[Recipe] The Best Pioneer Survival Food

When cowboys hit the trail for a cattle drive, they had a long journey ahead of them.

Many drives took months, taking the crew into remote areas along the way. Outposts to buy supplies were few and far between, so the cowboys had to prepare carefully. They filled the chuck wagon with everything they needed to survive the months long journey. From sleeping rolls to cooking supplies and medical equipment, the chuck wagon was the lifeline of the drive.

Space was limited. They only had room for the bare necessities, so they selected everything with care.

Their food was simple, but filling. Cowboy biscuits were a staple.

What Are Cowboy Biscuits?

Back at the home ranch, eggs and milk helped produce fluffy biscuits. But, those farm products don’t travel well and are perishable.

Cowboys had to learn to bake biscuits with just a few, travel-friendly ingredients. So, they used sourdough.

When fed regularly, sourdough lasts a long time. It stayed in a crock or jar, not taking much space. And, it gave each batch of biscuits flavor, helped them rise, and made them hearty.

Sourdough starter was the star of cowboy biscuits. It turned plain old flour and salt into filling victuals.

Sourdough biscuits aren’t as fluffy as biscuits you might be used to eating. They are denser, with an almost cake-like texture.

Cowboy biscuits also differ from traditional biscuits in the baking stage. Since there were no ovens available on the open range, cowboys baked their biscuits in cast iron skillets or Dutch ovens, over hot coals.

The Ingredients in Cowboy Biscuits

There are only three ingredients in traditional cowboy biscuits: sourdough starter, flour, and salt.  The salt and flour were typical pantry staples. The flour was most often whole wheat, though the cowboys used whatever was available.

The sourdough starter was the most important ingredient.

Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter

Instead of using baking powder to leaven their biscuits, cowboys relied on yeast. But, individual yeast packets weren’t available yet. Instead, they collected their own wild yeast.

Wild yeast lives almost everywhere. It’s in the air, in flour, and all around. Once you capture it, you can keep it alive in sourdough starter.

Some sourdough starter recipes call for potatoes, a bit of commercial yeast, or some other host for the yeast. While some cowboys may have used a complicated sourdough recipe, most didn’t.

The simplest way to make your own yeast is to combine flour and water in a clean, non-reactive container.  Each day, feed it with fresh flour and water. Within a couple of days, you will start to notice bubbles in your starter. The bubbles tell you you’ve successfully found wild yeast and it’s starting to multiply.

When the cowboys set out on the trail, their starter was full-strength and ready to use.

Make Your Own Sourdough Starter for Cowboy Biscuits

If you want to make your own batch of sourdough starter like the cowboys did, here are directions.

You’ll need:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup lukewarm water (not chlorinated)
  • A non-reactive container
  • A wooden spoon
  • A towel for covering your container
  • Additional food and water for feeding (1 cup of flour and ½ cup of water for each feeding)

Combine the flour and water in your container. Stir thoroughly, ensuring there aren’t any pockets of dry flour at the bottom.

Cover the container with the towel and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

Examine your starter. Check for any signs of bubbles.

Whether or not you see bubbles, remove half of your starter. To the remaining half, add another cup of flour and a ½ cup of lukewarm water.

Stir well and cover it again.

In 12 hours, your starter will be ready for another feeding. Keep half of the starter in your container and remove the rest. Feed the starter you kept with one cup of flour and ½ cup of lukewarm water.

Stir well and cover it again.

Every twelve hours, repeat the feeding. You will always keep half the starter and feed it a cup of flour and ½ cup of water. Remember to stir and cover.

Over the next few days, your starter will begin to change. You’ll notice more bubbles throughout. It will develop a distinct smell. And it’ll double in bulk more quickly.

The temperature of the air in the room where your starter is in affects its growth. If it’s too hot you can kill the yeast. If it gets cool, the yeast slows. When the temperature drops too low, the yeast will stop growing completely.

Out on the trail, cowboys also kept an eye on the temperature. When the weather turned cool in the fall, they took their sourdough container to bed with them. Their body heat kept it alive even when it was cold outside.

