The Woodsman's Journal Online: October 2024

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar, Part Deux, It’s Alive, Bwahahaa!©

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

It’s almost Halloween and you’d better make sure that you have plenty of candy for the trick or treaters. But you won’t be able to find any Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate bars, because they stopped making them sometime after 1981, because most Americans like sweet chocolate, not dark chocolate, and didn’t like the taste.

But I did, I like dark chocolate, and I remember them fondly. So, in the spirit of Halloween and like any good Hollywood Mad Scientist, I am going to bring it back to life, bwahahaa!

But where to start on my quest to breathe life back into a dead candy bar? At the beginning of course!

The first military chocolate that Hershey’s designed was the 1937 D Ration Bar, which was a 4 ounce, 600 calorie emergency ration bars. It was roundly disliked, because it was too hard to eat, and because designer Captain Paul P. Logan, wanted it to taste “just a little better than a boiled potato”. The D Ration Bar was also designed to be able to withstand 120^o F (49^o C) heat for an hour without significant softening. But most importantly, unlike Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar, you can find a recipe for D Ration Bars!

So, if we use the D Ration Bar recipe as a framework, or, shall we say, as a skeleton and add in and take out all the changes that Hershey’s made over the years, we should get close to that 120^o F withstanding, sweet treat that I first had in 1978, and remember so well even today.

According to U.S. Army in 1944, the D Ration Bar’s ingredients were chocolate liquor, powdered sugar, skim milk powder, cocoa butter, oat flour, and vanillin or ethyl vanilla.

According to Hershey’s Archives, in 1943, when the Tropical Chocolate Bar was first introduced, its list of ingredients was identical to that of the D Ration Bar. That is because it was simply a 1 ounce (28 gram) D Bar!

Since the D Bar, was designed to be an emergency ration, the chocolate “is not a sweet”, and wasn’t a sweet chocolate with just 15% cacao, but a bittersweet, chocolate made with a 36% cacao.

But in 1957, the basic ingredients were changed, and the oat flour was out, “nonfat milk solids” replaced the “skim milk powder”, and “cocoa powder” replaced the “cocoa butter”.

Now nonfat milk solids, are like skim milk powder and cocoa powder is simply the cocoa solids that remain when all the cocoa butter has been pressed out of the cocoa paste. Since the oat flour has been removed, if exchange it for the same amount of powdered sugar, then, our ingredient list would look like this.

A recipe for a 1 ounce (28 gram) 1957 Tropical Chocolate Bar would then be as follows:

· 1-¹/₃ square (10 grams) of Bakers Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

· 4 teaspoons (11 grams) of powdered sugar

· 2 teaspoons (5 grams) of nonfat dry milk powder

· ¾ teaspoons (2 grams) of cocoa powder

· A dash of ethyl vanilla

To melt the Bakers Unsweetened Baking Chocolate, use either a microwave or a double-boiler on a stove.

Microwave the chocolate in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until the chocolate is mostly melted and only a few tiny pieces remain, about 1 1/2 minutes in total.

Mix in the remaining ingredients and press into a mold.

Let cool, remove from the mold and enjoy.

Molds can be purchased at Frontline Rations, HERE, or at WWIISoldier.com, HERE.

So, now that our Frankenstein recipe is all stitched together, it’s time to give it a jolt and taste test it to see if it is alive! Bwahahaa! Come back next week to read “Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar, Part Deux, The Taste Test!©”

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

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 to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

90th Infantry Division Preservation Group, “Quartermaster Specification - C.Q.D. No. 19 D”, http://www.90thidpg.us/Paperwork/Research/D%20Ration/CQD19D-19420708-Drat.pdf, accessed October 20, 2024

Harry; “K-Ration: D-Bar, Sweet Chocolate and the Candy Bar”, https://www.kration.info/d-bar-sweet-chocolateand.html, accessed October 20, 2024

Hershey’s Community Archives; “Ration D Bars”, September 7, 2018, https://hersheyarchives.org/encyclopedia/ration-d-bars/#:~:text=The%20first%20of%20the%20Field,Byrd's%20last%20expedition%20in%201939, accessed October 20, 2024

Hershey’s Community Archives; “Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar”, September 6, 2018, https://hersheyarchives.org/encyclopedia/hersheys-tropical-chocolate-bar/, accessed October 20, 2024

Thatcher, Harold Wesley; The Development of Special Rations for the Army, 1944, pages 4 to 15, https://books.google.com/books?id=l4yMl2-ktH4C&pg=PA13&dq=%22the+formula+for+the+d+ration+as+produced%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj28oeH9KWJAxVNkIkEHW5aGVQQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=%22the%20formula%20for%20the%20d%20ration%20as%20produced%22&f=false, accessed October 20, 2024

Wikimedia, “D ration chocolate bar” U.S. Army Center Of Military History, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D_ration_chocolate_bar.jpg, accessed October 20, 2024

Wikimedia, “Maniac1 copy” 1934 film Maniac, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maniac1_copy.jpg, accessed October 20, 2024

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part Two©

Last week we read about two travelers who set out on foot through the Great Tonewanta Swamp in the depths of winter to reach a cabin fifteen miles away. But they got lost, and now they must survive the cold winter night!

Unfortunately, our traveler and his companion, the little stout Dutchman, had ventured into the wilderness without a compass, food or any baggage, and because they assumed it couldn’t happen to them and that they wouldn’t possibly get lost, when they did get lost it was an emergency!

Not thinking that it could happen to them was a mistake, but did they get anything right?

Yes! They didn’t panic. When they realized it was almost dark and that they were lost, they didn’t lose their heads, they found shelter and prepared to wait out the night.

