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A little known fact is that Germany resorted to using sawdust in bread when they had flour shortages during the world wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommis

A little known fact is that Germany resorted to using sawdust in bread when they had flour shortages during the world wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommissbrot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommissbrot Are ther any other strange flour replacements that people have heard of?

gnud 6y ago
In Scandinavia, before potatoes, people sometimes used the inner layer of bark from trees as a supplement to grains when there was a shortage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_bread#Bark_bread_as_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_bread#Bark_bread_as_food
- hinkley 6y ago
  Survival books still sometimes refer to it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this layer also contain minerals and some of the sap? So it would have some value as a supplement and not just a filler. My favorite in this category is separating the minerals from grass by chewing (not swallowing) or boiling it in a tea. Not much calorie value, but it'll prevent deficiencies while you find a staple food or burn body fat. And you can do the former while doing other survival chores (time seems to be the dominant resource you have to manage).
Aromasin 6y ago
In Scandinavia they reguarly added inner bark to flour during famine. In Russia, nettle and orache were used. There a good article which goes through what many cultures eat during famine below [1]. Some of it is pretty horrific: > “…I have no idea how I managed to survive and stay alive. In 1933 we tried to survive the best we could. We collected grass, goose-foot, burdocks, rotten potatoes and made pancakes, soups from putrid beans or nettles. > Collected clay from the trees and ate it, ate sparrows, pigeons, cats, dead and live dogs." It goes further into mentions of infanticide canabilism which I won't quote directly here but is worth reading. Birch inner bark flour seems to be "common" as far as obscure flour goes. Apparently it wasn't even a famine food as such, and just a normal part of their diet. [2] [1] https://www.askaprepper.com/ingenious-foods-people-made-famines/ https://www.askaprepper.com/ingenious-foods-people-made-fami... [2] https://practicalselfreliance.com/birch-bark-flour/ https://practicalselfreliance.com/birch-bark-flour/
- bane 6y ago
  In some ways that's not terribly different than one of the traditional starch sources in Papau New Guinea, sago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago
- blacksmith_tb 6y ago
  I am not sure what to make of "collected clay from trees" - sap? Lichens? Seems like a problem with the translation.
  - ljf 6y ago
    I assumed sap too. As a kid we had a load of sycamore trees - a close relative of the maple. My dad saw a documentary about tapping maple trees and he set out to tap the sycamore - it tasted vile.
    - Nursie 6y ago
      But apparently Birch sap is fine, it seems to be enjoying a fad as a successor to coconut water at the moment.
- GordonS 6y ago
  How the hell do you eat a live dog?
  - s5300 6y ago
    Err... to give you a genuine answer - by experiencing real starvation. Have you never seen any cartel execution/torture videos? Those people are literally just doing it because a higher up told them, they're making money, and stimmed out of their minds on a daily basis. Eating a dog alive is really nothing to a human that's actually facing death from starvation. Please don't forget we're just animals.
  - joseluis 6y ago
    I believe what that means is they found the dog alive, killed it themselves, cooked it (I hope) and ate it. In contrast with finding it already dead, like a road kill, which they eat also...
boudewijnrempt 6y ago
Most bread in England in Victorian times was adulterated with plaster of paris.
- hinkley 6y ago
  I think one of the British history shows mentioned gypsum, which is just a name for Plaster of Paris that sounds less like something you should keep out of your mouth.
fuzzer37 6y ago
Some people did an (albeit informal) experiment trying to find out how much sawdust you can add to a rice krispy treat before people start to notice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKDal51f5LU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKDal51f5LU
soperj 6y ago
Americans basically do the same thing with their cheese, but not because of shortages, it's because they don't want to shred it themselves.
- sosborn 6y ago
  “Cellulose is cellulose,” regardless of if whether it comes from wood pulp or celery, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group that advocates healthier, more nutritious food. He says no research points to health problems related to consuming cellulose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_in_the_Public_Interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_in_the_Publ... https://www.thekitchn.com/cellulose-the-wood-pulp-in-you-146276 https://www.thekitchn.com/cellulose-the-wood-pulp-in-you-146...
- r00fus 6y ago
  So glad I ditched pre-packaged shredded cheese - it only takes like 5 min to shred a large cheese block and that lasts for weeks in my fridge (and the cheese block lasts for even longer so I always have shredded cheese and a few blocks waiting to be shredded). Note: means without cheese are difficult if you have kids.
- hinkley 6y ago
  I don't use a lot of shredded cheese, but grated is harder to avoid.
ARandomerDude 6y ago
Also during the (US) Civil War, acorns, peas, and all kinds of other things were used as coffee additives or substitutes. https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=cw_newstopics https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...
- Balgair 6y ago
  That one is really interesting, as the US South actually does have a caffeine producing plant native to the area: Ilex vomitoria It also goes by Yaupon, or Black Drink, and is similar to Yerba Mate. The native americans in the area typically used it in rituals to the point of vomiting, hence the name. Due to this history, though, it was not used as a caffeine substitute during the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria
agumonkey 6y ago
I'm still fascinated by the fact that the fact that cellulose is mostly sugar.
- vondur 6y ago
  It literally is two glucose molecules bonded via a condensation reaction. The linkage between the molecules is what makes it different from starch, and subsequently what makes it not useful as a food source for most animals.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    Is that linkage much more energy dense compared to starch, I always wonder why so few life forms digest cellulose.
protomyth 6y ago
Adding sawdust to nutmeg gave nutmeg dealers a poor reputation resulting in an insult in the 1860 election of Stephen Douglas calling Abraham Lincoln a nutmeg dealer (he threw in some other insults in the same line). horrid looking wretch, sooty and scoundrelly (sic) in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper and the night man
SECProto 6y ago
> A little known fact is that Germany resorted to using sawdust in bread when they had flour shortages during the world wars That wiki article suggests the use of sawdust in bread during WWI, but for a reference uses another encyclopedia-like source [1] (which does not cite any reference, and whose about page suggests it was written by a single individual). While it may be true, I'd be very hesitant to accept it without seeing a better source (and preferably one made before the wiki-circular-citation thing started). [1] http://www.zum.de/whkmla/economy/period/warecwwi.html http://www.zum.de/whkmla/economy/period/warecwwi.html
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hinkley 6y ago
Someone once put it to me that cooking is a process of converting inedible calories (combustibles) into edible ones. Mostly by cooking difficult to digest food, but also increasing longevity of other foods (eg, smoked meat).
hinkley 6y ago
Somewhat tangentially, the British during WWII rediscovered that rose hips contain vitamin C. I don't know the degree to which roses were embedded into the collective consciousness before but they certainly earned it at that point. Rose hip tea helped with the supply constraint pressure of the U-Boats.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Anyone know which WWII british cookbook contained the recipe for "life sustaining glop"?

