drying-foods-msg - 5/18/11 Drying foods in period and for use in the SCA. NOTE: See also the files: pickled-foods-msg, campfood-msg, food-storage-msg, ham-msg, sausages-msg, salt-msg, vinegar-msg, herbs-cooking-msg, fruits-msg, vegetables-msg, sausage-makng-msg, no-fire-cook-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 21:05:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Uduido at aol.com Subject: SC - Sun drying << Now I'm curious, how do you do the Mr. Golden Sun method with jerky without getting spoilage? >> The box described to dry the items in is designed to provide a very dry atmosphere plus heat. For actual sun drying the meat must be sliced VERY thin and hung on racks. They must be removed to a dry place each evening before dew falls, etc. The jerky mixture or salt provides the means to preserve from spoilage as has been done for centuries. A better Sun-drying method which would be safer and more effective but not period, would be to construct any one of the solar dryers featured in several past issues of Mother Earth News. These work wonderfully well if constructed and used according to the instructions. Always remember, thin, thin, thin. A greater degree of thinness can be accomplished if the meat is partially frozen and sliced while still in that state. Lord Ras Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 20:26:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Uduido at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - helpmehelpmehelpmehelpme << I was just given 15 pounds of ripe figs. I live alone. I don't even have a chihuahua. Is there such a thing as fig jam? pickled figs? Do figs freeze? >> Figs are prime candidates for drying. If you have a gas stove, it's a simple matter to lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and let the pilot light do the work, :-) Lord Ras From: jen-guy at home.com (Jennifer Guy) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beef Jerky (Was First Time Pennsic Tips) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 19:20:35 GMT On 27 Jun 1998 14:43:32 GMT, Tracy Schulman wrote: >If you're using a food dehydrator do you need to cook the beef first? I've >never made Jerky but the idea sounds great. > Aine I've made jerky in the oven and in the dehydrator, and never cooked it first. I might consider cooking turkey or something beforehand. I've only done beef to date. We always cut really thin pieces, takes too long to dry otherwise. One thing we do is spice, season and marinade. Here's some ideas: Garlic Garlic/Pepper Tabasco Italian Dressing Barbeque Lemon Pepper Soy Sauce Teriyaki Sauce There are jerk sauces and smoke flavorings available. Have fun! From: wavdrmr at aol.com (Wavdrmr) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beef Jerky (Was First Time Pennsic Tips) Date: 27 Jun 1998 20:09:50 GMT >We always cut really thin pieces, takes too >long to dry otherwise. One thing we do is spice, season and marinade. The butcher at your local supermarket can cut the meat for you. Just tell him how thin you want it. If you like your jerky nice and spicy (like I do) make sure you leave a lot of the pepper (or sprinkle more) on the beef. Yum! Jacquelinne From: Eric & Lissa McCollum Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beef Jerky (Was First Time Pennsic Tips) Date: 27 Jun 1998 15:58:00 -0700 Tracy Schulman wrote: > If you're using a food dehydrator do you need to cook the beef first? I've > never made Jerky but the idea sounds great. > Aine We don't. We usually buy a flank steak, and either have the butcher cut it for us or half freeze it and cut it ourselves in strips a quarter inch thick. Marinate overnight, and put on the dehydrater. We spray the trays with Pam first, so the finished product doesn't stick (especially important with the fruit leather!). The dehydrator blows hot air over the food until it drys out, and I suppose that cooks it slightly in the process. The stuff lasts *months* if you dry it enough. The benefit of the dehydrators is that they are fairly quick. We can make jerky in a day, and dried apple slices only take about 8 hours. We have two of them now, and gear up about a week ahead of a major event to make enough food to feed an entire encampment on the run. And believe me, making your own is *much* cheaper than buying it! Gwendolen Wold Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 07:32:35 +0200 (MET DST) From: Par Leijonhufvud Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat On Sun, 12 Jul 1998, jeffrey stewart heilveil wrote: > Does anyone have a smoke-preserved/dried-preserved meat recipe that is > period? If not, if anyone has a dried-preserved that can be done in an > oven, I would be deeply in their debt. No period recipies, but try setting your oven to 40-60 C (105-140 F), leaving the oven door slightly ajar (a wooden spoon helps here). Cut _lean_ meat into strips "across the grain" and place on a rack, not directly on a cookie sheet. This is what I do for veggies, and I've been told that it works with meat as well. /UlfR - -- Par Leijonhufvud parlei(at)algonet.se Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 01:15:27 -0500 From: a14h at zebra.net (William Seibert) Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat Beef can be oven dried if you put it on a rack, rather than in a pan. However, there should be a pan under the rack in order to catch drips before they splatter the oven. The oven should be set at about 150 degrees F, and the meat tested about every hour. When it cracks instead of bends, its done. Of course, the thinner the stuff is sliced, the quicker it dries. One pound of beef should result in about 4 ounces of dried beef. Marinade recipes follow. Wine Marinade * cup red wine 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp olive oil 2 fresh cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp minced onion 1 tbsp ground pepper pinch of thyme pinch of oregano pinch of marjoram Soak 2 lbs of thin sliced beef (cut against the grain) in salt water for 30 minutes; drain and rinse. Marinate in the above mixture for 48 hours in a sealed container (refridgerated). Drain, rack and dry. The above marinade may also be used for chicken, but the chicken must first be boiled off the bone in the marinade, then boned, drained and dried. Hope this works out for you. The chicken looks like wood chips when you're done with it, but makes an outstanding stew when boiled for 5 minutes with chopped onion and green peppers, and a little rice thrown in to thicken. WAJDI Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 02:12:31 -0500 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat Can you set your oven as low as 150*? I've done it at 250*, but that's really too high. I've got a convection oven, but you should be able to use a regular. Maybe prop the door open a little and turn on the fan, draft obliquely across the door? The basic: 1/3 part Kikkoman soy sauce, 2/3 part water. Get as fancy as you like: a few drops of smoke flavor, lemon juice, crumbled dried herbs, or float fresh leaves in the marinade for a bit, mustard, pepper, ground cloves, etc. Make a few batches and find what you like best. I used to do mine paper thin, but this year am trying 1/4" slices. Hide a few sandwich bags of it, because once your friends learn you make it.... This is not documented: just hot weather survival food! (That, and raspberry ices...) Allison Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 00:14:37 PDT From: "catherine allison" Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat You might also want to try using Lapson Souchong tea in the marinade which has a real nice smokey flavour. The tea can also be tossed on the coals when grilling meats. Alisyn of Greenbriar (Bjornsborg) Cathy Allison Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 16:31:29 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Jerked Meat > Firstly I would like to correct the subject line. Jerked meat is a Caribbean > method of seasoning meat. Beef jerky is what is commonly known as marinaded > and dried meat. I could be wrong on this but having been to the Caribbean > a dozen or so times I think I have it right. > > Micaylah The subject line is correct as it stands. The word jerky derives from the American Spanish word charqui which is a corruption of the Quechua word ch'arki. All of which refer to sun or smoke cured meat. The verb describing the process is jerk. So jerked meat is proper. For the Caribbean meat dishes, the word jerk is an adjective, for example, jerk chicken (as opposed to jerked chicken). In this context, jerking is a method of preparing and barbequing meat. The derivation of the word is the same as for jerky. Ah, the joys of having a trivia trap for a mind. Bear Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 10:46:44 -0400 From: "Gedney, Jeff" Subject: RE: SC - Low sodium requirements I think that a good low sodium jerky marinade would be a kind of Teriakish that I have used for seasoning pork for stir fry. Try the following: 2 tbs. honey, 2 tbs. cider vinegar (or possibly orange/pineapple juice), 2 tsp. low sodium Soy sauce 1 tsp. sake 2 tsp. fresh chopped ginger 1 tsp. finely minced onion 2 tsp. finely minced garlic 1/2 to 11/2 tsp. chopped Thai red pepper (depending on taste, how hot do you want it?) Whisk all together until the honey is dissolved Slice the meat 1/4 inch thick, across the grain, and give it a good hard stretch ( the "jerk" in jerky) to loosen the connective tissues. Put the meat into a bowl, and cover with the marinade, and press down into the marinade with a plate, and put in the fridge for 24 hours. Every 8 hours or so remove the plate, and flip and stir up the meat. After 24 hours prepare for drying: Remove and Clean the top oven rack Set the oven for 150-165 degrees (or "Warm" setting if analog oven) Remove the meat from the marinade, and brush off any stuff clinging to it. "Jerk" it again, gently this time, as the meat will be more fragile. If desired, dredge the meat in cracked pepper at this point. Skewer pieces of meat at one end, on bamboo skewers, and hang through the cleaned rack. Place a layer of foil on the bottom of the oven. Place the loaded rack in the top most slot of the oven. Put a chopsticks in the door, to ventilate the moisture, and dry the meat. Every hour or so, check the meat. when it cracks, it's ready! I think that should be low enough sodium... at least to use as a treat. Am I off base there? I don't want to kill anyone. If any of the ingredients are high in sodium, let me know, as I am trying to cut back a little, too. Brandu Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 07:26:05 -0700 From: Susan Fox-Davis Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat Baron Frederick of Woodlyn used to do a really good jerky with commercial teriyaki marinade, made in the microwave. Microwave??!! Yup. What happens to meat when you nuke it too long? It gets chewy and hard. This is what you WANT when you make jerky. I'm at work now, I'll go find the recipe at home and post it tonight. Selene Colfox Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:14:33 -0700 From: kat Subject: Sweet jerky recipe (was Re: SC - Low sodium requirements) Korrin S. DaArdain writes: > I remember as a kid having some jerky that was cured with sugar > insted of salt. The best, the absolute ultimate top-of-the-line BEST jerky I've ever had in my life was my dad's sweet venison jerky. Recipe? Cut your venison thin. Shake in some black pepper and a couple handsful of dark brown sugar. Mix with your hands till the sugar starts pulling the juices from the meat. You can dry this in your "li'l smoker" like my dad did; but even in a dehydrator it's excellent. - k Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 17:27:33 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Re: Sweet jerky recipe John Henschen wrote: > Now, I don't know much about making jerky... but... I thought all the salt > in jerky was to kill the wee-beasties in the meats, which was what preserved > the. Now... adding sugar, and it seems _only_ sugar to this recipe would > encourage bad things to happen. Wouldn't it? Drying it would help, I > suppose, but having been sick too many times from eating bad food, I don't > think you could pay me to eat it. Sure, it sounds tasty, but is it safe? Jerkies are invariably cured with at least some sugar all over the Far East. You can buy commercial versions of jerkies of beef, pork, chicken, turtle, and, believe it or not, squid. And, oddly enough, it's good, too. Sugar works the same way as salt does in high concentrations. It causes plasmolysis in microorganisms: they undergo massive osmosis of their bodily plasma, effectively exploding. Also, it produces a more tender product than salt used alone. I refer unbelievers to sugar-cured ham and bacon, which are made with mixtures of sugar and salt in their cures. Adamantius From: bronwynmgn at aol.com (Bronwynmgn) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beef Jerky (Was First Time Pennsic Tips) Date: 15 Jul 1998 12:07:03 GMT stefan at texas.net (Stefan li Rous) writes: >There was an accessory available where we bought our dehydrator which let >you use lean hamburger. You put the hamburger in a tube similar to those >used to decorate cakes. It has a rectangular opening. When you pull the >trigger a ribbon of meat comes out the front. Very convenient and hamburger >may be cheaper than the other meat choices. Never tried hamburger. As the poster said, get the absolutely leanest hamburger you can if you try this. For that matter, the absolute leanest meat of anysort, and remove any chunks of fat before drying. The fat will go rancid long before the jerky goes bad. And I've managed to keep jerky at least a year with no ill effects. Keeping it in an airtight container is also important; if moisture gets into it, it will tend to rehydrate, and then to spoil. As a chirurgeon, I once used jerky to "coerce" an exhausted, hungry, overheated fighter from going back into a woods battle for the last ten minutes. He was laying on the ground, saying he would go back in to the battle in just a minute, but he was sooo hungry... I threw him my pouch (I was busy treating someone else at the time) and told him there was homemade jerky in it (normally I don't tell anybody because I get mobbed) because I was sure that was what he would pick (there were also nutragrain bars and trail mix in the pouch), and by the time he finished gnawing through a piece of it, he'd have rested in the shade for a while, gotten some salt into him, and probably followed it up with a nice long drink of water...As it was, the battle finished before he finished the jerky. And he didn't particularly mind missing those last few minutes since he got some homemade jerky out of it. Brangwayna From: phoenix at thomson.net Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beef Jerky (Was First Time Pennsic Tips) Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 15:11:46 GMT bronwynmgn at aol.com (Bronwynmgn) wrote: > stefan at texas.net (Stefan li Rous) writes: > > >There was an accessory available where we bought our dehydrator which let > >you use lean hamburger. You put the hamburger in a tube similar to those > >used to decorate cakes. It has a rectangular opening. When you pull the > >trigger a ribbon of meat comes out the front. Very convenient and hamburger > >may be cheaper than the other meat choices. > > Never tried hamburger. As the poster said, get the absolutely leanest > hamburger you can if you try this. For that matter, the absolute leanest meat > of anysort, and remove any chunks of fat before drying. The fat will go > rancid long before the jerky goes bad. snippedabit > Brangwayna I have made jerky from venison and from beef from the grocery store, but as far as getting the most "bang for the buck", I prefer to use fish. 1-2 pound bass (or similarly shaped fish) filets are perfect. They have