Thanks for the mention. I agree with you that historical accuracy has it's place in some areas of this fun hobby/lifestyle, but that being too critical can put people off. Historically plausible, or fantasy plausible is fine by me usually.
"Fantasy Plausible", I love that term. I could probably use that to justify having certain kinds of modern things at a Larp or something. It's not a "modern" water-purification tablet, it's a magical one I paid an alchemist to create for me! A campfire lighter? Nonsense, that's a fire-stone crafted by a wizard I met a few years ago. What do you mean my masterwork (swiss-army) multi-knife is too "modern"? I'll have you know I specially commissioned that from the greatest blacksmith in all the land! 😆All kinds of fun you could have with this. =^x^=
I think it's important to know what is accurate and what isn't, so if you do something inaccurate it's a deliberate choice, and not a mistake. I'm still learning a lot about history myself, and your channel is such a great way to do that!
“Today on Living Hobbitism, we’re going to talk about foods to bring if you ever get caught away from your hole on one of those nasty adventures. Remember to bring _only_ the essentials: eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausages, tea, coffee, honey cakes, seed cakes, scones, mince pies, small beer, herbs and salt for seasoning any coneys you might catch, taters, cheese, cold chicken, cold tongue, cold ham, cold beef, pickled gherkins, salad, Gondor rolls, cress sandwiches, potted meat, ginger beer, lemonade, soda water, and a jar of mustard. With a little preparation and careful rationing, that should be able to last you until Elevenses!”
I second the "always bring some kind of cooking fat" rule. People always forget it, and then you get to look like a genius when you save dinner. It's great for hosteling too. 🙂
As an Irish Lord, I approve of these potatoes. I like to bring instant stuff, like potatoes, and put them in medieval containers that you can't see through because no one will know, lol. They are really good for when you run out of all of the fresh things to cook and just want something easy to make.
@@strydyrhellzrydyr1345 true, but instant hold for far longer and "real" potatoes can be extremely lethal when the start to spoil. Taking full potatoes for the first few days then instant for after is far safer.
I think things like liquid IV, hand sanitizer, etc are that magical element that can elevate historic things into the fantasy realm and should be celebrated. Bonus points for integrating it into your kit in a magical way.
What do you mean, "automobiles don't belong here?" This is a _firecart,_ crafted by a master blacksmith and powered by a combination of elemental fire magic and alchemy! Vroom vroom, bitches!
Regarding the legal complications of foraging, it should be noted that was a consideration even in the medieval period. The King's forest, and all that--foresters guarding the vert and venison.
This was absolutely something I was going to mention! Foresters had a lot of leeway to enforce the Kings Law in his forests. Everything from being hauled into town for a stint in the stocks, to having the first two fingers on your bow hand cut off or even summary, death by hanging. Their Majesty did not have a sense of humor when it came to his land.
Can you blame them for their efforts of conservation? Give a group of medieval peasants free access to a forest that isn't being used for coppiced trees, and you'll soon find yourself without a decent forest. One village of 60-100 people isn't all that bad, but what if every village in your territory started utilizing the conserved areas?
That's why it's actually great to live in somewhere like modern Russia - we are free to use the drywood, mushrooms, berries and fish as well as camp anywhere, as most forests are public. You need a license to log wood or hunt though.
On a hike my buddy made the joke about "eating like Skyrim NPC" in regards to bringing raw vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese and dried meat, but its amazing how much more satisfying it is to eat that way when you are out on a trek than eating branded 'nutrient bars'. For those of you who like to hike, but often bring Cliff Bars or other similar things, I strongly recommend giving it a try! Also if you do want to make a facsimile of Lembas, I've found that a shortbread made with flour, butter and honey, plus some mild flavouring like citrus zest or rose water, works very well. Tastes great, lots of carbs and fat, doesn't require much space, and fills you up. Plus you get to pretend you're stopping for a break on the way to Mount Doom.
Most nutrient bars are more candy than actual food, anyways (lots of fillers and sweeteners). You have to understand what you are looking for and be pretty particular to find bars that genuinely work well.
@@NevisYsbryd The ONLY nutrient bars I EVER take on a trip, are ones that either I know are akin to what we were given when in the field.(Retired Marine), or those that I pre-made myself.
I love the portable soup! I'm so glad you mentioned it. For those you don't know, it's basically just a hearty broth that's boiled down and dehydrated until it's a dry sheet you can stuff in a pouch. You can boil it to make actual soup, or add it to other foods for flavor. If you can't do that, bouillon cubes are a perfectly fine substitute, and I seldom go camping without them. And guys, please drink water. Drink an unreasonable amount of plain, fresh water. Drink it until you're sick of it. You're spending a lot of time in the sun, and eating a ton of salt in preserved foods. I spent four years on dialysis(for unrelated reasons), and it's not fun. Please please be good to your kidneys.
This is such a great list! We all mourn the loss of the Elves' wisdom in making waybread. Alas... As an honorable mention though (because they're so tasty and keep for ages), I'd love to recommend Irish hunting biscuits, or "hunting nuts." They're a mix of oats, flour, molasses, spices, and candied fruit peel (with butter and salt). They don't break easily and, especially when you bake them longer, they keep at room temperature for at least a week. Apparently, they were historically used by huntsmen in Ireland.
About the modern water filter: we shouldn't forget that modern water is often way more polluted than the ones in medieval (and probably fantasy world s, outside dark lands). I've been drinking water from creeks in the Alps and from wells in other places and that was fine. But if you have a river, chances are that somewhere upstream someone dumped some chemicals in the water. Or used natural fertilizers on his fields, which you also don't want in your drink. (I think they recently declared rainwater undrinkable worldwide due to pollution) So I think that's perfectly fine to use a modern one. And the eggs, luckily here in Germany and I think all Europe, they're not washed like in the us, so they sit unrefrigerated in the supermarket anyways.
I prefer to have my Katadyn Pocket filter like I used in the army. I'm glad I bought mine and the extra filter for it when I did. Because the price has more than doubled. I've also had good luck with the Sawyer filters that you can use as a straw or attach to a 20 oz bottle.
If they declared rainwater undrinkable worldwide, they didn't give us the memo here in New Zealand. Air pollution is not the same everywhere. While it might be bad over enormous cities with populations of several million, it's not as bad over New Zealand. Up until we moved a month ago, my kids and I had been drinking rainwater harvested off the roof of the house for over a decade.
@@wolf1066 I'll post a link in a follow up comment. If you don't see it because UA-cam hides it, searching "rainwater undrinkable pollution" should get you some relevant data. It's really sad. Carcinogenic PFAS are found in rainwater everywhere (including Antarctica) over the allowable limit.
@@MalloonTarka I looked it up and had a read about the PFOAs etc. To be honest, though, it mentions "US guidelines" and frankly the USA is a pack of wusses when it comes to water - they won't even drink town-supply water straight from the tap because they're convinced it's toxic - despite the fact it's more pure than a lot of the bottled water they buy by the ton.
I never carry water up the mountain when out gathering berries because it flows freely from the springs. Helps that I live in a temperate rainforest and i know where sheep may graze upstream so I avoid liver fluke. I gave up on sterilising tablets 60 years ago as too much faff. Must go stirr the wild sorrel soup sitting on the woodburner and check the blacberries simmering to kill vinegar yeasts before pouring them into this years wine crock
"You must have salt." As a POTS sufferer, I felt this in my veins. Also, LiquidIV and similar products are fantastic, and if it's for a fantasy setting you could absolutely add a bunch of the packets into a sturdy jar of some sort and just give it some sort of magical name that fits the setting.
On the subject of Waybread, while we can't exactly go and ask elves their secrets for making this, there is an alternative that can be used. Look up Coast Guard rations and you will find options for very high-calorie food bars that wouldn't take up much room in a pack and could be a good idea to have just in case something happened to the other food you brought. Spoilage can happen even when you've been careful to take that into account, especially for those who are inexperienced. Just remember if you have to use the Waybread facsimile that's when you should call an end to your camping excursion.
Why not make your own bread? Bring a small dutch oven, make a ball of dough the day before (it doesn't need to be refrigerated) and extra flour, salt and yeast (and water). Bake and the dough in the evening (or morning) and prepare another ball of dough for the next day while the bread cook. Fresh bread everyday. With some dry sausage or ham (salami, copa di parna or something like that) and butter, you have very good fulling food. Maybe get some peanut butter too.
In terms of camp food I am always sure to bring a wide assortment of dehydrated items. Meats can be cut up and used for soups etc. Sliced thin they can be steaks. At the heart of the issue is the removal of fat and a long time soaking to reconstitute the meat. All items dehydrated can be reconstituted. Usually I do this with a hearty soup or stew, but the single items can be done alone and you can find vegetables, meats and sliced or dice potatoes (if blanched before dehydration) for a meal. Because of their long shelf life I tend to keep them stashed at the bottom of the bag, vacuum sealed and bound tightly along with dehydrated drinks and fruits to conserve room. Dehydrated fruits can be reconstituted, diced and added to meals or breads. Reconstituted peppers like the vegetables are divided for dehydration and can be used whole or ground and kept on hand for seasoning. I always bring pounds of flour and yeast. Dehydration makes for excellent backup meals and in fact entire meals can be dehydrated for those times things in life just didn't work out for you. An entire stew can be divided into meals and dehydrated, to be reconstituted later and eaten good as new. Stews, soups, spaghetti with sauce already added, mac n cheese, raw and blended eggs ready to add water and use to cook with or already cooked scrambled eggs with cooked sausage. Dozens of raw eggs dehydrated and powdered in near no space at all keeps for decades and weighs next to nothing. The list is long and always at hand are all the favorite vegetables you could want. It is SO cool I bought my own dehydrator and prepare my own meals and seal em up before I go. Good stuff, lemme tell ya. Good stuff. Fresh food is great, but its sensitive. Backup is needed and dehydration is perfect.
I like Bringing bacon because the fat rendered is also used for cooking the eggs or for frying the tortillas. For bushcrafting excursions, I like bringing buldak ramen with a couple of creamer cups from the gas station. For longer times out, I just like having those charcuterie packs. This way the salami and cheeses are all packed and prepped for room temp carriage. One weird thing I've gotten used to, is just eating oats dry. It tastes like wood, but some days that's okay. You will need water to help eat them though. It'll dry your mouth out quicker than a Popeye's biscuit.
"I like onions in my scrambled egg" you had my abo three videos back. But with this statement you entered my heart! Keep up the fantastic work!!! Greetz from Germany
I really love his food videos. Not for everyone, but... you can live quite a while on beer alone. Throw in some hard tac and you'll survive the journey for quite a while. One beer gives you most of what you need for an entire day in just one can... Sailors have proven this time and time again. My three food groups for surviving (though not always thriving) Hard Tac, Beer, and half a potato (Lg Russet).
