Wilderness gormet

Reading the thread on food for survival got me to thinking about some of my favorite camp recipes.
What i would propose is this thread to share our favorite recipes for the camp.
The only qualifier being that the recipe must be form foraged food .
Please be specific as to the items used, how they are gathered ( if needed) and how they are prepared for use in the recipe.
As an example:
Contents: acorns, venison, wild onions ( leeks) cat tail tubers
Acorns are gathered, shelled then dried, when dried pounded into flour
Use the acorn flour to bread the venison ( I prefer butterfly steaks cut from the back straps), and save the excess acorn flour to make gravy from the drippings of the steak.
Cat tail roots ( tubers) are gatherd and cleaned of any excess root tendrils, then peeled of thier outside skin and boild, prepare them same as you would a potato. When boiled till tender, drain them and mash them up.
Serving is rather obvious.
As a salad, the greens shoots from the onions, as well as the cat tails are tasty and high in potassium.
A variation is to use duck or quail eggs in the breading
More on acorns and duck eggs in another recipe if there appears to be an interest in this thread.
I know from reading in other threads there are some serious camp gormets on this board.
Figured this would be a good way to highlight what can be foraged, how it is prepared, and in what combinations they make the most palatable meals.

Great topic! Hope there's lots of responses, I look forward to reading more. Your recipe sounds really good and is thought provoking.

I have been interested about using acorns since reading My Side of the Mountain as a wee bairn. I am now inspired to make acorn flour - lol!

Do you have your own method for getting the tannins out? Or can one get used to the taste?

Jackie Clay has a good article I just found here: Harvesting the Wild: Acorns, by Jackie Clay

reply to post by TenEighty

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To get the tannis out soak the acorns repeatedly in fresh water and this will leach it away. If you crush the acorns first the process is faster. Boiling will also quicken the process but will eliminate some of the nutrients. Mixing with the roots of the cattail will help to eliminate some of the bitter taste. Great post by the way you beat me to it. I like fresh caught fish lightly grilled with a little butter, accompanied by either fresh asparagus or once again cattail shoots. Tortillas made from acorns or cattail for a nice bread substitute. For a drink you can a suitable coffe from dandelion and chickory root.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

We should create a free pdf version of a "Wilderness Cooking." We should spool together any and all recipes as well as how to properly prepare everything to get rid of anything you do not want. I doubt 90% of the world knows about the tenison found in acorn nuts. We should all post all our recipes on here and we can use this thread as a basis to create the free pdf book "ATS: on Wilderness Cooking" as long as we can get the permissions.

Anyone else game for this? Dumb idea? Great idea?

I don't think I will have trouble with this tannin-leaching experiment in my kitchen with a jelly bag and/or strainer, but what about when you are really roughing it? I'm thinking a clean sock or bandanna tied off to something on the bank of a creek (if there is one) and let the grindings soak while you are out tracking down your venison. Any other ideas?

This is great - I think acorn flour is going to be one of this weekend's projects!

I am also very curious about trying cattails.. I wish i had a nearby source. Maybe i need to scout around. Don't know much about these other than what they look like, anyone have a good source of info about their uses? I think I've heard they make good pillow stuffing..

(I'll pass on that cajun coffee, thanks...! )

Thanks all!

reply to post by TenEighty

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Cattails are one of natures most wonderful things. The leaves can be woven into most anything. Split and pounded they can make a decent twine or rope. New shoots are like asparagus. They can be eaten raw or cooked. The roots make a tasty flour or can be eaten raw or dried. The comb when young can be roasted and eaten like corn on the cob. Pollen can be collected in the spring and mixed in with flour. The flower shafts can make a good arrow shaft when tempered and straightened. The comb when mature can be an excellent source of a downlike insulation. The versatility of this plant is truly amazing. Yes a sock or a bag full of acorns leaching away in a stream is a great idea. I can't help with the book my computer skills aren't that great but I will try to assist if possible.
Another quick recipe:
fresh dandelion leaves covered in a little bit of pork drippings is a country boy feast.
Also the flowers dipped into cornmeal and deepfried are quite tasty.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Post your recipes here in a nice format. Also include any research or links regarding helpful tips on each ingrediant (i.e. known medicinal advantages, poisons or toxins and how to safely remove them.) My idea is a true survival meal/cookbook/ basic medicinal manual for us all to study. If the S#$& truely hits the fan and all each of us has is a good ol' knife, what can we do to survive food wise and basic medicinal knowledge of what we are using as ingrediants.

When this thread contains enough information, I will try to copy and paste your recipes and knowledge you feed into here into a pdf manual for all who wants it, free. As long as ATS will allow this manual to occur.

