outdoor living » the 10 bushcraft books » food & water (pt. 1)

Many people associate survival with the ability to find food and water. These of course are essential to sustain life.

In all areas, except the most arid, food and water in sufficient quantities are available, but. the fear in many people's minds is that the food they find may be poisonous, or the water polluted.

This book establishes safe principles for recognising foods which are edible and safe, and ways to. overcome possible contamination of water, no matter how badly it may appear polluted.

The search for, and recognition of edible foods sharpens and develops three of man's senses, sight, taste and smell. On the use of these depends the searcher's success in finding food and water.

Associated with the finding of natural foodstuffs which are edible and safe, is the preparation of these.

Bearing in mind that the person concerned with survival may have no equipment except a knife or machete, the cooking of food and boiling of water may be no less important than the actual finding of these. It is for this reason that these subjects are included in this book.

.introduction

Food and water are essential to living. Under normal conditions a person cannot live longer than three days without water, but one can live ten days or longer without food.

Food, apart from its vitamins, mineral salts and other minute elements, must contain proteins and carbohydrates. Proteins are the flesh builders. Carbohydrates are the energy makers - the fuels for your body's furnace.

Every action calls for work from some of your body's cells, and, although new cells are continually being made in your body tissue, old cells are dying. These body tissue cells require replacing, and it is the digestible protein in your food which is used to build these cells.

Proteins are supplied by such foods as meat, cheese, nuts, beans and peas.

Carbohydrates are supplied from the starchy foods such as bread, sugar, potatoes, and roots and tubers, and green vegetables and sweets generally, including honey.

For every action you burn up fuel. The more vigorous your actions the more fuel you require, and the faster your body burns it. This fuel is supplied from the carbohydrates in your food. Your body can no more run without this fuel than can the engine of a car if the petrol tank is empty. Your body stores up in its cells reserves of sugars, so that even if you have no food for your stomach, you can draw on these reserves and keep going for a short period.

Your body also needs other foods such as salt and special minerals and vitamins, but in a natural diet most of these essential specialities are contained in the fruits and meats and vegetables which you would eat.

It is possible to have a full stomach at every meal and at the same time to starve to the point of death. If you tried to live entirely on proteins, you might starve for carbohydrates, and, correspondingly, you could be full of carbohydrates but starved for proteins. There should be a balanced proportion of proteins to carbohydrates, and the proportion is, roughly, one part of protein to six parts of carbohydrates.

Another absolute daily essential is salt. Without sufficient salt there can be serious physical consequences. In tropical areas where there is great loss of body salt through excessive perspiration, it is essential to eat salt, and maintain the salt content of the blood at a safe level.

General rules covering the edible qualities of foods are set out in the succeeding sections. If there is doubt, take no risk. Eat a small quantity of the suspected food, and await results. If there ale no ill-effects the food is probably safe.

.all flesh is edible

Nearly all flesh, if freshly killed, is safe to eat. The flesh of all mammals, all reptiles and all birds is free from any poisonous contents and safe. But NOT the flesh of all fish.

By "poisonous" is meant actually toxic, that is, containing a poison. An exception in the reptile world is the Hawksbill turtle, which, in the thorax, contains a sac which more learned authorities class as toxic or poisonous.

.parasite infestations

The words "safe to eat" do not mean that the flesh may be eaten with no ill-consequences. It merely means that the flesh itself contains nothing which will be poisonous to adult human beings.

Many animals are hosts to parasites which can be fatal to man if they are introduced into his body. For instance, the flesh of the rabbit may be infested with hydatids, a worm which, if it finds entry into a human, can often prove fatal. The ancient Jewish law which declared the pig unclean was undoubtedly based on the observation that eaters of pig meat showed a higher death rate than eaters of other meats. Pigs are commonly infested with parasites which can also make man their host. Hence the law forbidding the eating of pig flesh.

In common with the pig and the rabbit there is always the chance that the flesh of almost any animal (particularly animals which graze close to the earth, or which burrow or which frequent fresh water streams) may be infested with parasites dangerous to man, and consequently no flesh is absolutely safe to eat raw, even in emergency. However, the parasites and their eggs are destroyed by heat, and therefore all flesh should be thoroughly cooked before eating.

This particularly applies to all fresh water fish and fresh water shellfish.

.bacterial decay

Putrefaction and decay are caused by bacterial action. Food is protected commercially by freezing, by salting or pickling, by heating and vacuum sealing, and by many other means. None of these methods which call for equipment are practical in the bush, therefore other methods must be found to preserve meat safely for indefinite periods.

