Time for Some Chicken-Fried Steak

If you have a hankering for some chuck wagon cooking, here are a few of the upcoming cook-offs. You can see more at the American Chuck Wagon Association's website, Chuckwagon.org.

May 16-17, 2008
Isleta Lakes & Recreational Area, (10 miles south of Albuquerque, NM)
http://africanamericanrodeogroup.com/
(505) 866-0487

May 31, 2008
Mineral Wells, TX
817-205-5237

May 30-June 1, 2008
Gladewater Chuck Wagon Cookoff
Gladewater, TX
903-845-6567

June 6-8, 2008
Youth cookoff June 6
Amarillo, TX
Cowboy Roundup USA
806-671-5555
http://www.cowboyroundupusa.org/

June 19-22, 2008
End of Trail
Edgewood, NM
http://www.sassnet.com/
LouAnn Hunt 505-286-4566 or 944-6715

June 20-22, 2008
Running Water Draw Cowboy Symposium
Clovis, NM
575-714-2145

The World's Richest Chuckwagon Cook-Off

Ever since attending the "Duke of the Dutch Oven" Chuck Wagon Cook-Off, my husband and I have become a big fans. We plan to attend the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium up in Ruidoso this October if we can get tickets for this popular event. It's the site of what they call "World's Richest Chuckwagon Cook-Off," where the contestants are judged on their overall authenticity and their cooking, with prizes totaling $10,000. After all my research on these events, some of the past competitors are starting to sound familiar--the C Bar C outfit, Diamond W Ranch, the J.L. Cattle Company, and the Rocking T. I see that my favorite team, Cocklebur Camp out of Odessa, Texas, won second place in 2006 for their incredible peach cobbler.

The Food Network did a special on the chuck wagon cooking that happens in Ruidoso. You can see information about that episode on their website here, and view pictures of past events on Ruidoso.net.

In addition to all the cooking and eating activities, the symposium will feature storytellers, cowboy poets, horse trainers, and country bands. There will be blacksmithing, rope trick demonstrations, leather crafting, and even some tomahawk throwing!

Maybe we'll see you there.

Dutch Ovens

Fresh biscuits at the
Duke of the Dutch Oven Cook-off




Did you know that the Dutch oven is the State Cooking Pot for Utah? As a way to honor their pioneer forbearers, the Utah State Legislature named it so in 1997. Utah is home to the International Dutch Oven Society, the site of the World Championship Dutch Oven Cookoff , and is a place where Dutch oven usage is still widespread.

Learn all about cooking with a Dutch oven and get some recipes for the kind of food made by the cook on the trail—beans, meat, potatoes, sourdough biscuits, dump cake, and peach cobbler--on the Cowboy Showcase.

Chuck Wagons

After our wonderful time at the chuck wagon cook-off this past weekend, I got to wondering about the history of the chuck wagon. I found that the glory days of the long cattle trail drives lasted only from the end of the Civil War into the mid-1880s—just twenty years or so—an amazing fact when you think of the impact that relatively short period in history has had on tradition and cowboy lore.

At first the cowboys had to make do for meals along the trail, until Charles Goodnight came up with the idea for a vehicle that would combine food storage with food preparation capabilities. Using an army surplus wagon from the recent Civil War, he added shelves and drawers in the rear, along with a drop-down work surface. There was storage for the Dutch ovens and various tools, and a barrel or two of water, wrapped in wet canvas to keep it cool. Easily preserved foods, such as beans, salted meats, coffee, and flour and sourdough for biscuits were carried along. The sourdough starter was often carried next to the cook’s body to keep it warm in cold weather.
According to the Wikipedia article on chuckwagons the vehicle also provided storage for the cowboys’ bedrolls and personal belongings. “It also had room for medical supplies (very limited), scissors and a shovel, for the 'coosie', 'cookie' or 'gut robber's' duties included acting as doctor, barber and burying the dead. Cooks were also paid double the ‘dollar a day’ the cowhands earned.” (Quote from Chuck Wagon Trivia).


Information sources:
Chuckwagon Central
Wikipedia: Chuckwagons
Food Reference.com: Chuck Wagons

The Duke of the Dutch Oven

We had our first cowboy cooking yesterday at the "Duke of the Dutch Oven"--the 1st annual Clovis Chuck Wagon Cook-Off at the Curry County Fairgrounds. It was the best!

Our clothes still smell like campfire smoke and we had our first chicken-fried steak. It was our first chicken-fried anything and absolutely delicious--so were the potatoes and cream gravy, served up hot out of big iron kettles. The yeast rolls were baked in a Dutch oven with live coals shoveled onto the lid. The pinto beans were the best I've ever had.

I think the peach cobbler might have had a little Jack Daniels in it. The wagon boss of the Cocklebur Camp out of Odessa, Texas said that it was a special "vanilla" that was only made in Tennessee. It was so delicious and had such a kick that when I ate mine a little too fast I had to rest in the shade for a while, listening to a young fiddler who was going from group to group.

We met the nicest people, enjoyed the sunniest day, heard the best bluegrass, and watched some mighty fine calf roping. We're heading back this morning for some more cowboy cooking.