[at-l] Low cost trail recipes

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

For those who may be interested,  my winter solstice project this year this year
will be a series of low cost, easily prepared, trail foods.

Let's start with breads. 

First you need a master mix -- actually a homemade and much cheaper version of supermarket bisquick. 

Ingredients:

9 cups of all purpose flour. I like King Arthur, but the truly budget minded can use the cheapest super market brand.

1/3rd cup of double-acting baking powder. I use Davis. But Calumet and several others seem to work okay.

1 Tablespoon of salt.

1/4 cup sugar.

! quart package of powdered milk.

2 cups of shortening. I use Crisco, because my Mom did. Any generic store brand is equally good, and usually cheaper.

If you have a high quality electic mixer with a five quart bowl, just dump in
all the dry ingredients, stir them around with the wire wisk, add the shortening
and use the wire wisk to chop it all up so that it has the consistency of corn
meal.

Those without such luxuries need to half the recipe to fit their machines, or
cut the shortening in by hand. I use a large wire wisk and just pump it up and
down. It'll take a minute or two, but it gets the job done.

I package the mix in zip lock type sandwich bags, one cup per bag.

For trail biscuits, mix a baggie full with a third cup of water, stir for 25
strokes or so, then knead it between your two hands (squeeze it back and forth
between your hand a dozen or so times.) Another reason for carrying Ivory soap.

If someone has a big fire going with not too much plastic burning, roll the
dough in a long ribbon, wrap it spiral fashion on a green birch or maple stick
and hold it over hot coals or in front of the flames until it's done -- 10 or 15
minutes.

If no campfire is available, bake it on the bottom or lid of your pot, turning frequently to keep it from burning.

Better still double the liquid and use the mixture for pancakes. 

Add any blueberries or raspberries you may have picked, and cook it on the
bottom or lid of your pot. I carry a 4 ounce "frypan" but anything works. Eat as
much as you can and then cook any left over dough for lunch the next day.

Or make dumplings. Mix a cup of mixture with a third of a cup of water. And drop
a couple of spoonfulls at a time into any packaged soup, or for those on a super
tight budget, just water flavored with boullion cubes -- about one and a half
per cup of water. Cover the pot tightly and let it cook for 12 minutes. Don't
peak. That lets the heat escape and causes the dumplings to break up in the
water.

Pancakes are pretty fool proof and are delicious with honey or covered with
brown sugar. Dumplings and biscuits take a bit of experimenting.

Let me know if such things are useful. If so I'll add some others as the mood
strikes. And I'd love to see similar ideas from others.

Weary