Meat goes bad because of bacterial infection. Bad meat can he fatally poisonous if eaten. When the term "safe to eat" is used it only applies to freshly-killed and fresh meat.

.preserving meat for long periods

The preservation of meat for long periods can be done by smoking and sun-drying, by salting and pickling and, for short periods, by cooking in fat. If climate permits, meat can also be preserved indefinitely by freezing.

.sun-drying (biltong)

The meat to be smoked or sun-dried must be freshly killed. Cut off the fatty portions, and then slice the meat into strips no thicker than ½" [1.25 cm] and no wider than 1" [2.5 cm]. These strips are threaded on to a wire or cane, so that no piece of meat touches another.

There must be free circulation of air round each separate piece.

Hang the canes or wires with the strips of meat above the thin blue smoke of a wood fire until the outer surface is quite dry. This may take from an hour to a day. Do not allow the meat to hang too close to the fire, or in the flame. Smoke alone is sufficient. If the meat is to be sun-dried, the only reason for hanging in the smoke is to protect the moist meat from blowflies while the outer surface is drying.

It is also important not to try and build a "smoky" fire by piling on green leaves or wet rubbish. If you do the moisture and essential oils evaporated from the leaves will condense on the strips of meat and make it uneatable.

Many an enthusiastic but inexperienced meat drier has ruined his meat by making a fire of green leaves, and then wondered why the meat was saturated with oil from the leaves.

Blowflies will not lay their eggs, or their larvae, on a dry surface. When the surface is quite dry, take it from the fire and hang it in the sun to complete the drying process.

A single day in a dry atmosphere will complete the drying out. When carrying dried meat, pack a bag of open weave. Do not wrap or pack in cellophane or plastic, otherwise the meat will "sweat" and mildew.

Sun-dried or smoked meat will keep indefinitely and retain its original nutritive food value. You can cook it in a stew, use it for broth, or eat it raw. If well smoked, it is very palatable eaten raw. When using for a stew, it is advisable to soak for an hour or two.

.pemmican

This is simply sun-dried meat powdered. It may be mixed with fat in cool climates. Pemmican will keep very well, and can be eaten raw, or soaked and made into hamburgers or stews.

.drying and weight

These simple methods of preserving flesh effect a considerable reduction in weight, simply because the excess moisture has been removed.

This is important to the traveller who goes through the bush on foot. About 6 oz [170 g] of dried fish or meat is equivalent to 1 lb [450 g] of fresh meat. There is also a corresponding reduction in volume.

.dried fish

The fillets of fish which it is known are safe to eat may be sun-dried in a similar manner to meat. With fish it is essential to dry quickly, and, if the day is not hot and dry, then smoke thoroughly over the fire. If the flesh is flaky and cannot be cut into strips, heat flat smooth stones and lay the slices of flesh on these, and place in the sun to dry out thoroughly. Turn the slices frequently. Fish meat is easily powdered into fish pemmican, and can be cooked either by making into fish cakes, or by soaking, if in strips, and then frying in batter.

By keeping the fish strips in the smoke continuously until they are completely dry, you have smoked fish, and very nice too! The best smoke for this is a thin blue smoke, and definitely not a heavy white smoke.

.pickling

The meat is cut into small joints or pieces of about ½lb [225 g] each, and put in a strong solution of salt and water (brine). Pickled meat will keep indefinitely in the brine.

.cooking in fat

Meat can be preserved up to five or six days in summer by preliminary cooking in fat, and then allowing the meat to remain in the fat in which it was cooked. The heat of cooking sterilises the meat, and the fat seals the meat safely away from bacterial infection. This method is convenient when meat requires to be kept for a short period.

.fat

When sun-drying meat, it is necessary to remove the fatty portions before drying, otherwise the fat will go rancid and taint the dried meat, making it uneatable. The fat should not be thrown away. Fat is food, and the fat cut off the meat should be rendered clown and kept, if possible, as dripping for future use.

.freezing

Freezing as a means of preserving meat is not practical unless in a climate where the temperature can be relied upon to remain below 29 to 30°F [-2 to -1°C]. Freezing alone is an excellent way to keep meat and is often used during winter skiing trips.

.preliminary cooking

Meat which has been either boiled or baked has in the boiling or baking been made sterile, that is, the bacteria which cause putrefaction have been destroyed, and therefore the meat will remain safe to eat for a short time. Re-cooking will effect further sterilisation and prolong the period during which the meat can be eaten. The time between cooking and the meat being unsafe to eat depends largely upon the weather; hot humid conditions will make the meat unsafe more rapidly than cool dry conditions.

