Foods and Such

[Lyndon]

What do you like to eat when out on a scout?

I do the normal stuff like parched corn, jerk, and bacon. I keep cornmeal on hand for cornmeal cakes and fry in bacon grease (even better if you happen to have eggs, applebutter, or molasses); wild rice, split pea, and lentil soup with jerk; steel cut oats are always good for breakfast, oh yeah and bacon; fresh trout when its available (and in season).

I'm looking for some new ideas to try that doesn't take lots of prep work or require hauling the kitchen sink. What's your favorite and how do you prepare it?

Lyndon

[Joshuway]

Well, certain times of year squirrel is Tops! I also pick up a fist-sized wheel of gouda cheese at walmart a few days before a scout: very tasty, won't go bad, and doesn't need refrigeration, and comes sealed in red wax. I have found the same cheese at walmarts all over the country. Pre-cooked beef is good, and keeps a day or so, depending on weather, and I have also tried beef boiled in vinegar, apparently a period way to preserve beef; it's pretty good and you can find some methods of doing it here on Historical Trekking. And while eggs aren't the easiest thing to transport, they keep at least a couple days and can be prepared quite a few ways. Here's hoping lots of folks chime in with their favorites. Variety is the spice of life!

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Scouts Out!

[Mario]

Since 90% of the time, I'm on a military scout or such, I pack what they packed. Depending on which persona, some kind of bread (either round loaves or biscuit), salt beef or pork, dried peas, sometimes rice.

An example:

“M. de Rigaud in his letter of the 27th said that he had 152 sacks of biscuits which should make 5,000 rations, 70 kegs of salt pork of 45 pounds apiece, 30 bags of peas, and 38 quarters of flour.”
-Bougainville. Pg. 19

“All troops, including the militia, tomorrow will take 4 days bread…”
-Bougainville. Pg. 22

“…bread, salt pork, peas on the basis of filed ration. Each officer has in addition three pints of brandy and two pounds of chocolate.”
-Bougainville. Pg 87

“The ration is composed of two pounds of bread, half a pound of salt pork or a pound of beef and four ounces of peas.”
-Bougainville. Pg 9





For the other 10%, I look at what people in a similar situation at the time ate. In my Southern research, I've found Bartram is really good for that. He describes his food pretty often.


Mario

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[Loyalist Dave]

In Camping & Woodcraft Kephart publishes caloric information for many of the foods that campers of the beginning of the 20th century might take along. Some of those foods of his era were unchanged from the colonial era.

Camping had started to come into vogue as a pastime, and the Boy Scouts of America had not yet been created. Also at the same time the extreme parts of the globe, such as the poles, were beginning to attract explorers, and many institutions were studying foods for weight, calories and nutrition. Several armies of the world were also interested in the subject.

What is interesting to note, is that Parched Corn (or in its form when pounded: rock-a-hominy) is very high in calories to weight ratio. More than oats, for example. In fact it was the highest of any of the cereal products or dried fruits that could be carried. His list was from the United States Department of Agriculture, and I have extracted some of the items, and reduced them to "per ounce" values:

Salt Pork = 222 calories
Chocolate = 164 calories
Parched Corn = 120 calories
Granulated sugar =114 calories
Oats = 110 calories
Whole wheat flour = 103 calories
Raisins = 100 calories
Peas = 98 calories
Rice = 97 calories
Navy beans = 95 calories
Dried Apples = 84 calories
dried beef = 50 calories

Now this of course was done prior to 1917, with some information gathered prior to the outbreak of WWI. I don't know if improved crop raising or improved hybrids (or both) may have changed the caloric values of these products available to us today. Also, the measuring when such foods are tested today may be more precise, and the caloric values may be closer to each other. Plus, he did not list wild rice, barley, nor walnuts, for example. The "salt pork" above is dry cured, and I suppose its value covers dry cured bacon, for he lists "smoked" bacon, and its value would be 169 calories per ounce.

In his book he mentions the iron ration of hardtack and dry cured bacon, but no calorie information is found for hardtack, as well as mentioning pemican but no caloric value of that is discussed. Perhaps hardtack's value was thought to be the same as whole wheat flour? He also mentions the German erbwurst military ration (compressed peaflour sausage) and its drawbacks..., but no calories mentioned for that either.

Still, I use his table to give me an idea of where the calories of trail foods stand in relation to each other. I think the information is sufficiently accurate for that purpose.

