Author Topic: Chuck Wagon Question  (Read 60571 times)

Offline dwight55

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Chuck Wagon Question
« on: January 29, 2015, 07:01:21 AM »
Now, I know this is silly to those of you who know the answer, . . . but I don't, . . . so I gotta ask.

When you watch any of the Westerns, . . . the grizzled old bearded cook is in his chuck wagon, . . . dutifully slogging along with the trail boss and the herd.

Later he is feeding them cowpokes, . . . beans, biscuits, stew, meat, pie, . . . and he did not stop at the Giant Eagle deli and pick it up.

So how did he do his cooking on the move, . . . or did he cook at night and warm up the next day???

(We've been cooking on our wood stove, . . . using cast iron, . . . having lots of fun, . . . enjoying some good meals too)

Thanks for all your help, . . . may God bless,
Dwight
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Offline Forty Rod

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2015, 08:14:28 AM »
The chuck wagon usually went on ahead to where they planned to spend the night.  It moved considerably faster that the herd.

There was sometimes a helper assigned to go along and help Cookie get it all going and he was afforded "first service privileges".

Everyone was expected to clean up after himself and help get things repped up for the night.
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Offline dwight55

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2015, 11:59:54 AM »
Thanks, Forty Rod, . . .

Having worked all three shifts, I could see where the baking could have been done in the evening, . . . maybe even the main course started, . . . then finished early in the AM, . . . and heated up at meal time.

Now did the riders take their "lunch" with them and eat in the saddle? 

I've always been curious about their life, . . . knowing I would probably have washed out on my first drive.

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #3 on: Today at 02:57:22 PM »

Offline Shotgun Franklin

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2015, 12:01:56 PM »
Either Cookie or the helper walked, part of the job was to pick up any wood that was lying along, sometimes a Cowboy would rope a limb or some other piece and drag it to camp. So many herds followed the same route that wood got to be in short supply.
While a wagon ain't fast, you wanted the herd to move but not so fast as to walk what little fat there was on'm off. It wasn't to hard to stay out in front.
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Offline Shotgun Franklin

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2015, 12:06:01 PM »
About that eat time, they rotated shifts and not everyone ate at exactly the same time, this also let Cookie cook a meal over time, if you have say 2 Cowboys coming in every 20 minutes or so, you can be putting out food as it gets done, especially stuff like fried meat or eggs and such.
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Offline Blair

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2015, 01:15:25 PM »
A "Nooner" for the drovers was perhaps a biscuit or two with some lard on it.
Providing the Cook made enough the night before.
Eggs don't tend to travel well. Perhaps hard boiled and pickled, but these would not have lasted very long on the trail.
Water and fire wood (especially hard woods for cooking) were always a major issue for the cook.
Canned goods took up storage space and were heavy. Dried grains and beans could be stored in large quantities for long periods.
Meats were another issue. Drying and or preservation in salt was the most common preservation methods. Some of this may take time.
I don't think it would be uncommon for the Chuck wagons to be a day or two ahead of the drive.
Just some of my thoughts on this subject.
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Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2015, 04:17:38 PM »
Baking, well most was a quick bread aka biscuits or pan de campo (fancy name for a big damn biscuit)  and any cook who can't whip them up in a 1/2 hour or so ought to be whipped.   A thicker bannock (Canuck name for a big damn biscuit)  may take 45 minutes.   

Meals were simple, they didn't dawdle looking up recipes on pintrest and looking for the measuring cups, they just cooked it.

Pies were made on occasion, most often of dried fruit or if the got lucky, found some fresh wild fruit someone had time to pick.   So all you fancy bakers who make pies, tell me how the did it with out ice water and keeping the whole crust cool  or cold till baked like everyone thinks they have to do today? ;D  Yes I know.
   
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Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline Dan Gerous

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2015, 04:46:51 PM »
Dwight, Here's my two cents (adjusted for inflation of course). Drawing on too many years of experience at rendezvous and re-enactments I'd say Breakfast was merely last night's leftovers. Beans and bacon are easy and travel well. The beans could soak all day and be boiled up at night. beef would come from any critter that looked like he wasn't going to last the trip and the chuck wagon could carry a good supply of canned vegetables which were fairly common at the time. You'd want to lay in a supply of bulk goods that would travel well and provide a good meal. That means staples like flour, coffee, sugar, and of course beans in big sacks which are easier to pack than boxes. I've read of eggs being shipped in sawdust, but I doubt very much if they carried any. Just as a side note, the old voyageur's most common meal was salt pork and pea soup. The cook would make a big kettle of soup (remember the old child's rhyme "pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold"?) and let it simmer all night. In the morning, the kettle would be loaded in the canoe and at Noon the "cool" porridge was served out. If you couldn't stand a paddle up in it, it was too thin!
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Offline nagantino

