Listen as Scott chats with North Shore Radio host, Mark Abrahamson, about how to cook a long-time camping classic—and staple in the northwoods—bannock!
Pack & Paddle: Bannock Transcript
0:00:00.4 Mark: WTIP's feature Pack & Paddle with Scott Oath is up next. Scott is a registered Maine guide, an Eagle Scout and Minnesotan master naturalist. He's an instructor for the Okpik National Cold Weather Leader School. He joins us now by phone to talk about bannock. Good Morning, Scott.
0:00:18.2 Scott Oeth: Good morning, Mark.
0:00:19.2 Mark: Are you having bannock for breakfast this morning?
0:00:22.3 SO: As I was gonna put notes together and thinking about this, I'm absolutely gonna bake up a bannock after we get off the phone here.
0:00:28.8 Mark: That sounds...
0:00:29.4 SO: Without a doubt.
0:00:30.2 Mark: That sounds really good. Now, tell us what bannock is, and tell us about its history.
0:00:35.4 SO: Yeah, bannock is really the traditional trail food of the North, and I imagine a lot of listeners have heard of it, but deep roots, I guess, the word actually goes, as it was a Scottish word, it goes back to the Scots who came over to Canada and worked for Hudson Bay Company and taught this traditional bread, which is very simply made. And so voyagers and trappers and prospectors and natives and a lot of people living in the woods and on the land would simply get by and get through the winter with sacks of flour and a bit of salt and making a very basic bread as the staple to fill themselves up. And so it has a long history with people actually living and working in the North, and certainly carries on as a canoe country classic. And one of the things I think is really fun about bannock is, especially in a day and age where a lot of people think of a foil packet of add boiling water, as trail food is, you're making these basic ingredients that really is like the Swiss army knife of the wilderness trippers wanna get on their pantry. There's so many different ways you can make it, things you can add and different outcomes with just a few simple ingredients.
0:01:43.9 Mark: Now, you said simple ingredients. I have made fry bread when I'm out in the boundary waters. Is it similar to fry bread? What does it look like, and what does it taste like?
0:01:53.1 SO: Yeah. So there's two very broad, different ways you can make it. You can make it baked, or you can make it as a fry bread, which is what you're talking about, and the funny thing is, there's different names it goes by that different people you see use in different regions. In fact, in Australia, your big tradition of cooking dampers, and when you look at it, it's very much the same thing. The swag men in the Outback would make a large loaf, and sometimes they cook 'em in their camp ovens, what they call a dutch oven, but often they just bake it in the coals and it is really is the same thing. So you can bake it, have it come out kind of dry like a large biscuit, or cracker, or bread, depending how much baking powder or if you put a yeast in it. Or you can fry it in hot grease and have it come out more like a donut or a piece of fry bread, but basics really at its simplest are flour, baking powder and salt. If you use self-raising flour, you don't even need the baking power. But it gets a whole lot better, I think, if you add... You can add in oil to the batter, butter, lard, some type of shortening.
0:02:58.0 SO: And so you mix that in the dough or you can use that in the pan to either have it oiled or not, if you want it with more of that fried texture. And you'll see lots of different people get creative with recipes, sometimes mix in whole wheat flour, milk powder, or milk, eggs, or egg power, nuts, fruit. And even wild edibles, like cattail pollen or various types of crushed roots.
0:03:19.6 Mark: So I've been making bannock and I didn't even know it.
0:03:23.5 SO: It sounds like it. Yeah, it sounds like it, yeah.
0:03:25.7 Mark: Now, is this a staple you take camping?
0:03:28.2 SO: I like to take it along. I think it's a lot of fun. Like I say, it takes up a bit of space and a bit of weight, but it's nice to have hot, fresh bread, and where it really comes to life, when people are watching you make it, whether we're baking it in a pan, the traditional method, where you flatten out the dough and you get the bottom cooked a bit, then you tip up that pan for the fire to get to heat that way, or sometimes we'll make it in a dutch oven or in a reflector oven in front of a fire. You'll read often, people say, "You don't even need a pan." You can make the dough a little thicker and peel a stick. Birch branch is supposed to provide a real sweet flavor, and you wrap the dough around the fire around the stick and tip it over the fire. I have made it on the coals just directly, and guess what? It's delicious. In fact, out West a lot of primitive skills schools calls them ash cakes.
0:04:18.1 SO: They'll just use flour and water and make 'em very simply and press 'em into small thin discs and you let the fire die down, get the basic coals, and you just put those on there and use a sharp stick to turn 'em over. And that's one of my favorite ways because it's so simple. But the real secret Mark, is the toppings. You have butter, jam, honey, syrup, or the favorite on my trips, well, moose patrol trips, is Nutella, like the secret weapon of a cold and rainy day. Yeah. Melted Nutella and hot bannock.
0:04:48.0 Mark: All three of us in the studio are drooling right now.
0:04:51.0 SO: Good.
0:04:53.0 Mark: Any other uses for bannock?
0:04:55.8 SO: Well, it's fun, it's delicious, lots of different ways you can make it. I think maybe just one other thought, is people would stockpile large bags of flour, and that's how they'd get through the winter, and you read a lot of different accounts and you'll hear Natives mention, "If we didn't have bannock, we would have starved in tough winters." And I looked up prices last night. You can buy a 25-pound bag of flour for $5, you can buy a four pound bag of sugar for $2, add in some sugar to the mix, really makes it a little more tasty. And I think there's a lot of folks right now worried about shortages and what they might do if they're basically stuck in their house for a long period of time. Bannock is a way that you could very easily stockpile a lot of food to carry you through a long period of time at home, even. So it doesn't have to be a camping food. It's something you can keep on the shelf and know that you've always got bannock to fall back on to fill stomachs.
0:05:54.6 Mark: Very timely suggestions, Scott. Alright. We're talking with Scott Oeth. Anything else you wanna add this morning, Scott?
0:06:03.7 SO: Yeah, maybe just one other thing. 'Cause I have been working with Anoka County Parks in the Twin Cities area, and we are talking about running a series of outdoor skills classes; backpacking, canoe camping, winter camping, wilderness survival, bush craft classes, on there lands and regional parks near the Twin Cities. So we'll have those posted on our site and then hopefully be in action with those soon. So not only the written activities on the blog, but looking at that as a regular venue for hands-on classes.
0:06:33.2 Mark: Alright, well you can find out more about that at www.bullmoosepatrol.com, and follow your adventures there as well. And I have to admit your website is quite delightful, Scott. Thank you very much.
0:06:43.6 SO: Well. Thanks Mark.
0:06:43.7 Mark: Alright.
0:06:43.8 SO: Thank you.