I can confirm this about beer, from personal experience. One half liter can of beer lasted me for a full meal multiple times (Usually I work in the garden and 'skip' a meal like this. Will make some hard tack at some point)
Something I just remembered about the whole "drying fruit" thing. A notable exception to this is the apple. Apples contain a chemical that makes you feel fuller than you are, so some dried apple chips are a great addition to any kit, really.
When foraging for plants it's also good to keep in mind to leave some! Usually I go by "take two, leave one" rule. During long distance hikes I only foraged for fruit and plants, as I don't know enough about mushrooms. Edible chestnuts were also great, starchy and surprisingly filling. 😊
Having grown up in the forests of north america I have a soft spot for pemmican. Adding in blueberries, cranberries, or sumac adds a lot of nutrients and antioxidants that will help preserve it and is historically accurate. Using deer meat and bison tallow would be ideal, but using beef for both of those is a decent modern substitute Tortillas are also nice, they'll last longer than many other kinds of breads and I find them quite filling. Another historical american food Honey is also amazing for putting on wounds, it has a whole host of crazy things it does. It's often even more useful than modern antibacterial ointment Vinegar will help hydrate you, vinegar and water drinks have been common throughout many different ancient cultures Bonus joke food: freeze dried ice cream wrapped in wax paper tied with rustic string
I have to disagree on the waste involved with cooking bacon. If you're bringing flour, you make gravy with the fat. If you're bringing bread, you can fry it in the fat. Otherwise, I think everything else was on point. This was a great video!
@@greylocke100 IRL I am a Mountain Man, Who has spent decades living off the land, there is SO Much more you can do with bacon fat then simply using it for cooking/frying ect. As an example I often use, it works well providing you have the other materials as an augmentation for your fire tinder. EG: Whenever I am going out for a long trip. I ALWAYS gather birch bark, cat tail fluff, and whenever possible old dryer lint. I then use the old collected and repurposed bacon grease as a bonding agent, in order to make 'FIRE BALLS'. tiny balls that under MOST conditions almost always ensure that there is little chance of NOT being able to start a campfire.
@@greylocke100 Interesting, tried the lard route once or twice, but I ended up getting more smoke then flames.I have yet to try out the Beef Tallow route yet. Might give it a shot on my next journey though as a possible alternative.
Brilliant overview! I could add some things to your list, most of them accurate to the medieval period: 1) Pitta bread: Travels far better than bread and can be used to wrap other foods. Extremely versatile and period accurate. 2) Brown sugar or jaggery: It would be expensive in a medieval European setting but it would be more affordable in the East. It was produced as far north as Crete until America overtook sugar production. 3) A type of portable soup called Trahana (in Greek and Balkan languages) or Tarhana in (Turkish, Iranian and various Arabic languages): Made mostly of some type of wheat or other grain and some sour milk product, with various other ingredients added. Travels very well, doesn't spoil easily and is a ideal ingredient for soups. I guess that in North America, you'll need to source it from a store that has Balkan, Greek, Middle Eastern or Hindu products. It's quite challenging to make it yourself since it needs to be dried thoroughly after cooking. 4) Oat bars or Pasteli: A type of nut and sesame bar blended with syrup/honey, which is very easy to make. Think of an oat bar, but more flavorful and oily, tasting somewhat like a peanut brittle. Invented before the 6th century AD at the latest, since they are mentioned in the Strategikon of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice as an Byzantine army ration. Travels extremely well, doesn't spoil and if you're preparing it yourself at home you may use any mix of nuts you wish. Almonds and aniseed are very popular additions. If you get the proportions right it's not cloyingly sweet and it doesn't make you thirsty. There are many variants which may use sunflower seeds or other nuts/seeds as a base. Nuts are underrated! 5) Halva: Essentially it's the dried paste version of pasteli again made of a blend of sesame paste (the one called tahini) and sugar/honey. It doesn't spoil easily and travels well but tends to be sweeter than pasteli. I guess that in North America, you'll need to source it from a store that has Balkan, Greek or Middle Eastern products. It's quite challenging to make it yourself since it needs to be heated very gently while cooking.
I recommend Dorothy Hartley’s “Food in England”. It isn’t specifically about food for trekking but it does go into great detail about how to prepare, preserve and cook food in pre Industrial Revolution England and we need a lot of that know-how out adventuring. For example, she shows a warmed brick wrapped in wool felt to keep bread warm on and ways to cook food that isn’t always ‘put in a pot and add heat underneath’. Replace ‘England’ with ‘The Shire’ and I’m sure it would be accurate.
Lentils, grind broad beans, soy, hemp seeds are always packed with me when I go camping. Just returned from 4 day "medieval" fest where I was reenacting in a viking camp.
My go-to camp food is frybread. A Mason jar full of flour should be enough for a weekend, I keep some oil in a tsa shampoo bottle, mix it with water, a little salt, and a lot of oregano, and then pan fry it.
Where I live, you can buy wax cloth in normal stores by now. They're meant as a long-living, reusable alternative to transparent food wrapping, to keep things fresh. I saw them recommended to contemporary hikers.
I never thought about taking v8. Tasty and healthy! It would be fun to put together a kind of Living Anachronism camp "cookbook" I've been trying to make up some of my own recipes that have a kind of fantasy flair to them.
Nuts and dried veggies are great for throwing into a stew. Anacronistic, but dry ramen is filling, mixes with so many things, keeps forever, and is very light. They are parallel with dumplings for adding flour, and you can add peanuts for protein and flavour, and since you are boiling it anyways it is a great medium for re-hydrating your dry veggies. For soft cheese lovers, there is babybel cheeses. They come wax wrapped (which is also plastic wrapped, but that can be removed before journeying), which means they keep extremely well even not refrigerated for hours, or days for the harder cheeses. AND they are already snack sized.
I don’t know about pickled eggs, but cucumber pickles you absolutely can drink the brine. It was an ancient form of Gatorade adding some electrolytes in the form of salt. Which you can sip if you start to get cramps. And dried fruit can just be tossed into your water/milk for meal during cooking to rehydrate and flavor the porridge. Or even salad dressing (vinegar+oil+touch of mustard powder) if you live in a place where wild greens are around.
I've bever been out a full night in the woods, but I hope to do it in the future, and now thanks to this video, I know a little better what to bring with me! When I was younger, a friend of mine and me had this little campsite set up in a nearby forest, sort of an alcove on a cliff you could reach. We fortified it, built it up and it turned out pretty nice. What we used to do was make simple sandwiches with butter, cheese, ham och spices, then wrap them aluminum foil and roast them either on a rock on the fireplace or placing them right on the coals of the dying fire. It was great, it sort of gave a smoked taste, together with everything in it, it was really good. Not very historically accurate with the foil, but still. And I always wore fantasy clothing, a nice woolen cloak, and we never used flashslights, we used lanterns, candels and torches. It was a good time back then.
I’ve been camping for years and for safety reasons, I’d recommend finding someone to come with you while you’re learning the basics. I’d also suggest packing an extra bag with some modern kit in it (assuming you’re wanting to be doing historical style camping) because a lot of people underestimate the level of skill that’s required to live out in the woods comfortably without modern conveniences. At the very least I’d suggest a warm sleeping bag and a modern first aid kit. Other than that, I hope you enjoy yourself! It feels great once you’re comfortable in your ability to live in the wilderness.
@@jm-tKoA26 I agree with bringing a little bit of modern kit. A backup shelter or sleep system if you haven’t tested your medieval system yet is a good idea. Necessities are a modern method of fire starting as a backup and basic first aid kit (I advocate putting together your own rather than getting a store bought kit)
@@andrewwolff2161 the oldschool flint and steel (not a farrel rod) can still work, but matches were invented only a few years (1826) after the lighter (1823). If you go with the flint and steel then light several fires with it BEFORE heading into the woods and still bring backup fire (a Bic or a tube of matches).
Making small linen rectangular ditty bags is a great way to use up scraps of cloth after making kit. Also pro tip, soak a peice of linen in beeswax so its stiff and saturated, makes a authetic saran wrap, great for cheese, as cheese can breathe and yet be protected, keeps bugs out and keeps food fresher, , if it gets too crumpled, just heat and remelt the wax
Yeah, this stuff is cool. Some places sell it (usually with branding all over it) but if you have some wax and scraps is great to make your own. I think you can put it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and usr an iron on low heat to get it refreshed.
Modern History TV is a great channel, anyone who ends up here will find great similar content there, also he is also an actual knight, as in hes been knighted, and he is the founder of rebellion, the games developer, who made AVP.
Three foods I never go without are dehydrated soup greens, instant mashed potatoes and small container of cooking oil. The greens and potatoes can meals by themselves or combined with some meat for a sort of simplistic Shepard pie. The potatoes can be used to thicken soups instead of flour and everything tastes better when cooked in oil. Edit: Also if you are allowed to i like to bring a flask of whiskey or rum. Something that’s not necessary but it’s nice to lift your spirits.
I once did a three day hike through the foothills of the Himalayas. I didn’t bring enough water and the places we stopped to replenish didn’t sell any regular water. They sold sugary drinks and sodas. I needed something, but drinking that was excruciating and only made me more thirsty every time I drank it.
I recently discovered your channel and wanted to say thanks. I'm a lifelong hiker and camper, and have been playing D&D for about two and half years. I love how you bring those worlds together! My 9 year old wants to try D&D cosplay so we're watching together and we're both diggin' it! Many thanks to you!
I love all the Lord Of The Rings references you have all the time, I'm a huge fan of both your channel as well as Lord Of The Rings. Keep up the awesome channel and all the great content.
"...before you start picking up forest growths and putting them in your mouth." 🤣 Brilliantly said hahaha sounds like me talking to my children everyday! Great video thank you for the inspiration and ideas for my next trip👍 -Dan
2:15 “……Or you’re probably just going to die.” That caught me off guard😂 Edit: One of my favorite things about reading the book Rangers Apprentice, was reading about their food that they brought on their journeys👌
My hubby and I are going to Bicolline in a couple of years and we're definitely bringing a cooler as they have a store to replenish ice on the grounds. It's great getting some extra information on long lasting foods we can bring with us. I'm vegetarian/plant based so I'll definitely be relying on cheese for protein, but I think some veggie sausages would be great as long as they're kept chilled. I definitely agree with staying away from junk foods because they don't fill you up, and if you're spending the day walking or participating in battles, you need the denser, filling foods. Something that we make frequently is bannock - a Native American/Indigenous flatbread that only requires flour, oil, salt, baking powder, and a bit of water. We pan fry it, but it can be cooked over a fire. It's filling and delicious topped with jam or fresh butter! 😋
Hi, Lorena. Especially if you are plant-based, why not stick with dried, easy-to-pack, legumes for your protein rather than highly processed veggie sausages which need refrigeration ? A cup of dry lentils will last you longer than a cup of veggie sausages. My daughter, very much the meat-eater, took rice and a few types of lentils for her daily meals while trekking 4 months along our country’s version of the Appalachian Trail. She also ate the same backpacking through Norway. No matter what, have an amazing time!
