Sourdough biscuits are the perfect pairing for a steaming bowl of this nutrient dense stew. (Photo submitted by the author)
January 23, 2025
By Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
If you’re a fan of the TV show Yellowstone, then you might appreciate this stew recipe. In season four, episode four, Teeter, whose character is from Texas, cooks up a “big ol’ crockpot full of something,” which causes a bit of an uproar among the cowboys in the bunkhouse.
“What’s in it?” asks Colby, wrinkling his nose over his girlfriend’s cooking.
“Everything baby,” Teeter drawls sweetly while dishing up for the rest of the crew.
Ryan, who’s so hungry he could eat anything, guesses at the contents swimming in his bowl in between ravenous bites, “Kinda like little sausages?... Oh, a little tomato. And, um, I don’t know if that’s chicken? … I don’t know, it’s just a little different.”
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A Hodgepodge The heart is both delicious and nutrient dense, making it a prime cut for son-of-a-gun stew. (Photo submitted by the author) “What do you mean? What’s in it?” Colby prods.
“What do you call it?” Ryan shouts to Teeter.
“Sumb*tch!” Teeter announces.
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Ranch hand Jake Reams, who is a cowboy in real life and plays himself on the show, knows exactly what “sumb*tch” is. Jake violently spits out a mouthful of stew at the other end of the table, takes a swig of beer and storms over to the kitchen sink to wash out his mouth again.
Open Range Cattle Era “What does that mean?” Colby whines.
“Literally everything from the cow—that nobody else wants!” Jake explains, irritated. Ryan continues to eat unperturbed; the opinion of Teeter’s stew seems split among her bunkmates.
This bunkhouse exchange passes quickly and could be easily dismissed as just another comedic Teeter moment. But the stew she makes, notoriously known as “son-of-a-b*tch stew”– or “son-of-a-gun stew” in more polite company—is a recipe that dates back to the open range cattle era during the latter half of the 19th century.
Chuckwagon Cooking Son-of-a-gun stew has been a chuckwagon staple for many decades. (Photo submitted by the author) When steer were slaughtered on the trail—animals that were typically not of prime stock or had trouble keeping up with the drive—the chuckwagon cook, or “cookie,” prepared son-of-a-gun stew.
Historical recipes included “whatever ingredients were at hand.” The Kansas Historical Society lists beef heart, tenderloins, veal sweetbreads, and veal brain in its recipe. Other versions include tongue, kidneys, liver and boiled calf’s head. If wild game was hunted on the drive, cookie would’ve put as much of those animals to use as well.
John Raven at Texas Cooking writes that wranglers even learned to crave this mishmash of bovine entrails: “Given coffee, sourdough and beans, the cowboy could survive and work, but for maximum performance there had to be more in his diet … SOB stew was popular with the trail hands as it provided vitamins that were not contained in the everyday fare of beans and biscuits …The cowboys would develop a craving that only SOB stew could satisfy."
Son-of-a-gun stew could do the same for backcountry hunters. Modern variations of this recipe are little more than regular beef stew, which is pointless. So, if you’re successful during big game season, cook up a pot of proper SOB at camp with the offal from your kill. This recipe makes good use of the parts that are often left to the coyotes.
Cooking Venison Son-of-a-Gun Stew As you’ve probably gathered, preparation of son-of-a-gun stew is open to interpretation. I added only venison heart to my pot, because my bullet grazed the liver on my most recent deer. So, if you have it, add as little or as much liver as you’d like to this stew, especially if calories and nutrition is important during your time in the field. Note that venison liver does have a stronger taste compared to beef, pork, or chicken.
If you don’t plan on packing the tongue home, throw that in the pot, too; boil the tongue whole for the first 45 minutes, then peel off the outer layer and then dice up the remaining muscle to return to the stew. I don’t recommend adding the kidneys, not unless you can soak them in water or milk for a considerable amount of time to rid them of urine.
For the easiest, fastest prep at camp, chop vegetables at home, and store them in a zip-top bag and keep cold. If spoilage is a concern, whole onion and unpeeled carrots will keep for a few days in a cool, dry place. You can swap out fresh celery with a dash or two of celery seed.
Use canned diced potatoes, drained, to save yourself some prep. Or to cut down on weight, use dehydrated potatoes, freeze-dried corn, and chopped sundried tomatoes. Basically, use whatever you like.
Sourdough Biscuits Cowboys would’ve eaten sourdough biscuits on the trail. I don’t claim to be a baker of any talent, so you’ll have to make do with one of the many online recipes that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Cowboy website has a sourdough biscuit recipe by Richard Bolt, a longtime cook at Pitchfork Ranch near Guthrie, Texas.
Fresh-baked biscuits are best, of course, but if you’re only camping a few days and would like to keep prep and cleanup to a minimum, prebake the biscuits at home and reheat them over the fire when you’re ready to eat. Otherwise, you’d have to bring a second Dutch oven to cook the biscuits alongside the stew.
Son-of-a-Gun Stew Recipe Servings: 4-6Prep time: 10 MinutesCook time: 1 Hour and 30 Minutes
Ingredients for Son-of-a-Gun Stew:
1 deer heart Quarter to half a deer liver (optional) 2 to 3 ounces of salt pork, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 large carrot, peeled and diced 2 ribs of celery, chopped 1 bay leaf ¼ tsp. garlic powder ½ cup canned diced tomato 4 cups of water ½ tsp. kosher salt Freshly cracked pepper, to taste ¼ cup pearl barley ½ to ¾ pound waxy potato, peeled and diced 1 tsp. beef bouillon powder, optional 1 cup of canned corned, drained Precooked sourdough biscuits, optional Directions:
Cut open venison heart and rinse out blood. Remove vessels and strings. Cut heart into bite-size pieces. Set aside. If available, cut deer liver into small pieces. Pat organs dry with paper towels before cooking. Add chopped salt pork to a cold cast iron pot, and then set it over a medium fire to render. When fat is rendered and pot is hot, add deer organ pieces to brown. Then add chopped onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, garlic powder and a sprinkle of salt. Sweat vegetables until softened, stirring occasionally. Next, add diced tomato and water. When mixture comes to a simmer, add ½ tsp. salt and pearl barley. Close the lid and allow stew to simmer for 45 minutes, adjusting fire as needed to maintain consistent heat. Stir occasionally. Then add potatos and corn, and simmer for another 30 minutes, or until vegetables soften and deer heart becomes tender. Add more water if needed. Season stew to taste with beef bouillon, salt and pepper. Serve stew with biscuits.