know about the starter yeast for bread tradition
many bakers use it and its all very hush hush stuff

Sourdough biscuits

A Coosie (Chuck wagon cook) usually kept sourdough starter to make biscuits with, which were cooked in an iron Dutch oven. The oven was put in hot coals, with other hot coals heaped on top. Hot biscuits were spread with "Charlie Taylor," a mixture of sorghum and bacon grease that passed for trail butter. Coosie might, as a rare treat, fix pancakes, called "splatter dabs."
But meals varied little, from all that I can read. There was chili, beans, son-of-a-gun stew, which was made from the heart, liver and other beef parts, including calf testicles. Son-of-a-gun stew could be made of anything, and often was. Trail food also included fried bacon, called "chuckwagon chicken," and fried salt pork, called "Kansas City fish."
The chili was made from beef browned in bacon fat, mixed with flour, and simmered with a little water, onions if available, and lots of chili pods. Such refinements as canned tomatoes came later. (This Texas dish became a national craze after it was a big hit at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.)
Day in and day out, there were beans. They were cooked on a slow fire the night before; it was the job of the cook's helper to keep the fire going and keep water in the beans. They were called "Texas strawberries" or "prairie whistlers." Clarence Durham's book "Hashknife Kid" tells one incident of a cowboy who had his fill of beans: "These beans offend all five of my senses. I feel bad when I eat them. I'm tired of tasting them. I'm tired of looking at them. And I'm tired of hearing about them."