There's a Blogpost called "Cooking the Period Way", and on there they have a series called "Revisiting Rations", where they created a series of ration sets themed after different fantasy races/cultures, i.e. Humans, Elves, Orcs, etc. While they aren't the most hardy of options when it comes to long term preservation, they should last you a few days, and more importantly give you ideas on what kinds of meals one can make or what components to add to existing meals to spice things up. It's a fun little series to get the ideas flowing.
You said don't do pickles because the liquid to the pickle you can use that vinegar make a sweet pickle and put it in your water that brine is also high in electrolytes and stuff for health especially when you're dehydrated, you can also do dry pickles and use the salt for your salt in your dish do you pickles I can't stress that enough. Pickle is good for long journeys and do the pickle.
Hi Kramer, good video, as usual. I’d like to add a few comments from my personal experience. In addition to salt i would recommend some dried herbs, like thyme and basil. The added flavour can make a big difference. Concerning the rendered out fat in bacon, that you described as lost: It is basically salted lard. Use it on bread/hardtack or stir it into a stew. For Cheese i'd bring something even harder than a gouda. More like a Parmesan or Pecorino Romano. Those are drier and saltier and thus will keep longer. On nuts and dried fruit my personal experience differs from yours. I usually have them in a pouch readily accessible and over time snack away at them while walking. In the same vein, some sweet cookies work do work for me as well. I can recommend the Anglo-Saxon Oatcakes from tasting history, as the oats actually have quite a bit of protein and fat und fill you up nicely. After the first few days, bread can be sliced up and dried, to make it last longer. Won’t be as pleasant anymore, but still will feed you and fill you up. How well hat works, depends on the weather and climate you are traveling in.
Agree with you completely. Never throw out fat. Really hard aged cheddar, Parmesan or Pecorino are excellent and the rich flavor can really make a day. In the Fall of 2019 I took a 5 day trip to London. I was in the heart of civilization. Didn’t want to waste time and money on meals. Too much to see and do! I took a large bag of salted almonds and 250 g of English cheddar in my carry on. I had coffee and croissants in the hotel for breakfast and nuts and cheese the rest of the day. The cheddar wasn’t aged so it felt a little sad on the 5th day without refrigeration but it was still good. I would use the same strategy on every vacation. Cheese and nuts for the win.
I love this - I want to have fun and am less interested in historical living history than I am in fantasy/piratecore/cottagecore/RenFaire and LARPing , taverncore cookery versus medieval foodways. Thank you for the inclusive video
you can drink the brine, but I think its the jar that really diswades me on carrying pickles. but I have seen single large pickles sold in plastic bags, and they are great to carry hiking.
I haven’t been camping in forever. I used to go all the time with my dad when I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, but that was probably like 13 or 14 years ago. I’ve loved your videos for a while now, and you’re seriously inspiring me to go camping again, but this time medieval style! Don’t know that it’ll be for a while, but maybe when I visit my dad back in Texas we’ll try camping again.
Where I live, you can buy wax cloth in normal stores by now. They're meant as a long-living, reusable alternative to transparent food wrapping, to keep things fresh. I saw them recommended to contemporary hikers. It's linen drenched in bees wax.
I really like to think that your videos are all one big running story rather than individual videos because of the fact that you reference many of your previous ones in the newer videos lately, it almost seems planned but it's really just awesome and big brain ^_^ i love the references to Pasties and Pepperoni, i use those allot!
Love this list! 😀Have you done a video showing how you carry all of these items? I'd love to see the containers you chose for each. Just a couple of notes to add from a motorcycle camping perspective 😁 (which I like to imagine I'm journeying on horseback when riding along dirt back-roads). 1) Precook your meats. Cooked hamburger, bacon and kielbasa keep a little longer and handle extreme temperatures much better after they are cooked. Bonus if you dry them out and store them in an air-tight container like a mason jar (or a jar sealed with wax for the medieval flair). They can be eaten in a variety of ways from plain to being added to soups or sauces to re-hydrate. 2) Dried pastas (especially ramen) take up very little space but are very easy to make with minimal water. Combined with butter and a little bit of your dried meat creates an excellent protein and carb combo with very little cleanup. Throw in your diced tomato, onion, and/or carrots as a bonus. 3) Add honey to your journey cake for the ultimate satisfying hard-tack. Savory cakes are good, but like you said, you often crave something sweet afterwards. Cakes with honey last just as long but also satisfy the sugar AND salt craving. Love the medieval/fantasy aesthetic and really enjoy your channel. Looking forward to seeing what you do next 👏
Great video Kramer. All good ideas. I would add in some rice people in the East have been using it for centuries and instead of butter I would go with ghee. You can buy it but its easy to make and lasts unrefirdgerated for a long time. Nate
This food looks so good 😭 I am not an "adventure" person by any means, I like nature, but I don't do wilderness well lol. However, I love your videos! They're so intriguing
Plus eggs from someone’s yard chickens instead of a huge chicken farm are going to be a lot harder to break, due to to the higher amount of nutrients they receive. Like the shells are significantly thicker
Another thing that might be a good addition would be things like pemmican. With regard to the dried fruits thing, having both that and nuts/seeds would work for it. I can't eat most nuts due to allergy issues, but sunflower seeds and similar things work well as a replacement. Hitting both the salty and sweet parts.
Rings of Power Foodie Rumor: A great sadness falls upon Princess Disa when she realizes all the excitement is about 'rings of power' instead of 'rings of flour' at local bakeries. Fortunately, healer Bronwyn is visiting Khazad-dûm and is able to treat Disa's depression with a prescription of an Orc-sized portion of caramel-chocolate lembas bread.
I was a backpacking guide in the Colorado Rockies for two summers in college. Obviously our food considerations were a bit different. This is an amazing video, and I like Kramer's sense of humor.
During his last couple years as a scout, my son and I discovered that beef jerky makes a WONDERFUL addition to soups when on the trail. While not medieval-themed, we made ramen with additional dehydrated veggies. Made a great meal on a cold backpacking trip and wasn't just some standard freeze-dried Mountain House meals.
Actually seeing this video i started to think about Lotr Lembas bread, found out it's surprisingly easy to make. Now to get the leaves it was wrapped in...maybe just linnen cloth will do, no need to get carried away.
Bread is overall easy to make, but the issue most countries might have is the use of wheat flour. You will need about 40-60% of rye flour and baked well. It is quite common kind of bread in central Europe. And yes, as you correctly mentioned, the best way of preserving bread is cloth. In my experience when packed properly, it will last somewhat soft and eatable around 7-8 days. Ironically I think the leaves as on Lembas would cause many issues. Areas with holes would get hard soon and if packed well, it would probably act same as a plastic bag, not allowing possible moisture to get out and make the bread rot. That's the magic of Lorien trees we are missing.
@@R4ND1R I appreciate your input you clearly given this a lot of thought. I had thought of dying the cloth green and applying a wax coating in order to imitate the leaves as close as possible but we should rly accept our limitations and just stick to common sense no matter how much we wanna imitate fantasy.
🎩Hi a great snack for adventuring is hawthorn berry fruit leather, it keeps for months. Basically get your berries pulp them and de stone them with a sieve, lay out on baking paper and cook in a low oven until all the water has gone. About 4 to 5 hrs. Then cut into strips. Yum.
have you discovered instant mashed potato flakes and dry onion soup mix? the potato flakes can be added to cooked meat dripping for extra and tasty calories and added to soup to make it much thicker and calorie dense. and the onion soup mix can be used to spice meat cooking and kinda make a broth with a small bit of water added
The thing with bacon is if you make it at home properly dry curing and smoking, although it will take you a couple of weeks and make, it can stay out of the fridge for weeks. Wasting the fat really depends on how you cook it, if you just cooking and strips that I would not recommend 1 it's going to be way too salty to eat 2 you are going to waste most of that fat when it renders. I would recommend putting bacon and stews and stuffing squid and all that, a UA-cam channel that does a lot of these recipes is Raven's of Asgard really great channel been watching for a while we honestly deserve way more subscribers.
On the liquid IV comment: Honied water. It was a thing and so common as to be rarely talked about. Adding a little bit of honey was also just a good way to get the "funk" out of water that's been in a skin for a day or two.
A good sea salt with trace minerals will also greatly reduce dehydration. Having a little dried fruit as a side during a meal can help with that also. And yeah foraging for substance is so easy to get wrong, and the amount of time and effort it costs to find, evaluate, and prepare-for most people in most areas, it is usually not enough payoff to justify any benefit you might get from it, even if you don’t get poisoned 😅
Oats can be made sweet or savory and also can be added to soups. I also find that a sweeter bread tends to stay fresh longer though I don't quite know why. I have been premixing dry ingredients in storage bags to mix and steam puddings at a camp sight or bake in a Dutch oven. Boston brown bread (steam), beer bread or shepherd's bread are some ideas. This video covers some things I have just been researching. Thank you!
Forty-some years ago (no spring chicken, I ) on a adventurous camping trip, the person who was supposed to bring the pan, did not. I cut the round steak they did bring into strips, built a fire on a flat rock, and moved the fire along, cooking in its wake.
For the bacon grease just render it some and pour it into an empty container as it cools. Won’t need to be refrigerated and can be used to add flavor- or add flour and water to make a sort of gravy with salt and pepper or spices to put on Johnny cakes or rolls. Sauté the soups vegetables and lean meats in the bacon grease. Fats carry flavor, calories, and are preservative in nature.
speaking of salt, i found an article about ancient chinese soldiers rations, and it mentioned that the troops usually carried lump salt, but sometimes they were supplied with a kind of dried bread made from fermented black beans and salt, a few crumbs of which could then be added to any food that was cooking to season it. A more european method would be to do that with hardtack or some kind of dried, heavily salted meat.
In the D&D campaigns I play, there are two types of rations: standard, and iron. Standard is fairly good roadfare, but it keeps for only about 2 weeks without preservation steps. Iron rations will last for months or years under the right conditions, but don't taste very good, and are tougher foods. The yield potation for foraging is dubious, and we usually ignore it. The cost to slow the expedition to remain cohesive and hunt, is also fairly poor, unless there's something significant we encounter.
I recommend dried lentils - specially red or yellow lentils. They are long lasting, easy to transport und quick to cook. Great in lots of different stews or soups, filling and a good source of protein. Dried mushrooms are also great as addition to stews und soups, to give them an extra depth of flavour.
