. Add to crackers. Finally add pint of raisins. Makes two puddings. Baked Apple Pudding The recipe below was brought out west in the 1800’s by the ancestors of Audrey Crandell of Linden, Arizona. 3 Large apples, grated 1 cup sugar 1 cube butter ½ cup nuts 1 egg 1 cup flour 1 tsp baking soda Pinch baking powder ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg Beat egg, sugar and butter. Add apples and mix well. Add dry ingredients. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with cream or a white sauce. Well, I haven’t tried any of these recipes, but if you do, let me know how it all turns out.  I found bunches more, a venison stew, possum belly, and a hominy recipe that, apparently was a favorite of Wild Bill Hickok that was made of cooked hominy, butter and, for some reason I cannot fathom, bits of pimento, but I thought this was plenty of recipes to see how the cowboys ate and food to celebrate while on the trail. I hope everyone has a spectacular Thanksgiving and plenty of delicious food to share on your table. I’ll be having turkey for certain. Wherever Pop is in the great universe, I hope he gets all the roast beef he wants. Love you, Pop. Happy Thanksgiving y’all. Note: all cowboy photos are courtesy of Wikipedia public domain. References: Legends of the Old West: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-oldwestrecipes.html Wikipedia