Breakfast, portable.

[KingofDerby]

... small DENSE breads (try deli-section of super-market) and crackers like pilot biscuits...

My favorite? I look for coldcut ends. Here they are half priced and there's nothin' better than chomping into a hunk of salami or strips you just cut from a slab of ham.

I tend to resent the money paid for bread and meat, especially deli bread and cold cuts, which are always the more costly in the supermarket. Too long spent living on £20 a month for food. And was bought up to dislike buying food that I can make”¦so buying bread I could make myself if only I had time grates on me. As for meat, I’d sooner boil up cooking bacon (which is 1/5th the price) except that a pack does not do well 2 months after opening (takes that long to use up”¦150g for a two day event, 2 events a month. I don’t eat the stuff any other time)

 

[KingofDerby]

-I'm not at home long enough to make much (so cannot make jerky)

Making jerky is something that can be accomplished in less than 24 hours. It usually takes me 8-10 hours from cutting the meat into strips and the finished product.

I’m not at home for more than 6 hours at a time, and that’s just to sleep before work. (Spend my evenings at my partner’s place, and she’s veggie, so no jerky making there. Indeed, I’m almost veggie myself. Meals at events are the only time I eat meat these days)

 

[KingofDerby]

Refried beans & corn/flour tortillas are filling, easy to reheat & nutritious, when augmented by fruit and game. - Lots of Texicans lived on largely a "peon diet" during the 1820-1870 period.

yours, satx

And all inappropriate for 1640s-1740s Britain! And”¦*looks up recipe* Needs more time then I have to boil up the beans, and I cannot be sure of having a frying pan.

 

[KingofDerby]

...Incidentally, rabbits are available most everywhere and are EASY to trap, snare or shoot. Tasty too.
(NO closed season on bunnies anyplace that I camp....

Not available/permitted on the sites we go to. Managed to forage some cherries once, and we considered that a rare treat.

 

[KingofDerby]

Since you have plenty of oats, just toast up some oats in your oven at home. Put them into a shallow pan and put them in the oven. Stir occasionally so they will toast evenly. When they are a light brown, they are done. Set aside to cool. Go to the grocery store and buy some trail mix, the kind that does not contain any candy, just nuts and dried fruit. Then mix as much of the trail mix as you like with the oats. To prepare, all you do is take a portion and put it in your cup and add an equal volume of boiling water. Let is sit for about 5 minutes and then stir and enjoy. Try it that way the first time and then the next time you make it, adjust your water according to your taste. Some like it thick and some like it thin. It is good, it is filling and it sticks to your ribs until lunch.

As for the coffee VS breakfast in your cup conundrum, I'd say eat your breakfast first, rinse your cup and then have a nice relaxing cup of coffee.....or vise versa....there's always more than one way to skin a cat.

Made that way, guess I could live with oats.
As for coffee”¦it’s not a case of before or after”¦.it’s more”¦before and during breakfast. I have to have it first thing, which mean no boiling for anything else until I’ve drunk it. Not being able to wash down my food until after the cup is rinsed and on the fire for ages (it always seems like hours when you’re impatient for the brown stuff) makes for a grumpy caporal.

 

[Alden]

Yeah, you'll want to skip the Tex/Mex affectation and figure out how to prepare your grains including maybe baking dense, lasting, breads at home in a little long pan. I'm thinking a dark multigrain Westphalian Rye or something...

 

[Black Hand]

Perhaps 2 cups or 1 cup and a small pot/bowl would be ideal. I currently carry a metal cup for coffee and a wooden cup I use for a bowl/scoop.

 

[KingofDerby]

Now that is a bread I do like...
mmm...backing it in in empty tin cans would make for slices that fit conveniently in my mug...

 

[satx78247]

SORRY, I simply don't know enough about the foods of that era in the UK to offer any sort of advice.
I will say that whatever you choose to eat and drink (Bringing water from home prevents numerous problems.) should closely resemble whatever your usual diet is, lest you have "gastric distress".= I've seen many a re-enactor who found themselves "quite ill" from changing their usual diet too much for primitive camping/events.
(Being 500-1000 miles from home is a miserable place to be sick!)

Note: Our unit's members, whether from the USA or Canada, are largely from small towns/rural areas and NORMALLY eat corn/wheat/peas/beans/wild game/etc. = We've frequently enjoyed venison/bear/ducks/geese and other game at events, that was taken, frozen or iced down and brought from "home" to the WBTS re-enactments.

best wishes, satx
SGT, 10th LA Inf. Rgt, PACSA

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well if you are trying to be authentic (otherwise why not use a couple of packets of instant oatmeal) you need oat groats, or to grind them in a mill. Rolled oats or cut oats are not correct, and it takes about 45 minutes to an hour of boiling to cook oat groats or wheat berries.

The problem with most folks' hardtack or ship's biscuit is they make it wrong. They take some modern, whole wheat flour, plus a bit of salt, and some water, roll it, and bake it... or cut it into biscuits, and bake it.

Modern whole wheat is from hard, red wheat. Didn't exist in the 18th century, and wasn't well cultivated until almost the 20th century. So first, you need to use whole wheat flour from soft, white wheat. Bob's Redmill whole wheat pastry flour is correct. So is the whole wheat pastry flour from King Arthur.