virtually no fat, do not require slicing into strips, and are easy (relatively) to chew. Be forewarned, though, it does have a different taste than beef, but if you put enough seasoning in it, it covers up a lot of the "fish flavor". Kinda makes me feels like an Eskimo..... Munchin' and grinnin'... James Subject: more drying info Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 01:17:25 -0500 From: a14h at zebra.net (William Seibert) To: stefan at texas.net M'lord, As you evidenced interest in drying meat, you might be interested in the following info I have on drying veggies. Read: Veggie---Pretreatment---what they supposed to turn out like---how much fresh equal how much dried. Beets---Peel, slice thin---Curled and leathery---one pound=three quarters cup Butternut Squash---Cut, cook, peel, and puree---Dry, like filigree---one medium squash=one half cup Cabbage---Slice thin---Wispy---one small head=one cup Carrots---Slice lengthwise or julienne, or grate, then chop fine for carrot flakes---Leathery, still orange, somewhat curled---six carrots=one cup Celery---Slice---Very dry and shrunken---one bunch=one cup Corn---Cook in boiling water for two minutes, cut kernels off ears---hard, pebbly, slightly darker---corn from six ears=one cup Eggplant---Peel, slice thin---Pale and leathery, very light---one medium eggplant=one cup Green Beans---Cook in boiling water ten minutes---Shrunken and leathery but not brown---one pound=one cup Kohlrabi---Peel, slice thin---Curled and leathery---one pound=three quarters cup Leeks---Wash well, slice well up into the green part---Like parchment, not brittle---one medium leek=one cup Mushrooms---Wash well, slice thin---Crinkled, but not too shrunken---one pound=one and three quarters cup Parsley---Chop---Dry, almost powdery---one pound=three quarters cup Parsnips---Peel, slice lengthwise or juienne---Dry and leathery---one pound=three quarters cup Peas---Cooking in boiling water ten minutes---Hard as pebbles---one package frozen peas=two thirds cup Potatoes---Slice and soak for no more than ten minutes in lemon juice---Will almost crack in two---one pound=three quarters cup Tomatoes---Slice through center and coat with olive oil---Leathery and still red---three quarters pound=one cup Turnips---Peel, slice thin---Curled, dry and leathery---three quarters pound=one cup Yellow summer squash---Slice across or lengthwise---Curled edges, leather, not brown---one pound=three quarters cup Zucchini---Slice across or lengthwise---Curled edges, leathery, not brown---one medium squash=one half cup On drying fruits: the following list can be dried by peeling (if necessary), slicing (if necessary) and drying on rack. Apples, figs, berries and cherries, pineapples, lemon and orange peel. The following need to be dipped in a solution of one quarter cup of lemon juice and one quart lukewarm water: apricots, peaches and pears. A honey dip made by dissolving one cup of sugar in three cups hot water, allowing solution to cool, then stirring in one cup of honey is good for the following: rhubarb, bananas, apricots, pineapple and strawberries. I realize all the above was unsolicited, but hoped that you might find it interesting. Pass it along if you think anyone else might want to try it. I morally hate to lug an ice chest along with me. WAJDI Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 20:32:24 -0400 From: dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca (Micaylah) Subject: Re: SC - Jerked Meat I just used sherry to make jerky last week. It did call for honey tho' as well and turned out really good. If I may make a suggestion...skip the olive oil. I also made a batch with and without the olive oil and found that the stuff with the oil was a little greasy. And this was after I dried it for about 15 hours and blotted on anything absorbant that I could find in my kitchen! Micaylah From: "Keith E. Brandt, M.D." To: herbalist at Ansteorra.ORG Subject: SC - - Hot drinks Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1998 10:17:34 -0600 To dry citrus peel: With vegetable peeler remove colored part of peel from 2 large oranges and 4 lemons. Place in single layer on plate; cover with paper towel and let stand at room temperature one day or until dried. Snip in small pieces with kitchen shears or chop coarse with knife. Galen Friar Galen of Ockham Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 10:19:52 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Drying chicken meat stefan at texas.net writes: << how would you use the food dehydrator to dry chicken for this? Just like what you do to make beef strips into beef jerky, without the seasoning? Do you shred or thin slice the chicken? Does it re-hydrate well in the soup? Or do they end up being tough, >> When is was supervising the Mission Harvest program at St. Anthony's, we used per-cooked chicken for this process. It was sliced or diced and then laid on the trays which went into the dehydrators. It rehydrated pretty well and made a nice addition of needed protien in the mission field. For the purpose of soup making, pre-cooked meat was always our choice for drying. The recipients of the packaged goods always had good words for this particular product. Beef, pork, chicken and ground beef were a few of the meats we processed this way. Using pre-cooked meat significantly reduced any potential bacterial infection concerns and the drying and rehydration time is drastically reduced. Ras Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 09:30:43 -0600 From: a14h at zebra.net (William Seibert) Subject: Re: SC - Drying chicken meat Stefan li Rous wrote: > Wajdi said: > > But, using a dehydrator, I can come up with a pretty mean > > chicken stem {stew] > > just by boiling the dried ingredients. Chicken, rice, carrots, onion, > > beans, etc. > > Sounds like a good idea. > > But how would you use the food dehydrator to dry chicken for this? Just > like what you do to make beef strips into beef jerky, without the > seasoning? Do you shred or thin slice the chicken? > > Does it re-hydrate well in the soup? Or do they end up being tough, > chewy pieces that sort of taste like chicken but feel like leather? > > I would probably first just try canned chicken, but if drying chicken > meat does work this opens up some possiblities. The trick I use to make dried chicken palatable is to completely boil it off the bone first. As far as drying with a convection oven, thats how I got started, with the motivation that I did a lot of backpacking and really hated the thought of paying commercial prices for dried food. The thing to check, make sure of, etc, is that the lowest setting on your oven is actually right around 100 to 120 degrees F. Idealy, it should be right at 110. The lowest setting on my oven (determined with a handy-dandy thermometer) is right at 150, so I have to cheat and leave a wooden spoon wedged into the door to keep it open a tad. Runs up the gas bill, but natural gas is cheap. Thats another reason I went to a dehydrator. Which I got at a re-sale place, for about 1/5 of the price new. My Lady and I now have three of the things. For chicken, skin the pieces and boil. Boil the living hell out of it, until the meat has fallen from the bones. Go through the meat and make sure that all the cartilidge and bone chips have been removed (I never said it was easy). Press dry, and place on drying rack. For a convection oven, I used the little bread cooling racks they sell in specialty stores. It is vital that air and heat be able to get to all surfaces of the meat. If the chicken is in those long, stringy chunks, you might want to cut or pull it into more managable chunks. Dry in oven at lowest setting until it has the appearance and consistancy of wood chips. I normally use leg and thigh quarters, but thats because I can get them at 29 cents per pound, and we end up doing between 50 and 100 lbs at a time. I don't season the chicken because I end up cooking the stuff for a group of people