Dried fruit like figs, apricots, prunes, dates, etc (depending on what you like or how historically accurate you want it) are a good survival food too. Easy to carry along (no fear of squishing juice out), and sweet tasting. Only apricots need sit in water and rehydrate for several hours before eating, or you'll actively dehydrate yourself.
I, too, lean more toward Salami than Bacon if I'm bringing a cured meat. However, if you're making jerky to take as your late-stage dried meat option, I've found bacon jerky to be delicious, especially if you marinate it with soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce before drying it to make it extra salty. It's practically bouillon! Fresh potatoes and onions keep a good long while, but I've also found instant mashed potatoes to make the middle between fresh potatoes and a sack of flour. They're so versatile, I'll use them as a stand in for either of those things. Potato dumplings, potato soup, potato pancakes, potato flor dredge for raw meat, whatever.
dried fruits and nuts, and lets not forget the sliced dried "chip" beef (from the old SOS days) Dried fish, for soups, stews or with butter to eat as is!
Oats! Bob's Red Mill Scottish oatmeal - coarse ground. Or if you have a hand-cranked mill (like one of the old Corona Corn Mills), buy whole oat groats and run them through it on a coarse setting. Cook it with rosemary and sage and it's delicious. I also like making oatcakes: grind the oat groats finer, mix them with whole wheat flour and make a savory shortbread with butter and just enough water to hold the dough together (and rosemary and sage ground up with the salt), roll out and cut into discs and cook on a griddle. They should keep for a few days and in my experience they're about the closest thing to Lembas that I've eaten, in terms of filling-nourishing effect. Recently I had some split peas that had gotten old and took a long time to cook down into soup, so I ground them in my Corona on the finest setting - to about the consistency of commercial cornmeal. I mixed that in with some of my Scottish oatmeal and I call it my "Ranger burgoo." I can cook it into an acceptable porridge in about 10 minutes (with a seasoning mix I made from tomato buillion and herbs). The pea particles don't get soft exactly, but they're small enough that their crunchiness doesn't disrupt. Dry roasting or parching grain is a good way to make it a quick camp food. In Tibet it's "tsampa" made from barley. I've made it with wheat too - I think the Romans did something like this. And you can parch maize and eat it plain or grind it into pinole. Any of these you can just stir into water with some salt to make an instant gruel or use as a soup base. With the wheat or barley versions you can mix it with hot water, salt and butter and squish it into little dumplings. That's especially well-adapted to mountain adventures. The really hard and thick cram - hardtack or ship's biscuit - is actually pretty nice when broken into pieces and cooked into a soup with broth: simmer it for maybe 10-15 minutes and the pieces get pleasingly chewy. For jerky I'd recommend the Mexican style, prepared without sugar. Usually pretty brittle, especially when it's sliced really thin against the grain, so it doesn't wear your jaw out so much chewing it. Potato flakes might seem like a modern thing, but they're not all that different from chuño - freeze-dried potatoes that were the staple food of Incan soldiers. If you're willing to go more of a fantasy route and allow all the American crops, then you've got license not only for potatoes, tomatoes and maize, but beans and peanuts. If the Incas figured out how to naturally freeze-dry potatoes, who's to say people couldn't also figure out how to roll out and dry cooked beans into flakes in a preindustrial setting? Those instant dried refried beans are wonderfully tasty and filling. And then there are palanquetas: the bars of peanuts and raisins held together by crystalized syrup.
i'd bring a bag of dried raisins or all sorts of dried fruit, also works in a sweet soup. lentils are also nice to cook and keep you full and i feel like they have a good ratio to packing weight to stomach fullness also protein.
When I bring salt, it's usually a ~4in salt rock. It's a lot more convenient than a vial or bag of loose salt in that if your carrying method fails, you just pick it up, dust it off and stick it in a pocket. Scrape some off into a meal, or just lick the rock occasionally for electrolytes. It also generally has the bonus of being less susceptible to moisture and being higher in other nutrition minerals than just table salt. Salt rocks, they're great.
Ooh, I love this! I’m a ‘salt is life’ person and keep a vial of salt in my bag at all times. Just water doesn’t go as far as you’d think when you get dehydrated. You need salt with it. No idea where I would get a salt rock in my country but one is now at the top of my wish list! Growing up I always saw people putting salt licks out in the pastures for the animals…now I want my own. :-)
@@sarahrosen4985 Redmond Real Salt ships international. They sell bags of varying sizes and grit. Edit: apparently their shipping is fairly limited overseas, but they have international stores that sell their products. The list can be shown on their FAQ page.
@@someguy3861thanks for checking for me! So kind of you. I've been trying to get Redmonds for ages. Finally gave up on them. Now I buy pink Himalayian salt. The Himalayas are less fussy about international shipping. 😁 We have Himalayian pink salt crystals carved into candle holders and salt crystal treatment rooms locally but, I don't know, is it just salt or were they 'forgiving' in the impurities they bulked the crystals up with? Can I just break off a piece of a candle holder? 🧐 I will have to do a search for making salt rocks or if something is available locally but you definitely made me want a salt rock and I will be eternally grateful to you for reminding me of their existence and superior adventuring suitability.
Regarding cheese, Gouda is good, but I like bringing Manchego on hikes. It's hard and packs well. Also, that soup pictured around 6 minutes looks delicious. Any chance of a short recipe video on making that?
Great video. The content keeps getting better. you should do a camp soup video. Also, dried mushrooms can last weeks at room temperature and are great for you. With regard to the portable soup I typically bring beef stock cubes and they are packed with flavour, half a cube if your cooking in a cup. In your soup video do a pot version and a version where it is cooked in a steel cup. Another video suggestion could be taking a store bought steak and smoking it in your cloak. that will last three days at least.
• Cheese: something my grandparents used to do (they didn't always have a fridge) is when they were making it they were adding more than enough salt. My granddad's goat cheese was hard and very salty, this was a long lasting cheese but didn't smell as sweet as the usual goat cheese from the shops, it had more of a intense goat smell. You can make goat cheese at home btw. • Bread: What I usually do when I go camping (not fantasy themed) is to make a mix of flour from home and make bannock bread on a stick (check Ray Mears and others for more recipes on bread). • Sausages: In my region (in Greece) we were making some homemade sausages, with lots of pepper and we were dehydrating them hanged above a log burner for days. At the end you ended up with a sausage stuffed with livers and other organs of sheep, mixed with herbs that was very long lasting and smelled delicious, but it also was way too spicy. Other extras: • Olives (they last long out of the brine - usually a mixture of vinegar water and salt with some oil on top) • Sun dried fruits. No need to add sugar if you do them the proper way. • Bircher: my favourite way to have porridge. Soaked overnight whole oats in your pot (covered) with raisins and honey. You can add a spoon of marmalade before serving in the morning. • Spring onions. They are lighter than the white/red onions and can be eaten whole raw, there is no waste and easy to pack. (Better than that: baby leaks) • Chestnuts. They are more filling than other nuts and really tasty when you roast them. • Potatoes: go for baby potatoes, no need to pill them. • Game: I know the law is different in our days depending where you are. The legal thing to do when I was a child was the deadfall trap for small birds. Never leave your campsite though without destroying them. Setting them up in the morning we were ending up with 5-6 small birds in the evening. Enough for more than 2-3 people to eat with rice (this is how my mother used to cook them in a tiny Dutch oven, rice and the small birds on top. Not as tasty as you can imagine, but again it was better than nothing) -Top tip: Wine and oil. That's the oldest of all and so useful, none was traveling without them in the old days. The wine wasn't just for drinking but to also clean wounds, the oil was used after to soothe the pain and seal the wound and after that a bandage out of (boiled or pre-boiled) rugs would be used if needed. Hope that helps :)
Regarding sweet stuff: In Germany we have these „Doppelkekse“ (lit. double cookies) which are two cookies with chocolate cream in the middle. While they aren’t that filling (can’t make a meal out of them) they are a great boost of energy and morale, especially for children. Sincerely, one of those children who’s highlight of any hike was the cookie-bribery.
Thanks for the mention. I agree with you that historical accuracy has it's place in some areas of this fun hobby/lifestyle, but that being too critical can put people off. Historically plausible, or fantasy plausible is fine by me usually.
Wow, a celebrity is in here! Love your channel.
"Fantasy Plausible", I love that term. I could probably use that to justify having certain kinds of modern things at a Larp or something. It's not a "modern" water-purification tablet, it's a magical one I paid an alchemist to create for me! A campfire lighter? Nonsense, that's a fire-stone crafted by a wizard I met a few years ago. What do you mean my masterwork (swiss-army) multi-knife is too "modern"? I'll have you know I specially commissioned that from the greatest blacksmith in all the land! 😆All kinds of fun you could have with this. =^x^=
I love when Jason appears on other channels, haha! Yet another testimony of Kramer's quality.
I think it's important to know what is accurate and what isn't, so if you do something inaccurate it's a deliberate choice, and not a mistake. I'm still learning a lot about history myself, and your channel is such a great way to do that!
@@LivingAnachronism Cheers!
“Today on Living Hobbitism, we’re going to talk about foods to bring if you ever get caught away from your hole on one of those nasty adventures. Remember to bring _only_ the essentials: eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausages, tea, coffee, honey cakes, seed cakes, scones, mince pies, small beer, herbs and salt for seasoning any coneys you might catch, taters, cheese, cold chicken, cold tongue, cold ham, cold beef, pickled gherkins, salad, Gondor rolls, cress sandwiches, potted meat, ginger beer, lemonade, soda water, and a jar of mustard.
With a little preparation and careful rationing, that should be able to last you until Elevenses!”
Should I get some bread?
@@thejoker8987Preferably in liquid form so that is a pint added to the small beer.
I second the "always bring some kind of cooking fat" rule. People always forget it, and then you get to look like a genius when you save dinner. It's great for hosteling too. 🙂
Big brain bring butter
Thank you for the shout out!
Absolute pleasure Max, I love your work! Thanks for checking out the video!
As an Irish Lord, I approve of these potatoes.
I like to bring instant stuff, like potatoes, and put them in medieval containers that you can't see through because no one will know, lol. They are really good for when you run out of all of the fresh things to cook and just want something easy to make.
Instant mashed potatoes are surprisingly good and great for camping. If you add more water, you get potato soup!
Instant mashed potato's mixed with some white southern gravy is a very good calorie boost.
But real potatoes are so easy to cook...
@@strydyrhellzrydyr1345 true, but instant hold for far longer and "real" potatoes can be extremely lethal when the start to spoil. Taking full potatoes for the first few days then instant for after is far safer.
Trick the unknowing into thinking you have fairy dust. Good plan. LOL
I think things like liquid IV, hand sanitizer, etc are that magical element that can elevate historic things into the fantasy realm and should be celebrated. Bonus points for integrating it into your kit in a magical way.
same goes for those water purification tablets
@@micah1848 stones containing holy energies which fight off the evil spirits plaguing wild waters
Its all in how you package it.