Then you need to understand that the grade of the flour was the lowest...aka "ship's stuff". This stuff had lots of bran still in it. It was probably used to extend better flour onboard ships or to make ship's biscuit... hence the name. You should (imho) add wheat bran to your whole wheat pastry flour in a ration of 1:4 to get closer to ship's stuff. THEN make your hardtack or biscuits.

4 Cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 heaping teaspoon of sea salt*
Water.

Make a stiff dough and roll it out to about 1/4" thick. Cut it into discs with a biscut cutter or an inverted drinking glass. Poke some holes in 'em and play them on a floured baking tray or a non-stick baking tray. Bake at about 170 to 200 degrees for about 6 hours. Remove and allow them to cool.

* Sea salt helps preserve the biscuit, and you can adjust it up or down depending on your taste, or omit it entirely.

You should be able to break them with your natural teeth. If not... increase the bran in the next batch.

I have some that have lasted two years in nothing more than a plain tin.

LD

 

[Billnpatti]

No one has anything to complain about with the MRE meals. I have eaten several of them and found them to be quite palatable. They are actually gourmet food when compared to the C rations we had when I was in the service. Try living several days on those things. The meat patties in gravy were a special delight reminding the eater somewhat of cheap dogfood packed in cosmoline. :barf: As an added bit of dining fun, we often lost the little can openers that came in each box of C rations and would try to open the cans with a bayonet. More than one poor hungry soul was attended to by a medic as a result of doing this. Nope, MREs fairly dance across the tongue in gustatorial delight in comparison with C rations.

 

[satx78247]

ImVho, saying that MRE are preferable to C-rats is like saying that garbage is preferable to sewerage as a daily diet. = Many GIs agree.
(During RVN we learned to buy food on "the economy" and seldom ate "C-rats", if anything else was available.)

And YEP a large percentage of starving Ethiopians REFUSED to eat MRE during the Great Famine.

yours, satx

 

[KingofDerby]

SORRY, I simply don't know enough about the foods of that era in the UK to offer any sort of advice.

that's why I can't wait for 2015...a I do the cooking for one of my groups when we double up as War of 1812 US militia...Battle of New Orleans = all the variety of range of american foods is justifiable, and there is little limit to the weight I can ask others to bring.

I will say that whatever you choose to eat and drink (Bringing water from home prevents numerous problems.) should closely resemble whatever your usual diet is, lest you have "gastric distress".= I've seen many a re-enactor who found themselves "quite ill" from changing their usual diet too much for primitive camping/events.
(Being 500-1000 miles from home is a miserable place to be sick!)

My partner feeds me lots of fresh veg, (including a tall glass of juiced veg each day) where as I used to eat stew, bread and cheese all the time while I was single...(So, exactly what my unit boss cooks for us) so my guts are already in trouble!

Eating caught stuff at events? Jealous!

 

[satx78247]

Fyi, my ALL-TIME personal favorite at any reenactment was at Cedar Creek (VA) 2010, where one of our member's ladies (who usually portrays a drummer boy) roasted a whole feral hog for us. = That was truly "YUM"!

Shall I send you a suitable "Indian Fry Bread" recipe for your 1812 period reenactments?
(I'm quite well-known as our unit's F.B.I. = FRY BREAD INSPECTOR and consumer of same!!!)

yours, satx

 

[Black Hand]

Shall I send you a suitable "Indian Fry Bread" recipe for your 1812 period reenactments?
(I'm quite well-known as our unit's F.B.I. = FRY BREAD INSPECTOR and consumer of same!!!)

yours, satx

With all due respect, isn't "fry bread" the food of occupation/reservation times? I cringe when I see it advertised as "Authentic Native American" food at various events in Montana...

This IS in no way looking to insult or denigrate any person or culture, rather I am looking for clarification from someone with more personal experience.

 

[satx78247]

NA made something similar to "modern" Fry Bread (and tortillas) for eons, though today it is often fried in lard or vegetable oil, rather than grease from cooking game, "bear grease" being "somewhat scarce" in 2013.
(CHUCKLE)

Also, we "Woodland Folk" also cooked flat-breads out of maize and other grains and baked breads on a heated flat stone or in "reflector ovens".
(Pardon me for pointing out that we Natives consider "the occupation" to have begun as soon as the Europeans arrived in the Hemisphere. = Perhaps, we should have strangled Squanto.)

Note: All too many people today seem to think that NA ate nothing until the "coming of The Hairy Faces" - Those "sad cases" seem to think that we knew ZILCH until we were "taught to be civilized" by "our betters".

yours, satx

 

[Black Hand]

Thanks.
I was aware of the flour made from cattails, corn and a few others that could be used for making a similar product.

 

[Alden]

You reminded me of Hobo Bread -- a simple, dense, dark, sweet bread with whatever you guys call raisins. It was cheap and easy to do as well as nutritous and called what it was because, as I understand it, "hobos" baked it in empty tins during The Depression.

Is it also 18th C.? Might be and worth exploring...

 

[Black Hand]

Seems to be a variation on the "Hudson Bay" bread concept. I've looked at many recipes that contained honey, dried fruits, molasses and a variety of other ingredients.

 

[satx78247]

I would be remiss if I didn't agree with one thing that you suggested: FLOUR TORTILLAS were made by SW reservation women starting in The Depression of the 1930s, when the "oh, so benevolent and 'wunnerful, wunnerful fedrul gubmint'." threw 50 and 100 pound sacks of white flour off trucks on the reservations. - The women quickly made a "similar product" from that white flour, as "yeast bread in loaves" was unknown to their culture.


yours, satx