The presence of blowfly grubs or maggots on meat does not mean that the meat is tainted and unsafe. These maggots do not indicate poisonous properties of decay in the meat. Their presence merely indicates the visit of the female fly, which, seeing suitable conditions for her eggs or larvae, has placed them there where they may have food. Meat which has been blown can be washed and eaten with perfect safety. Admittedly the maggots are repulsive, but they are in themselves quite free from actual poison. The blowfly is no guide to the condition of meat. It will blow any meat, putrefied and poisonous or safe.

.edible, but not palatable

To say that meat is safe to eat does not mean that it is palatable. The flesh from a shag or diver (cormorant) is edible, but so strongly "fishy" and "oily" that it is most unpalatable. Nevertheless, in emergency it can provide the proteins necessary to sustain life, and this flesh is wholly digestible.

The flesh of a cat, dog or rat is edible, and if you did not know the origin of the meat prior to its being cooked, you would eat it without repugnance. Cat tastes almost exactly like hare. Flying fox, roasted, is as succulent, as suckling pig; and snake, roasted in the ashes, has a white meat of delicate flavour. But you would not say they were palatable, simply because the source of the meat to your mind would be repulsive.

The rule is that the flesh of all birds, mammals and reptiles is safe to eat, but not all are palatable.

.all water creatures

The flesh of some sea creatures is dangerous to eat because the flesh contains actual toxins poisonous to your digestive system.

.saltwater fish

Provided the fish have the usual appearance of fish, and have scales and the conventional shape of a fish, you can say that it is safe to eat and has no poisons in the flesh.

If the creature does not have the usual "fish shape," and does not have scales, then regard it as poisonous, unless you know for certain that it is safe. An example is the shark, which has no scales. The flesh of the shark is safe to eat, but beware of the "innards." Shark liver has such a high concentration of vitamin D that a feed of shark liver, fried, might he fatal. The eel, which does not have the conventional shape of a fish, nevertheless has minute scales (or so I read somewhere), and the flesh is safe to eat. Properly cooked, it is most palatable, though somewhat rich in flavour.

The puffer or toady, the box fish, the pig fish and the leatherjacket do not have the conventional fish shape, nor do they all have the scales of a fish, and are all poisonous, except the leatherjacket, and I should be doubtful about eating the roe (eggs) or liver.

Colour of the flesh is no indication of the presence of poison in the flesh. Many of the parrot fish, having the fish shape and scales, have green flesh, yet all are edible and very palatable. It is interesting to note that many ancient mariners, including Captains Cook and Bligh, report that their men "caught a mess of brilliant fish front the sea, and after cooking same were violently ill, being taken with great pains, and they fell a-vomiting, being purged with the poison of the fish they had eaten".

It has since been noted by many observers that putrefaction of the flesh of many tropical fish sets in a few minutes after the fish has died. Consequently, the poisonous property attributed to the flesh is in reality clue to the fish having gone bad in a few minutes. (The author has identified many of these tropical fish once thought to be poisonous; cooked immediately they have been caught, they have been eaten with no ill-effects. At the same time, some of the same catch were kept uncooked; in half an hour they were bad.)

.shellfish

All bivalves are free from toxic poisons, except for a reputed poison in the saltwater mussel at certain periods of the year, and the flesh of all is safe to eat, unless taken from contaminated waters.

This particularly applies to freshwater shellfish, which are likely to be hosts for parasite infestations which can be harmful to man.

Those taken from freshwater should be well cooked to destroy any possible parasites and their eggs, also the source of the fresh water stream should be known to be reasonably free from sewage contamination.

When the flesh is tough, it can often be made tender enough for eating by beating.

Cooking can be either by boiling, grilling or baking.

.bivalves

Bivalves are found all along the coastal sea beaches. They make an excellent meal. A dozen to eighteen bivalves are a good feed for one person. To cook, put the bivalves in a billy and pour boiling water on them. The bivalves will open, and the fish itself can be easily removed from the two shells. The fish must be washed several times in water to remove all sand, and then boiled in fresh water, add milk and thickening after boiling (or water and dried milk if desired) for ten minutes. Before cooking, the flesh may be cut into small pieces. After ten minutes' boiling, add thickening and salt to taste. Pippie soup is identical with the famous New Zealand Toheroa soup, only it doesn't cost so much and you get more toheroa!

.oysters

Oysters, of course, are eaten raw, or they may be cooked and served as soup. Oysters are edible and safe all the year round.