I feel the same about light sources. You call it LED, I call it an everbright lantern.
What do you mean, "automobiles don't belong here?" This is a _firecart,_ crafted by a master blacksmith and powered by a combination of elemental fire magic and alchemy!
Vroom vroom, bitches!
With bacon, I put a couple eggs in the pan and scramble them in, it absorbs the fat so you can eat it and get all the energy from it while camping.
A very Keto friendly meal
Also great to cook diced potatoes in.
you can also use it to make fried bread or gravy with it
It's also good to start a soup. Fry some bacon, then use the fat to saute onions and whatnot, add water and lentils, and you've got an awesome soup!
@@aprildriesslein5034 That's one of Gramma's secrets right there.
Regarding the legal complications of foraging, it should be noted that was a consideration even in the medieval period. The King's forest, and all that--foresters guarding the vert and venison.
and yet ... :)
This was absolutely something I was going to mention! Foresters had a lot of leeway to enforce the Kings Law in his forests. Everything from being hauled into town for a stint in the stocks, to having the first two fingers on your bow hand cut off or even summary, death by hanging. Their Majesty did not have a sense of humor when it came to his land.
That arrow in the deer's neck, it was like that when I found it sire, twas a shame to let it go to waste.
Can you blame them for their efforts of conservation? Give a group of medieval peasants free access to a forest that isn't being used for coppiced trees, and you'll soon find yourself without a decent forest. One village of 60-100 people isn't all that bad, but what if every village in your territory started utilizing the conserved areas?
That's why it's actually great to live in somewhere like modern Russia - we are free to use the drywood, mushrooms, berries and fish as well as camp anywhere, as most forests are public. You need a license to log wood or hunt though.
On a hike my buddy made the joke about "eating like Skyrim NPC" in regards to bringing raw vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese and dried meat, but its amazing how much more satisfying it is to eat that way when you are out on a trek than eating branded 'nutrient bars'. For those of you who like to hike, but often bring Cliff Bars or other similar things, I strongly recommend giving it a try!
Also if you do want to make a facsimile of Lembas, I've found that a shortbread made with flour, butter and honey, plus some mild flavouring like citrus zest or rose water, works very well. Tastes great, lots of carbs and fat, doesn't require much space, and fills you up. Plus you get to pretend you're stopping for a break on the way to Mount Doom.
Most nutrient bars are more candy than actual food, anyways (lots of fillers and sweeteners). You have to understand what you are looking for and be pretty particular to find bars that genuinely work well.
That Lembas recipe sounds amazing! I'll have to try it! Thank you so much!
@@NevisYsbryd The ONLY nutrient bars I EVER take on a trip, are ones that either I know are akin to what we were given when in the field.(Retired Marine), or those that I pre-made myself.
I love the portable soup! I'm so glad you mentioned it. For those you don't know, it's basically just a hearty broth that's boiled down and dehydrated until it's a dry sheet you can stuff in a pouch. You can boil it to make actual soup, or add it to other foods for flavor. If you can't do that, bouillon cubes are a perfectly fine substitute, and I seldom go camping without them.
And guys, please drink water. Drink an unreasonable amount of plain, fresh water. Drink it until you're sick of it. You're spending a lot of time in the sun, and eating a ton of salt in preserved foods. I spent four years on dialysis(for unrelated reasons), and it's not fun. Please please be good to your kidneys.
This is such a great list! We all mourn the loss of the Elves' wisdom in making waybread. Alas...
As an honorable mention though (because they're so tasty and keep for ages), I'd love to recommend Irish hunting biscuits, or "hunting nuts." They're a mix of oats, flour, molasses, spices, and candied fruit peel (with butter and salt). They don't break easily and, especially when you bake them longer, they keep at room temperature for at least a week. Apparently, they were historically used by huntsmen in Ireland.
Somebody get Max Miller on the line!
About the modern water filter: we shouldn't forget that modern water is often way more polluted than the ones in medieval (and probably fantasy world s, outside dark lands). I've been drinking water from creeks in the Alps and from wells in other places and that was fine. But if you have a river, chances are that somewhere upstream someone dumped some chemicals in the water. Or used natural fertilizers on his fields, which you also don't want in your drink. (I think they recently declared rainwater undrinkable worldwide due to pollution)
So I think that's perfectly fine to use a modern one.
And the eggs, luckily here in Germany and I think all Europe, they're not washed like in the us, so they sit unrefrigerated in the supermarket anyways.
I prefer to have my Katadyn Pocket filter like I used in the army. I'm glad I bought mine and the extra filter for it when I did. Because the price has more than doubled. I've also had good luck with the Sawyer filters that you can use as a straw or attach to a 20 oz bottle.
If they declared rainwater undrinkable worldwide, they didn't give us the memo here in New Zealand. Air pollution is not the same everywhere. While it might be bad over enormous cities with populations of several million, it's not as bad over New Zealand. Up until we moved a month ago, my kids and I had been drinking rainwater harvested off the roof of the house for over a decade.
@@wolf1066 I'll post a link in a follow up comment. If you don't see it because UA-cam hides it, searching "rainwater undrinkable pollution" should get you some relevant data. It's really sad. Carcinogenic PFAS are found in rainwater everywhere (including Antarctica) over the allowable limit.
@@MalloonTarka I looked it up and had a read about the PFOAs etc.
To be honest, though, it mentions "US guidelines" and frankly the USA is a pack of wusses when it comes to water - they won't even drink town-supply water straight from the tap because they're convinced it's toxic - despite the fact it's more pure than a lot of the bottled water they buy by the ton.
I never carry water up the mountain when out gathering berries because it flows freely from the springs. Helps that I live in a temperate rainforest and i know where sheep may graze upstream so I avoid liver fluke. I gave up on sterilising tablets 60 years ago as too much faff. Must go stirr the wild sorrel soup sitting on the woodburner and check the blacberries simmering to kill vinegar yeasts before pouring them into this years wine crock
"You must have salt." As a POTS sufferer, I felt this in my veins. Also, LiquidIV and similar products are fantastic, and if it's for a fantasy setting you could absolutely add a bunch of the packets into a sturdy jar of some sort and just give it some sort of magical name that fits the setting.
"Please make sure - a leaf." That cracked me up
On the subject of Waybread, while we can't exactly go and ask elves their secrets for making this, there is an alternative that can be used. Look up Coast Guard rations and you will find options for very high-calorie food bars that wouldn't take up much room in a pack and could be a good idea to have just in case something happened to the other food you brought. Spoilage can happen even when you've been careful to take that into account, especially for those who are inexperienced. Just remember if you have to use the Waybread facsimile that's when you should call an end to your camping excursion.
Why not make your own bread? Bring a small dutch oven, make a ball of dough the day before (it doesn't need to be refrigerated) and extra flour, salt and yeast (and water). Bake and the dough in the evening (or morning) and prepare another ball of dough for the next day while the bread cook. Fresh bread everyday. With some dry sausage or ham (salami, copa di parna or something like that) and butter, you have very good fulling food. Maybe get some peanut butter too.
Glad you mentioned fresh bread. Doesn’t even need to be yeasted in a dutch oven. Pita is a quicker bread without yeast or a long rising time.
you could also make steamed bread the steam actually activates the yeast and you could make a form of soup at the bottom of the pot
Banock on a stick, only way I’m bringing a Dutch oven is with a cart or pack animal.
In terms of camp food I am always sure to bring a wide assortment of dehydrated items. Meats can be cut up and used for soups etc. Sliced thin they can be steaks. At the heart of the issue is the removal of fat and a long time soaking to reconstitute the meat. All items dehydrated can be reconstituted. Usually I do this with a hearty soup or stew, but the single items can be done alone and you can find vegetables, meats and sliced or dice potatoes (if blanched before dehydration) for a meal. Because of their long shelf life I tend to keep them stashed at the bottom of the bag, vacuum sealed and bound tightly along with dehydrated drinks and fruits to conserve room. Dehydrated fruits can be reconstituted, diced and added to meals or breads. Reconstituted peppers like the vegetables are divided for dehydration and can be used whole or ground and kept on hand for seasoning. I always bring pounds of flour and yeast.
Dehydration makes for excellent backup meals and in fact entire meals can be dehydrated for those times things in life just didn't work out for you. An entire stew can be divided into meals and dehydrated, to be reconstituted later and eaten good as new. Stews, soups, spaghetti with sauce already added, mac n cheese, raw and blended eggs ready to add water and use to cook with or already cooked scrambled eggs with cooked sausage. Dozens of raw eggs dehydrated and powdered in near no space at all keeps for decades and weighs next to nothing. The list is long and always at hand are all the favorite vegetables you could want. It is SO cool I bought my own dehydrator and prepare my own meals and seal em up before I go. Good stuff, lemme tell ya. Good stuff. Fresh food is great, but its sensitive. Backup is needed and dehydration is perfect.
I like Bringing bacon because the fat rendered is also used for cooking the eggs or for frying the tortillas.
For bushcrafting excursions, I like bringing buldak ramen with a couple of creamer cups from the gas station.
For longer times out, I just like having those charcuterie packs. This way the salami and cheeses are all packed and prepped for room temp carriage.
One weird thing I've gotten used to, is just eating oats dry. It tastes like wood, but some days that's okay. You will need water to help eat them though. It'll dry your mouth out quicker than a Popeye's biscuit.
"I like onions in my scrambled egg" you had my abo three videos back. But with this statement you entered my heart! Keep up the fantastic work!!! Greetz from Germany
I really love his food videos. Not for everyone, but... you can live quite a while on beer alone. Throw in some hard tac and you'll survive the journey for quite a while. One beer gives you most of what you need for an entire day in just one can... Sailors have proven this time and time again. My three food groups for surviving (though not always thriving) Hard Tac, Beer, and half a potato (Lg Russet).
There's a reason it's called "liquid bread" in German.
@@walkir2662 Egyptians, Greeks, Romans: Bread and Beer (or Wine if you're rich).
bread or hard tack, beer plus some olive oil can go a long way actually.
I can confirm this about beer, from personal experience. One half liter can of beer lasted me for a full meal multiple times (Usually I work in the garden and 'skip' a meal like this. Will make some hard tack at some point)
The saying "Let me drink my lunch in peace" comes to mind, lol
Something I just remembered about the whole "drying fruit" thing. A notable exception to this is the apple. Apples contain a chemical that makes you feel fuller than you are, so some dried apple chips are a great addition to any kit, really.
