On bannock

[Alan Gage]

Hence, I deny there is some precise thing known as bannock. I think some people just like to fry or bake up various dough creations that suit their palate while camping, whereas others don't want to bother or just bring bread.

Fun hater....



Alan

 

[Odyssey]

Bannock is merely a name given to a type of bread who's recipe has changed countless times over the centuries, hence the name was thrown at it, and it stuck so to speak.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...ticle/bannock/
http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_f...furtrade4.html
It's not surprising that the same evolving recipe might bear a different name elsewhere on the continent as it travelled down through history. I believe there's a certain romanticism some people attach to historical remnants. Some people here paddle them, paddle with them, wear them, or eat them. You being a hopeless romantic Glenn you can surely relate to all this, you old whimsical wanderer you.
I admit to feeling a little thrum of imagined connection to the past as I paddle Temagami's shores, later sitting in front of a small wood fire cooking a modernized meal of bannock. Romantic fool, me.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I don't care what people like to cook or eat or find romantic when canoe camping. That's up to each individual.

I like words, and my focus was simply on the word "bannock". If any foodstuff in modern times bears that name, why does it not appear on any menu in any restaurant or on the shelves of any grocery story or bakery? Is it because no one eats unleavened fried dough anymore? No, it's because they now call it something different.

From the descriptions here of bannock made with fruits and covered with honey or syrup, I'd say that most people today would call the food "pancakes". Of course, there are German pancakes, Scottish pancakes, American pancakes -- all sorts of doughy cakes, of different grains, with or without different dairy products, cooked in grease in pans that have all sorts of gustatory differences.

But the stuff transforms, in name, into "bannock" when made on canoe trips. I just find that terminologically curious.

Now, if we want to talk about a real and much healthier foodstuff that the early explorers and pioneers toted and ate -- and about which wars were fought -- we should be talking about pemmican.

 

[Odyssey]

I love pemmican. But so I won't dilly dally with Glenn's sensitive side I'll try not to get all mushy and sentimental about it.
But getting back to this: https://neechi.ca/

 

[Odyssey]

Recently I was reading about pancakes, it having been Shrove Tuesday at the time, otherwise known as PancakeTuesday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake
The article followed the history of pancakes through Europe and across the pond to America. Like bannock the recipe changed through time and place and people. I won't look for the article now, but what I took away from it was a pancake cousin - the Welsh Cake. Didn't look related, but perhaps on the mother's side twice removed.

 

[TheIndian]

No Title

Bring it on a 3-5 day trip? Hells ya! Cooking bannock isn't messy at all. Mix it with water in the skillet you're going to cook it in. Use a stick you found to do the actual mixing. When you've mixed it to the right consistency it will be a little sticky and clean the loose bits off the pan as you roll it around. Now sprinkle the ball of bannock, and the bottom of the skillet, with a little more bannock mix. This lets you press it flat without it sticking to your hands. Make sure it's coated top and bottom with flour. Now remove that flattened piece of bannock from the pan and set it on the zip-lock you keep the bannock mix in. Add some oil to the pan and put it over the fire. Throw the mixing stick in the fire too. Once it's hot put the bannock back in the skillet and proceed to cook it to perfection. A light film of dough might have stuck to your fingers in the process but it will roll right off when you rub your hands together. If you cook it with a lot of oil (yummy) the pan will be a little greasy when done. I don't bother washing it with soap so there's often still some oil residue on the pan when it goes back in the stuff sack. That's ok. It just means next time you use the skillet you'll have the brush off some bits of detritus that have stuck to the pan. If you use just a little bit of oil when cooking the pan will be nearly dry when done. On the topic of cleaning oil from a pan: on a recent trip I found that a handful of dead leaves does an excellent job of cleaning an oily skillet. Most people like to cook a big bannock that will last for multiple days. I don't do this. I like it hot and fresh out of the skillet. Stopping for a shore lunch is one of my favorite parts of the day and starting a fire to cook bannock is part of that. If you think it tastes good at home wait until you try it in the middle of a trip cooked over a fire. Alan

LOL Thanks for the great pointers Alan....exactly what I was looking for. I tried it today again, mixing ingredients right in my iron skillet, added water, some dried fruit and made a much smaller portion. With practice, it seems to be getting better. I can see myself bringing "bannock" now. Cleanup was easy like you said as I had a better (drier?) consistency to the dough than I did the first time. One other thing...did you say you store your mix in a ziplock? I'm thinking maybe a Nalgene bottle more durable? Read everyone's replies!....thanks to all for the ideas on ingredients et al...!

