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Meat
Jan 20, 2020 15:29:03 GMT -7
Post by Black Hand on Jan 20, 2020 15:29:03 GMT -7
Looks DELICIOUS!
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Post by waarp8nt on Jan 21, 2020 21:16:50 GMT -7
A simple jerky receipt given to me by my friend. Soak the meat in low sodium soy sauce overnight or a little longer if you see fit. Place the meat on drying racks and sprinkle with Mrs Dash, place the racks in the smoker on 150 degrees. Cook for 4 to 6 hours or until done.
I used a pellet grill with hickory pellets and deer backstraps as the meat. I kept close watch of the grill to make sure the temp did not fall too low or go too high. The jerky turned out so well even the ladies of the house liked it (they typically do not partake of wild game). I feel this is a make at home and carry to the woods receipt, however I suppose it could be done over an open fire.
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Post by spence on Jan 23, 2020 22:38:51 GMT -7
Meat isn't always on my trekking menu, I sometimes try out foods I've read about in the literature of the day, such as fire cakes, roasted corn, potatoes cooked in the coals, etc., or foods which don't require cooking, rockahominy, fruits and nuts, persimmons, for instance. My most usual meat is chicken which I pretend is grouse shot on the trek. Next is venison, usually backstrap roasted on a stick. Other than that I have boiled both squirrel and rabbit which really were killed on the day. One meat which I've enjoyed, and which came as a real surprise, is bologna. I knew bologna sausage is an ancient food in its country of origin, but never expected to find documentation for its use in this country in the 18th century. Happily, I was wrong. Journals of Major Robert Rogers, describing conditions on their return from the raid on St. Francis in 1759: “...for all our provisions from the beginning was only a small bologna sausage, and a little ginger, I happened to have, and which even now was very much decreased;” I ate a lot of sliced bologna as a youngster and enjoyed it as is or fried. I didn’t know what good bologna was until I got some ring bologna and roasted it on a stick over an 18th-century fire, though. I wonder if Rogers ever had kielbasa? Spence
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Meat
Jan 26, 2020 6:56:53 GMT -7
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 26, 2020 6:56:53 GMT -7
I'm one for fresh fish... I'll usually carry the usual dried venison no salt. However I will go out of my way to catch some fish while out and season up the meal with some wild mustard garlic and wild onion. I have tried drying salmon but you've got to be careful due to all the fatty oils, goes bad quickly. Dried perch is excellent, low fat and keeps well. Hawk, Is that white or yellow perch? Either, doesn't matter. Usually freeze whatever we catch. I'm intrigued at Spence's meat mash! Aka bologna!
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Post by bushfire on Oct 24, 2022 22:54:13 GMT -7
On one of my favorite outings I caught a largemouth bass using my period fishing kit and roasted it on a stick. First class camp chow and a very satisfying experiment Spence, I would love to hear about your PC fishing kit, photos would be a bonus.
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Meat
Oct 25, 2022 1:11:41 GMT -7
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Post by brokennock on Oct 25, 2022 1:11:41 GMT -7
On one of my favorite outings I caught a largemouth bass using my period fishing kit and roasted it on a stick. First class camp chow and a very satisfying experiment Spence, I would love to hear about your PC fishing kit, photos would be a bonus. Hopefully Spence will indulge us more, but this should give you something to gnaw on in the meantime, home.insightbb.com/~bspen/BassLake.htmlPart of his fantastic and information packed website, home.insightbb.com/~bspen/index.html
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Meat
Oct 25, 2022 7:31:43 GMT -7
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Post by hawkeyes on Oct 25, 2022 7:31:43 GMT -7
Didn't know there was an accompanying website full of such reading joy! Spence, your a treasure. I have to be more adamant about recording my endeavors. My weekend turkey outing is one of them as it'll probably never happen again like it did.
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Post by spence on Oct 25, 2022 11:28:26 GMT -7
bushfire said, "Spence, I would love to hear about your PC fishing kit, photos would be a bonus." Mine is a pretty simple outfit, carried in a small tin. It's basically a length of flax line with a leader made of whitetail deer sinew. I have a couple sizes of hooks with sinew leader snelled on. They generally used eyeless hooks in the 18th century, so I closed the eyes of mine with solder. I carry two floats, one cork and one the gall from an ironweed plant. The gall forms after a particular small wasp drills into the stalk and lays eggs, and is a reaction of the plant. I make spit shot from lead. When I get ready to fish I cut a 7-10 foot length of some slender, limber sapling and fasten the line to the butt, then up to the tip. I generally use the outfit for bait fishing, but to catch the bass I showed above I cut a strip of buckskin and used it with a technique we in the south call dapping. You just move along the bank and dip the lure in at good looking spots, drag it a few feet to impart some wiggle. The kit: Totally simple, but it works. Spence
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Joe
City-dweller
Posts: 170
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Meat
Oct 26, 2022 19:55:23 GMT -7
Post by Joe on Oct 26, 2022 19:55:23 GMT -7
Any favorite recipes for dried meat or other meats brought on the trail? I think I misread your question. I thought you were looking for receipts to use dried meats in. If that's the case, a soup or stew seems the most practical.