Your starter will take several days to come to full strength. Since there are so many variables, it’s best to use signs instead of a specific timeline. Your starter is ready when it:

  • Is bubbly throughout and appears frothy.
  • Doubles in bulk within 4-6 hours of a feeding.
  • Has a distinct sourdough smell (a fresh, yeasty odor)

By this point, it has the potency it needs to make your biscuits rise. Before then, it won’t be strong enough.

The Discarded Starter

There’s a lot of discarded starter when making your own sourdough starter. Removing starter before each feeding helps to keep your total amount of starter manageable. If you kept it all, you’d have tons of starter.

It also helps keep the PH where it needs to be. By reducing the competition for food among your yeast cells, you decrease your chance of growing the wrong bacteria.

When you take the starter out, you don’t have to throw it away. Here are four suggestions for using it:

  • Give it to a friend who wants their own starter
  • Thin it down with a little milk and add several eggs to make sourdough crepe batter
  • Add it to your compost pile
  • Use it to make waffles or pancakes

How to Maintain Your Starter

Cowboys used their starter daily. Each time they made biscuits, they fed their starter. In addition to adding more flour and water, they’d mix any leftover dough back into the starter to avoid waste.

If you aren’t using your starter daily, you will need to maintain it.

You can place the starter in the fridge or a cool location. Then, just remove half of it and feed it once a week. Make sure to stir it well each time. When you’re ready to use it, take it out of the fridge several hours before baking. This gives the yeast cells time to wake back up.

You can also leave your starter on the counter. This means it will be ready to use whenever you want to bake. But, it also means need to remove and feed every day.

Decide which method works best for you. Just don’t forget about your starter. If you neglect it for too long, it will mold.

If you maintain it properly, it will last indefinitely. There are sourdough starters that have been passed down throughout families for generations.

How to Make Cowboy Biscuits

Once your starter is at full-strength, you can make your first batch of cowboy biscuits.

You’ll need:

  • 2 cups sourdough starter
  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Butter, oil, or lard to grease the skillet

In a large bowl, combine the starter, the salt, and the flour flour. Stir it well.

If your dough is too thick, slowly mix in a little water until it’s the right consistency for biscuits. This happens occasionally, especially if your sourdough starter is really thick.

Grease your cast iron skillet. Pinch off golf-ball sized clumps of dough and roll them into balls. Place each ball in the skillet. Begin at the outside and continue moving in towards the center in circles of biscuits.

Set the skillet on a large rock or rack over hot coals. Bake until browned.

Or you can bake in an oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until brown.

Fluffier Version of Cowboy Biscuits

As mentioned previously, these biscuits will not be the fluffy biscuits people eat today. They are a stick-to-your-ribs, dense biscuit that travel well. Cowboys could throw a couple in their pockets after breakfast and chew on them throughout their shift.

By using a limited amount of ingredients, biscuits could be made anywhere along the trail. But, with just a couple of extra ingredients, you can improve the taste and texture of these biscuits.

You’ll need:

  • 2 cups sourdough starter
  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 TBS honey
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 TBS lard or butter cut into small pieces
  • Additional lard or butter to grease skillet

In a large bowl combine the starter, flour, salt, honey, baking powder, and lard. Mix together, forming a soft dough.

Form and bake as directed above.

Looking Back in Time for Survival Skills

Though you likely aren’t setting out on a cattle drive, cowboy biscuits are a great survival recipe. They take minimal ingredients, and travel well. The sourdough can also be used for many other breads, and you won’t need to worry about storing yeast.

Because of their hardiness, ingenuity, and knowledge, cowboys were able to survive for months at a time with few materials. By looking back in time, and learning the skills from the past, you can be prepared for any situation you find yourself in.

Written by

Lisa Tanner loves living life down on the family farm with her husband and their eight children. She spends her day tackling farm chores, homeschooling the kids, and growing her freelance writing career. In her free time, Lisa loves cooking, reading, and trying to learn new skills. You can find her blogging over at http://maggiesmilk.com/ (Maggie's Milk)

Latest comments
  • Good One, Lisa. Just a Note . . . If you can keep your starter at around 40 Deg. F., You wont have to feed it so often – say every 36 – 48 hours.

