Irish Soda Bread

[crockett]

Well, it's St. Patrick's Day and I got thinking if Irish Soda bread can be baked in a Dutch Oven set on a campfire? Now a days everything is overly complicated but I think soda bread can be made without buttermilk. So, flour, baking soda, baking powder, dried milk, salt, some lard/Crisco for the pot- all items you can have on the trail. Originally I think the recipe called for currants but now raisins are substituted. I think caraway seeds were added as well. I never thought about cooking something like that on the trail.
For those who don't know- it is more like a really big biscuit rather than sliced bread but it ought to keep a couple of days so you could cook a batch and have it on hand.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

All that the buttermilk provides is an acid to really push the baking soda and baking powder. Sour milk will do the same, or one could lug about a can of evaporated milk, some water, and a small bottle of cider vinegar. Should work fine, and should keep a couple of days as well.

LD

 

[Bo T]

If you don't have baking powder, just add cream of tartar to the mix. It will activate the baking soda. My understanding is that baking power has the cream of tartar mixed in. So you don't need baking soda if you have the baking powder. Mom used to make these all the time and all she usually used was baking powder.

 

[Black Hand]

Makes far more sense to bake it at home before going into the woods.... :wink:

Same concept as roundballs - while it may be a romantic notion to carry lead and cast balls while on the trail, I'd rather carry cast roundballs...far more useful.

 

[coloradoclyde]

If you bake it on the trail. isn't is a bannock?

 

[Bo T]

Sort of depends on the time on the trail. The ingredients weigh less than the biscuits and if kept dry will last longer.

 

[Black Hand]

But you will need to mix and then bake it, neither of which is easy on the trail, while you are still carrying essentially the same weight (ingredients and water). If in a drive-up camp, bake away. If on the trail, carry it already baked.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I agree...Unless you have a means of conveyance like a wagon or boat to carry all the extra cooking gear, and extra mouths to feed....It makes more sense to travel light and easy...

 

[Bo T]

Again, time on the trail. Most trails have potable water along the route, so that negates the need to pack extra water. Your idea makes sense for a couple, three days, but at a certain point most cases will end up with negative returns.

That's why the successful greenhorns didn't bake their bread and boil their beans before heading out in their wagon trains for the west.

 

[Bo T]

These biscuits can be cooked in the same pan that most cook everything else in? So, if you are keeping a cold camp or otherwise cooking and eating off of a spit then you would not have the weight savings you allude to.

 

[Black Hand]

That's why the successful greenhorns didn't bake their bread and boil their beans before heading out in their wagon trains for the west.

It was because they had wagons to carry all their supplies, their trip was measured in months and there were few places to trade/buy goods along the trail...

Other travelers brought prepared food on the journey and when it ran out, hunted or traded. Space was limited on a horse. Flour-based products were notoriously scarce (except at forts/posts) which was commented upon in writings. 2 guys during the Fur trade period left the fort with a tin cup and a scrap of blanket.

 

[Black Hand]

These biscuits can be cooked in the same pan that most cook everything else in?

90% of what I eat on the trail is boiled in a tin-lined brass pot (the other 10% is parched corn, dried meat & fruit and spit-roasted meat). Bad idea to bake anything in said pot as the tin tends to melt and run...

 

[Bo T]

Good point. In your case I'd suggest dumplins or just boiling up your parched (some what dehydrated?)corn. Again, time on the trail.

Not all immigrants traveled by wagon. And a lot of gold miners traveled by foot to get to the gold camps. Were the copper pans that they used a couple of centuries ago tin lined?

 

[Black Hand]

Were the copper pans that they used a couple of centuries ago tin lined?

Not that I know. However, it is likely some were soldered together and would not withstand the high heat required for baking either.

I've baked in the woods without a dutch oven - it isn't easy and requires far more work/skill than just packing a baked loaf. Trail-baked items most often are overcooked on the outside and raw on the inside (even when a dutch oven is used).

 

[Black Hand]

Good point. In your case I'd suggest dumplins or just boiling up your parched (some what dehydrated?)corn. Again, time on the trail.

