Trail mix
Trail mix or scroggin is a type of snack mix, typically a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes candy, developed as a food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is considered an ideal snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick energy boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit or granola, and sustained energy from fats in nuts.
Alternative names | Gorp, scroggin, schmogle, |
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Type | Snack |
Main ingredients | Dried fruit, grains, nuts, sometimes chocolate |
The combination of nuts, raisins and chocolate as a trail snack dates at least to the 1910s, when outdoorsman Horace Kephart recommended it in his popular camping guide.[1]
Other names
In New Zealand, trail mix is known as "scroggin" or "schmogle".[2] In Australia, the term "scroggin" is used exclusively, although in more recent years, "trail mix" has been imported into the jargon from the USA. Some claim that the name stands for sultanas, carob, raisins, orange peel, grains, glucose, and nuts or alternatively sultanas, chocolate, raisins and other goody-goodies including nuts; but this may be a backronym.[3]
The American word gorp, a term for trail mix often used by hikers in North America, is typically said to be an acronym for "good ol' raisins and peanuts",[4] although the mix may contain M&M's and other nuts. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb gorp, meaning "to eat greedily."
In Germany, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and several other European countries, trail mix is called "student fodder", "student oats", or "student mix" in the local languages and usually does not include chocolate. In Iran mixed nuts is called "ajil", eaten at festivals like Yaldā Night or just a social "mehmooni".[5]
Ingredients
Common ingredients may include:
- Nuts, such as almonds or cashews
- Legumes, such as peanuts or baked soybeans.
- Dried fruits such as raisins, cranberries, apricots, apples, banana chips, sultanas or candied orange peel
- Chocolate: chocolate chips, chunks, and M&M's
- Breakfast cereals such as granola
- Rye chips
- Pretzels
- Seeds, such as pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds
- Carob chips
- Shredded coconut
- Ginger (crystalized)
References
- Kephart, Horace (1916). The Book of Camping and Woodcraft. p. 196.
- Harper, Laura; Mudd, Tony; Whitfield, Paul (2002). Rough guide to New Zealand. Rough Guides. p. 1023. ISBN 1-85828-896-7 – via Google Books.
- "World Wide Words: Gorp". World Wide Words. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- Olver, Lynne. "The Food Timeline-history notes: muffins to yogurt". The Food Timeline. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
- Nilipour, Leila (September 5, 2014). "How to Survive a Mehmooni Party in Iran". Vice Magazine.
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