gnud 6y ago

In Scandinavia, before potatoes, people sometimes used the inner layer of bark from trees as a supplement to grains when there was a shortage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_bread#Bark_bread_as_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_bread#Bark_bread_as_food

hinkley 6y ago
Survival books still sometimes refer to it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this layer also contain minerals and some of the sap? So it would have some value as a supplement and not just a filler. My favorite in this category is separating the minerals from grass by chewing (not swallowing) or boiling it in a tea. Not much calorie value, but it'll prevent deficiencies while you find a staple food or burn body fat. And you can do the former while doing other survival chores (time seems to be the dominant resource you have to manage).

Aromasin 6y ago

In Scandinavia they reguarly added inner bark to flour during famine. In Russia, nettle and orache were used. There a good article which goes through what many cultures eat during famine below [1]. Some of it is pretty horrific: > “…I have no idea how I managed to survive and stay alive. In 1933 we tried to survive the best we could. We collected grass, goose-foot, burdocks, rotten potatoes and made pancakes, soups from putrid beans or nettles. > Collected clay from the trees and ate it, ate sparrows, pigeons, cats, dead and live dogs." It goes further into mentions of infanticide canabilism which I won't quote directly here but is worth reading. Birch inner bark flour seems to be "common" as far as obscure flour goes. Apparently it wasn't even a famine food as such, and just a normal part of their diet. [2] [1] https://www.askaprepper.com/ingenious-foods-people-made-famines/ https://www.askaprepper.com/ingenious-foods-people-made-fami... [2] https://practicalselfreliance.com/birch-bark-flour/ https://practicalselfreliance.com/birch-bark-flour/

