Chandler Chuck Wagon Cook Off

the Chandler Museum along with a number of sponsors join forces to host the inaugural chuck wagon cook off at tumbleweed ranch the goal of the event was to feature experiences that visitors could interact with that had something to do with Western culture and cowboys 1880s cattle drives techniques of cooking and Technology of the 1880s some of the demonstrators included the desert Weaver's and spinners guild candle making station horseback riding and more the vendors from the event definitely added to the atmosphere and many focused on adding the Old West history to their area in addition each wagon focused on authenticity and interacted with the visitors as they came to their wagon sharing their chuck wagon and Dutch oven cooking stories and family history well we are from an old ranch family both sets of us and my husband's father used to go out on the range and cook and have the chuck wagon actually to go out with them and so he's sort of our authority and then my great-uncle used to cook for the lazy B's in Arizona and he was actually a chuck wagon cook and so we have it in our blood and he loves to cook and I love him so there is there we go we call it cowboy pop addicted and my husband cuts the trimmings off of the beef and get down and that's what we cook our Barbie pin is the natural juices and that's a young the visitors were also able to learn more about the struggles and challenges the cowboys and their families endured when you stop and think about the Pioneers that coming across the trails I mean out here we're on flat level ground so it's pretty easy to move these wagons around but when you think of them going up over the mountains and down into canyons and things and not having the resources that we have nowadays I mean it was a tough deal for me so you kind of gained an appreciation for what our ancestors did boss on the trail drives where they drive the cattle market probably pretty tough on them you know just trying to keep the crew fed all the time and the cookie was the one that other than the trail boss he was the next man in command and paid the best because he was such a vital part of the crew so you know he was the one that was usually the first one up in the morning and he was the last one to go to bed at night and there was some responsibilities he had other than cooking he was also the camp doctor you know a lot of those things came into play as well so keep in mind that guys on the trail drives didn't get to eat this way they couldn't eat the beef because that's their money so if they kill a cow and want to eat it then they've lost whatever it was going ahead to back then so they're eating a lot better here than the poor Cowboys ate back then it's great for families and great for little kids to see how cooking was once done over an open wood fire and hopefully they will take some things they learn here home and practice them in their backyard or on their camping trips so we hope they come and enjoy the food and enjoy the the atmosphere and learn a little something this was a two-day event day one of the competition was the judging on the most authentic wagon the event started a day earlier when each chuck wagon was judged on authenticity this requires the competitors to ensure that all parts of the chuck wagon from the saddle in the front to the comb in the drawer are authentic to the late 1800s Early 1900s our wagon is actually an 1890s Pekin grain wagon from Pekin Illinois a guy in Fort Davis Texas restored it and we bought it from him my wagons in 1907 Peter schüttler chuck wagon picked it up in Oklahoma about five years ago and restored it I'm a member of the American Trek wagon Association my wagon numbers number 43 so that's kind of cool day two of the competition started off as early as 4:00 a.m. for some of the competitors we started at about 5:30 this morning because we want to make sure our beans get done we have to turn in at 11:45 so however long it takes you to cook you start early enough to get it done the biscuit flats wagon is the hosts wagon for the event and as the host wagon we prepared dinner last night for the other wagon crews that are competing and then we're just doing samples for the public today they're gonna see cooking as it was done in the late 1800s 1862 1900 over an open fire with cast-iron pots no aluminum no Tupperware no microwaves so it's pretty interesting for them we have four teams that are competing this year these teams are all local teams there's a team here from Safford one from Casa Grande one from rim rock and one from Phoenix it's really more of a competition against the elements and the challenge in doing this sort of cooking is that the weather is a big factor if it's windy the fire's act differently different kinds of wood burn hotter than other kinds of wood so all those unknowns played into the challenges you have in cooking out here the wagon teams are all judged on five categories they're gonna be preparing meat bread beans potatoes and dessert the meat can be prepared however they wish a lot of them will probably do some kind of a fried steak there may be stews there may be roasts and then we gave them dried peaches for their dessert so they have to use those and they have to reconstitute those and then make some sort of dessert out of them there could be fried pies there could be cobblers and then of course the the pinto beans the cowboy beans that were traditional and potatoes however they fix them and then bread needs to be either a biscuit a sourdough or a yeast roll that's cooked in a and an oven over the coals Dutch oven for this Chuck liking competitions the sponsors provided us with the basics the staples and then each wagon hook provides the extra little things that they want like obviously I have to bring my own sourdough for that sourdough cobbler but that's what makes each wagon its own unique recipe and they don't tell you what fruit you're getting to do to the dessert until they start handing out the food we're doing Paso Lee which is a Southwest pork stew with tomatoes and hominy Anna and then we're also doing a cobbler and we're doing chicken-fried steak fingers strips of steak for their fried so there's a lot of stuff in addition to the vendors that are out here with food also we're actually the Buzzard circle in and as you see up there on our board down there by our menu board we've actually got some buzzards up there and so a lot of people wonder if that's what's actually in our pods it's a counter family chuck wagon cooking and we do a smother steak and what we do is we cut the trimmings off of the beef and we cook them in its own juice and then we flour and fry and it's wonderful it's just very very tender my husband makes the best bacon powder biscuits flaky and big and huge and yummy you don't even have to have honey or butter on them and then he makes a good wonderful cobbler all of the wagons that are here today we have all cooked with each other and so we have a really great