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Canteen cup, measuring cup and survival bar, picture by the Author |
After I had published, “Survival Rations … 1962 Civil
Defense Style”, which can be found [HERE], I received several questions from
readers.
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Wegmans brand Oats & Honey Flakes, picture by the Author |
The first question was, “you demonstrated making the
ration bar with Wegmans brand Oats & Honey Flakes, where I live there
aren’t any Wegmans stores, what type of cereal should I use?”
This is a very good question. The recipe was not very specific about the
type of cereal that was used, stating only “3
cups cereal – Oatmeal or Barley, Corn or Wheat Flakes”. I used two cups of rolled oats and one cup of
Wegmans brand Oats & Honey Flakes, because breakfast cereal is heavily
fortified and I wanted the ration bar to have a higher nutritional
content. If I wanted to have a more
accurate 1962 look to the bar or if there were no Wegmans where I live, I would
have used two cups of rolled oats and one cup of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. The nutritional content of the ration bar
with Corn Flakes is:
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Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, picture by the Author |
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Nutritional information of survival ration with Kellogg's Corn Flakes, information
condensed by the Author |
In addition, if you wanted to change the texture and
make the survival bar chewier, you could substitute ½ or even one cup of the
rolled oats for an equal amount of steel cut oats. Next time I make these bars, I plan to
substitute one cup of rolled oats for one cup of steel cut oats. I will report back and let you know how this
experiment turns out. Substituting steel
cut for rolled oats would not only change the texture of the bar, but it would
also increase both the calorie and nutritional count.
|
Wegmans Organic Steel Cut Oats |
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Nutritional information of survival ration with one cup of steel cut
oats, information condensed by the Author |
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Nutritional information of survival ration with half cup of steel cut oats, information condensed by the Author |
The second question that I received was, “the recipe
said the bar could be cooked with 2/3 of a canteen cup of
water, how much water is that?”
|
Canteen cup and measuring cup, picture by the Author |
That is also a very good question and to answer your
question I pulled out my 1941 US Army issue canteen cup to measure it. During the 1960's, because of the sale of
military surplus items, a canteen cup would have been very familiar to campers
and other outdoors-people. One full canteen
cup measures three cups or 24 ounces and therefore a 2/3
canteen cup measurement is equal to two cups or 16 ounces of water.
The last question that I received asked, “You told us
how the survival bar tasted when it was dry, how did it taste when it was
cooked?”
Up until I was asked this question, I had only eaten
these survival bars in their dry, uncooked and un-hydrated state, so I decided
to experiment. First, I put an 1/8
of a survival bar into a ¼ cup of cold water (a ¼ cup, is 1/8
of the two cups that the recipe called for) and let it sit without heating
it. I ended this experiment after 15
minutes and discovered that while the bar had softened a little, only the out
layer that had softened to the consistency of cooked oatmeal.
|
1/8 of a survival bar soaked in ¼ cup of cold water for 15 minutes,
picture by the Author |
Second, I put a 1/8 of a
survival bar into a ¼ cup of cold water, but this time I set it to boil. In this experiment, the bar crumbled easily
with a fork and dissolved into a watery oatmeal within three minutes and 53
seconds.
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1/8 of a survival bar boiled in ¼ cup of water for 3 minutes,
53 seconds, picture by the Author |
In both cases, it was the texture of the bar that
changed and not the flavor, which remained a rather yummy orange-honey-oatmeal
flavor.
I hope that these answers helped and until next time,
Happy Trails!
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