Trail Drive Breakfast

I get tired of reading what is labeled, “authentic cowboy trail food,” and one of the first ingredients to some kind of stir fry they didn’t have, and wouldn’t have eaten if it was available, is avocado or mushrooms. In my many years studying Western American history I have found no reference to the use of mushrooms on the trail, and although avocados were commonly available in Mexico, and in the American Southwest cowboys thought of them as low level food and most avoided them.

Cowboys ate food very plain, well done, and salty. They might have tried something with mushrooms or avocados in restaurants, but not on the trail. Trail food needed to be fast, filling and hot. Following is a recipe for breakfast on a trail drive.

Warm a flour tortilla or use fresh hot biscuits
Spread with refried black or pinto beans
*Top with scrambled eggs (in modern day we toss on some shredded cheese and salsa)

Role the tortilla taco style, or stack the biscuit halves sandwich style

Serve with fresh hot coffee and the cowboy was ready for the trail

*Eggs were available in several places along the trail, some dirt farmers made a nice bit of money by selling to ol' cookie as he went north with the beefs.

Puff Pancake, Fun and Tasty Too

The Puff Pancake

 

 Puff Pancakes, also called Dutch Baby Pancakes. I will not call it baby anything on this ol’ Wyoming boy blog. Except to say, wow, these babies are good. These are sometimes referred to as a German Pancake and may very well have been the first puff pastry. They have been around for about a century and evidently some pancake places either feature them or used to feature them. I have never noticed them on a breakfast menu, but then we like to cook and go out to eat when forced.

These are normally listed as breakfast fare but we like breakfast for supper at our house, cook these up with a side of sausage or bacon, and you have it.

 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2/3 cup milk (or 1/3c of milk, 1/3c half & half)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Teaspoon of vanilla
• Teaspoon of cinnamon
   
  Preheat to 475
   
  Beat the eggs
   
   Pour in liquid, sugar, salt and vanilla - keep mixing until sugar is dissolved.
  (I use the blender, forget the mixer, actually my wife doesn’t trust me with the mixer, or maybe I don’t know which bowls to use or how to attach whatever attachments are needed).
   
  Dump in flour and mix it all smooth.
  Let batter sit 10 min or so, you really don’t need to time this step
     
  Get out your big old cast iron skillet, the ten inch one, if you have it.
  Coat it with melted butter; make sure to get it up the sides all the way. (I was going to say slather it up with butter but wasn’t sure what slather meant so I will stick with coat it, even if slather sounds better).
  Pour the batter in and bake 15 min or a little less- when it is golden brown (or whatever you interpret golden brown to be) it is ready to take out of the heat.
  The pancake will puff up when baking, remove and let sit for a minute or so and it will collapse, don’t worry it’s supposed to.
   *Spread on strawberry or raspberry jelly and lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  Loosen around edges and slide onto plate
  Serve with butter and syrup
  *This step can also be done a few minutes before taking pancake out of the oven
   
  This can also be a great campfire dish, baked in a Dutch oven. I have not tried it but don’t see why it wouldn’t work. That may be the reason I occasionally have my cooking and baking disasters, but believe I will try it some time.
   

Oregon Trail Johnnycakes

Travelers on the Oregon Trail were sometime treated to Johnnycakes. Today we think of these tasty cakes as breakfast fare, but for weary travelers they were a treat, after a long day, topped with their favorite homemade jams and jellies, assuming they hadn’t eaten all the sweets the first few miles out of town. Today we more often top them with melted butter and syrup. I am not sure who Johnny was or why they named a cake (griddle cake) after him, but they taste as good today as they did back in Trail days.

-Johnnycakes-

1 beaten egg (some travelers took chickens along)
3/8 cup milk (and some brought along Ol’ Bessy, the milk cow)
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon melted lard (today we use vegetable oil)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I sometimes skimp this down to a ¼)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal (cornmeal and flour amounts can be switched
1 cup flour                      depending on how corny your taste)               

1 Tablespoon sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix really smooth. Drop by tablespoon onto hot greased griddle or skillet. Fry on each side until browned, only a minute or two. This recipe makes about a dozen 4 inch cakes.
These are fun, quite a bit different from a regular pancake (we added cornmeal and took out the baking powder) but the taste is special. The taste is kind of flat, with the first chew, then the taste of cornbread a few moments later. Very cool!