camaraderie because we give each other heck but we also help each other out it's a family atmosphere name of my chuck wagon is Gummer named after my grandfather he was a camp cook on a lot of roundups in eastern Arizona and I was too little to get to go with him and when he died that was kind of his nickname all the Cowboys give to him so I thought I'd carry on the tradition so that's why my camps named after him and I'm proud of my biscuits and gravy I think that's my specialty but I work hard on all of it so the best kind of what I my forte is the biscuits and gravy crab potatoes in the little blue pot cowboy coffee some sweet beans and some beef tips over there and I'm gonna make gravy from scratch in about 15 minutes as we say in how boy talk anyway we're gonna have a lot of that we like to do the chicken-fried steak because that's what people expect when they come out here so we do chicken-fried steak and gravy we're doing potatoes with onions and bacon we do a sourdough peach cobbler so the cake part is made out with sourdough and that makes it a little bit unique our beans are award-winning at the national championship a couple years ago so we stick to our beans and then we just on biscuits I've actually got people that have been coming up to us and had some lady from England that was here last night I've got some people that have come down from so low there was a guy earlier this morning from Riverside California that came over just for this event so you know it's not just Chandler that it's pulling it's pulling the tourists in from other places serving time is at 12 o'clock and then the judges are going to come get the food at a 15 minute stale and then they'll go over and judge the food all the hard work has finally come to an end we are in the process of judging some great chuck wagon food and while we do that look at this fun fact none of the food has any calories in it no plus wrong as long as you close your eyes the st. no doggone Hardee's it ain't no Mickey D's there ain't no drive-through window or a menu that you'll see just these here old Chuck wagons that have been to heck and back you won't find no Happy Meal because our food that won't fit in the sack you won't get no little toy with this meal that you receive well gladly hand out Rolaids it's the only thing that's free we ain't got no pretty weight just to bring out your gourmet meal just these hero wore out camp cooks that are nasty mean and ill because they've been upper earlier fixing your milk it didn't come precooked and there ain't no telling what fell in when you weren't around to look our coffee is always hot there ain't no preservatives here and our meat is usually fresh mostly coyote beef or dear now don't go getting squeamish we ain't killed nobody yet and we'll gladly hand out coupons for a visit to the vet so get up here online folks for a frugal Cowboy meal before old cookie starts a tenderizing with a big old wagon wheel the chuck wagon motto of the cowboy is all the food's great and if you don't like it don't come into camp we're very pleased with what we did I had a great team the guys I got helped out a lot and everything turned out the way we wanted to it didn't burn any biscuits that was the biggest thing your biscuits over there we were in Ruidoso New Mexico last October and Mark Wilkins who you've met down at the Buzzard circle and end told a group of about 40 school kids fourth graders that down at the Rock and Double R chuck wagon they had free candy and they'd give you all you wanted so we had these 40 children run up to our wagons sing where's the candy where's the candy and we're going by candy and you turn around and there's Mark waving two wagons down so yeah that's the kind of thing we do to each other but it's all in fun the crowds were ready and everybody was enthusiastic and got a lot of feedback from people saying that all the food was tasted real good so I think it was a big success we heard there's going to be a chuck wagon cook off down here and Chandler today and we were excited about that because we've heard about those before but we've never been able to experience one and so we came down here to tumbleweed Park and it's just fantastic weather's great foods great we got live music playing which is great as well and we just had some chuck wagon grub and it's really good after the countless hours of preparation and cooking the Chow the results are in we'll see which teams were able to rue the judges taste buds in a moment after the countless hours and tons of food the results are in the most authentic wagon is Buzzard circle in from Casa Grande congratulations their first place in meat rock and our our first place in potatoes rockin our our first place in beans buzzards circle M first place in dread rock and our our first place in desert cannon family best overall meal which is a summary of all those categories and rock and our our good job guys the people involved in chuckwagon cooking are great it's great atmosphere it's the biggest passion for me with the chuck wagon and the way we do it is I can do it as a family I got my boys and my daughter they helped us out just a good wholesome to the roots of what we used to do where we came from in the history we came from the thing we get most out of these competitions is the camaraderie among the wagons and cooking the food that's hard work that's not fun but you get to know each wagon owner and the people who cook on their wagons and so we have a good time we play back and forth we it's a friendly competition nobody's cutthroat at these you know it's a lot of work on us you know getting up you know 4:30 5 o'clock and coming out here and getting started and all the effort that goes through it but we enjoy watching the public enjoy what we do you know when they get eat the food and they have the comments come back you know that this is really fantastic how'd you do this how'd you get this is awesome that's that's the rewards that we get we want to thank all the team sponsors and staff who made this inaugural chuck wagon cook off a sigh some cypher cooks at boyhood days but none of them for me one roundup cook was best of all to us from the ex parte and when we heard the grub pile call morning noon and night the old dutch ovens never failed to cook the things just right twist covered or with red-hot coals and when we fetched her out the biscuits there rubbed the sort know Epicure wood flour i ain't so much for boyhood grub because summer spring or fall the old Dutch island cooked the things that tasted best of all perhaps it's cuz our appetites were always mighty sharp the men who ride the range ain't apt to kick her cart but anyways I find myself a dreamin of that bread the old Dutch oven bakes so well beneath those calls of thread

Channel: City of Chandler, Arizona (Official)

Views: 14,170

Keywords: Chuck Wagon, Chuck Wagon Cook Off, Chandler Arizona

Id: yYajKRFpg7w

Length: 16min 18sec (978 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2015