Gorp

Posted by Bill on Friday, August 3, 2007   |   No Comments

I don’t know where I first heard the term or when the concoction became a mainstay of our road food. I only know that for as long as I can remember, gorp has been a favorite travel treat of my family. It’s one of those travel traditions I wrote about in an earlier post. Oddly, we never have it except when we travel, as if eating it on non-travel occasions would somehow ruin its mystique.

Let’s deal with that name first. The first temptation is to make it an acronym, and most bets are on “good old raisins and peanuts.” Another from Boy Scout lore is “granola, oatmeal, raisins and peanuts.” But there is really no evidence that there is any truth to either of these. Many people call what we know as gorp “trail mix.” And an alternative mixture of peanuts and raisins only is called “student food” in some quarters. In New Zealand and Australia it is known as scroggin. German-speaking countries call it studentenfutter.

The Oxford English Dictionary has a 1913 reference to gorp as a verb meaning “to eat greedily.” It may also be an Americanization of older English verbs spelled in various ways: gaup, gawp, gorp, gowp, gawk or gauk. One meaning given was to “stare in a stupid or rude manner.” Another referenced “staring open-mouthed in witless astonishment.” And this might have led to “gawp up,” meaning to devour.

No matter what people in various parts of the world call it or what its etymology might be, there is pretty basic agreement that gorp is a high-energy snack food popular in outdoor activities such as hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, bicycling and camping. Ideal as a snack food, gorp is lightweight and easy to store. It also has a high content of vitamins and minerals. While commercial prepackaged variations usually called “trail mix” are available, purists make their own—which I highly recommend.

The neat thing about a gorp recipe is that it can change with your moods, tastes and whims. Most of the time our version consists of:

Nuts (peanuts or mixed nuts)
Dried fruits (cranberries or raisins)
Chocolate chips (including occasionally white chocolate or butterscotch variations as well as carob chips)
M&Ms (peanut, plain or both)
Cheerios
Mini-pretzels
Sunflower seeds

Other common additions include granola, shredded coconut, carob chips, other dried fruits, sesame sticks and oriental rice crackers. We mix ours up and put it in an air-tight container. (Tupperware or even an old coffee can works great.) That way, you can put it in the cooler to keep the chocolate from melting. For those of you who worry about such things, on average gorp has about 140 calories and 9 grams of fat per ounce. A hint: Take along some of those little plastic Solo bathroom cups to eat gorp on the road. It’s easy to handle, kids won’t spill it quite as readily and it’s an ideal snack-size helping.

(Referencs: www.wikipedia.org, www.worldwidewords.org and www.about.com)

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