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Meals in a camp consisted of sour dough bread, beans, steak, rice potatoes, onions, dried fruit, oatmeal, coffee, and a lick. Lick was homemade syrup flavored with vanilla or an orange and was a favorite dish with all the punchers. The sour dough bread was cooked in a Dutch oven, which was placed in a bed of live coals. The lid had to be heated too, so that the bread would cook and brown evenly. A whole oven full had to be cooked at a baking or the bread would not rise. Groceries were furnished to the boys from the commissary at headquarters. It is interesting to remember that oatmeal came in large barrels. I always cooked an oven full of biscuits and ate as long as they lasted, then cooked a new batch. Often I fed them to my saddle ponies. I would take a biscuit and catch nearly any horse I rode. If I didn’t have a biscuit, I would fool them with a white rock.

From The Camp Life of a Cowpuncher by Carroll Doshier as told by Jim Christian