I think I'll be trying this!
Bannock bread
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I think I'll be trying this!
If you make it, tell us how it ends up tasting. I watched this entire video - not my normal type of video - and it was interesting. I like the concept, but I'm a little worried about the palatability of the final result. It doesn't exactly ring my dinner bell. But it might be OK in an emergency situation, where I am envisioning its use. Maybe as a "keep in the car for emergency food" type of thing. In the past, sometimes I have kept an (unopened) box of Saltenes and an (unopened) jar of peanut butter for this use. Not something you'd typically want to break open as a snack on a routine day (at least not me). But there for emergencies.
I remember when I was a Cub Scout Den Master the troop's leader recommended we teach the kids to add dog bones to their packs for emergency food. The thought being that you're not going to sneak and eat them during normal times, so they would always be there in emergencies. Not sure if that was good advice, or a pile of crap. This bannock kind of reminds me of that Cub Scout advice. Yeah, it's something that will be there when I really need it, because there's no way I'd eat it in a non-emergency situation. Maybe this bannock will taste better than I'm imagining it would.
Also, besides taste, tell us about any GI tract issues you may have after eating it (the more delicately you can describe that, the better).
I remember when I was a Cub Scout Den Master the troop's leader recommended we teach the kids to add dog bones to their packs for emergency food. The thought being that you're not going to sneak and eat them during normal times, so they would always be there in emergencies. Not sure if that was good advice, or a pile of crap. This bannock kind of reminds me of that Cub Scout advice. Yeah, it's something that will be there when I really need it, because there's no way I'd eat it in a non-emergency situation. Maybe this bannock will taste better than I'm imagining it would.
Also, besides taste, tell us about any GI tract issues you may have after eating it (the more delicately you can describe that, the better).
I'm betting it was like granny's hardtack. If you steamed it, it wasn't bad, or of you soaked it in soup, you could even fry it, it had a salty, buttery kind of thing going on with a hint of library paste. No I'm serious. I'm not sure you can even get the ingredients she used anymore. It was 1/2 flour and half hominy corn meal, and chunky salt mixed in boiling water, pressed flat, and dried over the wood stove FOR DAYS! there was a variation that you had to keep cool because it had molasses or brown sugar in it, We got them to teeth on as kids and the taste was good enough we kept gnawing them. Yet another variation had dried veggies in it and you just poured hot water on a broken-up hunk and made a porridge.
My late lovely Mary had this thing she called "Day bread" Her family used it as lunch in the log woods of Seattle. It had flour, cornmeal, mashed potatoes onion, eggs, and bacon or jerky in it, and was crust fried in bacon grease. a pone of that was not only good tasting, but it would last several days even in hot weather. they used to just wrap it up in a do-rag or towel before they went to cut wood. It was a nuclear bomb in white bean soup!
Oh yeah, G.I issues. Well, if you supplement other foods like stew or beans with them, or make a soup directly, very few, greens and vegetable-based diets especially. BUT if you ate it by itself for several days, the result is much like giving birth to a cinder-block! The day bread, not so much, but hard tack...You might want to drink a LOT of water and bring a hunk of water hose to gnaw on, it's not going to be pretty!
I'll work on the bannock and let you know.
My late lovely Mary had this thing she called "Day bread" Her family used it as lunch in the log woods of Seattle. It had flour, cornmeal, mashed potatoes onion, eggs, and bacon or jerky in it, and was crust fried in bacon grease. a pone of that was not only good tasting, but it would last several days even in hot weather. they used to just wrap it up in a do-rag or towel before they went to cut wood. It was a nuclear bomb in white bean soup!
Oh yeah, G.I issues. Well, if you supplement other foods like stew or beans with them, or make a soup directly, very few, greens and vegetable-based diets especially. BUT if you ate it by itself for several days, the result is much like giving birth to a cinder-block! The day bread, not so much, but hard tack...You might want to drink a LOT of water and bring a hunk of water hose to gnaw on, it's not going to be pretty!
I'll work on the bannock and let you know.
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I've made bannock numerous times. It seems that it is a badge of honor to be able to cook bannock in the bushcraft community. Honestly, it's a basic biscuit type bread. You can liven it up by adding other ingredients, but at the basis is just a plain old baking soda bread. I've cooked it with success on a plank, angled away from a fire, in a steel or a cast iron skillet. I have not had success trying to wind it around a stick or making ash cakes with it. As far as a survival bread goes, eh, that's debatable. The ingredients for it are susceptible to moisture and it isn't cooked and dried like hardtack, so it's shelf life is limited. It's probably worth learning to make, have fun with it for a batch or two, but if one is serious about "survival" bread, I think you'd be better off learning how to make and use sourdough starters or learning to make ship's biscuits, which are like hardtack, only thinner and store better.
Ever try pemmican? I love that stuff!
BOT, I chatted with a bud about Bannock, he gave me some pieces of advice:
If I put fruit in it, it won't keep but a couple of weeks.
If I take a lump and boil it about a minute before I bake it like a bagel, it gets a gooey center and a more durable crust that helps it keep.
NEVER EVER use vegetable oil or fake margarine to fry it, it will go rancid within a week and possibly even make you sick. Use only clarified butter, lard or tallow.
If you want to take raw product with you and cook it on the trail, air dry it half an hour at 120 degrees in a convection oven, or all day in a hot car, flip it often, it makes the boiled crust bug proof.
If you use a cutter like a soup can, you can make them to fit inside a PVC pipe to carry them, just wrap them in paper towels to absorb the excess water vapor.
You can make some half done ones in a dehydrator, hard outside, gooey inside. best to fry those.
If I put fruit in it, it won't keep but a couple of weeks.
If I take a lump and boil it about a minute before I bake it like a bagel, it gets a gooey center and a more durable crust that helps it keep.
NEVER EVER use vegetable oil or fake margarine to fry it, it will go rancid within a week and possibly even make you sick. Use only clarified butter, lard or tallow.
If you want to take raw product with you and cook it on the trail, air dry it half an hour at 120 degrees in a convection oven, or all day in a hot car, flip it often, it makes the boiled crust bug proof.
If you use a cutter like a soup can, you can make them to fit inside a PVC pipe to carry them, just wrap them in paper towels to absorb the excess water vapor.
You can make some half done ones in a dehydrator, hard outside, gooey inside. best to fry those.
OK. Gathered up some meal, buckwheat flour, and rice flour last night, Here's the plan:
Mix it evenly, boil it, bake it, and see what happens!
Mix it evenly, boil it, bake it, and see what happens!
OK, it tastes OK for a brick. This will be going in soup.
If I dug out the soft stuff I could make a taco hull. LOL
If I dug out the soft stuff I could make a taco hull. LOL
The best ..bannock, fry bread, Indian bread, what ever name used was a flour and water bread, just a little sweet made by 2 First Nation women at local farmers markets in the far frozen north... The sign on there shade tent simply said ...Indian Bread.... Of course they would put a big gob of homemade wild berry jam on it... Either honey berry or Saskatoon berry.. Brown sugar and cinnamon was good also.. Most delicious...
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I would have to try nuts also.
