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.
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Torn Limb from Limb for Pickles
None of the brats came back from Easter vacation. There was nobody left at Meanwell but Jongkind and me. The joint was a desert.
To save on housework they closed off a whole floor. The furniture had gone, they sold it piece by piece, first the chairs, then the tables, the two cupboards, and even the beds. There was nothing left but our two beds. They were really liquidating . . . There was more to eat though . . . Quantities of jam . . . all we wanted . . . we could take seconds on pudding . . . The food was plentiful, what a change . . . that was really something new . . . Nora did the heavy work, but she prettied up all the same. At the table she was perfectly charming, almost playful . . .
The old geezer didn't hang around long, he'd fill up in a hurry and start off again on his tricycle. Jongkind kept the conversation going, all by himself. "No trouble!" And he'd learned another word: "No fear!" He was proud of that, it made him jump with joy. He never stopped saying it. "Ferdinand! No Fear!" he kept saying to me between mouthfuls.
Outside I didn't like to be noticed . . . I gave him a few kicks in the ass . . . He got the drift, he left me alone . . . As a reward I gave him pickles. I always took a supply with me, my pockets were full of them . . . They were his favorite delicacy, that way I made him behave . . . He'd let himself be torn limb from limb for pickles . . .
-- Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Death on the Installment Plan, tr. Ralph Manheim (New York: New Directions, 1966), 254-55.
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