"Field/survival/trail rations"

Cafe Society
1

I’ve read a number of books set in time periods before the present day, in which there was military action involved.

Without freezing, refrigeration or canning the food mentioned as being consumed by soldiers(when if wasn’t foraged/stolen fresh) was mostly dried.

There was hard bread and cheese, dried fruits and vegetable. There would also be items variously refereed to as “ration bars”, “field bars” or, by the soldiers themselves “rat bars”. These were mentioned as including bits of dried fruits or meats, grains, and fats, sometimes sweetened with honey. High in calories, light in weight, they would satisfy hunger when nothing else better was available.

Are there recipes or directions for making stuff like this, in the present day? If you know of any can you point to links?

I figure someone on the Dope knows, if anyone else does. I would welcome any other discussion of food “in the field” that you have knowledge of.

2

The era of Canadian exploration relied on pemmican, which is dried buffalo meat and berries held together with rendered fat. Several recipes to make your own are linked here.

When they could get it, these explorers liked to have salt pork and dried peas for an end-of-day meal, too. But they couldn’t always get it.

In the US, colonials liked to jerky anything they could get their hands on, and also relied on pumpkin leather when traveling.

3

Thank you for that link! It’s the kind of thing I was looking for.