PARCHED CORN..
rockahomminy--nocake--pulverized maize--powdered corn..
here's the story..back in the winter of 1998 i was putting
a wilderness canoe trip into Canada together..
old buddys who know their way around the pack and paddle would
be going along and i took charge of the food..
just for the fun of it i made some of the parched corn that
was held to be a standby for travelers in Kephart's
"camping and woodcraft" --no powerbars in 1917 i guess..
plus that winter i had read "lure of the labrador wild"
dillon wallace's recounting of an 1905 expedition gone very
wrong and the idea of having a bag of concentrated food
tucked away seemed like a good idea..


well thats the stuff..what was left i put away in a tupperware box..on the left is the parched corn..the right the
finished product..i took the best frozen corn and parched it
in a fry pan..hot with no oil and kept it moving untill it
had a roasted look..cool and run thru a coffee grinder..
i mailed off samples to my canoe mates..
"sticks to your teeth"--"nice idea..but leave it home"
the idea is to mix a few spoon fulls into cold water and
toss it down..it expands in your stomach to give you that
"full" feeling...kephart quotes another outdoor writer
to say that there is no danger of "explosion" as it "swells
to meet the demand"
well as there was no demand for it on the trip i put it away
and almost 10 years later dug it out for the photo and another try...it sticks to your teeth--and power bars are better