Trekking Food

[TheSimpleMan]

I went back a few pages to make sure there isn't already a thread and found Tenngun had created one on trekking food storage but not specifically recipes.

What kind of meals are you guys able to make on a multi-day trek? Townsend has lots of great videos on 18th Century recipes, but many require things like milk, eggs, cream, ect... AND, what are the main ingredients you tend to always take with you? (Flour, rice, beans, ect)

 

[Sean Gadhar]

AND, what are the main ingredients you tend to always take with you? (Flour, rice, beans, ect)

Elk or deer jerky, Dry fruit pear, apple, persimmons especially, Nuts

If it's not cold, I think I can go 3 days on a quart & 1/2 sized cloth bag stuffed with the above and not miss much. In the cold, I don't think there is enough fat/carbs in that diet to keep warm in the cold.

 

[satx78247]

Whole wheat flour, dried eggs, yellow corn meal, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, rice, pinto/black beans, good coffee, sugar & salt pork, if on horseback.
(IF I'm in a canoe/boat, I also take powdered whole milk, dried fruits & a couple of pounds of honey.)

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

Nuts are high calorie for light weight.Pemmican is good or you can cheat and use summer sausage or pepperoni. Dry smoked ham and bacon are good and light weight. I dont eat much in the way of corn flour or bread over the past few years so eat an almond flour,soy flour and wheat bran substitute for corn or other grain whole or flour.Hard cheese such as parmisan or asaigo. If your just 2 or 3 days pre bolied eggs and 'corn dodgers'hush puppies' or the hunters pudding shown on towsend is good. Boston Brown Bread is simular to townsens hunters pudding and I used to carry it. Rice is light and easy to cook. Shreaded cooked then dried beef mixxed with bullion cubes can substitute fr 'portable soup'. Dried onions and mushrooms go a long way to making camp nice. Dont forget the tea or coffee. Little blocks of maple sugar are off my diet but is tasty and light, makes a good candy bar....its one of the few foods I miss. Tell Alden not to read this but grits are light. and you can makecorn meal mush and slice it fry it and have a good breakfast.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

My basic load is for mostly a "cold camp" but I do carry two soldier's cups called "cans", one of which has a bale so I can boil water in it. Sometimes I add a very small brass trade kettle.

Basic load:
Ship's Biscuit
Rock-a-hominy (coarse ground parched corn and brown sugar)
or just plain Parched Corn
Jerked Venison
Raisins
Gunpowder (green) tea
salt, red pepper
Canteen of water
Pipe and tobacco


If I'm feeling fancy, or in winter when caloric intake needs are higher,
a piece of Cured pork or Ham, these would be boiled before eating...I rarely if ever fry food when on a trek or when "ranging".
Piece of Cheese - "farmer's" cheese
Small bottle of very strong rum with lime and sugar added (just add hot water for Grog)
Dried Apples
Small piece of cone sugar
nutmeg, ginger


With my limited amount of stuff you don't get too many recipes....:haha:

You can mix rock-a-hominy, and raisins and boil this to get a sort of breakfast dish. Or soak some of the ships biscuit in water, heat it, and make a sort of porridge. Get fancy with adding dried apples and nutmeg and sugar.

If you get some game, large game broiled on a stick with sea salt. Small game like squirrel boiled into a soup or stew...fills me up better than broiling, though rather meager with only meat and corn or ship's biscuit to thicken it. IF I was going out when game was in season I might take a potato and yellow squash, or some beans...might be able to make a sort of squirrel chilli with the red pepper added...

LD

 

[Sean Gadhar]

:redface: I forgot tea & coffee both :redface:

Got to have one or the other!

SaTx put in honey, I LOVE honey but I had a pack horse go bronc & bust the lid on maple syrup in the panniers days of thinking I had everything clean & picking something up to find it stuck to me Everything from that pack picked up dirt, even after heating water and washing each item. It oozed out of seams like cosmoline from a hot surplus rifle :barf:

Now think about washing out all your gear in your tin cup :shake:

So pack your honey, if you take it. Then throw it down the stairs at the house. If it doesn't leak :idunno: I guess your good.

 

[satx78247]

You should note that I only take honey when traveling by watercraft.

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

A honey or maple syrup glaze would make that horse taste mighty fine. :grin:

 

[crockett]

