Slang: Western and Military Slang

An early example of culinary slang is found in the lexis of the American cowboy. As Ramon Adams, the most famous student of Western speech, wrote in Cowboy Lingo (1936), “The cowboy did not slight his slang when it came to his ‘chuck,’ the unpoetic name he gave to food.” We can thank the cowhand for such slang terms as “Mexican strawberries” for dried beans; “mountain oysters” for fried bull testicles; “son-of-a-gun stew” for a medley of calf brain, organs, and parts; and “belly cheater” for camp cook.