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Wild Food and Food from History
Eventually modern produced supplies will run out and you will require food. Agriculture takes time and you may run out before the crops are ready. Your crops may fail. You may have to travel and MRE’s will run out. This page will contain numerous wild or prepared foods that you can carry with you. It includes instructions on how to make them and source the materials.
1) Pemmican
This food was a staple of the Canadian fur trade a dense high caloric food which can be easily made with nothing more than wild resources. This food was used by the Metis, the Voyageurs and various Plains Natives tribes as a staple of their diet. It was originally sourced from Bison. This food will keep and will harden with age.
Shadows Pemmican: I usually use moose but the recipe is originally for bison
What you Will Need:1 moose or bison or other large edible animal with lean meat, 1 knife, 1 cutting board, 1 mallet, Parchment paper or Rawhide pouch, Rawhide or other container, Dried fruits, Pine nuts
Amounts: Combine meat and fat, in a ratio of about two parts meat to one part fat.
The current recipy ratios are for 4 cups dried lean meat 2 cups fat
1 / 4 cup dried fruits 1 / 2 cup pine nut flour.
Step one: Preparing the Meat 1) Take fresh meat and slice it as thinly as possible with the grain. 2) Dry the meat using either fire, or an electric appliance. If using fire it will take two to three days and I suggest using willow branches because it gives an excellent flavour. Place the meat on a rack and allow it to dry 3) Using a mallet pound the dried meat until powdered the finer the powder the better you may want to use a leather bag to pound the meat. It can also be processed in a food processor into the desired fine powder 4) Set aside in a bowl.
Step Two: Dried Berries (optional) Take fresh fruit and dry them such as haw berries, Saskatoon berries or unsweetened cranberries. You can use pre dried fruit 2) Finely chop the berries 3) Set aside in a bowl for this ratio it should be roughly a ¼ cup.
Step three: The Fats There are many types of fat but my personal favorite is a 3:1 ratio of rendered fat to marrow. To obtain marrow boil and pulverize bones, to obtain fat render it from the animal. Heat the mixture of fat until molten keep warm and simmer on very low heat. If cooking outdoors leave fat pot over coals.
Step Four: Mixing Slowly mix the rendered fat mixture into the dried meat with a large wooden spoon, if you desire add the finely chopped fruit to the mixture and mix it in. Keep the proto pemmican warm in order to form it later.
Step five: Forming the Proto-Pemmican into Pemmican Traditionally this was done is sewn rawhide pouches which the seams were greased and sewn shut. This method is fine but using a sealable plastic container will also do. 1) Fill you chosen sealable container with Proto-Pemmican
2) Seal it
3) Every few minutes flip the container as it cools so the fat does not settle.
4) When cooled remove from container. If rawhide was used it can be left in it if final step is not wanted.
Step Six: Optional Pine Nuts
1) Acquire pine nuts. Roast them if foraged if commercially roasted do nothing.
2) Grind into a fine flour.
3) Sprinkle pemmican with pine nut flour.
Step Seven: Packaging If you used the rawhide containers sew it shut and your work is done. If not simply slice the pemmican into servings and wrap tightly in waxed parchment paper. Allow to dry and voila pemmican a la Shadowmancer.
2) Spruce Tea:
This tea is simple to make, It could save your life because in the wild Vitamin C is in short supply. Early explorers of the North such as Samuel de Champlain owe their lives to this simple concoction. He and his men were suffering from scurvy and this tea was given to them by the Wendat. Spruce tea can be drunk hot or cold.
Steps
1) Take two generous handful of green spruce needles and place them in a pot
2) Add a Litre of water to the pot that’s roughly a quart of water
3) Boil the water
4) When the water begins to boil allow needles to boil for 5 minutes.
5) remove from flame
6) Pour into drinking container and drink the tea
3) Hard Tack:
Hardtack built empires. Without this handy food the golden age of exploration and sail would not have occurred. It was part of the standard ration of Royal Navy and countless military forces in human history. These forces including both the Union and Confederate armies of the United States Civil War. Its status as a military ration was not lost until the First World War with the widespread introduction of canned rations. Hardtack has many names but what makes it so special? It is dry bread which can be sourced from any grain with an indefinitely long shelf life if properly stored and kept dry. There are surviving examples dated from the American Civil war which are estimated to still be edible in The Wentworth Museum in Pensacola Florida. There are historical references of Civil war era hardtack being reissued for the Spanish American War 35 years after it was made. The most important virtue of Hardtack is that it is simple to make.