When foraging for plants it's also good to keep in mind to leave some! Usually I go by "take two, leave one" rule. During long distance hikes I only foraged for fruit and plants, as I don't know enough about mushrooms. Edible chestnuts were also great, starchy and surprisingly filling. 😊
Definitely a good tip to add. Leave no trace, and don't harvest more than is sustainable
Having grown up in the forests of north america I have a soft spot for pemmican. Adding in blueberries, cranberries, or sumac adds a lot of nutrients and antioxidants that will help preserve it and is historically accurate. Using deer meat and bison tallow would be ideal, but using beef for both of those is a decent modern substitute
Tortillas are also nice, they'll last longer than many other kinds of breads and I find them quite filling. Another historical american food
Honey is also amazing for putting on wounds, it has a whole host of crazy things it does. It's often even more useful than modern antibacterial ointment
Vinegar will help hydrate you, vinegar and water drinks have been common throughout many different ancient cultures
Bonus joke food: freeze dried ice cream wrapped in wax paper tied with rustic string
I have to disagree on the waste involved with cooking bacon. If you're bringing flour, you make gravy with the fat. If you're bringing bread, you can fry it in the fat. Otherwise, I think everything else was on point. This was a great video!
Great point!
@@LivingAnachronism Plus you need that protein in the fats.
@@greylocke100 IRL I am a Mountain Man, Who has spent decades living off the land, there is SO Much more you can do with bacon fat then simply using it for cooking/frying ect. As an example I often use, it works well providing you have the other materials as an augmentation for your fire tinder. EG: Whenever I am going out for a long trip. I ALWAYS gather birch bark, cat tail fluff, and whenever possible old dryer lint. I then use the old collected and repurposed bacon grease as a bonding agent, in order to make 'FIRE BALLS'. tiny balls that under MOST conditions almost always ensure that there is little chance of NOT being able to start a campfire.
@@alkirk6 I've done similar, although not with bacon fat, but with beef tallow and rendered fats. A few times with lard.
@@greylocke100 Interesting, tried the lard route once or twice, but I ended up getting more smoke then flames.I have yet to try out the Beef Tallow route yet. Might give it a shot on my next journey though as a possible alternative.
Brilliant overview! I could add some things to your list, most of them accurate to the medieval period:
1) Pitta bread: Travels far better than bread and can be used to wrap other foods. Extremely versatile and period accurate.
2) Brown sugar or jaggery: It would be expensive in a medieval European setting but it would be more affordable in the East. It was produced as far north as Crete until America overtook sugar production.
3) A type of portable soup called Trahana (in Greek and Balkan languages) or Tarhana in (Turkish, Iranian and various Arabic languages): Made mostly of some type of wheat or other grain and some sour milk product, with various other ingredients added. Travels very well, doesn't spoil easily and is a ideal ingredient for soups. I guess that in North America, you'll need to source it from a store that has Balkan, Greek, Middle Eastern or Hindu products. It's quite challenging to make it yourself since it needs to be dried thoroughly after cooking.
4) Oat bars or Pasteli: A type of nut and sesame bar blended with syrup/honey, which is very easy to make. Think of an oat bar, but more flavorful and oily, tasting somewhat like a peanut brittle. Invented before the 6th century AD at the latest, since they are mentioned in the Strategikon of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice as an Byzantine army ration. Travels extremely well, doesn't spoil and if you're preparing it yourself at home you may use any mix of nuts you wish. Almonds and aniseed are very popular additions. If you get the proportions right it's not cloyingly sweet and it doesn't make you thirsty. There are many variants which may use sunflower seeds or other nuts/seeds as a base. Nuts are underrated!
5) Halva: Essentially it's the dried paste version of pasteli again made of a blend of sesame paste (the one called tahini) and sugar/honey. It doesn't spoil easily and travels well but tends to be sweeter than pasteli. I guess that in North America, you'll need to source it from a store that has Balkan, Greek or Middle Eastern products. It's quite challenging to make it yourself since it needs to be heated very gently while cooking.
I recommend Dorothy Hartley’s “Food in England”. It isn’t specifically about food for trekking but it does go into great detail about how to prepare, preserve and cook food in pre Industrial Revolution England and we need a lot of that know-how out adventuring. For example, she shows a warmed brick wrapped in wool felt to keep bread warm on and ways to cook food that isn’t always ‘put in a pot and add heat underneath’. Replace ‘England’ with ‘The Shire’ and I’m sure it would be accurate.
Lentils, grind broad beans, soy, hemp seeds are always packed with me when I go camping.
Just returned from 4 day "medieval" fest where I was reenacting in a viking camp.
Lentils - the historical unsung hero of humanity. Hemp seeds - my absolute favorite. They work on everything - sweet and savory.
My go-to camp food is frybread. A Mason jar full of flour should be enough for a weekend, I keep some oil in a tsa shampoo bottle, mix it with water, a little salt, and a lot of oregano, and then pan fry it.
Bullion cubes are a great addition to this list. Add it to soup or stew or just into hot water as a broth.
Where I live, you can buy wax cloth in normal stores by now. They're meant as a long-living, reusable alternative to transparent food wrapping, to keep things fresh. I saw them recommended to contemporary hikers.
I never thought about taking v8. Tasty and healthy! It would be fun to put together a kind of Living Anachronism camp "cookbook" I've been trying to make up some of my own recipes that have a kind of fantasy flair to them.
Nuts and dried veggies are great for throwing into a stew. Anacronistic, but dry ramen is filling, mixes with so many things, keeps forever, and is very light. They are parallel with dumplings for adding flour, and you can add peanuts for protein and flavour, and since you are boiling it anyways it is a great medium for re-hydrating your dry veggies.
For soft cheese lovers, there is babybel cheeses. They come wax wrapped (which is also plastic wrapped, but that can be removed before journeying), which means they keep extremely well even not refrigerated for hours, or days for the harder cheeses. AND they are already snack sized.
I don’t know about pickled eggs, but cucumber pickles you absolutely can drink the brine. It was an ancient form of Gatorade adding some electrolytes in the form of salt. Which you can sip if you start to get cramps.
And dried fruit can just be tossed into your water/milk for meal during cooking to rehydrate and flavor the porridge. Or even salad dressing (vinegar+oil+touch of mustard powder) if you live in a place where wild greens are around.
I've bever been out a full night in the woods, but I hope to do it in the future, and now thanks to this video, I know a little better what to bring with me!
When I was younger, a friend of mine and me had this little campsite set up in a nearby forest, sort of an alcove on a cliff you could reach. We fortified it, built it up and it turned out pretty nice. What we used to do was make simple sandwiches with butter, cheese, ham och spices, then wrap them aluminum foil and roast them either on a rock on the fireplace or placing them right on the coals of the dying fire. It was great, it sort of gave a smoked taste, together with everything in it, it was really good. Not very historically accurate with the foil, but still. And I always wore fantasy clothing, a nice woolen cloak, and we never used flashslights, we used lanterns, candels and torches.
It was a good time back then.
That sounds like an awesome time
I’ve been camping for years and for safety reasons, I’d recommend finding someone to come with you while you’re learning the basics. I’d also suggest packing an extra bag with some modern kit in it (assuming you’re wanting to be doing historical style camping) because a lot of people underestimate the level of skill that’s required to live out in the woods comfortably without modern conveniences. At the very least I’d suggest a warm sleeping bag and a modern first aid kit.
Other than that, I hope you enjoy yourself! It feels great once you’re comfortable in your ability to live in the wilderness.
@@jm-tKoA26 I agree with bringing a little bit of modern kit. A backup shelter or sleep system if you haven’t tested your medieval system yet is a good idea. Necessities are a modern method of fire starting as a backup and basic first aid kit (I advocate putting together your own rather than getting a store bought kit)
@@andrewwolff2161 the oldschool flint and steel (not a farrel rod) can still work, but matches were invented only a few years (1826) after the lighter (1823). If you go with the flint and steel then light several fires with it BEFORE heading into the woods and still bring backup fire (a Bic or a tube of matches).
Making small linen rectangular ditty bags is a great way to use up scraps of cloth after making kit. Also pro tip, soak a peice of linen in beeswax so its stiff and saturated, makes a authetic saran wrap, great for cheese, as cheese can breathe and yet be protected, keeps bugs out and keeps food fresher, , if it gets too crumpled, just heat and remelt the wax
Yeah, this stuff is cool. Some places sell it (usually with branding all over it) but if you have some wax and scraps is great to make your own. I think you can put it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and usr an iron on low heat to get it refreshed.
@@orenmontgomery8250 yep, to get the wax in, paper was used, but to remelt, i just hold it up in front of a fire, very auhentic food wrapping!
@@neoaliphant ah, convenient!
Modern History TV is a great channel, anyone who ends up here will find great similar content there, also he is also an actual knight, as in hes been knighted, and he is the founder of rebellion, the games developer, who made AVP.
Three foods I never go without are dehydrated soup greens, instant mashed potatoes and small container of cooking oil. The greens and potatoes can meals by themselves or combined with some meat for a sort of simplistic Shepard pie. The potatoes can be used to thicken soups instead of flour and everything tastes better when cooked in oil.
Edit: Also if you are allowed to i like to bring a flask of whiskey or rum. Something that’s not necessary but it’s nice to lift your spirits.
I prefer olive oil instead of vegetable oil, it's healthier, but Creator of All is it more expensive.
@@greylocke100 I agree, I typically only use extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil but I put cooking oil to be more general.
@@stevestevenstevensen270 Ahh ok. and I'll have to try avocado oil. Is there a big difference in taste?
@@greylocke100 I find that olive oil has more flavor but avocado oil is more forgiving since it has a higher smoke point.
@@stevestevenstevensen270 Thank you. I will definitely give it a try since cooking over a wood fire is rather unforgiving.
I once did a three day hike through the foothills of the Himalayas. I didn’t bring enough water and the places we stopped to replenish didn’t sell any regular water. They sold sugary drinks and sodas. I needed something, but drinking that was excruciating and only made me more thirsty every time I drank it.
I recently discovered your channel and wanted to say thanks. I'm a lifelong hiker and camper, and have been playing D&D for about two and half years. I love how you bring those worlds together! My 9 year old wants to try D&D cosplay so we're watching together and we're both diggin' it! Many thanks to you!
I love all the Lord Of The Rings references you have all the time, I'm a huge fan of both your channel as well as Lord Of The Rings. Keep up the awesome channel and all the great content.
1:42 How can you love tomatoes after watching the lord of the rigns?! XD
"...before you start picking up forest growths and putting them in your mouth." 🤣 Brilliantly said hahaha sounds like me talking to my children everyday! Great video thank you for the inspiration and ideas for my next trip👍
-Dan
2:15 “……Or you’re probably just going to die.”
That caught me off guard😂
Edit: One of my favorite things about reading the book Rangers Apprentice, was reading about their food that they brought on their journeys👌
Black coffee with honey in it, is how I enjoy my coffee most of the time, because of Halt
I read Ranger's Apprentice and love the book series, I had to collect them all.
