Maize grains, when in the milk stage, can be preserved for future use in the following manner: The heads are first cut from the stalk, the covering of leaves and the tassel are then stripped off, and all the grains broken from the cob or core with the fingers into a shallow basket; a wide pit is then dug in the earth, and red hot stones and embers are cast in until the bottom and sides of the pit are thoroughly heated. All the stones and ashes are then removed, and all dust brushed away with green branches. A quantity of maize leaves are now brought and made use of to line the pit, and form a sort of nest for the reception of the maize, which is covered with a thick layer of leaves and left until baked. The grain subjected to this process, instead of becoming parched and dry, remains sweet, and when boiled with meat much resembles green peas.
The ground nut, such as is brought from Sierra Leone, is obtainable in many parts. It may be eaten raw, but is better slightly roasted. The Portuguese make a very nice confect of it, and it contains so much essential oil that one nut will burn with a clear flame, like a wax candle, for fully a minute. This oil makes it one of the best substitutes for coffee we know of. Slightly roasted and ground, and infused in the ordinary manner, it is exceedingly good. Most of the indigenous grains and grasses are also used, but some of them only act as a kind of vegetable charcoal to give a toast-and-water like colour to the morning beverage. We have frequently tried the beans of various species of mimosa, and have found them valuable in exact proportion to the quantity of essential oil contained in them. The dwarf shrubs, carrying generally the largest beans, were the best, and we should think the diminutive tree, scarcely 18in. high, and bearing a pod more than a foot long, called “Eland’s boontjie,” would be best of all. At other times we have used burnt pumpkin, but this produced rather a kind of vegetable soup.
Uses of tea.
Tea is one of the most valuable and important stores carried by the explorer or traveller, and an ample supply should always be taken. We prefer the Australian method of tea-making to any other; and, whether with our brass lota pot or tin quart mug and pint cup, proceed in the same manner to brew it. We first pour as much water as we think requisite in the pot, put it on the fire, and raise it to the boiling point; then take it off and add tea in proportion to the number to be brewed for, covering down the vessel with an inverted tea bowl until the tea has drawn; it is then fit for use. By adopting this plan the tea for the early morning’s start need not be made the night before; a few chips, sticks, dead leaves, or a lamp, will serve to give heat enough to boil a well-blackened pot; and a very few minutes will suffice, while the packs are being arranged, to prepare a bowl of warm tea, which, with a little bread or native cake, will serve as a stand-by until the regular breakfast hour. For a very long time it was our custom when in India to strike tent at 2 A.M. and march at 3, in order to avoid the heat; but we never omitted our bowl of tea.
Among the natives of Chinese Tartary extensive use is made of brick tea, not only as an article of diet, but as a medium of currency and exchange.
This curious preparation is commonly made use of by travellers and the lower orders throughout the length and breadth of Tartary, Tibet, and the Kirghis steppes. The bricks vary in size according to the particular district in which they are made; but to be of convenient and saleable character they should be about 1ft. long, 6in. wide, and from 1in. to 1½in. thick. To make tea-bricks, all the late shoots, imperfectly-formed leaves, and immature buds to be found in the tea plantations, after the tea harvest is over, are collected; they are then subjected to the action of water until soft and pliable, bullock’s blood is then added, the mass is then thoroughly mixed and incorporated, and, when of a tough, firm consistence, it is divided into portions of convenient size, which are pressed into brick moulds prepared for them. When turned from the moulds the bricks are laid on hurdles, and subjected to heat until dry. They are then fit for the market, to which the finished commodity is usually carried in sheepskin bags. When required for use, the portion to be consumed is broken from the brick with the head of a hatchet or a heavy stone; the fragments thus detached are broken up small between two flat stones, and then rubbed between the palms of the hands until fine enough for preparation.