What you Will Need:
Flour, Water, Rolling Pin or Dowel, Knife, Pan and a Flat Surface.
Amounts:
6 parts flour 1 part water
Step one: Take any grain and mill into flour.
---- under construction and fact checking -----
4) Roobaloo
5) acorns
6) bush salad
7) Cattails
8) pine nuts
9) bush soup
10) :Bush Biscuits
1) Pemmican
This food was a staple of the Canadian fur trade a dense high caloric food which can be easily made with nothing more than wild resources. This food was used by the Metis, the Voyageurs and various Plains Natives tribes as a staple of their diet. It was originally sourced from Bison. This food will keep and will harden with age.
Shadows Pemmican: I usually use moose but the recipe is originally for bison
What you Will Need:1 moose or bison or other large edible animal with lean meat, 1 knife, 1 cutting board, 1 mallet, Parchment paper or Rawhide pouch, Rawhide or other container, Dried fruits, Pine nuts
Amounts: Combine meat and fat, in a ratio of about two parts meat to one part fat.
The current recipy ratios are for 4 cups dried lean meat 2 cups fat
1 / 4 cup dried fruits 1 / 2 cup pine nut flour.
Step one: Preparing the Meat 1) Take fresh meat and slice it as thinly as possible with the grain. 2) Dry the meat using either fire, or an electric appliance. If using fire it will take two to three days and I suggest using willow branches because it gives an excellent flavour. Place the meat on a rack and allow it to dry 3) Using a mallet pound the dried meat until powdered the finer the powder the better you may want to use a leather bag to pound the meat. It can also be processed in a food processor into the desired fine powder 4) Set aside in a bowl.
Step Two: Dried Berries (optional) Take fresh fruit and dry them such as haw berries, Saskatoon berries or unsweetened cranberries. You can use pre dried fruit 2) Finely chop the berries 3) Set aside in a bowl for this ratio it should be roughly a ¼ cup.
Step three: The Fats There are many types of fat but my personal favorite is a 3:1 ratio of rendered fat to marrow. To obtain marrow boil and pulverize bones, to obtain fat render it from the animal. Heat the mixture of fat until molten keep warm and simmer on very low heat. If cooking outdoors leave fat pot over coals.
Step Four: Mixing Slowly mix the rendered fat mixture into the dried meat with a large wooden spoon, if you desire add the finely chopped fruit to the mixture and mix it in. Keep the proto pemmican warm in order to form it later.
Step five: Forming the Proto-Pemmican into Pemmican Traditionally this was done is sewn rawhide pouches which the seams were greased and sewn shut. This method is fine but using a sealable plastic container will also do. 1) Fill you chosen sealable container with Proto-Pemmican
2) Seal it
3) Every few minutes flip the container as it cools so the fat does not settle.
4) When cooled remove from container. If rawhide was used it can be left in it if final step is not wanted.
Step Six: Optional Pine Nuts
1) Acquire pine nuts. Roast them if foraged if commercially roasted do nothing.
2) Grind into a fine flour.
3) Sprinkle pemmican with pine nut flour.
Step Seven: Packaging If you used the rawhide containers sew it shut and your work is done. If not simply slice the pemmican into servings and wrap tightly in waxed parchment paper. Allow to dry and voila pemmican a la Shadowmancer.
2) Spruce Tea:
This tea is simple to make, It could save your life because in the wild Vitamin C is in short supply. Early explorers of the North such as Samuel de Champlain owe their lives to this simple concoction. He and his men were suffering from scurvy and this tea was given to them by the Wendat. Spruce tea can be drunk hot or cold.
Steps
1) Take two generous handful of green spruce needles and place them in a pot
2) Add a Litre of water to the pot that’s roughly a quart of water
3) Boil the water
4) When the water begins to boil allow needles to boil for 5 minutes.
5) remove from flame
6) Pour into drinking container and drink the tea
3) Hard Tack:
Hardtack built empires. Without this handy food the golden age of exploration and sail would not have occurred. It was part of the standard ration of Royal Navy and countless military forces in human history. These forces including both the Union and Confederate armies of the United States Civil War. Its status as a military ration was not lost until the First World War with the widespread introduction of canned rations. Hardtack has many names but what makes it so special? It is dry bread which can be sourced from any grain with an indefinitely long shelf life if properly stored and kept dry. There are surviving examples dated from the American Civil war which are estimated to still be edible in The Wentworth Museum in Pensacola Florida. There are historical references of Civil war era hardtack being reissued for the Spanish American War 35 years after it was made. The most important virtue of Hardtack is that it is simple to make.