  • Almost Forgot . . . Warm your starter up to 75 Deg. F. Plus – before you Feed it.

  • I use to make sourdough biscuit all the time but my hubby won’t eat biscuits or cornbread. Also flour tortilas dont take much ingredients.

  • What about those of us who cannot eat wheat? Do you have a recipe for sourdough using an alternate flour? Any except wheat, rye, or barley which all contain gluten.

    • I would be interested in a gluten-free recipe also.

    • Debbie, I Forgot to mention the Most Important Factor. About 99% of the people who believe they have a “Gluten Allergy” (Sensitivity) – DON’T ! They have a Poison Allergy – as we All do. U.S. Grown Wheat (and other cereal grains) are GMO strains – So – you are getting huge doses of Glyphosate poison (Thank You Monsanto, et.al.) and NO NUTRIENTS ! Get your cereal grains or stone ground flour from Bob’s Red Mill (sic.) or a similar source. It doesn’t even cost much more. Bill.

      • You are right. I thought that i had a serious problem but only with some breads. So, since i now eat only items made with organic flours, including wheat, i have not had any problems.

      • Thanks for the reply. I apologize for the delayed response. Between foot surgery and travel to be with a hospitalized family member, I’ve had a busy 2019.

        Years ago allergy testing said I was allergic to wheat. After years on a wheat-free diet, I went back to eating wheat. I didn’t notice any significant problems….until years later when my doctor stated I needed to try eating GF for 2 weeks. My digestive issues cleared up the first day. That gives me strong incentive to continue to eat GF. as I have for 15 years,

        • Glad it worked out. Years ago, I read about gluten, long before most. I went GF. Mom moved in with us after my stepfather passed away. She complained because she couldn’t have bread and crackers. I tried to explain it to her. She was an uncontrollable diabetic, and no way did I want to be one. Her sugar would bottom out at 20. Not kidding! After about 10 days on the diet, she had plenty of energy (to complain 🙂 and started attending church and going to weddings. do you have any idea how embarrassing it is, when your 76-year-old mother has to be helped up the steps to the door singing after midnight, Oh, I’ll Take the High road and other drinking songs? Thank God the neighbors were dominincans, and understood the elderly 🙂 the cracks in her feet and hands healed, her sugar stabilized at around 120, and her LDL cholesterol normalized. She went to visit fam in Ohio who didn’t believe in that GF crap, and a week later, Mom was in the hospital, it happened that fast. I called the hospital and told them she was GL intolerant, and they put her on a diet, low dairy and no GL She still had to have open-heart surgery. I tried to eat a few things with wheat in them since, and the last time blew out an ear drum. Sugar went into the stratosphere and so on. I can’t even eat at a Mexican restaurant around here because it’s all North Mexico food, and they use wheat more than maize. My advice to everyone, stay away from wheat. It’s been gene-rigged to the point it’s poisonous, anyway, another gross mutant organism. . You can buy kamut, which is a very ancient variety known to the Hebrews and Egyptians, but if raising it, be warned, it’s susceptible to wheat rust. I’ll stick with maize flour. ameriherb carries guar gum and so on, and for noodles, just mix any non-glutenous flour with 1/3 starch. Drop in boiling water. I do not miss eating bread. It was never a big thing with us, anyway, unless it was hot out of the oven. niio

          • I understand. And cross-contamination with wheat/gluten is even harder to explain to people!!! So sometimes you have reactions that are beyond your control when you are travelling or otherwise cannot eat at home and prep your own food.

        • What is GF??

          • Gluten Free

    • Potatoe starter..use instant potatoes for starter.

    • Wow!! I was taught by an old sheep herder how to use my sourdough. First rule, NEVER ADD Back sourdough that had any ingredients that weren’t originally in the mix. Flour and water. It contaminates the taste and can kill your sourdough. I’ve had our start for over 50 some years and it’s as good as the original gift. We have always used flour and slightly warm fresh (no added stuff) water only, but my friend set up a second pot with wheat flour. Try separate pots with different flours and see what happens. I would suggest you always keep out a separate amount in case of total death that is dried and stored in an air tight container. The smallest amount in the bottom of the container can save the day if it gets moldy. It takes time after spooning off the ick, but just re-do every couple of days spooning off the ick until it gets fresh again. Don’t give up on your kitchen treasure.

  • Debbie in Texas,
    Try this website:

    https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/gluten-free-sourdough-starter

    Good luck to you!!
    Carol in Missouri

    • Thanks, Carol. That looks promising. I notice the starter mix is not available at this time. I’ll check back.

      Sorry for the delayed response. See my comment above. Thanks again!

      • We have to use distilled water. Ours has copper in it from the mines. 1 qt water, a few cups GF (gluten-free)) flour (corn flour, most oats, and so on), 1 cup plain yogurt for the fancy/quick starter. A teaspoon of yeast, if you want. Try to get old-fashioned yeast, not double-action. Mix well, leave covered on top of fridge. when more mix is needed, add the same. Yogurt can be made by heating milk to simmer (use double-boiler), let it cool to about 100 degrees. One cup yogurt per 1 half-gallon milk. We use quart containers, and ut them on top of the fridge for a few days. This is old-fashioned home yogurt and should taste sweet, not acidic. It sours fast in the sourdough starter.

  • Back in the good ol’ days, and still common in the fifties, a new bride was given as a gift one cake of yeast. That was to last her a lifetime of baking. Any coosie (cook on a ranch or trail drive) would have used that for a starter, not wild yeast. Too many yeasts are toxic, and few wild yeasts existed in the dry lands of the Great Plains, the deserts, or high mountains. Also, till a wheat was discovered (Russian Mennonite) that was rust-resistant and thrive on little rain, wheat was strictly a rich man’s food. For that matter, diabetes was a rich man’s disease.

    I avoid gluten because we’re Native American. it’s toxic to us. Better to use any non-gluten flour, such as corn flour or meal. Quaker Oats is non-GMO and gluten free, unlike many modern versions of oats.

    A half-gallon tub of sourdough starter is on the top of the fridge and used almost daily, but only filled a few times a week. While I’m supposed to be daity-free, some is all right. We use plain yogurt as a yeast food, along with starchy flours to feed it.

    http://www.ameriherb.com carries an inexpensive guar gum, and it takes very little to make corncakes and bread using it. Best way to make pancakes, make the batter, then heat the pan till the oil sizzles. This gives the leavening (baking powder or -soda) a chance to work. With guar gum, it’ll rise fast but it’s stable.

    • thanks for the great info…
      Being Native American, do you know how I might get some corn seeds I saw on “Growing Up Native” or “Native Americans” on PBS? It was a show on the Choctaw tribe and an hierloom red corn with only 8 rows of seeds…very low starch and high protein. I found and got the seeds for the Choctaw sweet potato squash which I will be planting this year. Thanks for any help,…I love heirloom seeds and feeding my family naturally.
      Elaine in Westminster, SC

  • I have a wheat allergy, not a gluten allergy–but I too have noticed the type of flour I use makes a difference, although even with those types of wheat I have a few issues. What I have also noticed is with sourdough, my wheat issues disappear. Needless to say I use sourdough a lot! thanks for this recipe and the great info behind it.

    • Also Note, Donna. The Ancient (Stone Age) wheat varieties are available as seed. I grow a 12′ X 12′ square of Kamut Khorosan – a modern creation from the ancient wheat varieties. That gives me as much grain product as 5/8 of an acre, grown the standard way. I am betting that your wheat allergy will disappear with those varieties. If you want more info. or sources, just let me know

      • More information on where to get seed for this type of wheat, please.

        Thanks,
        Hawk

        • I don’t have a wheat allergy, but lack the enzymes to digest gluten. Science if finding most people have a gluten intolerance. All I can find on kamut indicates it’s susceptible to wheat rust and insect infestation. It has no more gluten than rye or barley, but we cannot use them, either. What’s left? Oat flour, bean flour (a lot of American beans were bred for flour, not to be eaten as whole beans), Indian rice grass (a desert variety of wild rice), millet, maize flour, rice flour, and a host of other things. If you like noodles and bread, then add corn starch, xanthan gum, or other things to make sticky dough. Wheat, rye, and barley are not vital to life.

  • You have to be the Best place to go to for answers to thousands of questions! My husband and I are “sorta”Peppers. We are Boomers who had parents and grandparents from the old days. We’re both Seniors now (70&80) and love knowing how to “Recycle “. The phrase “Use it up, wear it out ” is good part of our life!! That’s something that Survival is all about. Thanx!!!

  • Sourdough starter wasn’t the best ingredient for on the trail or chuck wagon baking for several reasons. What was more commonly used was Saleratus, (Potassium or Sodium Bicarbonate).

    • Sourdough was a standard food starter. If you didn’t have the sponge, finely sieved wood ashes work just fine. Just make certain they’re not from toxic wood, like yew or cedar. Sourdough sponge was kept in a tight bucket, just as we kept chili juice fermenting for salsa picante (hot sauce). Maple wood is the best as it leaves no off flavors, and won’t kill the wild yeasty, which cedar and other woods will. When wood is hit with moisture, it swells, keeping the lid tight until someone forces it open. The sponge is a soft dough. When mixed with corn flour or wheat, and a sprinkling of ashes, it reacts by swelling fast. Saleratus was outlawed because too many died from eating it. Saleratus was made by burning shells for Ashes of Pearl.

  • Been eating sourdough for 70 years now. Montana cowboy and hunting guide. I guess it is good stuff. Live at 7500′ in mountain country.

    • When my grandmothers got married, both would be well over the century mark today, their mother’s bought them one cake a yeast. That was to last them a lifetime. Like them, in winter I cheat to keep the starter active, I use some dairy. That sours faster than potato water or flour. Got a ‘stuffed pancake’ in the oven right now. it’s basic pancake recipe using two cups starter, but hold off on the baking powder. Left overs, like last night’s ham baked beans (kind of like a baked stew 🙂 with more vegetables and ham in it. Then the batter is made, poured into a baking container (the Dutch oven is great), put in the filling, make sure at least some of the batter comes up to form a crust, bake 350-400 for a half-hour. Neighbors are on their porches 🙂 This is eaten several times a week because it’s easy and the sourdough tastes good as a crust. ‘Sides, it’s a good way to clean out the leftovers. And, if using raw peppers, skin side upon top of the stuff will roast them pretty nicely. niio

      • I have 4 starters. The oldest is from a Yosemite Ranger circa 1909. I feed them on a regular basis with just flour and water. Each has a unique flavor, smell and taste. Got my introduction to sourdough as a camp jack in the Uinta Mtns of Utah in 1950’s as a runaway kid. I’d go out to catch some trout while the herder made up the hotcakes. Have never quite made it to those standards no matter how hard I tried.
        Have heard several of my hunter clients tell me my sourdough hotcakes were like crepes and asked to take some starter and recipes home.. Have shared my starters with many people around the globe. EZ to do by drying it out on a piece of waxed paper, putting it in a ziplock baggie and mailing it with directions to get it going again.
        I’m in my 80’s now and still going strong.

        • We can’t eat any gluten, but can make up for it by using xanthan and guar gum or starch. Mine is fed oat flour in summer (or corn flour) but a little dairy makes it work faster if it runs low. There can be anywhere from one (me) person in the house up to 5. It doesn’t pay to have more than a gallon working at a time. I fermented a few gallons of rice for noodles with water off the top of the sourdough sponge. Taste great. And, when they were wet-ground, the rice came out smoother than a dry grind. Just finished fermenting summer sauerkraut, which uses no salt. Had to use distilled water to make it because our tap water has copper in it. It likes the heat, but too much it ferments too fast and doesn’t have a good acid taste. 75-85 degrees, and it perks well. I live in south-central AZ. to day anything, just leave the top off 🙂 But, frozen, it keeps well, too. After he came home from WWII Dad moved to Alaska for a few years, mostly to get away from too much people. He came home renewed and was walking the fields when a friendly copperhead tried to give him a welcome-home kiss on the leg. Nope, it missed. He’d been married twice, you see 🙂 He joked even the Japanese .couldn’t put a survival instinct in a man being married does. Yeah, same here 🙂 Glad to hear from you. Anything else going on? Got the garden in, yet? A lady from down Tucson told me, anything made with tomatoes might triple in price. Her family is invested in some veggie production down in Mexico. Same with fed beef, dairy, eggs and anything that depends on corn. Brother in Ohio said the farmers are asking for crop insurance payments because fields are flooded across the Midwest and down south. Sign of the times, when we have to depend on things grown thousands of miles away, instead of local-grown. niio, walk in beauty

