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Bannock,
banique, ash cakes, damper... all are a variety of flat, quick breads,
sometimes unleavened, and baked and eaten primarily in Australia, North and
Central America, Scotland, and British Isles. The word bannock derives from Gaelic bannach,
which means “morsel”, and likely came from the Latin panis, which simply
means bread. It was a staple in the
diets of the early settlers and fur traders in North America.
Today
is bannock most often made of flour from grains, such as oats, barley, or
wheat, but historically, before Europeans, in North America it had been made
with cattails, acorns, mosses, lichens and ferns and even black tree lichen!1 Most Native American nations in have a
version of bannock. The Inuit call it palauga,
the Mi’kmaq luskinikn, and the Ojibwe ba‘wezhiganag.2
Baking Bannock
The first rule about baking bannock is that there are no rules. A review of the recipes shows a wide and wild
variation in the ingredients, amounts of the ingredients and baking times and
methods. Practically any combination of
flour and water and possibly some form of leavening agent, that can be baked,
fried or deep-fried will work, although the final bread will vary in “eatability”.
In
its most basic form, it is simply made of flour, water, and sometimes butter, fat,
or lard is added. Sour milk, salt and either
baking soda, salteratus, ash-water, or simply hard wood ashes, were sometimes added
as a leavening agent, and today sugar is often added, depending on the recipe. Bannock is traditionally cooked by mixing the
ingredients into a large, round biscuit and baking it in a frying pan, on a
bannock board or hot stone, wrapped around a branch by the side of the fire3,
or in the ashes of the fire, either wrapped in leaves or not at all. Today, bannock is usually baked in the oven, making
a heavy and dense bread, or fried, making a light and fluffy bread; or sometimes
even deep-fried.
Richard Munn wrote that famed author and wilderness canoeist Sigurd
Olson in a letter written in 1962 said that his recipe for bannock was good “...for
four, depending on what else goes with it”. His recipe is:
Add a pinch of salt.
Add 1 teaspoon (6 grams) of baking soda.
Saleratus, from Latin “sal æratus”,
meaning “aerated salt” is potassium bicarbonate, was widely used in the 19th
century. One teaspoon of saleratus equals
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda; baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. Pearlash (refined potash) is a crude
potassium carbonate, as is made by soaking hard wood, fireplace ashes in water to make lye or ash
water.4 Saleratus was twice
efficient as pearlash, so you will need to double the amount of saleratus if
you use pearlash5.
“damper” or unleavened bannocks. If you are making leavened bannocks, use the same amount of sour milk or buttermilk. Either way, mix the liquid into the dry ingredients by making a well in the center of the dry ingredients and mixing in just enough to make a stiff dough.
You can make sour milk by leaving fresh milk out
to ferment and sour in a warm place for a day, often near a stove. Or you can make 1 cup (250 ml) sour milk for
baking by adding 1 tbsp (15 ml) of vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to
equal 1 cup (250 ml). Stir and let stand
for 5 minutes before using. This will
give the right amount of acidity for the recipe.
If cooking over a fire you can prop your
bannock board, your griddle, or a large flat stone beside the fire to cook from
the top down. You can also cook it on a
griddle over coals from the bottom up.
Or you can bury it surrounded in a thick layer of hot ashes, wrapped in
leaves or not, with hot coals both above and below it.6
Bannock is delicious and because it is a thick, heavy bread it is
perfect for outdoors trips, since it won’t crush or crumble. Take it to Ren-Fairs, take it on walks in the
wilderness. Serve it hot, spread on bacon
grease or butter, maple syrup, honey, or cheese. Eat it cold. Eat it with soup, stew, or chili. Or simply eat it hot with tea!
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “A Walk in the Park ©”,
where we will talk about the different things you can see on a walk in the park.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
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announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
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That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 “Bannock
– First Nations Style”, by Shawn
2 “Bannock”,
The Canadian Encyclopedia, by John Robert Colombo, updated by Brad Dunne
3 “The
ideal stick is fairly straight and made of non-poisonous hardwood that will not
impart a disagreeable taste; good choices include branches of birch, hazel, or
willow trees. The bark should be
whittled away from the branch 15–20 cm in from the end, where the dough will be
wrapped. The length depends on one's
comfort and the fire's size. The
thickness of the bread-holding end is around 1.5–2 cm. The thicker the stick, the heavier it is and
thus the harder it is to hold. However,
a branch that is too thin will bend under its own weight if it is freshly cut”.
From
Wikipedia, “Twist bread”, originally from “DANISH BONFIRE BREAD (SNOBRØD)”, HERE
4 For
more information see “Victorian Baking: Saleratus, Baking Soda, and Salsoda”,
by Kristin Holt.
5
See “Baking with Wood Ash? (Part 1)”, by Leigh
6 For
more read “Cooking Ash Cakes”, Jennifer Stanley
Sources
Colombo,
John Robert; updated by Dunne, Brad; “Bannock”, The Canadian Encyclopedia,
February 6, 2006, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bannock,
accessed November 18, 2023
Holt, Kristin; “Victorian
Baking: Saleratus, Baking Soda, and Salsoda”, December 30, 2017; https://www.kristinholt.com/archives/13983,
accessed November 18, 2023
Jamieson, John, D.D.; Etymological Dictionary
of the Scottish Language, [Edinburgh, University Press, 1808], “BAN to BAN”,
https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_Etymological_Dictionary_of_the_Scotti/H6AmAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bannock&pg=PP149&printsec=frontcover,
accessed November 18, 2023
Leigh; “Baking with Wood Ash? (Part 1)”, https://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/01/baking-with-wood-ash-part-1.html,
accessed November 18, 2023
Leigh; “Baking with Wood Ash? (Part 2)”, https://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/01/baking-with-wood-ash-part-2.html,
accessed November 18, 2023
Leigh; “Baking with Wood Ash? (Part 3)”, https://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/01/baking-with-wood-ash-part-3-results.html,
accessed November 18, 2023
Munn, Richard; “Bannock 101”, July 12,
2006, https://www.myccr.com/articles/bannock-101,
accessed November 18, 2023
Shawn;
“Bannock – First Nations Style”, May 6, 2015, [© Eat], https://www.eatdrinkbreathe.com/bannock-first-nations-style/,
accessed November 18, 2023
Stanley, Jennifer; “Cooking
Ash Cakes”, Savoring the Past, [Jas. Townsend & Son, Inc.], https://savoringthepast.net/2016/03/20/cooking-ash-cakes/,
accessed November 18, 2023
Wikimedia; “Making Oat
Cakes”, by George Walker, 1814, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Making_oat_cakes_-_The_costume_of_Yorkshire_(1814),_plate_IX,_opposite_21_-_BL.jpg,
accessed November 18, 2023
Wikipedia; “Twist bread”,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist_bread,
accessed November 18, 2023
Wikimedia; “Tea and
Damper” by Alfred Martin Ebsworth, 1883, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tea_and_damper.jpg,
accessed November 18, 2023
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