My hubby and I are going to Bicolline in a couple of years and we're definitely bringing a cooler as they have a store to replenish ice on the grounds. It's great getting some extra information on long lasting foods we can bring with us. I'm vegetarian/plant based so I'll definitely be relying on cheese for protein, but I think some veggie sausages would be great as long as they're kept chilled. I definitely agree with staying away from junk foods because they don't fill you up, and if you're spending the day walking or participating in battles, you need the denser, filling foods. Something that we make frequently is bannock - a Native American/Indigenous flatbread that only requires flour, oil, salt, baking powder, and a bit of water. We pan fry it, but it can be cooked over a fire. It's filling and delicious topped with jam or fresh butter! 😋
Hi, Lorena. Especially if you are plant-based, why not stick with dried, easy-to-pack, legumes for your protein rather than highly processed veggie sausages which need refrigeration ? A cup of dry lentils will last you longer than a cup of veggie sausages. My daughter, very much the meat-eater, took rice and a few types of lentils for her daily meals while trekking 4 months along our country’s version of the Appalachian Trail. She also ate the same backpacking through Norway. No matter what, have an amazing time!
There's a Blogpost called "Cooking the Period Way", and on there they have a series called "Revisiting Rations", where they created a series of ration sets themed after different fantasy races/cultures, i.e. Humans, Elves, Orcs, etc. While they aren't the most hardy of options when it comes to long term preservation, they should last you a few days, and more importantly give you ideas on what kinds of meals one can make or what components to add to existing meals to spice things up. It's a fun little series to get the ideas flowing.
You said don't do pickles because the liquid to the pickle you can use that vinegar make a sweet pickle and put it in your water that brine is also high in electrolytes and stuff for health especially when you're dehydrated, you can also do dry pickles and use the salt for your salt in your dish do you pickles I can't stress that enough. Pickle is good for long journeys and do the pickle.
Hi Kramer, good video, as usual.
I’d like to add a few comments from my personal experience.
In addition to salt i would recommend some dried herbs, like thyme and basil. The added flavour can make a big difference.
Concerning the rendered out fat in bacon, that you described as lost: It is basically salted lard. Use it on bread/hardtack or stir it into a stew.
For Cheese i'd bring something even harder than a gouda. More like a Parmesan or Pecorino Romano. Those are drier and saltier and thus will keep longer.
On nuts and dried fruit my personal experience differs from yours. I usually have them in a pouch readily accessible and over time snack away at them while walking.
In the same vein, some sweet cookies work do work for me as well. I can recommend the Anglo-Saxon Oatcakes from tasting history, as the oats actually have quite a bit of protein and fat und fill you up nicely.
After the first few days, bread can be sliced up and dried, to make it last longer. Won’t be as pleasant anymore, but still will feed you and fill you up. How well hat works, depends on the weather and climate you are traveling in.
Agree with you completely. Never throw out fat. Really hard aged cheddar, Parmesan or Pecorino are excellent and the rich flavor can really make a day. In the Fall of 2019 I took a 5 day trip to London. I was in the heart of civilization. Didn’t want to waste time and money on meals. Too much to see and do! I took a large bag of salted almonds and 250 g of English cheddar in my carry on. I had coffee and croissants in the hotel for breakfast and nuts and cheese the rest of the day. The cheddar wasn’t aged so it felt a little sad on the 5th day without refrigeration but it was still good. I would use the same strategy on every vacation. Cheese and nuts for the win.
Regarding dried fruit, they also go great in tea for flavor and sweetness.
JOHNNY CAKES!!!! i forgot about those! also potatoes hella fire!! xD
"Po-ta-toes! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew"
Proof that potatoes are super versatile.
I love this - I want to have fun and am less interested in historical living history than I am in fantasy/piratecore/cottagecore/RenFaire and LARPing , taverncore cookery versus medieval foodways. Thank you for the inclusive video
you can drink the brine, but I think its the jar that really diswades me on carrying pickles. but I have seen single large pickles sold in plastic bags, and they are great to carry hiking.
I haven’t been camping in forever. I used to go all the time with my dad when I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, but that was probably like 13 or 14 years ago. I’ve loved your videos for a while now, and you’re seriously inspiring me to go camping again, but this time medieval style! Don’t know that it’ll be for a while, but maybe when I visit my dad back in Texas we’ll try camping again.
Where I live, you can buy wax cloth in normal stores by now. They're meant as a long-living, reusable alternative to transparent food wrapping, to keep things fresh. I saw them recommended to contemporary hikers. It's linen drenched in bees wax.
Great seeing familiar channels referenced - also great seeing Jason's comment on the vid.
I really like to think that your videos are all one big running story rather than individual videos because of the fact that you reference many of your previous ones in the newer videos lately, it almost seems planned but it's really just awesome and big brain ^_^ i love the references to Pasties and Pepperoni, i use those allot!
Love this list! 😀Have you done a video showing how you carry all of these items? I'd love to see the containers you chose for each.
Just a couple of notes to add from a motorcycle camping perspective 😁 (which I like to imagine I'm journeying on horseback when riding along dirt back-roads).
1) Precook your meats. Cooked hamburger, bacon and kielbasa keep a little longer and handle extreme temperatures much better after they are cooked. Bonus if you dry them out and store them in an air-tight container like a mason jar (or a jar sealed with wax for the medieval flair). They can be eaten in a variety of ways from plain to being added to soups or sauces to re-hydrate.
2) Dried pastas (especially ramen) take up very little space but are very easy to make with minimal water. Combined with butter and a little bit of your dried meat creates an excellent protein and carb combo with very little cleanup. Throw in your diced tomato, onion, and/or carrots as a bonus.
3) Add honey to your journey cake for the ultimate satisfying hard-tack. Savory cakes are good, but like you said, you often crave something sweet afterwards. Cakes with honey last just as long but also satisfy the sugar AND salt craving.
Love the medieval/fantasy aesthetic and really enjoy your channel. Looking forward to seeing what you do next 👏
Health potions are just V8! I love it! And the idea of a little alchemy pouch with spices and liquid IV is so pleasing!
Great video Kramer. All good ideas. I would add in some rice people in the East have been using it for centuries and instead of butter I would go with ghee. You can buy it but its easy to make and lasts unrefirdgerated for a long time.
Nate
could probably bring a jar of jam or relish to add some interest to a meal if it starts to feel same old
You went from being a fan to being a part of the circle. I watch all the channels you mentioned and now I watch your channel.
This food looks so good 😭 I am not an "adventure" person by any means, I like nature, but I don't do wilderness well lol. However, I love your videos! They're so intriguing
Plus eggs from someone’s yard chickens instead of a huge chicken farm are going to be a lot harder to break, due to to the higher amount of nutrients they receive. Like the shells are significantly thicker
Another thing that might be a good addition would be things like pemmican.
With regard to the dried fruits thing, having both that and nuts/seeds would work for it. I can't eat most nuts due to allergy issues, but sunflower seeds and similar things work well as a replacement. Hitting both the salty and sweet parts.
Rings of Power Foodie Rumor: A great sadness falls upon Princess Disa when she realizes all the excitement is about 'rings of power' instead of 'rings of flour' at local bakeries. Fortunately, healer Bronwyn is visiting Khazad-dûm and is able to treat Disa's depression with a prescription of an Orc-sized portion of caramel-chocolate lembas bread.
Actually made me laugh aloud
Made my day!
I was a backpacking guide in the Colorado Rockies for two summers in college. Obviously our food considerations were a bit different. This is an amazing video, and I like Kramer's sense of humor.
During his last couple years as a scout, my son and I discovered that beef jerky makes a WONDERFUL addition to soups when on the trail. While not medieval-themed, we made ramen with additional dehydrated veggies. Made a great meal on a cold backpacking trip and wasn't just some standard freeze-dried Mountain House meals.
I've done the same thing! Both with Ramen and for camping it it works great!
Actually seeing this video i started to think about Lotr Lembas bread, found out it's surprisingly easy to make. Now to get the leaves it was wrapped in...maybe just linnen cloth will do, no need to get carried away.
Bread is overall easy to make, but the issue most countries might have is the use of wheat flour. You will need about 40-60% of rye flour and baked well. It is quite common kind of bread in central Europe. And yes, as you correctly mentioned, the best way of preserving bread is cloth. In my experience when packed properly, it will last somewhat soft and eatable around 7-8 days.
Ironically I think the leaves as on Lembas would cause many issues. Areas with holes would get hard soon and if packed well, it would probably act same as a plastic bag, not allowing possible moisture to get out and make the bread rot. That's the magic of Lorien trees we are missing.
@@R4ND1R I appreciate your input you clearly given this a lot of thought. I had thought of dying the cloth green and applying a wax coating in order to imitate the leaves as close as possible but we should rly accept our limitations and just stick to common sense no matter how much we wanna imitate fantasy.
@@CreepyMF banana leaves are used to wrap food in a lot of the world.
More cooking videos please! :D
🎩Hi a great snack for adventuring is hawthorn berry fruit leather, it keeps for months. Basically get your berries pulp them and de stone them with a sieve, lay out on baking paper and cook in a low oven until all the water has gone. About 4 to 5 hrs. Then cut into strips. Yum.
have you discovered instant mashed potato flakes and dry onion soup mix? the potato flakes can be added to cooked meat dripping for extra and tasty calories and added to soup to make it much thicker and calorie dense. and the onion soup mix can be used to spice meat cooking and kinda make a broth with a small bit of water added
The thing with bacon is if you make it at home properly dry curing and smoking, although it will take you a couple of weeks and make, it can stay out of the fridge for weeks. Wasting the fat really depends on how you cook it, if you just cooking and strips that I would not recommend 1 it's going to be way too salty to eat 2 you are going to waste most of that fat when it renders. I would recommend putting bacon and stews and stuffing squid and all that, a UA-cam channel that does a lot of these recipes is Raven's of Asgard really great channel been watching for a while we honestly deserve way more subscribers.
Not only very interesting but highly entertaining and thought provoking! Thank you for being here and sharing!
I liked your advice, common sense can be timeless
On the liquid IV comment: Honied water. It was a thing and so common as to be rarely talked about. Adding a little bit of honey was also just a good way to get the "funk" out of water that's been in a skin for a day or two.
A good sea salt with trace minerals will also greatly reduce dehydration. Having a little dried fruit as a side during a meal can help with that also. And yeah foraging for substance is so easy to get wrong, and the amount of time and effort it costs to find, evaluate, and prepare-for most people in most areas, it is usually not enough payoff to justify any benefit you might get from it, even if you don’t get poisoned 😅
Oats can be made sweet or savory and also can be added to soups. I also find that a sweeter bread tends to stay fresh longer though I don't quite know why. I have been premixing dry ingredients in storage bags to mix and steam puddings at a camp sight or bake in a Dutch oven. Boston brown bread (steam), beer bread or shepherd's bread are some ideas. This video covers some things I have just been researching. Thank you!
