What bacon did trail cowboys eat?
Dave Macon
Shreveport, Louisiana
Bacon was a staple on trail rides and at line camps. The cowboys were actually eating “sowbelly.” It was pork fat from the belly, and perhaps the back and sides, of a hog carcass, cured with salt. Sowbelly could last a long time without spoiling.
Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and vice president of the Wild West History Association. . His latest book is Arizona's Outlaws and Lawmen; History Press, 20
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