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Post by spence on Oct 26, 2022 20:20:31 GMT -7
I made a couple of batches of what was called "pocket soup" in the day, the equivalent of our bouillon. I used a young deer, boiled the bones and connective tissue until it formed a gel, then dried that until it was hard. It reconstituted easily by simply dissolving it in boiling water, and was a very nice thing to have on a trek. I also made plain venison jerky, no seasonings, and cooking the jerky in the venison broth worked very well. Here's a bowl, thickened with rockahominy, parched dried corn ground to meal. That'll cure whatever ails you. Spence
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Post by bushfire on Oct 28, 2022 0:32:33 GMT -7
Thank you for the photos Spence, I may try replicating something similar.
I've always wanted to try portable soup for hunting trips. Do you ever season either the portable soup or jerky?
When making the soup do you cook it a jelly or just really thick liquid and let it set at room temp?
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Meat
Oct 28, 2022 5:14:58 GMT -7
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Post by brokennock on Oct 28, 2022 5:14:58 GMT -7
bushfire said, "Spence, I would love to hear about your PC fishing kit, photos would be a bonus." Mine is a pretty simple outfit,,,, When I get ready to fish I cut a 7-10 foot length of some slender, limber sapling and fasten the line to the butt, then up to the tip.... Spence This is probably a stupid question, and I have a suspicion of the reason. Why tie the line to both ends and lose that length of line that could be in the water?
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Post by spence on Oct 28, 2022 6:40:22 GMT -7
brokennock said, "Why tie the line to both ends and lose that length of line that could be in the water?"
The saplings I use for a pole have a tendency to break where branches have been cut off, so it prevents losing the whole line if that happens.
Spence
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Post by spence on Oct 28, 2022 7:07:22 GMT -7
I've always wanted to try portable soup for hunting trips. Do you ever season either the portable soup or jerky? When making the soup do you cook it a jelly or just really thick liquid and let it set at room temp? I don't season either one, because I use both in various dishes, and season those appropriately when making them. If I were making jerky just to eat, not to cook with, I would season it. It went by various names in the period, such as pocket soup, portable soup, "powdered beefe and glue broth. There are quite a few recipes for portable soup in the literature of the day. This one by Wm. Byrd pretty well sums up the usual way of making it, and also has his thoughts on its use in the field. ******* William Byrd of Virginia, 1729, Histories of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina: The Portable Provisions I would furnish our Foresters withal are Glue-Broth and rockahomini: one contains the Essence of Bread, the other of Meat. The best way of making Glue-Broth is after the following method: Take a Leg of Beef, Veal, Venison, or any other Young Meat, because Old Meat will not so easily jelly. Pare off all the fat, in which there is no Nutriment, and of the Lean make a very strong Broth, after the usual Manner, by Boiling the meat to Rags till all the Goodness is out. After Skimming off what fat remains, pour the Broth into a wide Stew-Pan, well tinn’d, & let it simmer over a gentle, even Fire, till it come to a thick Jelly. Then take it off and set it over Boiling Water, which is an Evener Heat, and not so apt to burn the Broth to the Vessel. Over that let it evaporate, stirring it very often till it be reduc’d, when cold, into a Solid Substance like Glue. Then cut it into small Pieces, laying them Single in the cold, that they may dry the Sooner. When the pieces are perfectly dry, put them into a Cannister, and they will be good, if kept Dry, a whole East India Voyage. This Glue is so strong, that two or three Drams dissolv'd in boiling Water with a little Salt will make a half a Pint of good Broth, & if you shou'd be faint with Fasting or Fatigue, let a small Piece of this Glue melt in your Mouth, and you will find yourself surprisingly refreshed. One Pound of this Cookery wou'd keep a Man in good Heart above a Month, and is not only Nourishing, but likewise very wholesome. Particularly it is good against Fluxes, which Woodsmen are very liable to, by lying too near the moist Ground, and guzzling too much cold Water. But as it will be only us'd now and then, in times of Scarcity, when Game is wanting, two Pounds of it will be enough for a Journey of six Months. But this Broth will be still more heartening if you thicken every Mess with half a Spoonful of Rockahominy, which is nothing but Indian Corn parched without burning, and reduced to Powder. The Fire drives out all the Watery Parts of the Corn, leaving the Strength of it behind, and this being very dry, becomes much lighter for carriage and less liable to be Spoilt by the moist Air. ********** Every recipe I've collected is a little different, so we can feel free to play it by ear. Here are my notes after I made my first batch. "When I killed a whitetail deer in November, 1994, I decided to try making some. I broke all the long bones to allow access to the marrow, and added most of the spine and neck bones. I put these into a large stock pot, covered them with water and brought it to a boil. After boiling covered for 8 hours, I removed all the meat and bones and let the liquid cool overnight. In the morning there was a layer of hard white fat and floating solids on top, which I scooped off completely. I continued to boil, now uncovered, and in about 6 more hours the broth was much reduced and very thick, like warm molasses. I poured this into a shallow pan, and it made a layer about 3/8 inch thick. When it cooled, it was the consistency of hard jello, very rubbery. I removed it from the pan, cut it into rectangles, placed it on waxed paper and dried it in the dehydrator for 1 day, and it turned hard. It tastes like a very flavorful meat broth. An old recipe calls for salt, pepper, mace, cloves and brandy, which sounds much more highly seasoned than mine. I added only 1 teaspoon of salt." As you can see, it's a long process, a bit complicated, but I found it worth the effort. And a fun HC/PC project. Spence
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Post by spence on Oct 28, 2022 7:10:56 GMT -7
bushfire, here's what my finished pocket soup looks like: Spence
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