Cake Wrecks
Food
Food for Travel
When planning long travels far from shops, there is a selection of basic foods which can be taken along, all long-keeping and light in weight. They should be packed individually in brown paper bags, not in plastic, and then finally in a waterproof rucksack.
All of the flaked cereals, oats, barley, corn, etc.; toasted wheat flour (ready to eat, merely to be mixed with milk or water; grated raw carrot, sterilized by roasting, and packed into jars; dried fruits, especially raisins, dates, apricots, and prunes; (also the dried dom fruits, from the dom tree or Christ-thorn, a small berry-fruit which is almost always on the dom trees, and which keep indefinitely after easy drying. It is carried by the Bedouins on their travels, and was used as a travel food by Christ. A shrub-tree, it is abundant in Galilee.); shelled nuts and pine kernels; sunflower kernels; black olives (dried); a jar of honey; wholewheat biscuits, or sundried or fire-rusked slices of wholewheat bread; dried powdered spices as flavor and tonic for use with the cereals, etc., such as marjoram, thyme, sage, rosemary; raw groundnuts (peanuts) and also raw peanuts ground into flour; carob pods; and of the dairy products, dried milk -- dried milk in cones (sold in Arab shops for travelers) keeps indefinitely, and when crushed into water makes a good milk mixture for eating with the flaked or powdered cereals; also hard cheese and Balearic type cheese . . . salt and cayenne pepper and the common peppers.
--Juliette de Bairacli Levy, Traveler's Joy: A Personal Guide to the Wonders and Pleasures of Gypsy and Nomad Living (New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1979), 158-59.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Roast Suckling Pig
- 1 suckling pig, about 3 weeks old, cleaned and prepared by butcher (about 10 to 12 pounds, dressed, is the best size)
- 6 cups or more, dried bread crumbs
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon powdered sage
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium-sized onion, minced
- 1 tart apple, peeled and grated
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
- 1 carrot or lemon or apple, to put in mouth
- cranberries
- watercress
- red cinnamon apples or spiced crabapples
For the stuffing, simmer heart and liver together with seasoning in 2 cups water, until tender. Chop fine. Sauté onion in some of the butter. Grate apple. Mix chopped heart and liver with crumbs, seasoning, apple, and onion, and moisten with stock. Fill pig with stuffing being careful not to overfill, as it will split. Sew opening together.
Insert a small block of wood in mouth to hold it open. Lower the eyelids and fasten shut. (The butcher should have removed eyeballs.) Skewer legs firmly in place, the forelegs forward and the hindlegs in a crouching position. Rub whole pig well with melted butter, dredge with flour, salt, and pepper. Cover ears and tail with foil, to prevent burning.
Place roast on rack in uncovered oven in 450°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and roast until tender, allowing 30 minutes to the pound. Baste every 15 minutes with drippings, do not use water. For the final 15 minutes, remove foil from ears and tail.
Place roasted pig on a large platter or board. Place cranberries in eyes, a carrot or lemon or apple in mouth. Drape a garland of cranberries around the neck. Garnish platter or board with bed of watercress and/or parsley and red cinnamon apples or spiced crabapples.
-- The First Ladies Cookbook (New York: GMG Publishing, 1982), 166.
