Cereal - a bushcrafters staple?

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santaman2000

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Jan 15, 2011
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Ah we're just confused because we hear 'Western' and we think Western Europe, not Western Hemisphere. The meridian kind of divides the UK :roll: so England has a foot in both hemispheres.

M
This was my problem too. It doesn’t really seem right to an American mindset either. The first time I saw the real definition it took me by surprise.
 

santaman2000

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Corn was until recently a very area specific crop. The 'corn belt' is well named.
Greenland is a massive island and under Danish 'rule'. I don't think they'd appreciate being called North American.
The Western Hemisphere isn't just America, iimmc....it includes most of the UK, Ireland, Portugal, big chunk of France and Spain, enormous part of Africa, etc., too.

On the whole we're lucky here because it's fairly easy to find gluten free oat products and the prices are dropping as the volume increases with more purchasers.
Yeah Greenland might be under Danish rule but then too the Bahamas are under British sovereignty. Yet both are on the North American continental plate.
 
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santaman2000

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So I originate in the Eastern Hemisphere....

.......Most people, including me all my life, think of Western Hemisphere as a politicsl/ economical division, where most of Europe, ( not Russia) and North America, but not Africa, and America south of USA are.....
It appears to be a matter of semantics. The difference between:

1) Western “world” or Western “culture”
vs
2) Western “Hemisphere.”

Most of us would think them synonymous but they aren’t.
 
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Janne

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I never understood why Quinoa did not spread all across the Americas.
Grows well where Maize does not, on higher altitudes, does it not?

Btw, I thank you on all our behalf about the W. H. bit. I am quite sure not many of us knew that.
Always nice to learn something new!
 

santaman2000

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I never understood why Quinoa did not spread all across the Americas.
Grows well where Maize does not, on higher altitudes, does it not?....!
Maize does grow well at higher altitudes (at least up to a point) It was originally cultivated in the Mexican highlands before spreading to th lowlands. The Incas grew it extensively. That said, I believe quinoa doe indeed grow at higher altitudes still. I also remember reading that the original Spanish explorers didn’t especially like the taste and that a quinoa crop produces fewer calories for the same acreage. (High calorie count for acreage is the main reason potatoes became so popular when they were brought back to Europe. That and their Hardiness in cold climates)
 

Robson Valley

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Quinoa was unique to the Alto Plano of South America and the people who live there. It was a staple for them.
As the darling of the trendy grain crops, price and availability has stripped the indigenous people of their food.
Quinoa grows very well in many other places such as California. This has unloaded the burden from the SA people.
Amaranth seed has had similar misfortunes. I can grow it here at 53N. Never planted Quinoa.
Neither one of them has very strong stem strength. It is a fact that wind-thrown plants with folded stems will die.

I like Quinoa. My degraded taste buds can't tell the difference between red and white. Cooked like rice.
I have a very elegant veg quinoa cook book.

You all need to eat your fill of Canadian wild rice. It is NOT rice (Oryza sp). Takes 50% longer to cook.
It is a tall grass grain which grows well in shallow standing water (back bays of the Churchill River system).
It's cultivated all over North America. Suits the "white bread and mayo" mentality for exotic food.
I support the LaRonge Native CoOp in LaRonge SK and nobody else. Ever.

Wheat and pasta are far better in terms of fuel cost that you have to carry.
Spaghetini is 8 minutes, al dente, and quinoa is 30+ minutes, no matter how hot your stove is.

Potatoes. Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian have grown a particular Peruvian potato for centuries.
Evidence of an enormous paleo trading network along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south.
Inca taught the rest of the world how to do freeze drying. Yup, potatoes.
How many varieties can you buy where you live? Here, it's less than 20.
 

Toddy

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Is that 20% buckwheat added to wheat flour ? or 20% of any of the mix of flours in gluten free ?

The 25% is kind of the concensus on vegetarian sites for adding buckwheat (Haven't checked Larousse), where they're playing around with gluten free baking too, to be added to wheat flour but still makes baking that has both the right texture, mouthfeel, looks appealing, smells right and tastes good.

The rye bread I checked last here had 65% rye in it, I admit it looked stodgy. Oat bread made only with oats is pretty heavy too.

Cultural mores and comfort foods are I think set in childhood to a large extent.
If I toast oats for cranachan my son comes home and he's straight into the kitchen :) He loves that smell. The other one it's roasting hazelnuts that gets to him.
 
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Toddy

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I only cook quinoa for about 15 minutes. Roughly the same as grits.

I boil it hard for ten, then gently leave it to poach until the wee 'shells' seperate. I guestimate about fifteen to twenty on top of the boiling. The water's all absorbed and it fluffs up with a fork.
It's a 'hmmm/ maybe' sort of food for me. Not something to get excited about, iimmc ? Just variety more than anything. It's like couscous, and useable hot or cold with stuff added to it.
 
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Robson Valley

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I can eat lots of quinoa. I like the taste. Soya Sauce (Choyu) is a nice novelty from time to time.
Quinoa here takes 30 minutes of a soft boil. Maybe add some chicken or beef stock base?
I have only 6 different kinds of rice. Seven, if you add Canadian wild rice.
Rices, quinoa and couscous are great cold salad starters.

