This Is How Real Cowboys Had To Travel With Meat In The Old West

If Hollywood is to be believed, cowboys would stop at a town with a saloon every few hours for a fresh John Wayne-style steak and a Western movie-worthy standoff. However, the lives of cattle drivers in the Old West were much less glamorous and dramatic than we probably imagine, and that extends to their meat consumption. Real cowboys would often go months driving cattle across the wilderness of the Old West, which meant fresh provisions were in short supply.

While they usually had plenty of cattle on hand, cowboys could hardly slaughter one of their own cows every few days for a fresh steak. Instead, they typically relied on carrying heavily salted, preserved meat that would last a while without spoiling. The most common portable meat sources for cowboys in the Old West were bacon, salt pork, and beef jerky. These real-deal cowboy staples don't sound too different from foods we enjoy today, but the meat that cowboys actually ate was likely a long shot from the modern versions we know and love.

In order to enjoy meat while traveling across the Old West before the prevalence of refrigeration, cowboys relied on the original preservative – salt, and lots of it. Cowboy-style bacon was a far cry from the American or British bacon (there is a difference) we might fry up for breakfast today. It was heavily cured, resulting in a tougher, chewier texture, and was typically made from a fatty cut of pork known as sowbelly. 

Salt pork usually consisted of a thick slab of fatty, cured pork, and as the name suggests, it was extremely salty. This extended its shelf life but also meant cowboys would have to soak it in water before cooking to reduce the salinity. Jerky in the Old West was typically made by salting and drying strips of meat, not too different from today's methods. 

To round out their meals, cattle herders paired these salty preserved meats with beans, biscuits, and other must-have cowboy foods. If all of this has you craving a slightly less realistic taste of the cowboy lifestyle, here are 18 easy and tasty meals that will make you feel like you're in the Old West.