I'm not sure what type of persona you are interested in but I've sort of been changing a few things. Years ago I read about "corn boilers" and "pork eaters" and I wasn't sure what was what but I assumed the "corn" eaten was whole dried kernels or parched and soaked and boiled to make it edible and that seemed like a lot of work. The "Pork" I figured was salt pork or some type of cured ham.
I read that some mountain men returning eastward from Taos ate boiled wheat meal along the way and I am thinking but not sure that the "corn" might have actually been corn meal. In any event I never realized that corn meal is a lot like grits, just finer ground. You can take a couple of heaping tablespoons and mix it with some water into a sort of thin pea soup and then bring to a boil and it swells to beat the band. Two heaping tablespoons for dinner on the trail is compact, lightweight trail food that only takes 5-10 minutes to cook and it is cheaper than cheap. Toss in some bits of ham or broken up jerky and you have a really easy trekking dinner. Soak the pot in water while you do some other camp chores and then just scrub out with grass and sand, don't even need soap. easy clean up. Grits leave a glue type residue, so does macaroni but the corn meal just seems to clean up better. Salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes improve the taste. On the "Pork" I think the original food item was akin to a Smithfield ham or dry bacon that now a days costs an arm and a leg. I'm told you can cook meat and pack it in a container surrounded by lard and it will keep a month or more so that might work. I'm sort of a lazy guy around camp. I'm usually hungry so boiled buzzard would taste good. IAE-simple, simple is my way so I might just eat the meat separate from the boiled corn meal- that keeps grease out of the pot and then you don't need soap or a lot of clean up- just the water rinse.
Anyone with documented trail food, please add your knowledge.

 

[tenngun]

Dry smoked bacon or ham need no rifrigerration and can be carried raw, you just have to boil it or soak it a little before cooking. Corn of corse ment whole, or ground corn, but also met any other whole grain.Hasty pudding or grul was what we would call hot cereal today.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Part of that also has to do with geography, then and now...plus terminology...

To Make Water Gruel 1755
You must take a pint of water and a large spoonful [tablespoon] of oatmeal ; then stir it together and let it boil up three or four times stirring it often. Do not let it boil over, and strain it through a sieve, salt it to your palate, put in a good piece of fresh butter, brew it with a spoon until the butter is all melted, then it will be fine and smooth and very good. Some love a little pepper in it.

Water Gruel 1823
Put a large spoonful [tablespoon] of oat meal by degrees into a pint of water by degrees and when smooth, boil it.

This is a thick beverage more than something that you eat with a spoon. So this would be a lot thinner than would actually making hot oatmeal, or another hot cereal today, eh?

Now depending on how much "history" you want to put into your rations on a trek...that might vary your diet too.

For example, fresh apples, and many other "green veggies" in the Spring would not be found, but dried might still be in supply if the supply was not used up over winter. (Just about all of the apples you find in the store are not varieties that existed in early America so maybe not a big deal. :grin You might consider fishing out a whole pickled cucumber, and wrapping it in a cloth...I doubt it would spoil in three days. You might consider some of the pickling recipes for things like walnuts, and make those, to add to your rations...

LD

 

[George]

An interesting one and one of my favorites is pocket soup aka beef-glue aka portable soup aka glue-broth. Well documented as a trail and traveler's food very early, 1728 by William Byrd in North Carolina.



It's very compact and light weight, adds little to your load, and stays good for a long time. A piece of this as big as a walnut dissolved in 1 pint of boiling water makes a very tasty broth. Simmer some rockahominy and jerky in it and you have a good meal, especially if you liven it up with some red pepper.

For the hard core stitch counters, only, because making it is a long, complicated process.

Spence

 

[Billnpatti]

If you want to be a minimalist, just make some ground beef (or venison) jerky. Fry it breaking it up as much as possible as it cooks, season it with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. When it is done, scatter it put on a jelly roll pan and put it in the oven set at about 225 deg to dry it out into ground jerky. Put the finished product in one bag, put some oatmeal in another bag. Put a few boullion cubes in another small bag and carry some honey in a non-breakable container. Then for breakfast, you cook up some oatmeal and put honey in it. For supper, cook up some oatmeal and put some of your ground meat jerky and boullion in it. Both taste pretty good....the first day but by the time the treck is over you will be mighty glad to see a McDonalds or a Cracker Barrel or an IHOP.

 

[tenngun]

What's your receipt for that? When I have tried it my didn't come out well

 

[tenngun]

Yup ... Grule porage hasty pudding mush.. Variations on a theam. People in 18th century were wary about any thing raw. Even fresh fruit.... Try out stuff at home first. We like what we get to used to, and food from this time can be not what we like. We can be correct and find early foods you like. Don't spoil a trip with food that's intolerabe. I have found old meals that I copy or adept due to my dietary requirement taest a lot better then mre s

 

[coloradoclyde]

What's your receipt for that? When I have tried it my didn't come out well

My attempt was also a failure..
I think it involves witchcraft and some kind of animal sacrifice. :grin:

 

[George]

What's your receipt for that? When I have tried it my didn't come out well

You have to boil meat and bones for about 10 hours, then let it cool, skim of the fat, strain out the solids and boil it again for several hours. It will eventually begin to thicken, when it does that enough you pour it into a shallow pan and let it set up. It will be like very stiff jello. Cut that into cakes and dehydrate them for several hours in a dehydrator or several days if you do it in the sun. It's critical that you include joints with cartilage in the mix, that's what makes it gel. If the meat you use doesn't have a fair bit, throw in some pig's feet. I don't add seasoning to mine, except maybe some salt, seasoning goes in when I eat it.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

I wonder if you could cheat by mixing stock and gelatin.

 

[George]

I wonder if you could cheat by mixing stock and gelatin.

Of course. You can always cheat at anything if the experience of doing the old way isn't important.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

:redface:
Hoisted by my own petard.... :haha: