What should one eat on the Road?

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Straelbora
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Straelbora »

Kortoso wrote:First time I've heard that. Acorns were the staple for many native American tribes.
I guess if you process them correctly, it's not a problem:

Some oaks bear acorns so low in bitter tannins that they can be eaten raw. Legend says that California Indians fought over these trees, which makes some sense because one mature Valley Oak can drop 2,000 pounds of acorns in a really good year. A ton of sweet acorns may well be worth fighting over. That said, even “sweet” acorns should be leached to remove what tannins exist in them because several studies show that unleached acorns can make you constipated and can harm your teeth.

http://honest-food.net/2010/01/14/acorn ... ng-acorns/
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Udwin
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Udwin »

I don't know about other species. I found a trio of high-yielding burr oaks a mile from my campus in Lexington and have never looked back. Always worth it to stop by every other autumn (or so) and fill up a few paper grocery bags' worth. Practically no tannins in them - maybe three changes of room temp water and they're done leaching.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Udwin »

Oh, the things that pop into one's head when one ought to be working on grad school papers!
I thought of another documented simple food familiar to hobbits! :

“Pippin roused a good deal of laughter with an account of the collapse of the roof of the Town Hole in Michel Delving: Will Whitfoot, the Mayor, and the fattest hobbit in the Westfarthing, had been buried in chalk, and came out like a floured dumpling.” (FotR 177)

One simply cannot ask for better food evidence! Dumplings could also be a possible use for the flour included in the supplies Beorn gave to Thorin's company.

As Master Townsend will demonstrate below, if you have some flour, salt, and a pot of water, dumplings are easy to make!
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Greg »

WOO HOO!

One might also note that, with a bit of time, a mortar, and a pestle, one can grind hardtack back into a workable flour for just such a thing.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Manveruon »

Hah! I hadn't thought about that, but of course, you're right, Greg! After all, that's really all hard-tack is.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Kortoso »

Kortoso wrote:
Ringulf wrote:Wow thank you, this is very cool I am going to try it! :mrgreen:
I soaked one of the cram cakes for 1/2 an hour in my Sierra cup, then boiled it for 10 minutes with some garden weeds (dandelion, chicory, mallow). Turned out fine, but I would double the measure of salt.
I had toss out my first batch of cram recently; this was the white flour-only recipe, and I didn't use very much salt and no honey at all.
The buckwheat cram is still fine, though...
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Kortoso »

Greg wrote:WOO HOO!

One might also note that, with a bit of time, a mortar, and a pestle, one can grind hardtack back into a workable flour for just such a thing.
Medieval castles often would just stock barrels of dry wheat, expecting obviously to grind and bake bread when needed.
(Of course, a mortar is a little heavy to cart around....) :P
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Peter Remling »

Kortoso wrote:
Greg wrote:WOO HOO!

One might also note that, with a bit of time, a mortar, and a pestle, one can grind hardtack back into a workable flour for just such a thing.
Medieval castles often would just stock barrels of dry wheat, expecting obviously to grind and bake bread when needed.
(Of course, a mortar is a little heavy to cart around....) :P
You need to use what you have. A sword pommel makes an excellent pestal and the inside of my helm serves for a mortar.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Udwin »

Peter Remling wrote:You need to use what you have. A sword pommel makes an excellent pestal and the inside of my helm serves for a mortar.
Indeed. I think field improvisation is a key skill to possess in this sport. For those who don't carry a sword, something as simple as a linen bag of tight weave and the back of one's belt axe could serve similarly well.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Greg »

Yep. Even here in Indiana, where rocks seem to be hard to come by, a nearby creek is sure to provide a flat stone that things can be ground on with the back end of a knife or *gasp* another rock! Works great.
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Re: BEANS!

Post by Udwin »

Earlier in this thread Greg lamented the laborious process of cooking beans on the trail. But fear not, I may have found a solution! I came across this useful suggestion in one of Mark Baker's books last night (he claims the tip comes via an old hispanic shepherd):

"Before the planned trip, try cooking your beans to about three-quarters done, then drain them and spread them out on paper towels until dry. They will shrivel up nice and ugly but will cook up quickly when in camp." (A Pilgrim's Journey, March/April '86).

It's worth a try!
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Greg »

Any types you'd recommend trying it out on? Might work on green lentils or kidney beans.
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Ruinar Hrafnakveðja »

I haven't read this full thread yet...

But a note on the mention of hedgehog: I recently saw an Irish program where hedgehog was on the menu, but here hedgehog actually referred to a mushroom of the same name (Hydnum repandum). Just thought I'd throw that out there!
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Kortoso »

Greg wrote:Any types you'd recommend trying it out on? Might work on green lentils or kidney beans.
It''s something that is done the Mediterranean area with wheat. They call it bulgur. Is there any evidence that this was used in Northern Europe?
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Re: What should one eat on the Road?

Post by Elleth »

But a note on the mention of hedgehog: I recently saw an Irish program where hedgehog was on the menu, but here hedgehog actually referred to a mushroom of the same name (Hydnum repandum). Just thought I'd throw that out there!
I suppose that *would* make a bit of difference in provisioning... :)
It''s something that is done the Mediterranean area with wheat. They call it bulgur. Is there any evidence that this was used in Northern Europe?
.... I can't recall a specific reference, but it seems hard to believe something like that wouldn't have done at least occasionally. Wheat berries store and carry better than raw flour, so they would have been around. And pre-cooking part of a pottage does make some logistic sense.

I do recall one interesting note from the transition into the high medieval period: a noble was complaining that the local peasantry was getting all full of themselves and regularly eating *bread* for goodness sakes, rather than proper pottage as decent peasants should!

For context - you lose a bit of material (and of course working hours) in grinding raw wheat berries down to flour for bread, so in a very poor economy bread rather than a pottage of boiled wheat berries could be seen as conspicuous consumption.

Anyhow - all that comes to mean that wheat berries in some form makes a lot of sense as a trail ration for Eriador: raw and whole for longer journeys, cracked and boiled then dried or perhaps parched for shorter?
I need to do some proper experimentation: I don't know how much of what we know of 18th c. corn ration practices also apply to wheatberries or groats.
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