Here in Canada we have a weekly TV ‘family drama’ called Heartland. That’s the name of a cattle and horse ranch in the Alberta foothills, where a dysfunctional extended family gets into all kinds of fixes. And in one episode recently, an old Rodeo rider mentioned ‘cowboy coffee’…
Cook Mr. Wishbone (Paul Brinegar, right) pours a Cowboy Coffee for trail boss
Gill Favour (Eric Fleming, left) in a 1958 Rawhide promotional photo…
That immediately twigged memories for me. I grew up in the early days of TV, before colour was the predominant service, and the tiny screen was wallpapered with westerns all week. The biggies were Wagon Train, and Rawhide, in which the wagon train and the cattle drive always stopped for the night at least once an episode, and there was always a big, blue-enamel half-gallon coffee pot on the fire.
I never speculated at the time as to what was in the pot. But now, as a dedicated food professional, I decided to research the topic. I was particularly interested in what makes devotees of Cowboy Coffee such ardent fans.
The legend, lore and allure…
“I think the cultural draw is largely something that comes from either die-hard cowboys looking to preserve archaic, cultural touchpoints of a utility-based way of life, or those who live outside the Western lifestyle but also see it as a dying craft to be preserved,” says real live cowboy Vaughn Robinson in a Sprudge interview. “The second group, who have a tendency to romanticize and lust after the Western way of life, is also largely responsible for the fetishization of the method and its resurgence in popular coffee culture.”
The fact is, Cowboy Coffee arose from of a need to make Java with only the simplest of tools and ingredients, out on the trail. All it takes is a fire, an old fashioned tin pot, coarse coffee grounds and water. The Roasterie says it’s essentially a French Press process without the plunger or filter. But that’s really a far-too-fancy description.
How to make Cowboy Coffee
It’s easy to make trailside coffee by just boiling coarse-ground coffee in a tin pot until a sample proves it’s dark enough and strong enough to satisfy. But that’s not Cowboy Coffee. There are some rules you must follow, and a couple of ‘secret’ ingredients you should really include. I’ve adapted the following recipe from driftaway.coffee:
Bring to a boil a volume of water allowing 1/2 cup / 4 oz. / 125 ml for each serving you want to make. Always make at least 4 servings for best results. The recipe doesn’t scale down smaller than that very well. Once the water hits a rolling boil, remove from the fire for a couple of minutes so it can drop to around 200 F, the ideal temperature for infusing coffee.
Add to the boiled water 1 tablespoon coarse ground coffee for each 4 oz. serving you’re brewing. This ratio is very important to the flavour of the finished beverage. Stir the grounds into the water.
Wait 2 minutes and stir again. Then wait a couple of minutes more.
After the full 4 minutes, sprinkle a little cold water on the grounds, which will be floating, to send them to the bottom of the pot.
Pour the coffee slowly to avoid stirring up the grounds and getting them in your cup.
The secret ingredients
First, be sure to add a pinch of salt to the pot when boiling the water. It really does make a difference. You don’t taste salt, as such, but it really brings out the flavour of the brew.
Second, do what the old cook, Mr. Wishbone always did on Rawhide: add crushed egg shells at the end to help settle the coffee grounds and take the sharp edge off the flavour because…
You always drink Cowboy Coffee black!
Vital details
Always make your Cowboy Coffee in a traditional tall, conical enameled tin pot. This design makes it easier to settle grounds and avoid having them appear in your cup. And the traditional tin coffee pot is the only practical vessel to use to make your coffee in, if you’re boiling it up directly on the fire.
Never grab the Cowboy Coffee pot handle or lid with your bare hands. No matter what heat source you use, they’re going to get hot. Always carry a side towel to insulate your hand.
And don’t forget the final touch. Real cowboys out on the trail always make a whole pot of coffee, because you never know who’s going to ride in from the range – and it’s traditional to offer visitors a cup of Joe. It’s also traditional to pour out any leftover coffee and grounds onto the fire, to make sure it’s out before you move on.
The last word
As the Heartland the cowboy tells a city-slicker, “You’ll only want to drink coffee off the fire, after this…”
~ Maggie J.