A Cowboy Working Out On The Range.

A cowboy working out on the range, often alone, ate a limited variety of food, usually what he could carry in his canvas saddlebags:

Salted beef, pork, bacon, beans and biscuits along with a small supply of cornmeal, lard, baking soda, coffee, salt and sugar.

Every cowboy eagerly anticipated the exhausting bedlam of the roundup, where a good cook, more than anyone else, was the key to a good roundup.

A chuck wagon cook used large pots and Dutch ovens over open fires to feed 30 or 40 men three meals a day, then moved on to a new roundup site before nightfall.

Staple fare was pinto beans, bacon, biscuits and SOB stew {stewed entrails}.

Special treats included gingerbread, rice puddings, bread puddings, cobblers and fruit pies.

The cowboys enjoyed these desserts with scalding cups of coffee while squatting around the campsite swapping tall tales.