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Chuckwagon cooks give new meaning to "going Dutch"...
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
The massive cattle drives that produced the chuckwagon have long ceased, but the wagon and campfire cooking lives on as a hobby and a business for many enthusiasts and entrepreneurs today. Good grub and cowboy hospitality combine for a rewarding experience for cooks and participants alike who follow the chuckwagon cookoff circuit in Texas and other states.
Wade Morriss and his wife, Sandra, of Meridian have joined the growing throng of Lone Star chuckwagon cooks. The Morrisses, who managed the L.P. Reed Ranch in Bosque County until retiring three years ago, cook authentic chuckwagon food from the back of their 103-year-old Owensboro wagon, purchased in Blanket, Texas five years ago.
"It has bins for all your dry goods, and a place for your Bible, tobacco and alcohol, which is strictly for medicinal purposes," Wade Morriss jokes.
He says chuckwagon cooking is a family-oriented hobby, a friendly competition. People even loan each other ingredients when they run short. While some of the prize money is impressive, Morriss says it's really not about money, but pleasure.
Each year in September, Lubbock hosts the National Cowboy Symposium and Chuckwagon Cookoff, a revival of the skills that were used to keep the cowboys fed and fit. The cookoff is an event that brings to the wagon crew and those who eat at the wagon a chance to taste a part of western history. Morriss and fellow chuckwagon cooks usually make that prestigious event, and a number of others in neighboring states.
The Morrisses' 4 Bar M business travels throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi, providing chuckwagon food, cowboy history, story telling, and cowboy poetry for family gatherings, church groups, private parties, guest ranches, grand openings and special events. A typical meal is beef stew, beans and Wade Morriss's award-winning peach cobbler.
At a recent history fair in Kopperl, where Morriss served beans, biscuits and coffee to a hungry crowd, he talked while mixing up batch after batch of his tasty biscuits.
"Everything is made from scratch. I don't measure anything. I just dump it," says Morriss. "I do most of the cooking, except for the hoe cakes. Sandra makes those."
For the benefit of those who may not know, hoe cakes, also called Johnny cakes, are a Southern food typically made from a batter of white cornmeal, milk, water, lard and butter and dropped by spoonfuls, like pancakes, on a hot griddle.
"We cooked smothered steak for a hunting group near home, recently," says Morriss, "and cooked beans for 500 wedding guests at a ranch near Cranfills Gap."
"It's a lot of hard work, but it's fun," says Sandra Morriss.
The parents of four daughters, the Morrisses sometimes have help from them for really big events.
If ever anyone looked like a cowboy, Morriss fits the bill. He has modeled for cowboy artists Bruce Greene and Sherry Harrington, and his face has appeared on the cover of Western Horseman magazine.
The chuckwagon traces its origin to 1866, when cattleman Charles Goodnight modified an old Army supply wagon as a means of keeping his drovers fed while trailing cattle from Texas to points north. He added a wooden box, with several compartments and covered with a hinged lid with a single leg so when opened, it could serve as a work table. This simple contraption, which served as a mobile kitchen cabinet bearing food and cooking utensils, revolutionized the cattle industry. Other items commonly stowed on the wagon were bedrolls, medicine, lariats, branding irons, whiskey and water.
Goodnight's invention was dubbed a "chuck-wagon," based on a 17th century English reference to the lower priced part of the beef carcass, "chuck," which subsequently became synonymous with hearty home-style food—even vegetables like black-eyed peas, beans, corn, and cabbage. Ranches had chuckhouses for hired hands. Goodnight's nifty, all-purpose wagon compartment became the "chuck" box. Thus, a wagon with a chuck box became a "chuck" wagon.
Subsequent models had the same basic design. They were large, sturdy, four-wheeled wagons with bows across the top covered with canvas. Underneath the wagon, a stretched cowhide carried wood. A jockey box in the front of some wagons was used for storing tools and heavier equipment. The rig contained everything required for a month or more on the range.
Outside the camp, the wrangler or trail boss set the rules. But it was a different story within the realm of the chuckwagon. Even the wagon boss obeyed "Cookie," as he was fondly called. The wagon chef was up way before daylight, making coffee, frying bacon, and stirring up sourdough biscuits and placing them in a big Dutch oven to rise. Cookie had a lot of responsibility, staying ahead of an outfit on the move and having a hot meal ready when they arrived—rain or shine. He also doubled as barber, doctor, banker, and letter-writer, as well as referee when cowboys had disagreements. If the dispute was with Cookie, the puncher would likely be the one to go. Still, the chuck wagon was a natural gathering spot for storytellers, musicians and others wanting to join in for a little fun when the day's work was done.
Although the atmosphere was rowdy at times, even the greenest of cowhands understood what was acceptable and unacceptable around the chuck-wagon. Riders approaching the campsite knew better than to stir up dust that could blow into the food or to park their horse too close to camp. Cowboys wanting to warm up never crowded around, or scuffled near, the cook's fire.
According to cowboy etiquette, it was ill mannered for a cowboy to take the last serving of anything unless he was sure the rest of the group was done eating. Also, if a man got up during a meal to refill his coffee cup and a fellow cowboy yelled, "Man at the pot," he was duty-bound to fill all the cups held out to him. At the end of a meal, the cowhands always scraped their plates clean and put them in the "wreck pan," a receptacle specifically for that purpose.
Behind his back, cowhands often referred to the camp cook as "bean wrangler," "dough puncher," "pot wrassler," or "biscuit shooter," but never within earshot.
Although the cattle drives have ended, today, the chuckwagon feeds working cowboys on large ranches and serves as a social gathering place during cowboy celebrations, fairs, meetings and other important events.
For more information, log on to www.chuckwagon.org. To access the Chuckwagon Registry, visit: www.lonehand.com.