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2015, 06:00:49 PM »
While on holiday a few years ago I met Roscoe Lee Brown in New York. He played the chuck wagon cook in "The Cowboys" starring John Wayne and Bruce Dern. He was a fascinating man, full of stories and knowledge. He recited WB Yeats to my wife and I all evening and dedicated a written poem to my brother who collects autographs from western characters. I should have asked him what he made on the trail during that cattle drive. Seriously..... I've always wondered also how the cook made so many meals for so many Cowboys from such a small wagon. As another contributor said repetition must have played its part. A ship from a while ago would be comparable ; beans boiled up wth a lump of pork, boiled peas also. Oatmeal put into the pan after frying a lump of bacon to soak up the fat. It could not have been varied though I've never  read of scurvy breaking out on a trail drive, but very common at sea. A steer if butchered would provide a lot of meat but just how many potatoes can a wagon carry?  Maybe some have read the novels of Patrick O'Brian , he wrote novels on seafaring during the Napoleonic and American/British wars. He describes the food getting worse and worse the further the ship travelled out to sea with all the good things going first...fresh bread, cheese, greens and that's just for the officers. There's a TV cookery programme here somewhere. ;D

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2015, 07:05:44 PM »
Wouldn't be that hard considering the simple meals, you only have a dozen or so to cook for.   I handle 3 meals a day for 20 or so all the time, much fancier food, but then I don't have to move a wagon.   



Ya only want supper I can handle about 70 with our with out a helper, but I'm adding larger ovens so by summer it could be 100.   






Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline dusty texian

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2015, 07:33:03 PM »
Dang Dell. nobody can call you a belly cheater!  Sounds like you got that down patt!!!! DT

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2015, 07:47:42 PM »
Dang Dell. nobody can call you a belly cheater!  Sounds like you got that down patt!!!! DT

Been doing it close to 30 years.   And it ain't just beans and biscuits either.   Have even done pizza for people that ask nice.    ;D




First rule of cooking, doubling the amount of people your are feeding in no way even comes close to doubling the amount of work.   
Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #12 on: January 29, 2015, 07:50:44 PM »
2 inches of rain in the night can be worked past.

Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline dwight55

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2015, 08:05:04 PM »
Whoa, . . . I didn't expect to see all that, . . .

As THE rocker would say, Thank yuh, . .  . thank yuh, . . . thank yuh vurry much.

AND, . . . now I gotta go and get me another Dutch oven (or 3...........)

Seriously, . . . thank you very much to all who responded.

May God bless,
Dwight
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Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #14 on: January 29, 2015, 08:20:57 PM »
Breakfast for about 20 at the Grand Army of the Frontier Muster last June, near Sargent Nebraska, 20 inch oven with 4 pounds of sausage and a bunch of milk in the gravy, 14" shallow of biscuits done and a 16" about ready to pull.

Anyone wants to learn the down and dirty of cooking for a bunch in dutch ovens, the Barracks has the dates, free camping and meals for anyone wants to learn, wood cooking only, none of them Kingsford things the yuppies use on their patios.   

 


Looking for a place to do weekend teaching for larger groups by next summer, but for those there will be a fee, the folks at the Muster cover my expenses for that trip.
 
Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline Shotgun Franklin

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #15 on: January 30, 2015, 06:21:43 PM »
If I had lived along a Cattle Trail I'd have cooked and kept stuff to sell to'm as they passed. I'm betting there were those that did this.
Yes, I do have more facial hair now.

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #16 on: January 30, 2015, 07:17:05 PM »
If I had lived along a Cattle Trail I'd have cooked and kept stuff to sell to'm as they passed. I'm betting there were those that did this.

You better read your history, there were very few who lived along the cattle trails, they had to keep moving them further west because people settled on the land and that caused many problems, but that is a whole 'nuther story. 
Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline pony express

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #17 on: January 30, 2015, 07:34:40 PM »
Also, the herds couldn't all go up the same exact trail, because there wouldn't be enough grass to feed them all.

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #18 on: January 30, 2015, 07:42:18 PM »
If it wasn't that way they'd have kept running them into Sediala Missouri and saved a lot of miles.   

 
Mongrel Historian


Always get the water for the coffee upstream from the herd.

Ab Ovo Usque ad Mala

The time has passed so quick, the years all run together now.

Offline River City John

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Re: Chuck Wagon Question
« Reply #19 on: January 31, 2015, 10:29:55 AM »
If I had lived along a Cattle Trail I'd have cooked and kept stuff to sell to'm as they passed. I'm betting there were those that did this.

Read up on the Road Ranches along the Oregon Trail, the Nebraska Cut-off trail, etc.
Also Sutlers and Merchants at various posts along those trails. St. Louis was a huge outfitter base for wagon trains moving west.

But, Road Ranches set up to accommodate homesteaders and pioneers moving westward (or those gone busted moving back eastward . . .) would be the closest in concept of what you're talking about.


RCJ
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