I carry barley, dried hominy, parched corn (dried then pan-roasted) and wild rice. They go in the pot with some meat and dried vegetables - this has been dinner on nearly every trip in the woods. A little coffee and a little rum complete the meal.

I've "baked" near/over coals using a sheet-steel frying pan - not enough mass to do the job properly (a cast iron fry pan works far better, but is far too heavy to carry regularly). Things burned too easily because it was very difficult to control the heat. Once you get into this territory, ashcakes are a better answer.

 

[coloradoclyde]

When I was young I ran a long trap line on foot...I carried hard rolls in my pockets and sometimes some hard cheese and something to drink...I never stopped to eat.
My point is, Being able to eat on the move has advantages....

 

[tenngun]

Reading these made me wonder:
1) There are dried buttermilks for bakers, will these activate soda? Can you mix this dry and add water in the field?
2)I carry a small copper or tin pot on the trail and a tin cup, so I cant do dutch oven baking. I have never made Irish soda bread, have you tried them as an ash cake?
3) I tend to do soups on the trail, and hasty pudding (hot cereal) for breakfast, but I have made puddings in a haste and ate those with a hard sausage on the trail. I carry a tin of butter and the dry flour/salt/raisins pre mixed and a little Townsend tin with spices, mix it with a little water and pop it on to boil. Can you break off pieces of this dough and boil it in to a dumpling, or add to a soup?
4)At the risk of going pow-wow, can you make a fry bread from it?

 

[Vaino]

When you go "into the woods", is there any other time spent on other activities besides that used for cooking? This post would welcome replies from all.

I don't camp out just for the sake of camping.....it's necessary for hunting or fishing in remote areas.

In 1987 the 3 of us packed into a wilderness area in Colorado to survey elk hunting possibilities and to hunt during the MLer elk 9 day season and stayed 3 weeks all together and subsisted on the latest Army rations and have to admit they tasted very good and only req'd boiling water. The plastic wrapped rations were only eaten for supper, but the peanut butter and crackers were eaten in the Am and at noon. These rations allowed us to spend most of our time either scouting or elk hunting.....which was the purpose of the outing.

A 4 man tent and an adjacent large tarp supplied comfortable shelter and an area to relax.....although during the actual hunt, not much time was spent relaxing under the tarp. Rising at 4AM and returning in the dark didn't allow for relaxing or extensive cooking.

This was one of the most memorable outings in my lifetime.....Fred

 

[crockett]

Years ago - in the far north- you would pull the canoe ashore and immediately get a fire going and get some rice cooking. While that was cooking you set up the tent/tarp and chopped some wood for a night fire. By then the rice was done and it was rice and jerky- or something similar. The rice pot could just be rinsed out- that was the clean up. This was for folks "on the move".
I agree, as some of us get older we seem to be spending a lot more time cooking instead of hunting or trapping.
I am reading Washington Irving's "A Tour pf the Prairies" 1832. I knew Irving wrote an account of Bonneville's trip but I did not know Irving himself went to what is today Oklahoma. He speaks of the old trappers mixing wheat flour and frying it in a pan or wrapping it around a stick. Sounds like bannock and the 1832 date is the earliest bannock reference I've found. If anyone knows when baking powder was developed- please tell. What Irving might have been describing could have been more like hardtack.
David Thompson (1790-1800 ish) wrote of his trip along the shore of Lake Superior. They had corn and rice. They actually had a pot in the canoe filled with water in which they were soaking the dried corn to be cooked that night or the next day- it seems like a lot of trouble (you can boil corn meal in a couple of minutes) but I supposed they got bored eating the same thing every day.

 

[Black Hand]

...it seems like a lot of trouble (you can boil corn meal in a couple of minutes) but I supposed they got bored eating the same thing every day.

They didn't have the options we have today - It was eat what you had (Cornmeal and saltpork) or go hungry. Try to put yourself in the mindset of the day as looking through a modern lens doesn't work well...