.clams

Clams and most of the other bivalves must be cooked. The big clams of the Barrier Reef are all edible and there are records of captains of ships, long forgotten, sending men ashore to the Reef to collect clams, and detailed accounts of the cooking of them. Practically all these accounts state the clams were boiled before eating.

.conical and spiral shellfish

Abalone - Whelk - Conus

The flesh of all the conical and spiral shellfish is edible and free from toxic poisons, with one exception, and many are very palatable.

The exception is one family of spiral cone-topped shellfish, the "Conus" family. Many of these have a poison dart or tongue which can inflict a very painful wound (one known fatality was at Hayman Island in 1935). These poisonous "conus" family of shellfish are not usually found out of tropical waters. They can be identified by the spirally-shaped conical top of the shell.

.abelone

Particularly recommended for food are Abalone (Haliotis). These are a flat spiral up to 5" or 6" [13 or 15 cm] in length and 4" to 5" [10 to 13 cm] across, by about 1½" [38 mm] high.

These are invariably found below low tide level and like a position on rock among kelp and long seaweeds. They have some mobility and move sluggishly around the rock. They can be found by feeling gently among the weeds. They feel like a roundish part of the rock and, if taken suddenly, can be pulled free. However, if given a chance to clasp the rock with their myriads of suction cup "feet" they cannot be pulled free with the hand, and a knife must he inserted under the shellfish to lever it loose.

Shell - Meat (remove shaded portion)

To cook abalone, remove the shellfish from the shell, cutting the muscle at the top of the shell. Remove the intestines, and with a sharp knife trim off the ridge with the suckers, scrape off the blackish lining, and the base of the fish where it is rough from the rock face.

Beat the remaining portion heavily, and then toast on both sides till brown. Eat with salt to taste. Two are an adequate meal for one person. The flavour is rather sweet, like lobster meat, only very much richer.

Another method of cooking is to cut into small ½" [12 mm] squares after beating and allow to stand for about half an hour. The abalone "bleeds" with a bluish juice. Boil in this juice for five minutes, add milk and thickening and salt to taste, and boil for a further five minutes. May be eaten hot on bread or toast, or served cold as a savoury. The flavour either way is excellent.

Native people cooked abalone by dashing the fish down sharply on its back immediately it is taken from the water and then tossing the shell and fish on to a fire of hot coals and baking in the shell.

.whelks

These large shellfish measure up to 5" or 6" [13 or 15 cm] in length and are found in rock pools among kelp and seaweed. The flesh itself is too tough to eat even when beaten. Break the shells open with a rock and remove the shellfish entire.

Put these in water and boil for ten minutes and then strain off the liquid into another billy and add milk, thickening and salt to taste. The result is a really delicious soup. The flavour is identical with crab, very rich, and most palatable.

.crustaceans

All the crustaceans are safe to eat and free from toxic poisons, but freshwater crayfish and yabbies are subject to parasite infestations which may be harmful to man, and therefore the flesh should be extremely well cooked as a safety measure.

Crustaceans are usually boiled, but it is quite practical to simply kill the creature and wrap the shellfish in either an old wet newspaper, a ball of clay or large green leaves, such as banana leaves or palm leaves. The wrapped shellfish is then placed deep in the hot ashes of a fire. Be sure you place it in the ashes, and not the surface coals. Cover the bundle completely and leave for six to twelve hours. The food will not have burnt or dried out, but will be cooked deliciously.

.octopods and gastropods

The flesh on the tentacles of all the octopods and gastropods (octopus and cuttlefish, etc.) is edible, but many are extremely tough and rubbery. The flesh of octopus tastes exactly like lobster. To cook, beat the octopus tentacles and boil in very hot oil, 10-15 minutes. It is probable that there are other ways of preparing these for food, because they are a favourite delicacy among Mediterranean peoples. Caution: one small species of ringed octopus - 1" to 6" [2.5 to 15 cm] long - has been known to give fatal stings.

.insects

Some of the insects are a valuable source of food. Consider the bee and the food value of its honey.

Honey is so rapidly assimilated by the body that, if given by any means to a person unconscious from exhaustion, it will be almost immediately assimilated and restore consciousness and strength.

Honey is probably the most valuable single natural food for an emergency ration, and certainly the best "energy-giver" for walkers and climbers, except for glucose and proprietary products of a kindred nature.

In addition to the bees, certain species of ants store honey in their bodies, and have marked food value, and the wood grub (the "witchetty grub" of the [Australian Aborigine]) is a delicacy when toasted, if one can overcome a natural prejudice. This is simply a matter of mental conditioning.