          • Watch for food prices to spike as a result of the flooding in farm country. Will we hear from liberals that say “there should be law against flooding” ??

          • Why not? Everything else is. No, they’ll blame God, but too late,they already outlawed Him. It’s caused by global warming/global cooling/climate change. At home global cooling test to prove global cooling is real science, not faked to make people a lot of money, turn oven up to 500 degrees. wait till it heats. When it does, throw in an ice cube to see how long it takes to freeze over. 🙂

  • The Mississippi needs syphons in the spring. Put in so dams to carry to flooding off. Middle America could use the water. Great WPA project. Not that we have many out of work right now.

    • YES, better than the money we have spent on all the war since 1945.

  • The major rivers didn’t used to have the flooding problems they do now because they weren’t dammed, leveed, channeled, and diverted as they are now. No, we’re dealing with the consequences of DRAINING THE WETLANDS!

  • Potatoe starter..use instant potatoes for starter.

  • Thanks ALL for your comments. A suggestion? If you use an abbreviation, put a definition beside it…for us dummies. I had to read several posts to be sure I understood the GF was for “gluten free” (it is isn’t it?)
    Still not sure how to make the sourdough starter. How can you take out a cup, add a cup, and have more??? Is that the “new math?”
    In any case, I enjoy your comments. I’m old, but still learning. OH…just a thought, My late wife was part Cherokee (with a number and card)…with I had known what better flours to use…she might still be with me. She was only 64 when she passed. Dang…I miss that woman!

    George

  • First post on this site.

    Both sourdough starter and discard can be dried and processed into a powder, sealed, stored either at room temperature, frozen or refrigerated.. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Spread the sourdough discard or starter in a thin layer as evenly as possible – not critical. Set the sheet in the oven and then set oven to “proof.”

    You can also use a food dehydrator.

    In a day or two, you’ll have a dried starter that can be either broken into shards or powdered that will retain the flavor and strength of the original.

    When needed, mix two tablespoons of powder with two tablespoons of water and set aside. Next day, again, add equal parts of water and flour then adjust either to make a thick batter. Set aside. Next day, feed to create as much starter as needed and let it ripen for eight hours. It should then be ready to use.

    If you add an O2 and desicate packet to the jar or Mylar bag then vacuum seal it. You’ll have starter you can give to your grandkids.

    Usually a strong starter ready to leaven dough requires at least a week to ten days to mature. Not this stuff.

    The strongest starter is made from rye flour.

    I maintain about 1/4 cup of very ripe starter that I let slowly ripen in a refrigerator. The longer it takes to mature, the more sour the flavor. I discard half and feed weekly. I keep the discard refrigerated. Something else that gives it the sour flavor is the dark liquid called “hooch.” Stir that back into the discard to add to regular recipes or make a ripping good starter fast.

    Google several sourdough baking sites. It’s really forgiving and once you get the hang of it, very simple and straightforward. I live in CA gold country and that’s all the ‘49’er miners ever used.

    A “madre pasta” starter is thicker than bread dough and lasts a long time without required feeding.

    My favorite sourdough bloggers are “true sourdough” and “pantry mama”, another, more technical one is “The Perfect Loaf.” He explains a lot of the tech stuff regarding sourdough.

    You can make GF starter from GF flour. Start with an 1/8 tsp of active dried yeast to kick start your first batch.

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