I like to carry ship's biscuit, parched corn, some dried beef, tea, and maple sugar. I will carry dry cured bacon or salt pork when I can get it. I have also carried oat groats and wheat groats. (A groat is simply the grains of wheat or oats, uncut or unmilled. If you carry dried maize or barley, they are referred to as "corn" - barley corn or Indian corn)

LD

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It's not what you think you know; It's what you can prove

[CT03]

Not much really to add... other than corn, corn and more corn... picked up a book on cooking with corn from Mt Vernon and it has lots of old recipies... Grits for breakfast, journey cakes, cornbread, corn pudding, corn cobs are also a nice treat.

If you have a Trader Joes about or some healthfood stores they have real wild rice which not looks more earthy but also tastes great.

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At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blew Tomorrow fresh Woods, and Pastures new

[depot7254]

fire cakes, boiled beef, easy to make prior to leaving, they don't spoil and they are very easy to document for a military persona

[Swanny]

What I like to eat? Products of the chase or fishery slow roasted over a deep bed of birch or diamond willow coals with some wild rice or hominy and chased down with a healthy draught of rum.

What I usually end up eating? That depends upon the season, as in winter frozen meat or fish is appropriate for my historical personna, but the rest of the year it's usually pemmican or dried meat or smoked fish boiled up with wild rice or hominy chased down with a healthy draught of rum.

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“A good dog is so much a nobler beast than an indifferent man that one sometimes gladly exchanges the society of one for that of the other.” (William Francis Butler) Stardancer Historical Freight Dogs at http://www.tworiversak.com/mushing.htm

[trent/OH]

Goobers peas?

[Paul C. Daiute]

Lyndon ,
Did you read any of my posts on trail foods?
Regards, Paul

[Woodsman1752]

I will generally take a hunk of elk or venison summer sausage, or a piece of cured smoked ham or slab bacon. I like brown rice or oats, a apple, cheese , chocolate, coffee beans, sometime jerky or hard tack, dried peas are always good, if room I throw in a potato, but when in season I like to take a couple of fresh corn on the husk, I just wet them and put next to hot coals , these staples varry depending on the length of scout or hunt.

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I have never been lost, .......but I have been confused for a week or two

[AxelP]

corn in the husk is always good. greens would be a good addition if you like that sort of thing.

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I Hate Rabbits...

[CT03]

Besides jerked or smoked meats and saussage like Landjaeger...

Pemmican is pretty easy to make... If you ask your local butcher they can usually get you tallow. Mix in some ground up jerkey nuts and berries and your in business.

Or you can always take maple syrup boil off more of the water it will get thicker then cool and stirr it until it turns into a gray brown paste and add in nuts and dried berries to make something like a granola bar. I forget what that was called.

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At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blew Tomorrow fresh Woods, and Pastures new

[Lyndon]

Paul, I had not been over to that section of the board for quite a while but it looks like there is some pretty good stuff over there. I like to make the equivelent of fire cakes but use corn meal instead of wheat flour and fry it in bacon grease. I and several generations before me were raised eating what we call cornmeal mush for breakfast so its just like home. Trader Joe's sells pretty much the same thing in a plastic tube but they call it polenta.

I don't usually take greens with me but I do take a couple apples or some sort of fruit. An apple with some cheese (smoked gouda is great), jerk, and a hard boiled egg or two makes a decent cold lunch

Corn on the cob roasted in the husk next to the fire is great. Maybe its just because everything tastes better in the mountains but if its kept moist its good just the way it is with nothing on it. I haven't tried rockahominy but it sounds interesting and worth a try. Corn pudding is always a treat too but the recipe I have is more than I'd want to pack and prepare on a scout.

I find meat is the tough one. I haven't tried curing or drying my own meat and have yet to find a butcher shop around here that sells it. If I'm going to be out in the woods for a few days and want to take meat I usually freeze it before I leave and cook it up the first night. I haven't been all that adventurous in that department, a messed up stomach out in the woods is no fun.

Lyndon

[CT03]

Looking through some old corn recepies found one that could be a neat one to try out... kind of like an Eastern version of the tamale but made with sweat corn... Basically corn pudding and you wrap it up in a corn husk and let it bake in the ashes of your fire...

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At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blew Tomorrow fresh Woods, and Pastures new

[Lyndon]

That sparked my curiosity, I'd like to see the receipe if you don't mind sharing

Lyndon