T2K Cuisine - Food in the aftermath

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

Swag, years ago in our more adventurous lives, Mrs Carp and I set about making tallow candles. On the first attempt, we cut up the suet as small as possible. It was still an onerous task to get that stuff rendered.
Take Two: the second butcher we went to asked us what we wanted the beef fat for, thinking we were making bird feeders. When we told him and explained how difficult it was, he told us he would _grind_ it for us for free.
D'oh! The second round went much easier, though the cracklings were like tiny gravel.

Hand-driven meat grinders can be found at any decent flea market and occasionally at thrift stores. I have two or maybe three in my cupboard (along with 5 manual pasta machines --don't ask). They are also for sale at large sporting goods stores like Cabellas, Bass Pro Shoppes, Field and Stream Stores, etc, in the hunting/smoking/game processing gear sections.

I too have found that rendering certain meats is very hard due to the "leaner" nature of that meat. Beef, muskrat, bison, and goat meat fall into that category. I would grind those meats too.

Pig, beaver, racoon or bear will have sufficient fat to render more easily (although I wouldn't render coon, muskrat or possum for food, only for candle tallow).

Seals or whales would be the easiest of all to render.

[WallShadow]

Eventually we got our tallow and moulded our candles. Some of the remaining tallow, however went into our soapmaking project. We made a few classic fails like pouring the molten soap into an aluminum baking pan to cool. (that was the end of that pan--the lye ate up the aluminum surface horrifically) And we had one batch that we just couldn't get to set up and harden, so we threw it out. Only to be told, when we described the lack of success to a fellow reenactor, that "soft soap" is highly prized and a valuable camp cleaning material. D'oh!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

For those of you who know, this link won't tell you anything new but for those of us who didn't know, or only had a "sorta idea" of rendering fat, this link is really useful (particularly when you read some of the comments as well)
http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2...ef-tallow.html

[Draq]

So I think we've covered the basics for food once the MREs run out, but what about before hand? Here lately I've been binge watching YouTube videos about MREs, specifically older ones, and its crazy to see what holds up and what doesn't. Ive seen Korean war b2 units be perfect, and 1989 MREs be totally ruined. And I'd imagine after things have gone quite far down hill, the last few shipments of supplies will have whatever rations are available, on the off chance there's still something edible. Just as the gear and weapons issued would also start coming from the bottom of the barrel (ei Vietnam era). So any rations you find would be a gamble, anywhere from being nauseous, having diarrhea, to straight up food poisoning and botulism. One more avenue for illness. I'm thinking about a table for rations, both pact and NATO, for likelihood of expiration and severity of spoilage, based on age and menu contents.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Draq

So I think we've covered the basics for food once the MREs run out, but what about before hand? Here lately I've been binge watching YouTube videos about MREs, specifically older ones, and its crazy to see what holds up and what doesn't. Ive seen Korean war b2 units be perfect, and 1989 MREs be totally ruined. And I'd imagine after things have gone quite far down hill, the last few shipments of supplies will have whatever rations are available, on the off chance there's still something edible. Just as the gear and weapons issued would also start coming from the bottom of the barrel (ei Vietnam era). So any rations you find would be a gamble, anywhere from being nauseous, having diarrhea, to straight up food poisoning and botulism. One more avenue for illness. I'm thinking about a table for rations, both pact and NATO, for likelihood of expiration and severity of spoilage, based on age and menu contents.

I agree. We need a Food Contamination Table. I'll put together a list of poisons and illnesses common to spoiled food like my Water Contamination Table.

[Draq]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

I agree. We need a Food Contamination Table. I'll put together a list of poisons and illnesses common to spoiled food like my Water Contamination Table.

Excited!

[Draq]

Any progress?