There was one beef dish that was unique to the American cattle drives. That was -- excuse my French -- Son of a bench stew. If a woman or a preacher were in camp, the stew might be called SOB. It finally became Son of a Gun stew, which was more appropriate for tame society. It was also called by the name of any person or thing that was out of favor at the time. If there was someone from a West Texas town that was out of favor, the stew might have been called "the gentleman from Odessa".
No matter the name, the stew consisted of all parts of a young calf except the hide, horns and hooves. The standard ingredients for the stew were just from the calf. The heart, liver, brains, sweetbreads, tongue, marrow gut and pieces of tenderloin made up the stew. The marrow gut is a tube that connects the two stomachs of a calf that has not been weaned. It contains a substance resembling marrow. The marrow gut is what gives the SOB stew its principal flavor. The liver was used sparingly as too much would make the stew bitter.
SOB stew was made by putting small pieces of fatty meat in the Dutch oven and rendering the fat out of it. Next went in the heart, as it is a tough cut of meat. (All the parts were cut into small pieces.) The tongue, which had been skinned, went in next. The rest of the ingredients were added in small amounts so they could cook as they went in. (You just didn't just dump everything in the pot and go watch TV.) Water was added to the stew only when absolutely necessary. The juices of the meat were usually the only liquid required. The brains were the last to be added. Usually they were cooked separately with a little flour and then added to the pot as thickening.