Surviving the night!

They found shelter next to an uprooted hemlock tree that was lying perpendicular to the wind. The trunk and the root-ball acted as a windbreak, keeping the leeward side free of snow.

Next, they built a bough bed of hemlock boughs to insulate themselves from cold, heat stealing ground, by piling branches on the ground, against the trunk.

But they needed a fire to keep from freezing to death during the night. Sadly, neither of them had remembered to slip a tinder box into a pocket. Luckily Our Traveler remembered that he had accidently charred his handkerchief the night before, and that he had a jack knife and a gun flint in his pocket, and he was able to spark a fire.

I would have gathered firewood before I tried to light my fire, because you don’t want your newborn fire to expire from a lack of fuel, while you a searching for more. Also, it becomes difficult to safely find wood once the Sun goes down.

In the morning the sun rose, and our traveler was able to determine north, south, east and west and navigate back to the banks of the Genesee river, the village of Hartford, and safety.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Doty, Lockwood Lyon; A History of Livingston County, New York: From Its Earliest Traditions, [Edward E. Doty, Geneseo, 1876], Pages 485 to 487, https://books.google.com/books?id=zKkWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pioneer+History+of+Livingston+County+ny+1871&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi4n_LGl4WJAxX0hIkEHcNQG2kQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

Hough, Emerson; Out Of Doors, [D. Appleton and Company, New York, New York, 1915] pages 269 to 282, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qae7-jl_x3NQWPi-aZLNRoBHjj-YPGZc6U2pqG65yxFIdZ3WlwxSVScharPFjIYLra4g6_ybqwT1zHD9IL11mJD_bxTnF3F4hThwZngB5h9MWtRnvuSpKp09eBXPKX1Dsjb9BzY7Dj2QpApOjlMX2hbIiuuukqc3GICvUsQmW-H2TYQ5rm44mBV9hLbN1HiMNohnKlJr0e8CEdIOxALueJydtsR98kWQOEEZBRTlX7fjJfe5sASmfdoAHLjQxHwsFeAZBOc3, accessed October 15, 2024

Mather, Joseph H., and Brockett, Linus Pierpont; A Geographical History of the State of New York: Embracing Its History, [John W. Fuller & Co., Utica, 1853], page 400, https://books.google.com/books?id=ux6dTIOOxvkC&pg=PA400&dq=%22great+tonawanda+swamp%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijofadwoSJAxW1EFkFHa88BiE4ChDoAXoECAwQAg#v=onepage&q=%22great%20tonawanda%20swamp%22&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

New York Secretary of State; Map and profile of the Erie Canal -- Originally published in: Laws of the State of New York, in relation to the Erie and Champlain canals [E. and E. Hosford, printers, Albany, 1825], https://www.eriecanal.org/maps.html, accessed October 12, 2024

Reid, John; The State of New York, [New York, Published by J. Reid, 1796] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ct005429/?r=-0.309,0.249,1.036,0.407,0, accessed October 12, 2024

Thomas, Arad; Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York, [H.A. Bruner, Orleans Steam Press, Albion, NY, 1871], pages 22 to 34 and pages 73 to 74, https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuYpAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Pioneer+History+of+Orleans+County%22+1871&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj78OC0koWJAxXXlYkEHS0IKgkQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Pioneer%20History%20of%20Orleans%20County%22%201871&f=false, accessed October 12, 2024

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Like a film noir detective story, our tale starts in a crowded hotel, on the edge of a dark, trackless forest, when two strangers are forced to share a room for the night together. One is old, one is young, one is new to the area, the other has been here before, long ago, and has a story to tell.

Most likely, the site of the hotel where this tale was told was in what was then known as Hartford, New York, and today is known as Avon.

Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp!

Hartford is on the east bank of the Genesee River, at the end of the “Genesse Country Road”, across the river across was the Seneca town called “Kanwaggers Village”, also spelled as “Canawaugus”, west beyond this point in 1796, was “unbroken wilderness”, inhabited only Native Americans. The “Great Tonewanta Swamp”, later spelled as the “Great Tonawanda Swamp”, began just past the twin villages of Hartford and Canawagus, and was 25 miles (40 km) east to west and from two to seven miles (3 to 11 km), north to south, it originally covered over 25,000 acres (over 10,000 hectares).

The swamp is the mostly dried up remains of Lake Tonawanda, an ice-age lake that was formed from glacial melt-waters trapped between two nearly parallel glacial moraines.

It was bounded by two roughly parallel ridges, which run east to west, both of which had trails or roads on their summits. The “Old Niagara Road” ran along the southern most ridge west towards Buffalo New York. However, near modern day Batavia New York, a trail split off to the northwest, crossing the western edge of the swamp, towards Niagara Falls and Lewiston. Along the summit of the northern ridge the “Ridge Road” ran from present day Rochester to Niagara Falls.

The swamp was covered in the higher parts, those that were a little elevated above the swamp’s surface, by swamp timber and the lower parts with open marsh and swamp grass.

In 1796, both trails were simply native trails marked only with blazes.

So, now that our traveler and his companion, “the little, stout Dutchman” have realized that they had circled back on their own trail and that it was close to sundown, how did they survive the night, lost in the “unbroken wilderness” of the “Great Tonewanta Swamp”? To find out come back next week, to read Part Two!

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Reid, John; The State of New York, [New York, Published by J. Reid, 1796] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ct005429/?r=-0.309,0.249,1.036,0.407,0, accessed October 12, 2024

Pages

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Sunday, October 27, 2024

Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate Bar, Part Deux, It’s Alive, Bwahahaa!©

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part Two©

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Lost in the Great Tonewanta Swamp, 1796! Part One©