Survival Eating Today, From Old Indian Tricks Years Ago

Today's lesson for traveling the hinterlands is about portable grub. We're going to talk old Indian tricks here, and as may be assumed, old Indian tricks generally come from old Indians, or them that got 'em from old Indians to begin with. Once upon a time, you were more likely to run into an Indian in the woods here than you were a white man, and from those run-ins, the white folk learned a lot about how to get along... well, how to get along in the wilderness, not necessarily how to get along with their fellow man. Most all of the food I ate growing up originally was the idea of an Indian somewhere, some of them being family members at one time or another who passed it on to "family" in general, regardless of race.

Corn is where we'll start. Corn was one of the Big Three in the Indian diet, along with beans and squash. You could eat it boiled, toasted, roasted, grilled, steamed, stewed, creamed, or baked, or ground and THEN baked (i.e. the venerable "corn pone"), or as hominy or - and this is what we're leading to - parched.

Parched corn was a staple of the man on the move back in the day, whether he was on the war path or off on a hunting trip. It's light weight and high energy, which is a combination the man on the move is most hoping for. It can also be ground up to thicken stews or soups, or to make rockahominy - more on that last in a bit. It's a lot like partially popped popcorn - the kernels that didn't quite make the pop all the way - but more tender, tastes better, and doesn't leave hulls trapped between your teeth and gums to annoy you and scare the critters your hunting with those sucking sounds trying to get that hull to let loose of it's seat.

My dear old dad was big on parched corn.

The basics of it are simple - dried corn + roasting over heat. There's a lot more you can do to season it (salt, seasoned salt, brown sugar, etc.), but them's the basics.

There are a couple of ways to parch corn, dependent mostly on how tough your teeth are for preference. In both cases the corn has to be dried first, then shelled off the cob to give just whole kernels. You can do it with any sort of corn, whether "field corn" or "sweet corn".

If you've got good, stout teeth, you can take those kernels, spread 'em on a cookie sheet and bake 'em in the oven at around 350 degrees and stirring them pretty often until they are well browned. This will give you hard, crunchy corn kernels a lot like the "corn nuts" you pay way too much for in convenience stores.

The second way is a little easier on you... well, on your teeth, anyhow. You take a skillet and coat it with oil - just a smidge - we're not trying to deep fry it here - and pour out or wipe off the extra before putting the corn in over a medium heat. You then introduce a layer of dried corn (just one kernel high) into the skillet and keep it shaking as you parch it to keep them kernels on the move until they brown that way. Some of them are going to crackle and near pop, so don't let the noise sneak up on you. After all, popcorn is just itty bitty corn kernels.

After a couple up to maybe 5 or 6 minutes, the corn will start to brown and puff up. This is where some of those kernels will pop. If too many of 'em pop, your heat is too high. You can season it if you want right now, or wait till a bit later when you're cooling it. When it's brown and round, take it off the heat and deposit it on a couple paper towels to drain any stray oil. Once the oil is absorbed, you can move it to a big container (you ARE gonna make more, right?). If that container is something like Tupperware, there will be a lid... a lid which you can put on the container after you've thrown in your seasoning and shake the bejesus out of the sealed container to coat it all.

This stuff will keep practically forever - that's another reason it was a favorite trail food.

Now, "rockahominy" is the stuff you've just made, but after it's "processed" by grinding it (or beating it in a mortar with a pestle if you're a die - hard traditionalist) into a coarse meal. Takes up less space thataway. Indians some times added maple sugar or brown sugar (made from molasses traded off of white folks), and later white folks sometimes added chocolate... but that chocolate is rougher on the digestion. Some of them boys had cast-iron stomachs, though, and were willing to trade the digestive troubles for the extra energy from the chocolate. "Rockahominy" is what they called it around here, but I hear out west they called it "pinole".

Parched corn is eaten by the fist full, on the move. Rockahominy is "eaten" by putting a couple tablespoons (up to 4 or 5) of the mix into a cup of water and drinking it. Either way, it's quick and easy while you're moving along, trying to make sure you keep your own hair. The rockahominy lasts longer in the body. It take longer to digest than, say, a bowl of corn meal mush (I believe mush is where white folks developed "grits" from - it's near the same thing to me), and it will release steady energy over a longer time period.

Rockahominy was carried and used by gobs of "long hunters" out in the wilderness exploring the frontiers in the 1700's, as well as the Indians who taught 'em about it. A few pounds in a suitable carry container can keep you going for months, especially if "extended" with whatever else you can kill and broil at the moment.

That's it for today's Old Indian Trick. next up may be making jerky or pemmican... or maybe both, since they are sort of related.