bane 6y ago
In some ways that's not terribly different than one of the traditional starch sources in Papau New Guinea, sago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sago
blacksmith_tb 6y ago
I am not sure what to make of "collected clay from trees" - sap? Lichens? Seems like a problem with the translation.
- ljf 6y ago
  I assumed sap too. As a kid we had a load of sycamore trees - a close relative of the maple. My dad saw a documentary about tapping maple trees and he set out to tap the sycamore - it tasted vile.
  - Nursie 6y ago
    But apparently Birch sap is fine, it seems to be enjoying a fad as a successor to coconut water at the moment.
GordonS 6y ago
How the hell do you eat a live dog?
- s5300 6y ago
  Err... to give you a genuine answer - by experiencing real starvation. Have you never seen any cartel execution/torture videos? Those people are literally just doing it because a higher up told them, they're making money, and stimmed out of their minds on a daily basis. Eating a dog alive is really nothing to a human that's actually facing death from starvation. Please don't forget we're just animals.
- joseluis 6y ago
  I believe what that means is they found the dog alive, killed it themselves, cooked it (I hope) and ate it. In contrast with finding it already dead, like a road kill, which they eat also...

boudewijnrempt 6y ago

Most bread in England in Victorian times was adulterated with plaster of paris.

hinkley 6y ago
I think one of the British history shows mentioned gypsum, which is just a name for Plaster of Paris that sounds less like something you should keep out of your mouth.

fuzzer37 6y ago

Some people did an (albeit informal) experiment trying to find out how much sawdust you can add to a rice krispy treat before people start to notice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKDal51f5LU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKDal51f5LU

soperj 6y ago

Americans basically do the same thing with their cheese, but not because of shortages, it's because they don't want to shred it themselves.

sosborn 6y ago
“Cellulose is cellulose,” regardless of if whether it comes from wood pulp or celery, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group that advocates healthier, more nutritious food. He says no research points to health problems related to consuming cellulose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_in_the_Public_Interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_in_the_Publ... https://www.thekitchn.com/cellulose-the-wood-pulp-in-you-146276 https://www.thekitchn.com/cellulose-the-wood-pulp-in-you-146...
r00fus 6y ago
So glad I ditched pre-packaged shredded cheese - it only takes like 5 min to shred a large cheese block and that lasts for weeks in my fridge (and the cheese block lasts for even longer so I always have shredded cheese and a few blocks waiting to be shredded). Note: means without cheese are difficult if you have kids.
hinkley 6y ago
I don't use a lot of shredded cheese, but grated is harder to avoid.

ARandomerDude 6y ago

Also during the (US) Civil War, acorns, peas, and all kinds of other things were used as coffee additives or substitutes. https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=cw_newstopics https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...

Balgair 6y ago
That one is really interesting, as the US South actually does have a caffeine producing plant native to the area: Ilex vomitoria It also goes by Yaupon, or Black Drink, and is similar to Yerba Mate. The native americans in the area typically used it in rituals to the point of vomiting, hence the name. Due to this history, though, it was not used as a caffeine substitute during the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria

agumonkey 6y ago

I'm still fascinated by the fact that the fact that cellulose is mostly sugar.

vondur 6y ago
It literally is two glucose molecules bonded via a condensation reaction. The linkage between the molecules is what makes it different from starch, and subsequently what makes it not useful as a food source for most animals.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  Is that linkage much more energy dense compared to starch, I always wonder why so few life forms digest cellulose.

protomyth 6y ago

Adding sawdust to nutmeg gave nutmeg dealers a poor reputation resulting in an insult in the 1860 election of Stephen Douglas calling Abraham Lincoln a nutmeg dealer (he threw in some other insults in the same line). horrid looking wretch, sooty and scoundrelly (sic) in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper and the night man

SECProto 6y ago

> A little known fact is that Germany resorted to using sawdust in bread when they had flour shortages during the world wars That wiki article suggests the use of sawdust in bread during WWI, but for a reference uses another encyclopedia-like source [1] (which does not cite any reference, and whose about page suggests it was written by a single individual). While it may be true, I'd be very hesitant to accept it without seeing a better source (and preferably one made before the wiki-circular-citation thing started). [1] http://www.zum.de/whkmla/economy/period/warecwwi.html http://www.zum.de/whkmla/economy/period/warecwwi.html

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

hinkley 6y ago

Someone once put it to me that cooking is a process of converting inedible calories (combustibles) into edible ones. Mostly by cooking difficult to digest food, but also increasing longevity of other foods (eg, smoked meat).

hinkley 6y ago

Somewhat tangentially, the British during WWII rediscovered that rose hips contain vitamin C. I don't know the degree to which roses were embedded into the collective consciousness before but they certainly earned it at that point. Rose hip tea helped with the supply constraint pressure of the U-Boats.

082349872349872 6y ago
Anyone know which WWII british cookbook contained the recipe for "life sustaining glop"?