with tastes ranging from "thermo-nuclear ain't hot enough" to "dahlin, I don't even _salt_ my food". Carrots are peeled and chopped into little round pieces about 1/4 inch thick. You then dump the carrots into boiling water for one minute, drain, and arrange on the drying rack. When you put the rack into the oven, put a catch pan underneath the rack because there is a lot of shrinkage, and the little dried carrots will fall through the rack. Onion, celery and green peppers are chopped, then placed on a drying screen and dried normally, usually until they are unrecognizable. They come out looking like dried up spit-wads, the kind you find laying around on the floor three days after the paper-wad fight. Note that I said drying screen rather than rack. These things shrink unbelievably, and will dissappear from the oven if you're not careful. By the way, while they are drying the house will smell simply wonderful. All dried ingredients should be put in doubled plastic Ziplocks, and can be stored indefinitely. For in-camp cooking, start with a pot full of water and throw in sufficient amounts of each ingredient, not forgetting to hold back the minute rice. Let sit in unheated water for a couple of hours. Bring the pot to a boil, and let boil for about a half of hour. Throw in a handfull of minute rice or so per person to be served. Let cook for another 15 or 20 minutes. If you want to get fancy, sling in a couple of pinches of sage and/or other favored herbs about 5 minutes before serving. Serve with bread, salt & pepper on the side. I think my original posting failed to mention the minute rice, but it certainly makes the chicken stew a bit thicker; rather than being a chicken soup, which is what I originally started with, but changed because I thought the soup wasn't filling enough. wajdi Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 06:08:12 PDT From: Bonne of Traquair Subject: RE: SC - Soft fruit glut. >How do you make fruit leathers? Mash or blend the fruit, strain out the seeds if you want. Spread out to dry per the instructions on the dehydrator. If you don't have an electric dehydrator, line jelly roll pans with parchment, spread the fruit goo thinly, put them in your oven on the lowest setting, with the door propped slightly open. Move the trays around once in a while so they dry evenly. The pilot light will be warm enough, I think, if you have that sort of gas oven. I've seen instructions for making a dehydrator with plywood and using a lightbulb as the heat source--search the internet, it's probably out there somewhere! If you live in a dry climate, you can put them outside in the sun, covered with mosquito netting and somehow protected from ants. Bring them all in at night. The Fettiplace receipt book has recipes for preserving fresh fruits. Jams since it is from 1604, but also suckets and other candies that involve less sugar. Bonne Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:23:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Laura C Minnick Subject: RE: SC - Soft fruit glut. On Tue, 22 Jun 1999, Oughton, Karin (GEIS, Tirlan) wrote: > Lainie, > How do you make fruit leathers? > This is one of the methods I was looking for in the florilegium but failed > to find. I'm hoping that if I can make them successfully I can wean my child > minder off commercial candy, and onto these instead : ) I dear. I hate it when this happens. I haven't used the original recipe in years, and after several moves, I don't know where it is anymore. I usually wash the fruit and cut away any stems, etc, then run it through the blender until it makes a nice slurry. I add a teeny bit of sugar only if the fruit is very tart- sugar makes the juice run and changes the consistency considerably. Sometimes it add cinnamon of nutmeg. Then I spread the glop out on a cookie sheet that is either well-buttered or has a wax-paper lining, and set them in the oven at at 200 degrees or so. Overnight will do if they are thin, sometimes it takes a day or two. Then I roll them up in waxed paper. I don't know how long they last because they never do! I have wanted one of those food dehydrators for years, but never managed to have the money and the desire at the same time. It would free up my oven for more important things, like brownies! 'Lainie - - Laura C. Minnick Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 07:51:37 -0700 (PDT) From: H B Subject: Re: SC - salmon recipe? - --- Stefan li Rous wrote: > Jean Luc said: > > My wife and I usually soak our meat and yes salmon in Teriaki Sauce > over > > night after slicing thin. Then we cheat a little and put it into a > > dehydrator after about 24 hours you have dried meat and fish. > Teriaki > > style. > > Thank you for this recipe. This sounds interesting and well-timed. My > local HEB has fresh, maybe previously frozen, salmon fillets on for > $3.49 per pound. I've not cooked salmon before, but I ought to buy > some at this price and try your recipe in our dehydrator. > > Do you slice across the fish? Do you do this with refrigerated fish > or need to chill, but not freeze it, some it some first? > > With the Teriaki sauce it won't be period, but it is a start. Jean Luc: Thank you for the suggestion; actually, in my one attempt thus far, that is exactly what I did -- sliced a hunk of salmon ~1/4" thick across the grain, and marinated it in teriaki for almost 24 hours, then dried on a cooling rack set in a cookie sheet in the oven for about 12 hours. It was okay, but I thought it was too salty for my taste, and would marinate it less time next time (like a few hours, or, say, overnight :-) ) though it went over well enough with a bunch of guys at a picnic who first first said "salmon WHAT?" and then "hey -- you know, that's not bad" and then "got any more?". Stefan, I sliced the salmon on a meat slicer while it was mostly frozen. This was a tip I got from the National Food Safety Database pages on drying and jerky, which gives a LOT of explanation of drying and tells you how to do it in the oven if you don't have a dehydrator (though I must admit, it is a pain to try to keep your oven at around 140 degrees F and stick a fan across the cracked-open door -- where do I get a cheap dehydrator??). The web address is http://www.foodsafety.org/dryingfd.htm - -- Harriet Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 13:11:45 -0400 From: "Alderton, Philippa" Subject: Re: SC - salmon recipe? When you're drying meats or fishes for jerky type foods, you can soak or not soak them in about any non-oil fluid you prefer. Try lemon juice or vinegar, if you want a slightly acid taste, or plain water or wine if you don't. Most commercial preparations are heavily salted- it's the nature of our culture's tastes. The only purpose the fluid serves is to help transport the added flavors into the meat you're using. For a change, use a dry rub of your favorite spices- that works well too. As far as the actual drying, again, any heat source will work. If you leave your oven open a crack, you don't need a fan blowing at it since the natural convection of the hot vs cool air will exchange the wet air for the dry air well enough on any day with reasonable humidity- today's 85% is not a day I'd try to dry foods ;-) I've used electric and gas ovens, my food dehydrator, and my gas/charcoal grill in both modes for drying foods- I've also used my microwave for quick drying herbs like peppermint. It's not very difficult to do- just use a bit of thought, and don't worry too much. Primitive peoples didn't do it for thousands of years because they wanted a new cooking challenge, they did it because it was an easy way to preserve foods. Phlip Philippa Farrour Caer Frig Southeastern Ohio Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 10:20:14 -0800 From: Anne of Bradford Subject: Re: SC - salmon recipe? Greetings to all with extra fish! It's very common here in Oertha (Alaska) to end up with way too much salmon. We generally cut up our extra, non-fatty