The Kitchen Essential That Cowboys Commonly Carried On The Trail

When you picture cowboys riding through the wide open plains and mountain ranges of the western United States, what do you think of them carrying? You might imagine a bedroll for sleeping, a canteen for water, and maybe even an instrument such as a harmonica to keep them entertained during the long hours spent traveling. You probably imagine them with a relatively light load because of the strain on themselves, their wagons, and their horses that could come from carrying heavy items over rough terrain. However, evidence from the era shows that many cowboys actually carried an impressively heavy item because they valued it so much for their daily cooking: cast iron cookware.

Cast iron kitchen tools were a staple for settlers in the Americas, with reports claiming that George Washington's grandmother even listed her precious cast iron cookware in her will when she died. Pots and pans were common, and Dutch ovens were particularly useful on the trail because their legs enabled them to be set directly over heated coals. Cowboys and settlers could make a variety of meals in this cookware, meaning that, while they were quite heavy, each person or group only needed one or two rather than a whole set of different items. But apart from their versatility, what made cast iron skillets and pots valuable enough that cowboys and other travelers of the era felt the need to travel hundreds of miles with them? Let's dive into the nature of cast iron and what made it so useful during this period in American history.

Apart from allowing cowboys to boil, fry, and bake things using as few tools as possible, cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens were a common sight on the trail for another reason: A man called Abraham Darby had invented a way to make cast iron more quickly and inexpensively. This meant that settlers and cowboys could get their own cast iron cookware at a reasonable price. In addition to being newly affordable, cast iron was also easy to clean, an essential for those living the cowboy lifestyle with limited water and other resources.

Another possible, though unproven, benefit that cast iron cookware might have offered cowboys is that it can add iron to a person's diet. So, people during the cowboy era could potentially have noticed that they were feeling better or stronger when using this cookware as opposed to other kinds. However, there's no evidence to support this from history.

One final, more obvious benefit that made cast iron skillets and ovens essential to cowboys was their durability. For those living out in the elements, having materials that could last indefinitely would have been valuable, as it prevented them from having to buy new items every time they happened to pass a budding town or city. While many aspects of life have changed since the times when old-fashioned Wild West cowboys roamed the trails, cast iron pans remain a major thrift store score to this day because they are durable, easy to clean, and have a timeless quality.