I never eat food*

...due to profound food allergies, so I don't usually post recipes. But while reading A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain I found a recipe I simply could not pass up. Top notch writing, and the food sounds divine, to wit:

RECIPE FOR AN ASH-CAKE

Take a lot of water and add to it a lot of coarse Indian-meal and about
a quarter of a lot of salt. Mix well together, knead into the form of
a "pone," and let the pone stand awhile--not on its edge, but the other
way. Rake away a place among the embers, lay it there, and cover it an
inch deep with hot ashes. When it is done, remove it; blow off all the
ashes but one layer; butter that one and eat.

N.B.--No household should ever be without this talisman. It has been
noticed that tramps never return for another ash-cake.

That's my kind of eats right there, simple, wholesome, high fiber, plenty of carbon - and butter. Mmm, butter...

His pie recipe and description of German coffee are also excellent.  Makes me thankful that I avoid the stuff.

*Not true, I exaggerate a bit. But not by much.

Twain mentioned this song, too. I had never heard it, but he liked it. Here you go.