20% grain additive in the wheat flour part of the formula, by weight, not by volume.
I'll always take Gisslen's word for it. I've got the 5th ed, I think it's up to #7 or #8 by now.
I have what I think must be a "gluten addiction" so I'm never looking for gluten-free anything.

Experience tells me that my guts are very happy with pasta & cheese sauce, meaty bits tossed in as well.
Small shells, rotini and spagetini are portable and keep for months. Small fuel cost to cook in 8-9 minutes.
Manicotti and lasagna I only ever mess with in my own kitchen.
Stuffed pasta? Bring it on!!!!! I had 3" tortelli molds made = great for guests.
 

Janne

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20% wheat, rest rye.
Properly done, it is somewhat heavier/denser than home made wheat flour bread.

The proper way for rye flour is to make the dough with a small amount of yeast, then let be in a cool room for a day.
I suspect you get a sour dough type of action.
The second rise needs to be much longer too.

The Mongols won over the various Chinese tribes/kingdoms because the Mongol diet was milk based. Mares milk. Every soldier rode on a horse, and had a spare one.
So he had a constant supply of energy dense food that was produced where he was.
The various Chinese tribes had a Rice based diet. Not energy dense. Had to be grown, transported.
This tied up a large % of the male population.
The Mongols unified China in the 1200'.
 

Robson Valley

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Read Gisslen if you want to make good grain (artisan) breads. There's more than 1000 formulas in that book.
Because all professional formulas are done by weight, very easy to scale up or down (CD of the app supplied).

Mom always made up big bags of bannock and pancake mixes for camping trips.
Those and pasta saved no end of grief. Must have taken her some time to get the meal quantities just right.

You got shoot some chickens (3 kinds of grouse) and/or catch some fish (various trout species).
I can get the rest of lunch and supper set out just fine.
Buck up and split a lot more firewood. We still have frost most every night now.
 

Janne

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Cayman Islands are on the Caribbean plate, moving away from both the North American plate AND the South American plate...

Island is also on the North American plate, but they are still good people!
:)
 

santaman2000

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Jan 15, 2011
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I only cook quinoa for about 15 minutes. Roughly the same as grits.

I boil it hard for ten, then gently leave it to poach until the wee 'shells' seperate. I guestimate about fifteen to twenty on top of the boiling. The water's all absorbed and it fluffs up with a fork.
It's a 'hmmm/ maybe' sort of food for me. Not something to get excited about, iimmc ? Just variety more than anything. It's like couscous, and useable hot or cold with stuff added to it.

I can eat lots of quinoa. I like the taste.........
I’m with Mary about it being mainly for variety. That and it has slightly less carbs than grits (I sub it in grits dishes but have never subbed it for rice yet) In fact, I tend to think of it as an alternative for grits more than anything erase as I find it extremely comparable in texture and taste (or should I say lack of its own taste?) Like grits, plain quinoa has no discernible taste to me. And like grits (and to a degree, rice) I find it simply makes a good filler, taking on the taste of how it’s served. Serve it with salt and butter (like grits) it simply tastes buttery and salty. Serve it with tomato gravy like grits, and it tastes of bacon grease and tomatoes thickened with roux. Use it as the filler for. a seafood bake and it takes on the cheesy seafood taste the same way grits do.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
.......Cultural mores and comfort foods are I think set in childhood to a large extent.
If I toast oats for cranachan my son comes home and he's straight into the kitchen :) He loves that smell. The other one it's roasting hazelnuts that gets to him.
I generally agree. However I never had chili con carne until I was in my late teens. I had never even heard of gammon, scotched eggs, nor bubble & squeak until I was in England in my late 20s. Yet Now I’m addicted to them all.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Florida
Ye cannae have it both ways !
Southern America is southern USA you say, so North America isn't the North American Plate :rolleyes:
LOL. Again, semantics. The difference between “Southern” America and “South” America. The former is an area within a nation (the very finest area of that nation at that!) and the latter is a continent.
 

Robson Valley

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I keep a variety of rices on hand as they all taste really different to me.
Long grain is the bland one, basmati and brown basmati are my favorites.
Wild rice and brown rice try my patience for cook times.
Orzo and sticky rice for California rolls are specialties.

Maybe a dozen(?) shapes of pasta and macaroni is not one of them.
Dozens of other shapes have their uses.
Then you make your own pasta from scratch = no big deal.
I like to do that, to roll herbs right into the pasta to have with chicken.

1/2 smashed corn flakes and 1/2 raw sesame seed + seasoning
makes a very good crispy coating for fried stuff like chicken and schnitzels.

Pasta and bannock mix and a lot of bacon for a camp.
 

Janne

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Orzo is pasta.

I like (real) Israeli Cous Cous. The large grained one.
Soaks up flavour, nice mouth feel.
CousCous is a nice form of pasta.

I like all pasta, except the thin versions type Angel hair, or long and flat type Fettucine or Linguini.
 

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