The original Trail Food

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camo2460

camo2460

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There was a discussion in the Thread "Really Old Recipes" about Fried Corn and it got me thinking about a Food that I haven't made in a long Time, which is Parched Corn. We have discussed the making of Jerky, and Pemmican but to my knowledge we haven't discussed the Original Trail Food. With a Hand full of Parched Corn and a small amount of Jerky or Pemmican a Traveler could go all day. So this is how you make it:

Get some Sweet corn and allow it to dry, or remove it from the Cob and dry it out in your Dehydrator.
When it's dry put it in a Fry Pan with a little Oil or Lard and fry it until it turns a light Brown, some of the kernels may pop just like Pop Corn, but that's okay.
After it's done allow it to drain on a Paper Towel and blot away any excess Oil.
You can also Season it with anything you want, but I like just a little Salt.
After it has drained you can store it in a Zip Lock, but it's better to store it in a Cloth or Leather Bag.

Enjoy.
 
We did the same basic thing eons ago at a summer survival camp I went to in the Adirondacks. I believe they called it a “Penoli march”, not sure of spelling on that.



We each got a cut of beef, cut it into strips and dried it on sticks on rocks by a creek, making it into jerkey. We did salt the jerky to make up for salt loss due to sweating. We were also given an amount of dried whole-kernel corn which we ground it into a powder, some preferred it coarser than others. You could not get it real consistent as we were just using river-rounded rocks as we could find them. But finer the better was the rule. As I remember anyway.


For the most part, we subsisted on that mixture for… three or four days of hiking. Take a few pinches of corn wash down with water, then a chaw of jerkey. Suck on the jerky as we walked, to get the juices then chew it after it had become re-hydrated.


The corn would swell in your stomach after a drink of water and give the feeling of being ‘full’. The jerky was for nutrients. It was not an actual survival situation, we subsisted off this mixture but every two days we hit a road and there was a can full of fruits, fresh and dried, for us to consume.

I remember it working extremely well. No, you did not feel ‘full’ or satisfied at any point, but it kept hunger pangs away and you could press on. I do not remember lacking ‘energy’ for the hike either.
 
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