392 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 28, 1912 
1—The most curious cracker of the universe: A tree-pith biscuit (Republic of China), wnich is laundered out, or 
ironed (but never baked), just as a collar is ironed. In vogue among oriental travelers as a biscuit de luxe. 
2—Chestnut flour self-caking chunks, used as both a breadstuff and a naturally sweet flour patty in lieu of 
sweetened biscuits or cakes. The daily fare of millions in Italy. Is the only cracker or biscuit stuff of the 
globe thus eaten in its uncooked, flour form. 3—Sweet almonds in the husk from the valley of the Jordan. 
The almond meal hard oiscuits of the Levant are made from the oil-pressed debris of these. 4—The singular 
fantastic syrupped cracker of the harems of Arabic-speaking countries (many sizes). 
regularly eaten in its dry flour form. Due to 
its saccharin content, chestnut flour is very 
liable to “cake,” the natural sugar of the nut 
(about 7 per cent.) attracting moisture; just as, 
in fact, all crude sugars draw humidity. The 
flour is found in commerce in the chief Italian- 
importing groceries throughout Uncle Samdom 
in about twenty-pound nearly square boxes, and 
retails at a dime per pound. Break the sides 
away from the box, and you have a caked block 
of chestnut flour of a slight yellowish-white, 
and the pronounced odor and taste characteristic 
of the chestnut. It is of surprisingly sweetish 
taste when mouthed thus in its desiccated form, 
freed of the natural water present in the fresh 
nut. 
This natural “caking” of the flour is advan¬ 
tageous in that it can be easily broken up per 
finger and eaten piecemeal without need of a 
spoon. In country inns in Italy of a morning 
the maid brings in a bowl of milk with the little 
chestnut chunks floating atop the latte. Due to 
their lightness, caused by air particles, they do 
not sink, unless left in the milk about a quarter 
of an hour, when they gradually subside. As a 
light repast—but nothing else—this chestnut-and- 
milk porridge is an agreeable occasional change 
and surprise to the tourist, but it is a mistake 
to have it too often, for fear of a surfeit. The 
necessity of change in provisions is keenly re¬ 
alized by the hardened globe circler and camper. 
Chestnut flour is principally useful as an ad¬ 
junct to the camper’s commissary bag, because it 
can be eaten without cooking, and for the reason 
that, due to its sweetness, it almost takes the 
place of a sort of after meal dessert or semi- 
candv. Rut milk is always necessary with it—- 
just plain milk. Cream makes it too rich-tasting, 
and not refreshing enough as does simply milk. 
No other beverage seems to go with it satis¬ 
factorily, as tea, coffee, wine or water. The latter 
makes the whole thing too “disinteresting.” 
The writer has had many years of experi¬ 
ence with chestnut flour as an occasional camp¬ 
ing food, both in Italy and out of it, and while 
the native Italian outdoor-lifers and sunk-in¬ 
poverty farm peasants use it as a regular daily 
fare, its constant use to one not accustomed to 
it cannot be suggested. In other words, it would 
be a mistake to carry a bag of it on a trip in lieu 
of wheat flour. Wheat flour contains the life- 
sustaining gluten, lacking in chestnut flour. 
In Leghorn, Milan, Florence, Naples, Como, 
Turin and other regions of Cavour-land, chest¬ 
nut bread is often found for sale in the bazars 
as a pan-baked article, of a dingy brown. This 
bread-form is termed castagnacio. It is less 
palatable thus than in the flour-form. But an 
acceptable biskot or cracker is also made from 
the flour, and is esteemed at the afternoon halt 
for and with tea. This biscuit is made without 
a particle of sugar, yet it has a sweet enough 
taste. This saccharinity may remind one some¬ 
what of the peculiar and not unpleasant sweet- 
bitter taste of Spanish licorice. 
A chestnut macaroni is also come across in 
some Ligurian cities, and is served as a delicacy 
boiled in milk. But it is not an all-chestnut pro¬ 
duct, since some wheat flour has been neces¬ 
sarily added in the making. 
