Survival Rations Inspired by History

[Mesquite]

Just watched this video by an interesting chap who does a lot of historical re-enactment and camping trips.

In this one he makes his own long life 'survival rations' which are well thought out.

 

[Toddy]

It's been a while since we did bannock recipes, isn't it ?

Hmmmm

 

[Toddy]

The much missed late TomBear posted on making hardtack, the British Navy's biscuits, etc.,
I suppose those too are survival foods. Samuel Pepys was the man who worked out the rations...a pound a day of good clean sweet flour for every man, and a gallon of ale or the like.

 

[Kadushu]

The much missed late TomBear posted on making hardtack, the British Navy's biscuits, etc.,
I suppose those too are survival foods. Samuel Pepys was the man who worked out the rations...a pound a day of good clean sweet flour for every man, and a gallon of ale or the like.

And a lime, this side of the pond ;-)

 

[Moondog55]

Called Tararua biscuits across the Tasman.
I'm headed up the hills in a few days for a weeks ramble and I just baked up a batch of bush biscuits.
There is some discussion locally on whether you have better food value just picking up rocks by the side of the track and if Dwarf battle bread might be a better option for the safety of your teeth.
Absolutely no measurements were involved in this crime against stomachs, but a mix of Wholemeal flour, quick rolled oats, self raising flour, almond meal, dark brown sugar [ like dry mollasses] sunflower oil and a little water. An hour in the fan forced oven at 135C and then cool in place.
Cut into 18 large rectangles before baking. That's a kilo of biscuits at a ration of 2 or 3 per day.
I'll let people know how they ate if I survive to tell.

Recipes for Tararua Biscuits ​

Christchurch Tramping Club

ctc.org.nz



Definitely not definitive recipes as every batch I have ever made is different, some better some not so much.
The best I have ever made was with buckwheat flour

 

[TLM]

sunflower oil

Of all the most commonly used vegetable oils sunflower oil is the fastest to go rancid, coconut oil is the slowest.

 

[Moondog55]

While perhaps true in the long term, but irrelevant over a month or so, if cooking for the long term I'd use bacon fat or suet dripping or copious amounts of BHA and Ascorbic acid combined with vacuum packaging in foil and paper.

 

[TLM]

While perhaps true in the long term, but irrelevant over a month or so,

Not if the product is heated like put in the oven. That baking is definitely enough to oxidize oils.

BHA and Ascorbic acid

Depending what exactly is meant by BHA. Ascorbic acid does kind of act as an antioxidant in oils but efficiently only if used in a certain way.

 

[Moondog55]

Sure and rancid oils can cause bowel cancer as do over heated oils but I still eat shop cooked fish&chips. Some things perhaps are simply not worth stressing over.

 

[TLM]

Some things perhaps are simply not worth stressing over.

While I kind of agree with this in general in this case there easy and better alternatives.

 

[billycoen]

I used to love chippy scratchings,but some chippy's wont sell them anymore,elf and safety don't you know.

 

[Moondog55]

Agreed that if I make another better batch [ no Almond meal, no wholemeal ] for long term storage I'll bake like old fashioned hardtack, but for somehting eaten within a fortnite of baking I really think I am safe

 

[TLM]

I used to consult for a company that made antioxidant mixtures for various vegetable oils, quite a lot of testing involved. Let's say that it also changed my personal oil usage. Olive (1) and coconut (3) are used mostly, canola (2) for frying (as low temp as practical) never repeated usage. Some butter (and totally hydrogenated margarine ((mostly apparently canola here)) still used for baking as wifey for some reason does not like to handle liquid oils there.

Canola is used here by most french fry makers, it is instructive to see what comes out of the oil baths when they are sometimes totally cleaned, best word I have is brown goo. Some use palm oil but that teds to go smelly faster than the others.

So how was it: "too much knowledge causes invariably some pain."

 

[forrestdweller]

i recently made a small amount of rations inspired by the video above, using two coconut shells* of flour, one coconut shell of oats, a handful of grated coconut (for some flavour)and a bit of sugar. for lack of other options available at our local supermarket i used palm oil as fat source -- a substance i normally avoid like the bubonic plague (and my digestion didn't like).... i ended up with ten biscuits, palm-sized and ca. 10mm thick which was enough for an overnight trip.
for larger batches i need a better baking method than frying pan over an open fire but the basic idea works for me

given our tropical climate and having no fridge means baking fresh before a planned trip, but they survived fine for 4days without getting furry on the outside

*ca. 250ml

 

[bearbait]

Logan Bread is another option. It's a flapjack / biscuit-like thing. A search will find you some recipes. I can't find mine (the one I use) at the moment; I think it's on another computer so will post when (if!) I find it.

It was developed for an expedition to Mount Logan in Canada (Yukon Territory) in the 50s.

 

[forrestdweller]

Logan Bread is another option. It's a flapjack / biscuit-like thing. A search will find you some recipes. I can't find mine (the one I use) at the moment; I think it's on another computer so will post when (if!) I find it.

It was developed for an expedition to Mount Logan in Canada (Yukon Territory) in the 50s.

i did a quick search a while ago after a mentioning in another thread -- my main difficulty with the recipe i found was a way to bake it... (=i'm living off-grid and cook on open fire; sadly dutch ovens are as common as hen's teeth around here -- only a crappy aluminium version exists, BUT the only aluminium object allowed in my kitchen is my head torch -- any other aluminium object will be destroyed without warning....) if there's a version doable in a frying pan i'll give it a try

 

[Minotaur]

I do wonder were things like Anzac biscuits and oat cakes sit?
Also what using honey does to those things instead of the syrups?

 

[GNJC]

There is an interesting youtube channel called 'Townsends' that centres on 18th Century food and covers British and North American stuff, it often involves food for keeping and also for journeys.

If any have a particular interest in the naval side of things. 'Feeding Nelson's Navy' by Janet MacDonald is a very good book indeed. And it really brings home the rather obvious fact that, because of the huge amount of physical exertion required by sailors of that time, the food supplied by the navy was in fact both very good and plentiful. (the merchant fleet was sometimes a different story...)

As with so many other historical matters, we shouldn't think our forebears were either stupid or tasteless; hard tack / ship's biscuits have received a pretty bad press, but they were - and are, I've made them - pretty good when made, stored and eaten in the correct way.

 

[bobnewboy]

There is an interesting youtube channel called 'Townsends' that centres on 18th Century food and covers British and North American stuff, it often involves food for keeping and also for journeys.

If any have a particular interest in the naval side of things. 'Feeding Nelson's Navy' by Janet MacDonald is a very good book indeed. And it really brings home the rather obvious fact that, because of the huge amount of physical exertion required by sailors of that time, the food supplied by the navy was in fact both very good and plentiful. (the merchant fleet was sometimes a different story...)

As with so many other historical matters, we shouldn't think our forebears were either stupid or tasteless; hard tack / ship's biscuits have received a pretty bad press, but they were - and are, I've made them - pretty good when made, stored and eaten in the correct way.

Gotta say - I think that Townsend is one of the best channels I’ve seen on YouTube.

 

[GNJC]

Gotta say - I think that Townsend is one of the best channels I’ve seen on YouTube.

Yep, I've been interested in all things about 18th Century cooking, especially the ironware, for a long time and have a fair bit of knowledge stacked up and a pretty good library too.

Nevertheless, Townsends is one of the few channels that consistently impresses me, both with the level of research and the authenticity of the ingredients and equipment used.

And they are good people with an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the subject - but not 'too much', meaning that they aren't obsessive, just very interested.