Chuck-Wagon Etiquette

 

It's a serious breach of etiquette to fail to place dirty utensils in the “wreck pan,” the range name for dish-pan. And only an utter fool would ever complain about the food!— Public domain image of a chuckwagon from 1900

Pickup Truck Replaces Chuck-Wagon at Roundups

It doesn't take an iron-clad stomach, a hard day's work or lots of fresh air to enjoy food from an old fashioned chuck-wagon. On the high plains of eastern New Mexico, it's still the fashion.

Twice each year, spring and fall, most New Mexico ranches hold roundups. During those brief weeks of frenzied activity the most feared, most respected, least liked but most sought after men is the cook.

Most cooks these days use pickup trucks instead of the old fashioned chuckwagons. Some are even equipped with butane powered stoves and refrigerators. Running water comes from large tanks stored beneath the truck beds.

The menu? It's plain and simple:

• Breakfast: Fried steak, stewed peaches or prunes, fried potatoes, biscuits or “hot rocks” and coffee.
• Lunch: Beef sandwiches ог barbecue. canned peaches, beans and more coffee. 
• Supper: Stew, consisting of choice beef cuts, potatoes, onions, canned tomatoes and seasoning; baked bread and still more coffee. With luck fresh peach or berry pie.

Baker's bread is called “gun wadding” at the roundup and is not popular. The cook who can whip up a batch of biscuits, slow baked in a Dutch oven over mesquite coals, is the man of the hour. Contrary to western lore, the pancake is seldom made. In the words of one cook, “they're too damn messy.”

The chuckwagon, pickup truck or cook tent is considered private property of the cook, and wranglers stick to their own ground. It's a serious breach of etiquette to fail to place dirty utensils in the “wreck pan,” the range name for dish-pan. And only an utter fool would ever complain about the food!

Cooks go under various titles. The printables are coozie, cookie, dough wrangler, biscuit shooter, belly cheater, Sally, the old woman, grease puncher and pot slinger. Canned goods are called “air tights;” sugar or molasses are both called “lick.” Knives and forks are called “artillery.”

At the end of the roundup the cooks generally drift back to their cafe and side order cooking jobs in nearby towns. Few ranches these days employ large enough crews all year long to keep a steady cook. — Santa Fe, N.M. (UPI) , 1964

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