Loyalist Dave said:
Sweeteners were not really documented as trail food, or used on expeditions as far as my sources show.
Scarce, but there are a few.
_Travels in Pensilvania and Canada_ by John Bartram, published 1751, concerning a trip undertaken in 1743:
"We moved forward to our first cabin, where we dined on parched meal, which is some of the best Indian traveling provision. We had of it 2 bags, each a gallon, from the Indians at Onondago, the preparation of it is thus. They take the corn and parch it in hot ashes, till it becomes brown, then clean it, pound it in a mortar and sift it; this powder is mixed with sugar. About 1 qr. of a pint, diluted in a pint of water, is a hearty traveling dinner, when 100 miles from any inhabitants;..."
In “The Life and Times of Gen. Sam Dale, the Mississippi partisan”, by John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, Gen. Dale is quoted describing the gear carried by a Georgia militia troop”
"Our accoutrements were a coonskin cap, bearskin vest, short hunting shirt and trowsers of homespun stuff, buckskin leggings, a blanket tied behind our saddles, a wallet for parched corn, coal flour or other chance provision, a long rifle and hunting knife."
What the heck does he mean by “coal flour? Then, in “Notes taken during the expedition commanded by Capt. R.B. Marcy, U.S.A., through unexplored Texas, in the summer and fall of 1854” , W. B. Parker wrote in 1856:
“Cold flour is a preparation of corn. It is first parched, then pounded and according to taste, a little sugar mixed with it. A handful of this will make a pint of gruel, upon which a man can subsist for twenty-four hours.”
I don't understand what either name means, but it seems reasonable that cold flour is the same as coal flour”¦.
Spence