Cram

Cram is the journey-food of the Lake-men, and The Hobbit's narrator is candid about the limits of his knowledge: he cannot give the recipe. What he will vouch for is that the stuff is biscuit-like, that it lasts without spoiling, that it is held to keep a traveller going — and that nobody has ever called eating it a pleasure; chewing is about all it offers. It was made by the Lake-men for long journeys. Bilbo and the dwarves breakfasted on cram and water on the way to the Mountain; shut in behind their wall, careful rationing left them some weeks' worth — cram for the most part, which they had long since grown sick of, though it beat going hungry. In Lórien Gimli took lembas for a kind of cram such as the Dale-men make, and the Elves allowed the comparison while claiming the better part of it.