Question from Tsalagidave's comments in Smoke Poles

[Mogorilla]

Hey Tsalagidave, or anyone who can answer.   You mention Sagamite in your kit.  I had heard the term but wasn't sure what it was.  Google said a corn/homniy based soup.  I had always associated a thick soup made with grits as Sofkee (or Sofkey) of the SE native americans who found themselves in Oklahoma ~1820s.  Is there a difference?  Same stuff regional name?  Or, gasp, is google off and you are carrying parched corn and it too is called Sagamite?  I am betting you are not carrying soup in your shooting bag.  That would be messy. 

[Tsalagidave]

Great question Mogorilla. Sagamite is also known as cold flour, Tso-Ci (Cherokee), Pinole and a few other names in various Indian tongues. It is the ultimate cheap grab and go food. It is generally made from fine pounded corn meal, sorgum or pounded mesquite beans and sometimes cinnamon. There are quite a few variations but that is the general recipe. It can be eaten dry by the pinch or chased with a gulp of water. It can be mixed with water and drunk or it can be boiled into a porridge. It's high level or sugar, starch and carbs keeps your energy up and helps you forget a out being hungry. I like to take a fist-sized pouch of the stuff with a few pieces of jerky and try to live off that until making camp or while hunting.

[JimBob]

Mogorilla,here's a recipe from a circa-1860s book-

Indian Sagamite

Three parts Indian meal and one part brown sugar mixed and browned over the fire.will make a food known as sagamite.Used in small quantities it not only appeases hunger,but allays thirst and is therefore usefull to soldiers on a scout.

I am assuming the brown sugar,given the dating of the book,was course unrefined sugar.I can't see how something with that much sugar in it would ally thirst myself,usually just the opposite happens with sugar laden foods and drinks.

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[Tsalagidave]

The brown sugar is usually sorgum. The period cook books I have differentiate between the various kinds of sugars. Your reference is from The Prairie Traveller (1859). It is a great reference for period victuals on the trail.

-Dave

[pony express]

Would that brown sugar/sorgum be like a syrup, like the sorgum we're used to, or is it cooked down untill it's like the sugarwe're used to?

[JimBob]

The brown sugar is usually sorgum. The period cook books I have differentiate between the various kinds of sugars. Your reference is from The Prairie Traveller (1859). It is a great reference for period victuals on the trail.

-Dave

It was from this cookbook-

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/receipt/receipt.html

Found on this site,an excellent resource for period foods and eating-

http://www.foodtimeline.org/

[Tsalagidave]

Nic find Jim Bob. I did not know about this one. It sounds just like Marcy's recipe. Many times, sorghum is used as a shortened reference to sorgum molasses. The brown sugar (same as today) does not have the molases refined out of it. There are probably about a million different ways to make the stuff. Thanks for the lead on the cookbook.

-Dave
 

[Tsalagidave]

Yeah Jim Bob this is a real nice link. I stand corrected sir.

[JimBob]

Yeah Jim Bob this is a real nice link. I stand corrected sir.

Dave,I've found that recipe a couple of other places worded exactly the same.I have Marcy's book also but can't find it at the moment to see if it's also the same wording.LOL Hard telling who stoled it from whose book.

A good book on period food recommended to me by Delmonico is,"Feeding the Frontier Army 1775-1865" by Barbara K. Luecke.Lot of info on period army rations.Out of print but I picked up a copy on e-bay for aroud $15.