There are several ways of preparing brick tea for consumption. One is to place the rough powder in a pot or kettle with water, and boil it until a red decoction is formed, a little salt is then thrown in, which causes a slight effervescence to be set up; when this ceases, and the liquid becomes tranquil, and of dark colour, milk is added. If it is desired to make the tea thus prepared more than commonly attractive to the visitor, butter is added. Sometimes a mixture, called “Imitanka,” is made from it; this is formed by adding a quantity of clotted cream which has become sour to the boiled tea water, and when it has boiled a short time, adding salt and a bowlful of millet seed flour. The whole mixture is then boiled for about three-quarters of an hour, and is ready for the table, or rather floor of the tent, on which it is usual to sit. Barley meal and suet added to the tea water makes a kind of gruel, or stirabout, which is much relished by the wandering Tartars, and appears to agree vastly well with them. Brick tea is not only used as we have described, but is common among Tartar dealers, and those who attend the fairs held for the purpose of sale and exchange as a medium of currency, just as the beaver skin and the Dentalium shell are by the North West Indians of America.
Almost every country has its own peculiar method of preserving animal food for future use. The salting of meat, and the consequent deterioration of its nourishing properties, must be well known to all who have made long voyages, unless, indeed, they have always sailed in first-class ships, where the appearance of salt junk upon the cabin table is quite exceptional. Where it can conveniently be carried, we think that boiled fresh beef, preserved in air-tight tin canisters, is by far the best, as being in effect equal to fresh killed meat cooked in the same manner. We have seen considerable quantities of this meat used after being carried by land and sea about the world for years, and we do not remember that we have ever opened a tin which was not in good order, and perfectly fit for food. And we should also think that in many places where immense herds of cattle almost encumber the land they live upon, this method of transporting their flesh to a better market would be well worthy the attention of their owners. There are many variations in the method of preserving, but we believe the simplest and most effective to be as under. Kill the animal by a rifle shot behind the ear or otherwise, skin it, and hoist it by block and tackle to a convenient tree, then commencing at the hind-legs, which are of course uppermost, strip off all the flesh from the bones, leaving the skeleton still hanging, cut the flesh into pieces as nearly 6lb. in weight as possible, put them into a cauldron with very little water, and boil them well. Have a number of cylindrical 6lb. tins, and set them ready in a trough of boiling water, kept hot by a steam pipe or other available means; put a piece of beef in each tin, with liquor enough nearly to fill it, and then solder on the top, which should have a hole in it; when all the tins of meat are thus far advanced, pour in at the small hole liquor enough to fill the tin, clean round the edges of the hole, and close it with a drop of hot solder, so as to seal the tin hermetically; then remove them from the water, dry the outsides, paint them with any coarse colour, mixed with boiled oil, and they are ready for exportation to any part of the world.
Where meat in this form cannot be carried, perhaps the next best method is to cut it into strips or flakes, and dry it thoroughly in the sun, with, or more frequently without, a little salt upon the surface. Meat by this process loses some of its nutritious quality, but it is so conveniently kept and carried, and so little liable to damage, that there is scarce a country in the world having sun enough for the purpose when it is not adopted in North America. The flesh of the buffalo, or bison, and in South America that of the domestic, or rather half-wild, ox, is used; and Sir F. Head, in his rough notes of the pampas, remarks that a man can live longer on dried beef and water than he can on any other unvaried diet.
The trappers and traders of North West America make extensive use of a kind of prepared food known as “pemmican,” and very large quantities of it are manufactured on the buffalo range. It is thus made. Buffalo flesh is cut with the hunting knife into convenient flakes and flat steaks or layers. These are either hung in the sun or near a slow fire until dry, when the dried meat is ground between two stones until sufficiently fine. A bag is then made of buffalo hide, with the hair side out, and the preserved flesh, after having been thoroughly mixed with hot fat, is well rammed and pressed in. The bag is then securely stitched up, and the pemmican allowed to cool and harden. When required for use, it is cut from the mass like hard sausage meat, and either eaten cold, or, when mixed with flour or meal, a sort of thick porridge, called by the trappers “robiboo,” is made from it.