cowboy coffee.
Whether or not you were a frontiersman, a rancher, farmer, townspeople, or pioneer in early American History coffee was a staple in everyday life. Whenever the Chuck wagon wasn't hitched up to discover new territories coffee was brewing over and open fire awaiting daylight to start traveling further. Coffee then didn't come in cans and wasn't roasted until they needed beans, so to keep the roasted coffee fresh for the trail they coated the beans in egg whites and sugar to ensure the freshness of the beans. If you wanted coffee in the Wild West you certainly had to work at it, it was a process of thinking about travel and where you could get green beans and then roast them yourself., coffee was a true luxury for traveling several miles during the day. Cowboy Coffee was made in several different things; kettle, cans, soup pots ... whatever would work to sit over an open fire. They would put the grinds and water into the receptacle and a heat it to taste, typically the recipe was 1.5-2 grams of coffee to every ounce of water and the grinds would steep till they were done. After the water boiled and the coffee was done steeping usually they allowed the coffee to cool and the grinds to settle to the bottom. Similar to the French press concept, but without the fancy press and the ability to concentrate the grinds to the base of whatever they had to use. Cowboy Coffee is just as much a part of a cowboys life and our country's history as gunfights at high noon and gunslingers.
Whether or not you were a frontiersman, a rancher, farmer, townspeople, or pioneer in early American History coffee was a staple in everyday life. Whenever the Chuck wagon wasn't hitched up to discover new territories coffee was brewing over and open fire awaiting daylight to start traveling further. Coffee then didn't come in cans and wasn't roasted until they needed beans, so to keep the roasted coffee fresh for the trail they coated the beans in egg whites and sugar to ensure the freshness of the beans. If you wanted coffee in the Wild West you certainly had to work at it, it was a process of thinking about travel and where you could get green beans and then roast them yourself., coffee was a true luxury for traveling several miles during the day. Cowboy Coffee was made in several different things; kettle, cans, soup pots ... whatever would work to sit over an open fire. They would put the grinds and water into the receptacle and a heat it to taste, typically the recipe was 1.5-2 grams of coffee to every ounce of water and the grinds would steep till they were done. After the water boiled and the coffee was done steeping usually they allowed the coffee to cool and the grinds to settle to the bottom. Similar to the French press concept, but without the fancy press and the ability to concentrate the grinds to the base of whatever they had to use. Cowboy Coffee is just as much a part of a cowboys life and our country's history as gunfights at high noon and gunslingers. 
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