ALMOND MEAL BISCLTTS (ASIA MINOR). 
The almond meal bread of Central Asia is 
not shown in the photograph, because unobtain¬ 
able in Manhattan. The writer purchased speci¬ 
mens, some years ago, but they were too good 
to last long. It should be said that this hard¬ 
tack almond bread is made from the residue 
cake left in the oil presses. The oil is valued 
for export; the refuse meal is relished by hogs 
and—humans! It is nutritious and satisfying. 
But unable to show the actual almond bread 
which the motorist and tourist will happen across 
throughout the caliphates of the Faithful, to make 
up, we will show a small heap of the actual husk- 
covered almonds which are the base of the plain 
almond hard-tack bread. The sweet almond is 
protected by nature with a downy, semi-plushy 
olive-green husk. When fresh, the Arab im¬ 
merses these husks in vinegar for a few weeks, 
and they constitute the acceptable almond salad 
appearing at the cold viand table. 
CRACKERS FROM TREE-PITH (REPUBLIC OF CHINA). 
Truly, the most singular bread and cracker 
of the Lord's footstool is the peculiar pith bread 
of China. It is made from the pith of the tree 
fatsia. The misnamed “rice-paper” is made 
from this pith also. There is an illustration of 
the fatsia preparation in the Standard dictionary 
(see that word). This curious cracker bread, or 
whatever it may be termed, is of a creamy white¬ 
ness, has a pithy taste, and is much esteemed by 
the citizens of the flowery Republic with their 
little cups of watery unsweetened tea, or as a 
soup stock. It is of scant nutritive value, yet 
retails in Manhattan at sixty cents a pound. I 
have often used it and made little gifts of it as 
a novelty to appreciative acquaintances. 
Its use cannot be recommended to the camper, 
because it contains scant more nutrition than 
dried cucumber slices or evaporated celery, but 
it is noted here as a “luxury”(?) of the most 
hardened campers of the globe—the camel cara¬ 
van parties plying for centuries of time between 
the marts of vast inland China. 
* :j< s}c * 
The following breads were unobtainable for 
illustration in Manhattan. Doubtless somebody 
retails them, but on repeated inquiry the writer 
failed to ascertain whom. An effort was made 
to round up a collection of the whole lot, so as 
to have this article more fully representative of 
the camping-out breads of the globe. The miss¬ 
ing breads, then, are: Barley bread, much used 
in various North European countries; the palt- 
brod of the Laplander, made originally of rein¬ 
deer blood and rye, and forming the darkest of 
the breads of the universe; the tortilla, the na¬ 
tional maize bread disk of Iberic-America, and 
the polenta or corn bread of the Italian lakes 
region. The mundane tourist comes across all 
these breads in due course; that is, if sufficiently 
interested in foreign peoples to note how they 
live among themselves. But if he makes the 
fatal mistake of finding out and associating only 
with Americans wherever he goes, and loafing 
around clubs (another evil), he will find he will 
learn precious little! 
In conclusion, be it stated that every one of 
the biscuit and hard-tack bread exhibits illus¬ 
trated in this brief discourse on the camping 
crackers, etc., of the nations (or some of the 
countries of the globe), have all been photo¬ 
graphed direct from the actual goods rounded 
up and purchased at retail among the foreign 
colony bakers of Manhattan and turned over to 
the office of this journal. Anybody is free to 
inspect the collection in the liner’s “den”, as they 
make a capital souvenir collection, and can be 
preserved for years in a dust-proof glass wall 
case. Being almost all the hard-tack variety of 
travel-bread and biscuit stuffs (necessarily), they 
will naturally keep almost indefinitely. And 
what the writer has accomplished any other 
would-be collector can accomplish in any of our 
greater cities, or instruct his city representative 
or agent to do so. 
Forest and Stream has for years been a 
factor of importance in promoting the cause of 
good sportsmanship and the conservation of 
natural resources. 