 

[Alan Gage]

One other thing...did you say you store your mix in a ziplock? I'm thinking maybe a Nalgene bottle more durable?

Never had a problem with keeping it in zip-locks. My last big trip I took something like 12 pounds of bannock mix in quart and gallon sized zip locks (freezer bags). I don't think I'd want to just chuck a loose baggy in my gear pack but if it was inside a separate stuff sack that should provide adequate protection. My food goes in blue barrels, which are further subdivided into 3 separate bags for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pretty "safe" environment in there.

Zip-locks make it easy to measure out too because I can reach in with my whole hand. All my food is measured by hand on trips. Two heaping handfuls is a big bannock for a stand alone meal. One heaping handful, or two small ones, makes a nice size to eat with dinner.

Glad to here you're making bannock progress. It really does taste better on the trail, just like everything. Even then I think it's better over a wood fire as opposed to a stove. Or maybe that's just another mental thing.

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

Measuring by the handful is as old school as it gets. Can't wait for Alan's next dinner party.
Salad anyone? Is that enough? My hands are small.
Help yourself to the spaghetti, there's lots to go around.

(just kidding)

 

[Alan Gage]

Measuring by the handful is as old school as it gets. Can't wait for Alan's next dinner party.
Salad anyone? Is that enough? My hands are small.
Help yourself to the spaghetti, there's lots to go around.

(just kidding)

If it's a dinner party at my house you can bet it will be served with a liberal helping of cat hair as well.

Hmm, sometimes in a flash of lucidity I realize why I'm single with few friends.

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

In all seriousness Alan, consider your hand measure-clean stick stir method stolen, or at least borrowed by yours truly. I really like it. Put the fire on, whittle a stick and start to measure a la main. Perfect simplicity. Thanks for that.

 

[Iskweo]

Sighhhhhh....ok, bannock, a scottish term, often also called army bread. For instance ....bread made for consumption in the field by the army...unleavened so as to be quick and easy to make.
Enter the Hudson's Bay Co. The bulk of their employees being Scotts. So they bring the term bannock with them and pass it on to the natives. The natives adopt this easy to make,filling food.

Why dont you see it on menus or hear people call it bannock? Because it is mostly a native canadian thing eh. ( HBC remember). In my family we only ever referred to it as the B word. Or at least my native relatives. Me Gran used to call them scones though...she was first gen from St Helens.
So yes, its a real thing but unless you travel in the right circles yoiu wont see or hear of it. Let alone get to eat it. Unless you do and just dont know it, or care. Because if I have a handfull of warm bread with homemade jam on it, I just call it dang good.

 

[Odyssey]

Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding was passed down through the English side of our family, while griddle scones came from our Scottish side. It's anybody's guess what was passed down from our Irish side. Barmbrack? Years since I enjoyed that.
Growing up our griddle (girdle) scones were cut into wedge shapes and cooked on a buttered flat pan yielding golden brown crusty exteriors and rather dense interiors, spotted through with raisins of course. My wife has adopted an English approach (I blame her English mother) towards the scones by cutting them with a round cookie cutter and baking them. True, they are lighter and more biscuit like, but I miss my granny's griddle scones. One of those would last you all day. http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/Mai...ne-history.asp
It's easy to see how bannock evolved from this. And it's easy to see how recipes change. Our family recipe uses wheat flour, not the old original oats. Times change, and so do people and recipes, even if names remain the same. Another Scottish family recipe I haven't enjoyed in many a year is finnan haddie, but given my wife's aversion to smoked fish I'm unlikely to revisit that childhood favourite anytime soon.

ps It's funny, last week I found myself in a second hand store browsing the book section when I happened to walk past shelves of kitchen stuff. There down on the bottom shelf was a Wear Ever aluminum griddle pan, the exact same my mom only used for scones. I must've stood staring at that pan for five minutes. You know what they say, you can never go back. But oh how I wish.