Wilderness Flatbread Making 101

Introduction

Bread is cheap. When you can buy it you should because making bread takes a lot of time, and if you've never made it before it'll probably take a really long time. Having said that, there is something really rewarding about making bread in the wilderness. The first time I did it I felt really good because I knew that with very little I could make a sustaining food.


What do I need in order to make bread?

a stove or fire
a flat metal surface (I use a small 7 inch pan)
something to mix in (I use a 1 gallon pot that we have)
a stick (I just use a long tree branch)

2.5 cups of flour
1 cup of water
1 tsp of salt
If you have any spices you can add them to taste.


Now what do I do?

1. Put the flour, salt and other spices in your container. Mix them together. Make a depression in the middle of the container. You do this so that when you add the water it doesn't go everywhere. Be sure there is still flour at the bottom of your depression so that it can soak up the water.

2. Add about 1-2 Tbsp of water to the flour. Take a bit of flour from the outside edge of your container and put it over the water. The flour should soak up most of the water. Now, dig your fingers into the flour around where the damp flour is and pull up. This should mix up the water with the flour. Repeat this until you can press the pieces of flour together to make a ball of dough.

3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes.

4. Let the dough sit covered for 30 - 45 minutes. I'm not really sure why you do this, but I think it has to do with the water permeating the flour.

5. Split the dough into 8 smaller balls.

6. Now you need to flatten the balls. BE GENTLE; force doesn't work with bread. Start by gently pulling from the center of the ball. You should make a circle that is thin in the middle and thick on the edge. Now gently pull at the edges and the circle should expand. Keep going until you have a circle that is about 5 to 6 inches in diameter.

7. Put a little bit of oil on your metal surface. Fry the first side of the bread for 1 minute. Fry the second side for about 5 minutes or until there are little bubbles forming in the dough.

8. Now, put the bread on the end of your stick and hold it over the fire until its blackened a little bit.

Voila! You have bread!

Now what do I eat the bread with?

1. Cook up a meat or vegetable with some spices. Rip off a piece of bread and scoop up the meat with it.

2. For breakfast mash up some bananas with sugar (brown if possible) and brandy and put it on top of the bread to eat.

3. Make a sandwich with it.

4. (comment with any suggestions you have :)