salmon (reds, pinks, silvers) and soak them in brine overnight (see below). As for King salmon, Kylson and I usually cut into steaks and put on the grill. It tends to have a high fat content, and that causes smoked anything to turn rancid quickly. We've got a couple of small portable smokers that we use to smoke the fish for about 10-12 hours, or until the flesh is firm and shiny. I'd imagine that for jerky, you'd want to leave it in the smokers for a bit longer though. We add new wood chips to the burners every two to three hours, and change the order of the racks every four to six hours. It stores for a couple months in ziplocs in the fridge. Brine #1: 1/2 c salt, 1/2 c brown sugar per quart of water. Season w/ pepper, garlic powder, maple flavoring Brine #1: 2 c salt, 1 c brown sugar, 2 Tbsp white pepper, 1 Tbsp each crushed bay leaf, allspice, cloves and mace. (I've used this on halibut. yum!) (Source: Cooking Alaskan, ed Editors and Friends of Alaska Magazine) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 07:04:45 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - jerky documentation? Serian wrote: > Yes, I've made jerky and pemmican (SP) before. It also > seems to me that other nomadic groups might have dried meat > for preservation. Certainly it has Society value in that > it is easy to transport and feed to people. Now, if you'll bear with me a second here, and realize I'm not messing with you, but rather exercising my own belief that just about every question that can be asked, should be asked, does it have any special Society value beyond convenience? Any more so, than, say, a bag of chips? The thing is, I love jerky, and have occasionally made it and brought it to events... would you not say many people have this view of it as being the food of the Medieval Tough Guy Traveller/Soldier, even when there may not be any real evidence for that interpretation? At least, in the mainstream European literature and recipe sources? This in a period where food writers were prepared to discuss, at length, dragging sides of beef in perforated barrels behind ships in salt water, and various other preservation methods of dubious effectiveness, but seem never to have mentioned something like jerky? I think that a lot of period Europe lacked the kind of sun and dry breezes needed to make what we think of as jerky, and this may be why it doesn't seem to have been manufactured and used in Europe on any scale we know about. So what do we know Europeans _did_ eat under jerky-ish circumstances? Flatbreads, either carried in a wallet or made in camp on a bakestone. The kind of flaked dried cod (klippfisk, I think?) favored by Viking explorers. Possibly dried softer fruits, or fresh hard fruits such as apples. Hard cheeses, maybe dry sausages or bacon. But it's true, I tend to get strange looks when I whip out a handful of shreds of dried cod at events. In fact, the facial expressions of those around me probably carry more inherent relish than the cod itself does, but then I don't think Eric the red was eating it for the flavor of it. Unless by comparison to the _rest_ of what he was eating...? ; ) (I never said that, you can't prove nuthin'!) > I recently made a lemon and ginger flavored beef jerky that > went over quite well. Curiosity then overcame me as I was > working on documentation for my kingdom A&S food and music > entries. I've become fond of a painfully simple recipe for chipotle jerky; I'm almost embarrassed when I tell people how I make it. But then, I live in a kingdom that has no official A&S event, per se. Adamantius Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 00:12:36 -0400 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" Subject: Re: SC - jerky documentation? And it came to pass on 15 Sep 00,, that Wajdi wrote: > Pure speculation on my part, but has any consideration been given > to the idea that dried meat products may be found in early > Spanish or Arab writings? Seems to me as if those areas would > have had sufficient sun to dry meat. Dunno. I've seen recipes that use air-dried fish: hake and conger eel. There's a 1553 Spanish treatise on the benefits of physical exercise that mentions "tasajos", which the Royal Spanish dictionary says is meat that has been preserved by drying and salting it, or in oil. http://www.uida.es/mendez/portada.html So I searched for "tasajos" at google.com, and found a link to a page about food in Don Quixote. (Okay, so I'm obsessive. Everyone needs a hobby.) http://www.jimena.com/cocina/apartados/quijote.htm It gives a quote from the novel, in which some goatherds are boiling tasajos of goat meat in a cauldron. The explanatory note says that tasajos are: "Carne adobada durante cuatro dÌas y dejada despuÈs a secar. Es como la cecina del cabrero. Se puede hacer con vaca, ternera, venado, jabalÌ..." "Meat marinated for four days and then left to dry. It is the cecina [a type of hung dried beef] of the goatherd. It can be made with beef, veal, venison, wild boar..." I found another online source -- a 16th century commentary on sailing and life at sea -- and it had some scathing things to say about the rations for passengers on a galley-ship. Tasajos of goat were mentioned, along with such delights as rancid bacon. There was also a quote from a 17th century comedy by Tirso de Molina. Two laborers are complaining that their employers don't pay well. One of them says that his rations are badly-seasoned tasajos and coarse bran bread. I get the feeling that tasajos were often used as a food for travellers and the poor. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 12:46:01 -0700 From: david friedman Subject: SC - Period Islamic Dried Meat From _Social Life Under the Abbasids_ by M. M. Ahsan, p. 113 - --- The Abbasids inherited the art of food preservation from the ancient east and the classical civilizations. The drying process was widely used and the least expensive. Even the Arabs of the remote past were fond of dried meat called qadid. ... The common people of the time used this method extensively. Like meat, fish was also dried in the sun and used throughout the year. In one process for food preservation, antiseptic agents, especially salt and vinegar, were used. The meat thus preserved was known as namaksud, a Persian compound word indicative of the Persian origin of the method. To make namaksud, the meat was cut into slices, seasoned with salt, and left in the sun on a plank to dry. When required, the slices were moistened with water and cooked. - --- I should add that Ahsan is not entirely reliable--he repeatedly describes murri as "brine," for example, and makes frequent errors of arithmetic in doing currency conversions. The book has a tone of "paste together all the references you can find to subject X in the literature without really digesting or evaluating them." But I expect that on a simple point like this he is accurate. He cites a variety of sources, of which the most accessible is probably the Encyclopedia of Islam; I haven't yet checked it. - -- David/Cariadoc http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 15:34:20 GMT From: "Olwen the Odd" Subject: Re: SC - Jerkies >Is there any way to make jerky without the use of a dehydrator (i.e., in a >conventional oven or microwave)? If so, does anyone have any recepies for >mild flavors of beef or poultry jerky? > >Gwendolen It is perfectly easy to make jerky without an electric dehydrator, if you have an oven or not. If you do, simply lay the meat on a splatter screen or rack, not on a solid surface like a cookie sheet and place in oven with either a warm setting or low setting. Turn it over once or twice till dry. For solar, you can suspend the pieces over a sheet of tinfoil on a rack. You must keep the flies and bugs off it though. If you have a 10 gallon or larger fish tank with one of those screen tops it is very easy. Just suspend the meat hanging from the screen. Make sure you cover most of the screen to hold the heat in. As for non-period flavors, you can soak your thinly sliced meat in just about anything you like. Vinegars, BBQ sauce, soy, hotsauce, Zesty Italian or other flavor salad dressing, beer, the list is just about as endless as your imagination. How long you marinate is equal to how much flavor is infused. Olwen Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 12:44:12 -0400 From: "Nicholas Sasso" Subject: SC - re: Jerkies <<<<<<<... SNIP...As for non-period flavors, you can soak your thinly sliced meat in just about anything you like. Vinegars, BBQ sauce, soy, hotsauce, Zesty Italian or other flavor salad dressing, beer, the list is just about as endless as your imagination. How long you marinate is equal to how much flavor is infused.