An indispensable part of any roundup outfit was the chuck wagon and its accompanying cook. In contrast to modern pictures of the frantic chuck-wagon races at the Calgary Stampede, this picture shows a chuck-wagon being used in the intended manner on the 1896 High River roundup. The cook's wagon carried a stove and a ton or more of utensils and provisions. When the back of the wagon box was detached it exposed a compact kitchen-like cupboard and working surface.
The cowboy's conviction that just as one could judge a man by the horse he rode, he could also judge a cow outfit by the "grub" it served, is underlined by the colourful terminology that he applied to the range cook's menu. The cowhand began and ended his roundup day with coffee made according to the standard recipe of one handful of ground coffee for each cup of water. The brew was "strong enough to float a six shooter" and hence was fondly known as "six-shooter coffee". The coffee was complemented by pancakes (really sourdough flap-jacks as eggs were not often available to make pancakes) and "sow-belly" (bacon). Following breakfast the cook commenced the baking of sourdough bread in several Dutch ovens. This latter, probably the round-up cook's most valued utensil, was also used to make deep pies - usually raisin or dried apple. It was used as well for the manufacture of stews, the varieties of which were diverse as the backgrounds of chuck wagon cooks. Such stews which included all the leftovers "excepting the horns, hoofs, and hide" were not always on the cowboys' preferred bill of fare and were known, therefore, by a host of epithets, one of the more common being "s.o.b." stew. The cowboy's culinary likes and dislikes were marked. He did not favour vegetables, apart from potatoes and perhaps canned tomatoes, and he would not drink milk or eat mutton. His preference was for pan-fried steaks which, on the round-up, came from freshly killed rather than "hung" beef. This menu was rounded out with a vast store of dried beans, affectionately known to the cowboys as "whistle berries", "Mexican strawberries" or "prairie strawberries".