If anyone else has comments or helpful information, please help. Also, when there seems to be enough information, I may need help sorting this out in an easy to read format.

reply to post by reluctantpawn

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Reluctant,

Can you post some drawings of the arrow shafts, etc... maybe just an overall view of the cattail plant and point out the uses of each part? I don't know if this is exactly what Amaxium is looking for but i sure would enjoy it!

Gosh, my weekend with acorns was not very succesful. I think it's a little late in the year to be harvesting 'em. A two-hour hunt that hit about 7 or 8 trees yielded a meager 21 nuts. I did learn some things about harvesting tho - First off - it's great fun, like most foraging is i guess. Seriously though, i found with a pretty hard squeeze you can tell whether the little acorn 'worms' have gotten to them yet. Ok, if there's a hole in them, the worm's already left. But if you squeeze really hard, and can feel it give a little, there's a worm in there that has started eating. The good ones are as hard as a rock. Lastly, the trees with fresh deer droppings under them had the best yields.

Amax, what exactly are you looking for on your recipes... straight food, or any products from the wild? Most of my recipes are NOT foraging types although we eat mostly venison in lieu of beef throughout the year... but i would really be interested in downloading the collection!

Thanks,
1080

Ya'll make me proud.
I think a thread to compile recipes and specifics about gathering and preparing wild foods is a great idea
I don't have the computer expertise to help with the compilation, but i will contribute a recipe or two along the way.
Absolutely I think grafics to illustrate what a plant looks like and to specify which parts are usable, would be a huge contribution. ( one picture being worth a thousand words ect. )
I know there are alot more recipes lurking out there. Common and share em with us ya'll, we promise to give you full credit for that fantastic jerky recipe or granny's secret venison chile recipe.
Comming soon, Acorn pancakes with pure home made maple syrup ( just as soon as I finsih ruminating and wipe my drooling jowls.)

reply to post by TenEighty

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Ten Eighty,
Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I aqm not used to posting pics or addresses. If you go to www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folders/Cattails.html you will get some good info.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

[edit on 29-1-2008 by reluctantpawn]

Regarding acorn flour: can this be used just like reguler flour? Like for baking bread and stuff?

Does anyone here know how to make flour from wheat or any other plants or whatever?

Reluctant,

No worries, i am still trying to figure these kinds of things out myself. Hilarious site you have posted - thanks, enjoying it!
I've never been able to bring myself to consume a dandelion. All that milky juice dripping out... ugh. Any tips for a first timer...?

thanks,
1080

reply to post by craig732

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Hi Craig,
To bake a proper raised loaf of bread, you need a certain amount of gluten in your flour. It's what makes bread dough "stretchy" and captures the gas bubbles from the yeast. Wheat I believe has the best gluten content of most flours, but its level varies depending on what type of wheat is grown and in what season it's grown.

You can purchase gluten (its usu called 'vital wheat gluten') to mix with non- or low-gluten flours to get a rise from your product. Non-gluten flours can be purchased too, because gluten is the part of wheat that many people are allergic to. Going the other direction, you can form plain gluten into shapes and use it as a bland meat substitute. Like tofu, it can take on whatever flavors you desire. If you don’t want to buy wheat gluten, you can also mix wheat flour in with your non-gluten flour for a similar effect.

HOWEVER! You can make quick breads (like pancakes, muffins, cornbread, etc) without gluten flour – just need baking soda or baking powder. Also you can make flat-breads, like pitas, chapatis, tortillas, etc, etc… without gluten flour or baking soda/powder period.

Here is a partial list of non-wheat flours: Cook's Thesaurus: Non-Wheat Flours
This is a good site with good info also: Bob's Red Mill

To make flour from wheat… you need to be able to grow it, harvest it, thresh it, winnow it, de-bran it (if you want white flour); grind/mill it, and store it. If you are storing whole-grain flour that has been ground/milled, it needs to be kept refrigerated or the natural oils that are released will go rancid. It sounds like this can be very challenging process. I hope to try this year with amaranth. Some grains like quinoa (or acorns as discussed above) have another step (for quinoa: soaking and flushing to remove saponins) added to the process. However I hear that this flush water is good for washing laundry!

You might find this blog post from someone making bread from a home mill interesting (I did!): Home Milling - 2 more tries
Sounds like you can get pretty involved in this! Anybody here have actual experience growing and milling grains?

Thanks,
1080

I prefer smoked trout with dandelion & pine cone soup, and for dessert, wild berry salad and fire weed tea

Here is a site which lists off some typical edible plants that you may find in the forests Edible Plants| Useful Plants

Whatever falls into the cooking pot!!