Cowboys Indulged Their Sweet Tooths In The Old West With A Familiar Dessert

We're huge fans of donuts — remember our post about Walmart's Persian cinnamon bakery donuts, which customers call some of the best? You can imagine our delight when we learned that one of the foods that cowboys ate on the trail wasn't humdrum fare like dried fruit, jerky, or cornbread: it was a predecessor of the modern donut called a bear sign. Bear signs have a distinctly unappetizing history behind their name (they were likely dubbed for their resemblance to piles of bear scat, which act as an alert that bears are in the vicinity), but they're drop-dead delicious reminders of America's culinary history.

There's some evidence that bear sign donuts may have been an offshoot of another cowboy nosh, sourdough bread. In this case, chunks of leftover dough could have easily been fried in molten lard over the campfire. Now, contemporary recipes for bear sign abound, and not all of them are sourdough-based or even leavened with yeast. 

A basic bear sign recipe calls for a buttermilk-based soft dough augmented by cinnamon and sugar, which is kneaded lightly and dropped in small circles into hot oil. The resulting fritters are often smothered in powdered sugar, not unlike a modern-day beignet. Since they contain baking powder, they would be most accurately classified as a cake donut. Legend says that a hungry cowboy would ride a good distance out of his way for some bear sign donuts, which we imagine he might wash down with the certain type of coffee that cowboys drank on the trail.

Bear signs are pretty darn easy to whip up in a 2020s home, but, unlike cowboys, we also have a shortcut to hot fritters and lips dusty with residual powdered sugar. In comments across the internet, home cooks have reported similar, easier results by using cut-up canned biscuits to fry and sugar. Allegedly, Pillsbury Grands do the job exceptionally well and are thick enough for a nice, substantial fritter. Just separate the individual biscuits, cut in half, and fry as you would a homemade dough!

A traditional bear sign donut was adorned only with powdered sugar, but we see some real possibilities for crafting a scrumptious dessert. Lacking fancier sides, some cowboys ate their bear sign donuts with a dish of stewed prunes. Some fresh cut fruit would be a much nicer garnish for your donuts, we think — how about mixed berries and homemade whipped cream? You could also take a hint from modern donut baking and top your bear signs in a drizzle of melted chocolate. Got a particularly worthy vanilla ice cream that you favor? Dish out a scoop on top! Cowboys gobbled up bear sign donuts as a rare treat in a life of hard work and privation, but there's no reason we can't flex our modern advantages to make them even more special.