Picture by the Author |
In October 2018, I posted
a copy and wrote a review of Desert Survival: Information For Anyone
Traveling In The Desert Southwest 1962 [HERE], and this weekend I decided
to make and test, Mr. Lee Kelly’s “Survival Rations” recipe, which, was featured
in this pamphlet.
I found the recipe to be
very complete and easy to use. I listed,
below, the modifications or the things that I did, where the original recipe was
not clear.
When I made this recipe,
I used two cups of rolled oats and one cup of Wegmans brand Oats & Honey
Flakes. I substituted a cup of breakfast
flakes for one of the cups of rolled oats that the recipe called for, because breakfast
cereal is heavily fortified, and I wanted the ration to have a higher
nutritional content.
After mixing the cereal
and rolled oats, I crushed the flakes by pressing the bottom of the metal mixing
cup into the oatmeal and breakfast cereal; I did this to make the ration bar,
denser. After smashing the flakes, I
continued to mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, except the gelatin.
When I had boiled the
water, honey and gelatin and mixed it into the dry ingredients, there were some
dregs left in the pot that I had boiled the honey and gelatin in. So, I added two more tablespoons of water to
the pot, swirled it around and then added it to the ingredients, to wet the mix
completely.
I then mixed and kneaded
the dough with my hands, until everything was combined and then I split the
dough into two equal pieces and pressed them into the mold.
The recipe called for a
bar that was two inches wide by five inches tall and one and a half inches
thick, which makes a 15 cubic inch bar.
My mold is four inches wide, 5 inches tall and one inch deep, and I
packed the dough into the mold until the ration bar was about ¾ inch thick. By bar when finished it was also a total of
15 cubic inches.
I dried the bar for two
hours, an hour on each side, at 200o F and when they were done, I
had two survival ration bars that weighed one pound each.
I had the bars taste
tested by four very through and competent judges, my children, and my youngest
son’s 14-year-old friend. My 14 year old
thought that they were “great” and my 19 year old said that they tasted “okay” and that “they were better than hardtack”, which I think means that they are
good. My 23 year old said “these are very good … they have a good
texture … they taste kind of like apples” and my youngest son’s friend
thought that they were “okay”. So, that made two polite statements of
indifference and two positive reviews. Personally,
I like the way they taste, and I think that they have the flavor of orange
blossom honey. I liked them and I hope
that you try them.
Sources:
Civil Defense Joint
Council, Desert Survival: Information For Anyone Traveling In The Desert
Southwest 1962, (Maricopa County; Phoenix, Arizona [1962]) reprinted in http://docs.azgs.az.gov/SpecColl/1988-01/1988-01-0026.pdf,
p. 5-20
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