What you Will Need:
Flour, Water, Rolling Pin or Dowel, Knife, Pan and a Flat Surface.
Amounts:
6 parts flour 1 part water
Step one: Take any grain and mill into flour.
---- under construction and fact checking -----
4) Roobaloo
5) acorns
6) bush salad
7) Cattails
8) pine nuts
9) bush soup
10) :Bush Biscuits
shadowmancer |
Latest page update: made by shadowmancer
, Apr 1 2012, 1:51 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by shadowmancer
13 words added 3 words deleted view changes - complete history) |
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More Info: links to this page
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| Zee-Man | Cattails | 4 | Jun 9 2013, 6:09 PM EDT by Zee-Man | ||
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Thread started: Jun 9 2013, 3:08 PM EDT
Watch
It is that time of year. the tails are ripening and the pollen is bursting!
The female part, while it is green is edible. The male part, before it is fluffy with pollen is edible. Boil like you would for corn on the cob. Some references say to eat it like corn on the cob too. Personally shave it off the stem and eat it like cut corn. The female part tastes faintly like corn. The male part, well I can not say that it tastes like anything in particular, but I can say that it tastes very good. |
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| Zee-Man | Using Acorns | 17 | Apr 13 2013, 1:01 PM EDT by DominoDog22 | ||
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Thread started: Dec 21 2012, 8:43 PM EST
Watch
Acorns have a bad rap becuase of the high amount of tannic acid in them. Tannic acid, commonly known as tannin, is a poison in high concentrations. But, this doesn't make acorns unusable.
First, know your acorn. Acorns from White Oak are lowest in tannin. Red Oak has a middling amount of tannin. Pin Oak is one of the highest in tannin. Select your acorns carefully. Acorns with caps still on may not be of good use since the tree may have rejected them. If you see a tiny hole in the shell, that acorn is likely not useable since it has been invaded by an acorn weevil, depends on if you want the extra fat and protein from the grub. I couldn't find anything about the acorn weevil to say it was not edible. Nonetheless, its waste products are less than desirable. Sprouted acorns are good, don't throw them out. Prepare your acorns. First shell them. This can be tedious. The last batch I processed I used a paring knife to split the nuts. After extracting the nut meats I then chopped them up fine, like cracked corn. The next step is leaching. Place the nutmeats in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let it stand for 24 hours. The water will turn to a milky solution. Some of this is vegetable fats, but most of it is tannin. After doing this I realized I could have just smashed the nuts and picked out the large pieces of shell. During the leaching the smaller pieces of shell would float to the top where they can be skimmed out. Drain the solution off. Keep it to reduce for tanning hides or discard it. Cover the nut meats with cold water again and let stand for another 24 hours. Stirring it once or twice during the leaching may be helpful. Leech and drain until the solution is no longer milky. Spread the nut meats out in a thin layer to dry. |
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| Zee-Man | Pemmican | 18 | Apr 5 2012, 12:30 AM EDT by shadowmancer | ||
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Thread started: Mar 31 2012, 4:24 PM EDT
Watch
Im so glad that Shadowmancer has made this page. I've been enthralled with pemmican for a number of years. This tasty food is packed with calories. When fortified with some not so traditional ingredients it supplies calories and vitamins from varied sources.
My recipe is for those who need to use the "other large edible animal" Quantities are by "feel". I do not have any actual measurements. 2 parts -Lean Beef, dried 1/3 part - Honey, dehydrated 1/3 part -Cashews, ground 1/3 part - Peanuts, ground Rendered fat - beef tallow from marrow bones, fat trimmings, I even use bacon fat sometimes. Use enough to thoroughly "wet" all the dry ingredients, and then some more. It should roughly be 1 part. Nutrition information I use beef roast for my beef source. I get one that is a bit larger than I need for a meal, then cut off a piece and slice it into 1/8 to 3/16 thick slices. These I will hang in the oven at its lowest setting until dry. While the beef is drying I put honey in an pyrex bowl and put it in the oven to dehydrate at the same time. I render the marrow and fat at the same time as cooking the roast. It all goes into a colander nested in a bowl. Getting the marrow bones and fat trimmings is often a matter of luck. That luck is best if I go shopping when there is actually a butcher in the market. |
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