Trail mix
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Trail mix is a combination of dried fruit, grains, nuts, and sometimes chocolate, developed as a snack food to be taken along on outdoor hikes.
Trail mix is considered an ideal snack food for hikes, because it is tasty, lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit and/or granola, and sustained energy from the mono- and polyunsaturated fats in nuts.
Both Hadley Fruit Orchards and Harmony Foods (two California growers) claim that trail mix was first invented in 1968 by two California surfers who blended peanuts and raisins together for an energy snack.[1] However, trail mix is also mentioned in Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel The Dharma Bums as the two main characters describe their planned meals in their preparation for a hiking trip. The recipe for trail mix is most likely European in origin, where it has been known as a snack under various names (see below) in various countries since the 17th century.
[edit] Other names
In New Zealand, trail mix is known as scroggin or "schmogle".[2] The term is also used in some places in Australia but usage has only been traced back to the 1980s.[3][4][5] Some claim the name stands for Sultanas, Carob, Raisins, Orange peel, Grains, Glucose, Imagination, Nuts; but this may be a folk etymology.[6]
The word gorp, a term for trail mix often used by hikers, may stand for "good old raisins and peanuts",[7] "granola, oats, raisins, and peanuts", or "gobs of raw protein". These are all probably backronyms or folk etymology. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb gorp, meaning "to eat greedily". A gorp picker can be a term used for a person who will only eat certain things out of any mixed food.
Trail mix, apart from being a food for hikes, is served as a cheap snack to accompany drinks. It bears sometimes humorous names in certain countries, however, e.g., in The Netherlands, Poland and Germany it can actually be purchased under these names:
- Studentenfutter ("student feed") in Germany
- studenterhavre ("student oats", in analogy of horse oats) in Denmark
- studentenhaver (id.) in the Netherlands and Flanders
- mieszanka studencka ("students' mix") in Poland
- Studentų maistas ("students' food") in Lithuania
[edit] Ingredients
Common ingredients may include:
- Nuts, such as almonds
- Legumes, such as peanuts or baked soybeans.
- Dried fruits such as cranberries, raisins, apricots, apples, or candied orange peel
- Chocolate: chips, chunks, or M&M's
- Breakfast cereal
- Pretzels
- Seeds, such as pumpkin seeds, cashews or sunflower seeds
- Granola
- Carob chips or banana chips
- Shredded coconut
- Brazil nuts
- Ginger (crystallised)
- Marshmallows
[edit] References
- ^ Trail Mix, January 01, 2009.
- ^ Harper, Laura; Mudd, Tony; Whitfield, Paul (2002). Rough guide to New Zealand. Rough Guides. p. 1023. ISBN 1858288967. http://books.google.com/books?id=aiIrweIMckQC&lpg=PA1023&dq=scroggin%2C%20trail%20mix&pg=PA1023#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ^ Pearl Violette Newfield Metzelthin, ed. (1997), Gourmet (Condé Nast Publications) 57 (1-6): p. 53
- ^ Wheeler, Graeme (1991). The Scroggin Eaters: A History of Bushwalking in Victoria to 1989. Melbourne: Pindari Publications. ISBN 0958787441.
- ^ Moore, Bruce (April 2005). "From the Centre". Ozwords (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press) 12 (1): 5. ISSN 13210858. http://andc.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/ozwords_april05.pdf. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "World Wide Words: Gorp". World Wide Words. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gor1.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ "The Food Timeline-history notes: muffins to yogurt". Foodtimeline.org. http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq2.html#trailmix. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