Forty-some years ago (no spring chicken, I ) on a adventurous camping trip, the person who was supposed to bring the pan, did not. I cut the round steak they did bring into strips, built a fire on a flat rock, and moved the fire along, cooking in its wake.
Extremely thorough and well thought out as usual. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
For the bacon grease just render it some and pour it into an empty container as it cools. Won’t need to be refrigerated and can be used to add flavor- or add flour and water to make a sort of gravy with salt and pepper or spices to put on Johnny cakes or rolls. Sauté the soups vegetables and lean meats in the bacon grease. Fats carry flavor, calories, and are preservative in nature.
speaking of salt, i found an article about ancient chinese soldiers rations, and it mentioned that the troops usually carried lump salt, but sometimes they were supplied with a kind of dried bread made from fermented black beans and salt, a few crumbs of which could then be added to any food that was cooking to season it.
A more european method would be to do that with hardtack or some kind of dried, heavily salted meat.
In the last LARP I did I had nuts, dried fruit, dried meat (salami), old cheese and apples. It was practical when underway.
First Haaaaaa
All genuinely tho I've been looking for this type.of video for ages thank you bro
Hope I was able to deliver some of the information you were looking for
Great video man! The fact that you have actually gone out and tested this stuff adds a lot of practicality to the video. Well done!
Thanks Josh!
In the D&D campaigns I play, there are two types of rations: standard, and iron. Standard is fairly good roadfare, but it keeps for only about 2 weeks without preservation steps. Iron rations will last for months or years under the right conditions, but don't taste very good, and are tougher foods. The yield potation for foraging is dubious, and we usually ignore it. The cost to slow the expedition to remain cohesive and hunt, is also fairly poor, unless there's something significant we encounter.
I find flat breads like pita, Naan, tortillas are the best for camping. I have done week long trips and never had them mold.
I recommend dried lentils - specially red or yellow lentils. They are long lasting, easy to transport und quick to cook. Great in lots of different stews or soups, filling and a good source of protein. Dried mushrooms are also great as addition to stews und soups, to give them an extra depth of flavour.
Dried fruit like figs, apricots, prunes, dates, etc (depending on what you like or how historically accurate you want it) are a good survival food too. Easy to carry along (no fear of squishing juice out), and sweet tasting.
Only apricots need sit in water and rehydrate for several hours before eating, or you'll actively dehydrate yourself.
I, too, lean more toward Salami than Bacon if I'm bringing a cured meat.
However, if you're making jerky to take as your late-stage dried meat option, I've found bacon jerky to be delicious, especially if you marinate it with soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce before drying it to make it extra salty. It's practically bouillon!
Fresh potatoes and onions keep a good long while, but I've also found instant mashed potatoes to make the middle between fresh potatoes and a sack of flour. They're so versatile, I'll use them as a stand in for either of those things. Potato dumplings, potato soup, potato pancakes, potato flor dredge for raw meat, whatever.
dried fruits and nuts, and lets not forget the sliced dried "chip" beef (from the old SOS days) Dried fish, for soups, stews or with butter to eat as is!
Oats! Bob's Red Mill Scottish oatmeal - coarse ground. Or if you have a hand-cranked mill (like one of the old Corona Corn Mills), buy whole oat groats and run them through it on a coarse setting. Cook it with rosemary and sage and it's delicious. I also like making oatcakes: grind the oat groats finer, mix them with whole wheat flour and make a savory shortbread with butter and just enough water to hold the dough together (and rosemary and sage ground up with the salt), roll out and cut into discs and cook on a griddle. They should keep for a few days and in my experience they're about the closest thing to Lembas that I've eaten, in terms of filling-nourishing effect.
Recently I had some split peas that had gotten old and took a long time to cook down into soup, so I ground them in my Corona on the finest setting - to about the consistency of commercial cornmeal. I mixed that in with some of my Scottish oatmeal and I call it my "Ranger burgoo." I can cook it into an acceptable porridge in about 10 minutes (with a seasoning mix I made from tomato buillion and herbs). The pea particles don't get soft exactly, but they're small enough that their crunchiness doesn't disrupt.
Dry roasting or parching grain is a good way to make it a quick camp food. In Tibet it's "tsampa" made from barley. I've made it with wheat too - I think the Romans did something like this. And you can parch maize and eat it plain or grind it into pinole. Any of these you can just stir into water with some salt to make an instant gruel or use as a soup base. With the wheat or barley versions you can mix it with hot water, salt and butter and squish it into little dumplings. That's especially well-adapted to mountain adventures.
The really hard and thick cram - hardtack or ship's biscuit - is actually pretty nice when broken into pieces and cooked into a soup with broth: simmer it for maybe 10-15 minutes and the pieces get pleasingly chewy.
For jerky I'd recommend the Mexican style, prepared without sugar. Usually pretty brittle, especially when it's sliced really thin against the grain, so it doesn't wear your jaw out so much chewing it.
Potato flakes might seem like a modern thing, but they're not all that different from chuño - freeze-dried potatoes that were the staple food of Incan soldiers.
If you're willing to go more of a fantasy route and allow all the American crops, then you've got license not only for potatoes, tomatoes and maize, but beans and peanuts. If the Incas figured out how to naturally freeze-dry potatoes, who's to say people couldn't also figure out how to roll out and dry cooked beans into flakes in a preindustrial setting? Those instant dried refried beans are wonderfully tasty and filling. And then there are palanquetas: the bars of peanuts and raisins held together by crystalized syrup.
i'd bring a bag of dried raisins or all sorts of dried fruit, also works in a sweet soup. lentils are also nice to cook and keep you full and i feel like they have a good ratio to packing weight to stomach fullness also protein.
If you cant find suet, tallow is also really good.
Its just rendered suet
When I bring salt, it's usually a ~4in salt rock. It's a lot more convenient than a vial or bag of loose salt in that if your carrying method fails, you just pick it up, dust it off and stick it in a pocket. Scrape some off into a meal, or just lick the rock occasionally for electrolytes.
It also generally has the bonus of being less susceptible to moisture and being higher in other nutrition minerals than just table salt.
Salt rocks, they're great.
Ooh, I love this! I’m a ‘salt is life’ person and keep a vial of salt in my bag at all times. Just water doesn’t go as far as you’d think when you get dehydrated. You need salt with it. No idea where I would get a salt rock in my country but one is now at the top of my wish list! Growing up I always saw people putting salt licks out in the pastures for the animals…now I want my own. :-)
@@sarahrosen4985 Redmond Real Salt ships international. They sell bags of varying sizes and grit.
Edit: apparently their shipping is fairly limited overseas, but they have international stores that sell their products. The list can be shown on their FAQ page.
@@someguy3861thanks for checking for me! So kind of you. I've been trying to get Redmonds for ages. Finally gave up on them. Now I buy pink Himalayian salt. The Himalayas are less fussy about international shipping. 😁 We have Himalayian pink salt crystals carved into candle holders and salt crystal treatment rooms locally but, I don't know, is it just salt or were they 'forgiving' in the impurities they bulked the crystals up with? Can I just break off a piece of a candle holder? 🧐 I will have to do a search for making salt rocks or if something is available locally but you definitely made me want a salt rock and I will be eternally grateful to you for reminding me of their existence and superior adventuring suitability.
This video is wonderful! Thank you for sharing this with us. I absolutely love your sense of humor and your advice very helpful!!!
Regarding cheese, Gouda is good, but I like bringing Manchego on hikes. It's hard and packs well. Also, that soup pictured around 6 minutes looks delicious. Any chance of a short recipe video on making that?
honey is also really good for medicinal purposes due to the really high amount of antibiotics
thats what makes honey last so long
I had a bunch of pre-cooked bacon when camping once and it was fantastic, hot or cold. A possible snack option maybe
Great video. The content keeps getting better. you should do a camp soup video. Also, dried mushrooms can last weeks at room temperature and are great for you. With regard to the portable soup I typically bring beef stock cubes and they are packed with flavour, half a cube if your cooking in a cup. In your soup video do a pot version and a version where it is cooked in a steel cup. Another video suggestion could be taking a store bought steak and smoking it in your cloak. that will last three days at least.
• Cheese: something my grandparents used to do (they didn't always have a fridge) is when they were making it they were adding more than enough salt. My granddad's goat cheese was hard and very salty, this was a long lasting cheese but didn't smell as sweet as the usual goat cheese from the shops, it had more of a intense goat smell. You can make goat cheese at home btw.
• Bread: What I usually do when I go camping (not fantasy themed) is to make a mix of flour from home and make bannock bread on a stick (check Ray Mears and others for more recipes on bread).
• Sausages: In my region (in Greece) we were making some homemade sausages, with lots of pepper and we were dehydrating them hanged above a log burner for days. At the end you ended up with a sausage stuffed with livers and other organs of sheep, mixed with herbs that was very long lasting and smelled delicious, but it also was way too spicy.
Other extras:
• Olives (they last long out of the brine - usually a mixture of vinegar water and salt with some oil on top)
• Sun dried fruits. No need to add sugar if you do them the proper way.
• Bircher: my favourite way to have porridge. Soaked overnight whole oats in your pot (covered) with raisins and honey. You can add a spoon of marmalade before serving in the morning.
• Spring onions. They are lighter than the white/red onions and can be eaten whole raw, there is no waste and easy to pack. (Better than that: baby leaks)
• Chestnuts. They are more filling than other nuts and really tasty when you roast them.
• Potatoes: go for baby potatoes, no need to pill them.
• Game: I know the law is different in our days depending where you are. The legal thing to do when I was a child was the deadfall trap for small birds. Never leave your campsite though without destroying them. Setting them up in the morning we were ending up with 5-6 small birds in the evening. Enough for more than 2-3 people to eat with rice (this is how my mother used to cook them in a tiny Dutch oven, rice and the small birds on top. Not as tasty as you can imagine, but again it was better than nothing)
-Top tip:
Wine and oil. That's the oldest of all and so useful, none was traveling without them in the old days. The wine wasn't just for drinking but to also clean wounds, the oil was used after to soothe the pain and seal the wound and after that a bandage out of (boiled or pre-boiled) rugs would be used if needed.
Hope that helps :)
Regarding sweet stuff: In Germany we have these „Doppelkekse“ (lit. double cookies) which are two cookies with chocolate cream in the middle. While they aren’t that filling (can’t make a meal out of them) they are a great boost of energy and morale, especially for children.
Sincerely, one of those children who’s highlight of any hike was the cookie-bribery.