>>>>>>>>>>> For those technologically enhanced, a vacuum sealer will speed up your flavor infusing process by as much as 5 times or more. Simply put meat in a container/bag with marinade and put under vacuum. the flavors are forced right into the meat rather than simple osmotic pressures. The flavors are real intense after short durations. niccolo difrancesco Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 18:00:08 -0700 From: "James F. Johnson" Subject: SC - Adaptation from Apicius for jerking meat Seumas commented: > I tried a preservative solution from Apicius with vinegar, salt, > mustard, and honey, but proportions are not included, so I have been > experimenting. Stefan li Rous replied > Interesting. Apicius recipe please? Would this be dried/ground mustard > seed since you already have liquid with the vinegar and the honey? Or > would this be a mustard sauce? >From the 1936 Vehling translation of Apicius, Book I, Chapter VII [Vehling 11]: "To keep cooked sides of pork or beef or tenderloins place them in a pickle of mustard, vinegar, salt and honey, covering meat entirely. And when ready to use, you'll be surprised." If I recall correctly (Mmm...notes have disappeared) I started with 750ml of red wine vinegar, 250ml of honey, 4 Tablespoons each of ground mustard and sea salt. This itself tasted mostly of vinegar naturally, so I doubled the amount of mustard and honey. I might have added more sea salt, but this used up the last in the kitchen at that time. The sliced meat marinated in the fridge for a full day, then 24+ hours in a 150 F oven. Came out very dry (brittle) and slightly tangy of the vinegar. I would prefer it more spicy/savoury, so later attempts will increase the mustard and salt again. I might go so far as to make a very thin paste of mustard and salt using the vinegar and honey. I'm also considering grinding up the salt with the mustard for an additional dredge of the meat before packing and marinating. Personally, I would like to try some with black pepper, perhaps ginger. I like more pungent flavours. Seumas Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 16:02:13 -0800 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: SC - Moroccan Dried Meat Long ago we discussed dried meat, and the lack of "period" recipes. I have discovered a recipe for Moroccan dried meat. I suspect that some variation of this goes back thousand years or more. However, it doesn't seem to me to be the sort of thing that would have made it into a cookbook for the wealthy or noble, so other than anecdotal references in literature, which i have seen, we'll probably never really know. This recipe is from "Taste of Morocco" by Robert Carrier, Boxtree Ltd., London: 1987/1996. ISBN 0-7522-1039-4 I haven't tried it myself. Khlii Sun-dried preserved meat The author, a Brit, refers to it as "an age old method". We here on this list know that could mean that it goes back to someone's grandmother 40 years ago. He goes on to say: "Khlii is used, much as we use bacon or petit salÈ (lightly salted pork fat), to flavour tagines of fresh or dried vegetables, or a winter couscous or soup." - ----- 2.25 kg / 5 lb beef 50 g / 2 oz coarse salt 450 g / 1 lb lamb (or beef) fat 1.2 litres / 2 pints water 250 ml / 8 fl oz groundnut/peanut oil 150 ml / 1/4 pint olive oil Spice and Garlic Paste 75 g / 3 oz (6 Tb) coriander seeds, ground 50 g / 2 oz garlic, peeled and crushed 2 Tb vinegar 50 ml / 2 fl oz olive oil 50 g / 2 oz coarse salt 1. To prepare spice and garlic paste, combine all the ingredients together in a bowl, mix well, and leave to rest for 24 hours. 2. In the meantime, cut the meat into long thin strips. Rub the strips well with the coarse salt. Cover with a piece of muslin / cheesecloth to protect from insects, and leave to absorb the flavours for 24 hours. 3. Then take each strip of salted meat and cover it with a layer of spice and garlic paste, rubbing it in well with your fingers. Cover with muslin / cheesecloth and leave to absorb flavours for a further 24 hours. 4. On the following day, take each piece of meat and hang it over a washing line or, with needle and thread, take thread through the end of each strip and tie thread into a loop. Insert a broomstick through each loop and hang the pole horizontally in the sun, covering the meat with a strip of muslin / cheesecloth as above. Make sure that each strip is well covered with spice and garlic paste, and pat on a little where needed. Repeat this process over 3 or 4 more days, or until meat is thoroughly dried. Absolutely no moisture must come out when meat is pressed with your finger. Make sure you bring meat indoors at sunset, to keep it away from any possible mist or moisture in the night air. 5. When meat is dried, remove it from the line or pole. Cut it into even sized pieces and simmer it with its aromatics in melted fat, water, and the oils, until all the water has been absorbed. The richly flavoured fat will be left in the pan. Stir often to ensure that meat does not stick to the bottom of pan or scorch. 6. When the meat is tender, remove it from casserole or stock pot and allow to cool completely in a large shallow container. Strain fats through a muslin / cheesecloth -lined sieve into a container. Allow to cool completely. It must still be liquid. 7. Fill sterilized Kilner / Mason jars loosely with meat, then pour over strained fat. Leave jars open for 2 hours, then seal. 8. Reserve the remaining bits or crumbs of meat and spice and garlic paste in a jar to use in savoury beghrir or rghaif - ----- MY NOTE: beghrir and rghaif are fried pancakey-breads - i'm not giving a real accurate description, but it will do for now. I ate both kinds, as well as several others, while i was in Morocco, but i don't think i had any khlii. Both pan cooked (such as beghrir and rghaif) and baked yeasted breads (khobz) are often made with semolina flour so they are faintly golden and have a very different flavor from white or whole wheat flour in the US - which was to my mind really delicious. When given the choice between white and pain complet (which in France is a modified whole wheat) bread loaves, i chose the complet, which was the golden kind. Anyone on the list have experience making bread with semolina flour? I imagine it behaves differently from the usual white... NOTE 2: The author gives no information on how to store khlii or on how long it keeps. Anahita From: "Hrolf Douglasson" To: Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #541 - 20 msgs Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 22:17:32 +0100 > Is drying fruits period? We have two apple trees and > a pear tree in our yard, and would love to save some > of the fruits for use throughout the year. From the York Archeological dig. There is striong evidence to show that the Vikings dried apples for winter use vara Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 22:53:22 -0400 From: johnna holloway To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #541 - 20 msgs > Is drying fruits period? We have two apple trees and > a pear tree in our yard, and would love to save some > of the fruits for use throughout the year. In the > past I have canned and frozen, but I know those > definately aren't period. According to Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard (which is a new neat book on food preservation) the Romans were drying fruits in large quantities. And dates and raisins have been dried for centuries in areas in which they were grown. England had trouble with the process of drying fruits due to the damp climate which made it difficult to sun dry. When drying moves inside there are fuel costs associated with oven drying, so a lot of fruit spoiled due to there not being cheap fuel. In other areas, it was well established with Slovakia and Moravia and Bosnia drying fruits, especially plums, in specially constructed buildings. Johnnae llyn Lewis From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 18:22:32 -0400 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] fruit leather (was pesto) On 6 Sep 2001, at 10:08, Jennifer Thompson wrote: > Speaking of summer oversized harvests, has anyone had any luck making > peach fruit leather? Puree fruit, add 1/4th as much sugar, let dry in > slow oven, yes? Granado's recipe for peach leather (Carne de Duraznos) calls for one pound of sugar to two and a half pounds of peaches (two pounds of peaches if they're not fully ripe.) Comment at recent baronial meeting when I placed "peach flesh" on the refreshment table: "Cool! Period rollups!" Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 21:15:52 -0500 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period? Also sprach david friedman: >>While I tend to agree with Brangwayna, have you >>considered dried meat, like jerky? > >>Phlip > >To bring this back to questions of historical cookery ... . > >What information do we have on the use of dried meat in period? >Stockfish was certainly common. Anything closer? The Magyars are thought to have used a form of dried meat, beef or even horsemeat, and it is rumored (let's just say I don't have access to a primary source) that the original gulyas was a sort of pocket soup, more or less a meat stew cooked until the liquid was almost completely dried, and the meat mostly dried, too. It was then finished by drying under the sun and in the wind. Presumably it could be reconstituted for eating, but I suspect it could be chewed on without further moistening or cooking. And I could swear there was an Islamic dried beef recipe referred to on this list... And then, of course, we have the old standbys of dryish hams being eaten without further cooking, and sausages, including the smoke-dried Polonian sausages (English kielbasa) mentioned by Hugh Plat. Adamantius Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 20:57:22 -0800 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period? From: david friedman >What information do we have on the use of dried meat in period? >Stockfish was certainly common. Anything closer? I haven't seen any European references, but, then, i haven't looked. Anahita isn't European. However, i've seen references to dried spiced meat in the Middle Eastern corpus - not eaten as jerky though; it's carried around dried, but it eat it, it's cooked in liquid. There's a recipe or two for making it and another few recipes for using it lurking in "Medieval Arab Cookery". I'll have to look and see what it's called and which of the several translated books it's in... Anahita Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 11:19:53 -0600 (CST) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dried meat in period? On Thu, 28 Feb 2002 XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote: > So with the talk of jerky (which is making me hungry for the dried meat) in > the air, who has a good jerky recipe with instructions on how to make jerky. > Mmm, if i'm not busy, I make some myself if I can find a recipe. > > Misha Here's our recipe. Contains only ingredients that can in theory be documented to England in the 13th century. We're obsessive that way. 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 1 tbsp salt 2 tsp honey 1 tsp garlic bits 1 tsp dried onion 1 tsp dried mustard 1/2 tsp or thereabouts black pepper Marinate sliced meat overnight or longer, dehydrate. Yum. The other half stores his in his fridge, but this has lasted all through Pennsic while living in a linen bag. I prefer more pepper and mustard, myself. Margaret From: "AnnaMarie" To: Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 11:12:30 -0600 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Update on Lamb Jerky Well, it's not beef, that's for sure..... lamb jerky takes about 1/3 of time longer than beef and even when it's dried to the consistency I dry my beef it still tastes a bit greasy to me. I trimmed as much fat as I could and when it was finished drying I trimmed some more fat off (dogs were happy with those leavings). I marinated it in red wine vinegar, pepper and a bit of sugar so the flavor is nice, it's just greasier than beef and definitely tastes like lamb. All in all, I think I'll stick to the beef jerky and save the lamb for stews and kabobs. Kristianne Wolf Song Day Spa & Herb Shop Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 07:55:08 +0200 From: UlfR Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Smoked fish and meat--questions To: SCA-Cooks SCA-Cooks maillist Stefan li Rous [2003.09.21] wrote: > As Phlip mentioned, you can make your own dried meats. These could be > done a slices for jerky or done in small chips in which case they could > then be rehydrated and used or tossed into a soup or stew. The smaller > chunks would dry quicker and have less chance for spoilage. One of the > commercial dehydrators would come in handy for this or an oven set on One thing that I have done for backpacking trips is dried hamburger. This is totally non-period (AFAIK), but works well for a purely food standpoint. Rather simple procedure; fry hamburger until barely done adding finelly chopped onions, garlic, spices as desired), and rinse with boiling water (to remove excess fats which would tend to get rancid). Spread in dryer and dry. Reconstitues in a few minutes when boiled. Mostly useful for "meat sauce" type dishes. But this is not period, so I would personally hesititate to use it in an SCA context. /UlfR -- UlfR Ketilson ulfr at hunter-gatherer.org Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:20:37 -0700 From: "Dan Brewer" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] preserving fruits without sugar To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" For drying fruit you will want to wash the fruit to remove any residues. Cut in two and remove the pit. Dip in mixture of ascorbic acid ( vitamin c) and place of the dryer shelf. Your dryer can be home made or store bought. If home made make the drying racks out of nylon mesh they will be easer to keep clean. The box holding the shelves needs to have an area to collect solar radiation. And vents to carry away the excess moisture. You will need to experiment a little to see how your dryer works. The pattern of the fruit drying will vary with every load Here are some references to look at. http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/offthegrid/solarfooddryer.shtml http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/~vista/html_pubs/DRYING/dryfood.html http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/environment/alternative-energy/energy-re sources/homepower-magazine/archives/29/29p62.txt http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/SolarFoodDryer.htm http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/FACTSHTS/mgt-sbb-003.pdf http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/canning-pantry/drying-fruit-leathers.pdf This link probably has the most useful information http://www.canningpantry.com/dehydration-of-food.html Dan in Auburn Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:23:53 -0500 From: "Saint Phlip" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beef Jerky (not too OT) To: "Cooks within the SCA" silverr0se at aol.com writes: <> Really, it's a matter of what you like. You can pretty well spice it with anything. You take your meat, and cut it thinly across the grain (partial freezing is the easiest way to get thin slices) and drop the pieces in a chilled brine solution, if you like it salty. You can also throw in some of your favorite smoke seasonings or Worchestershire sauce, if you like them. When you're ready to dry the meat, take the pieces out one at a time, and shake them in a baggy of your favorite spice blend. I like some of the variants of Mrs Dash, and usually add some garlic powder and /or pepper, depending on what I'm in the mood for. Lay the pieces of meat out flat on a cookie sheet or three, and put in the oven. A gas oven's pilot light will dry things sufficiently, if you have a gas oven, but very low in an electric oven will work, too. Just leave stuff there, until it's very dry, and place in sealed plastic bags, and it'll keep pretty near forever. -- Saint Phlip Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:39:41 -0500 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beef Jerky (not too OT) To: Cooks within the SCA On Nov 14, 2008, at 8:23 PM, Saint Phlip wrote: <<< Lay the pieces of meat out flat on a cookie sheet or three, and put in the oven. A gas oven's pilot light will dry things sufficiently, if you have a gas oven, but very low in an electric oven will work, too. Just leave stuiff there, until it's very dry, and place in sealed plastic bags, and it'll keep pretty near forever. >>> A slightly messier, but somewhat more effective trick I've been using, is to thread the ends of the strips onto bamboo skewers, and hang them straight down through the bars of the oven rack, with a pan underneath to catch drips. It seems to cut down on the drying time somewhat, and I think you can pack more strips into a smaller space without crowding to the point where they don't dry properly. Adamantius Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:14:22 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] need to draw on your experience To: "Cooks within the SCA" <<< What is a "Pension"? In the US it is a retirement plan which most companies are trying to wiggle out of. Stefan >>> Pension refers to a boardinghouse. In many places in Europe, homeowners plump up the household budget by renting rooms, often with breakfast included. It's a less expensive alternative to getting a room in a hotel. In the U.S., we've gentrified the experience by creating the "Bed and Breakfast" and raising the price tag. Bear Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:35:54 -0700 From: Susan Fox To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] dehydrators and grain mill question - OOP I use this one. No moving parts except for the sun and wind! http://www.amazon.com/Food-Pantry-Hanging-Dehydrator-Dryer/dp/B001T426TE Selene Kathleen A Roberts wrote: <<< Does any one have any recommendations on dehydrators/food dryers? I am in the market for an economical yet reliable one. Cailte >>> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:47:55 -0500 (CDT) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] dehydrators and grain mill question - OOP The non-powered variety of dehydrator only works well in a climate that isn't humid. Not Minnesota, in other words. ;-) [Note: Selene lives in southern California - Stefan] The Consort has a Nesco American Harvest of unremembered model that you can add trays to beyond the original set that it came with, and it works quite well. /Margaret FitzWilliam On Thu, 12 Aug 2010, Susan Fox wrote: <<< I use this one. No moving parts except for the sun and wind! http://www.amazon.com/Food-Pantry-Hanging-Dehydrator-Dryer/dp/B001T426TE Selene >>> Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:42:13 -0700 From: Carina ZLawson-Williams To: Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes Sun dried Jerky Cut fresh meat into long thin strips, one inch wide. Rub strips with garlic or salt if desired. Dry in sun as quickly as possible by hanging over a line. DO NOT LET THE STRIPS TOUCH. Store in a dry place in clean jars or sacks Cold brined Jerky Cut muscle meat lengthwise of the grsain into strips an inch thick , about one and a half inches wide and as long as you can make them.Put strips in a wooden barrel or non- metallic container and cover with a sweet pickle or corning solution for three days. Hang the meat over a cord line or string to drip for 24hrs and continue to hang it in a room or other dry place. Keep the strips from touching each other and protect from dirt and insect with a light cloth covering if necessary. The jerky will continue to dry as long as it is exposed to air- therefore it should be taken down and put swasy in an air tight container as soon as it is dried to your liking. A light smoke will add to the flavour and help preserve the meat Hot brined jerky Is made similar to cold brined except the meat is cut much smaller- like shoe string potatoes- the hot solution is made by adding salt to boiling water until no more salt can be dissolved. Dip strips into the hot brine until they turn white (about 5 min) - then string them up to dry and handle the same way as cold brined You may wish to marinade the meats before using any of these methods sources- Dene and Inuvialuit elders Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:10:41 -0700 From: David Friedman To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes? Expensive but sounds good. A little googling finds a claim of literary evidence back to the 15th c. <<< perhaps something like the Italian Bresaola. Recipes can be found on line, basically beef (or horse) marinated in a brine with herbs & wine then air dried. I made some using a modern recipe and it seems like it would keep a long time even without refrigeration. Haven't looked for period recipes though it is one of those things one would suspect has a long history. Simon Sinneghe Briaroak, Summits, An Tir >>> Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:20:58 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Bresaola was Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes? There's a recipe in Scappi for how to cook them. page 157 in the Scully translation. 45. To make bresaola of lean veal, fried or grilled Page 556 recipe 46 To prepare braised veal Bresaola Anyway Bresaola is mentioned 15 times in the text. You can use Google books to locate the mentions. Johnnae On Aug 30, 2010, at 7:10 PM, David Friedman wrote: <<< Expensive but sounds good. A little googling finds a claim of literary evidence back to the 15th c. >>> perhaps something like the Italian Bresaola. Recipes can be found on line, basically beef (or horse) marinated in a brine with herbs & wine then air dried. I made some using a modern recipe and it seems like it would keep a long time even without refrigeration. Haven't looked for period recipes though it is one of those things one would suspect has a long history. Simon Sinneghe Briaroak, Summits, An Tir Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:32:22 -0700 From: lilinah at earthlink.net To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Smoked and Pickled: Sources and Recipes? Adamantius wrote: <<< It would seem highly plausible that the Turkish version of basturma, which is dry-rubbed and air-dried, as I understand it, is probably quite old, and also commercially available. Of course, modern versions generally include paprika in the rub, but the basic concept very likely stems from a much older, Old World friendly, concept...>>> The only time that the Ottoman Sultan's palace purchased beef in the 15th and 16th centuries was for the making of basturma, once a year. Unfortunately, i know of no recipe for it nor any description of how it was made. Clearly in the 15th c. no paprika was involved, and i suspect not in the 16th either. -- Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM] the persona formerly known as Anahita Edited by Mark S. Harris drying-foods-msg Page 29 of 29