How to Make Sumac Lemonade: A Survival Source of Vitamin C

How to Make Sumac Lemonade: A Survival Source of Vitamin C

 

Recipe Sumac
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Today we are going to take staghorn sumac and make a refreshing drink often called “sumac-aide” Thats hard to say so I just call it Sumac Lemonaide.

Sumacs grow throughout the world with Staghorn Sumac (Rhus Hirta- Rhus Glabra) is the most common.

While we don’t use it as a spice here in North America, sumac “stags” are used as a traditional spice in many cultures in the middle east. If you dry and grind staghorn sumac you will find it has a tangy flavor that is often used with grilled meats and fish.

I imagine you could proabably even use this as a wine base, if it works for dandelions, I bet it would be awesome with sumac.

While one should eat wild food without first consulting a pictorial guide and/or an expert, it is very easy to distinguish staghorn sumac from poison sumac. The color of the leaves is the biggest distinguishing characteristic.

Poison sumac has large white berries and only grows in wet areas – it is pretty rare.

Staghorn sumac has small red berries and is found all along country (and not so country) roads.

Besides being a very cheap drink that tastes a lot like pink lemonade at a FRACTION of the cost it has some health benefits. It is a good source of Vitamin C.  So preppers can use it to prevent scurvy. It also has Malic acid, calcium malate, Dihydrofisetin, Fisetin, Iodine, Gallic Acid, Tannic acid, Selenium, and Tartaric acid.

It has long been used as a folk medicine and has been the subject of research in modern medicine.

As far as a recipe – Its pretty much all to taste and pretty simple.

How to Make Sumac Lemonade

Ingredients:

  1. Sumac Berries
  2. Water
  3. Sugar (to taste)

Preparation

  1. Don’t pick the Sumac cones after rain since the flavor comes from the sap on the outside of the berries.
  2. Remove as much leaves and twigs as possible. The more stems the more tannic acid you will get.
  3. Place the Sumac berries in a container filled with fresh cold water. You’d want about 1 cup of water for each cone.Warm water will make your drink bitter.
  4. Crush the berries with your hands.Let rest for about 30-60 minutes depending on how strong of a flavor you want.
  5. Strain using a cheesecloth
  6. Sweeten to your liking. Serve cold with ice.  Personally while I have to have sugar in my tea I don’t feel that sumac-aide needs sweeteners.

I like Sumac Lemonade, I think it tastes good.  Additionally, it is easy to make. During a disaster, it is a good source of vitamin C to prevent scurvy and other diseases.

How to Make Modern Pemmican Using Peanut Butter Instead of Grease

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I grew on a state park as a son of a park ranger and was encouraged (maybe that’s too strong a word –tolerated) to explore Native American crafts and wilderness survival skills. I had always wanted to make pemmican, but since I lived on a state park, I could not hunt so I never had access to enough meat and fats to make it. (Mom wouldn’t let me experiment with the family’s groceries unless I was cooking supper…. LOL)

The urge to make pemmican lay dormant for several decades as I went in the service, and later spent all my energy learning about ex-wives and the legal process. Now that I am settled and have a wife that understands me enough to let my creative juices float me in strange directions I decided to finally make some pemmican.

Basically pemmican is mixture of dried and pounded meat and rendered fat. Since meat spoils rapidly needs to be preserved, but because of the differences in makeup meat and fats have to be preserved using different methods.

In pemmican, dried meat and rendered fat is preserved separately.  It is then mixed back together to make a calorie dense food that has a long shelf life. Traditionally we hear about pemmican being made with dried berries also, but that did not make up the bulk of pemmican creation until the Europeans began buying it that way.

Here’s how to make traditional pemmican

  • Separate the meat from the fat
  • Dry the meat into jerky
  • Grind the meat. Use a commercial grinder, or pulverize, I threw mine into a blender.
  • Render the fat.
  • Combine meat and fat, in a ratio of 2 parts meat to 1 part fat.
  • Pack in airtight containers

If you want to add dried fruit you can do that also.

Modern Pemmican is more palatable

For a more modern (and easier to convince your wife to try) you can substitute peanut butter for the fat.

I dried a bag of freeze dried assorted fruits and added it with the peanut butter and meat. My wife ate some and would do so again. I doubt she would if she saw me dumping in a jar of rendered fat though….

Just one caveat, this stores well, and tastes pretty good, but modern pemmican is very calorie dense so its probably best suited as a meal replacement and not a neat snack.

Recipe: Fried Rabbit Liver

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Growing up I never was a fan of liver, and to tell the truth, I am still not a fan of most liver, but I have started acquiring a taste for fried rabbit liver.  I blame my bride for that.

Normally she is helpful, but not exactly excited with my experiments and attempts to videotape our work at learning how to prep and become more self-reliant.  However, when I started butchering our animals she became more that helpful.  She became quite insistent that whenever I butcher a rabbit I have to fry the liver for her.  If that’s all whe asks for, then I am happy to oblige.

Rabbit livers are larger than chicken livers, but the taste and cooking methods are identical.  However, when you are handling a rabbit liver you need to be aware of two things.  The first is not to burst the green gall bladder that is attached or you will ruin your liver.  The second is that since the liver functions to filter toxins from the blood, it is important to only use healthy looking livers.  If your rabbit has a liver with white spots don’t eat it.

Pan frying them is pretty easy too.  I just rinse the liver off, dredge it in flour mixed with a little salt and pepper, and throw it in a skillet filled with hot oil.  I fry for a couple minutes on one side, then flip to finish cooking.

I am sure there are lots of other ways to cook rabbit liver, but this is easy, and the liver is gone before anything else is done, since my lovely bride thinks this is a treat…

How to Make Corn Tortillas and Nacho Chips

How To Make Corn Tortillas and Nacho Chips

 

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Knowing how to make corn tortillas and nacho chips is a great way to change up your eating experience.

Because flat bread is easy and cheap many cultures use variations. In Asia they have Nan, in the Middle East you have chapatti, in North Africa you have injera, and you also have puri and pita breads.Some techniques or ingredients change enough to warrant the names, but basically it’s all just unleavened bread that does not rise cooked on a hot skillet or fried.

For corn tortillas you use a special corn flour called masa. In this flour the corn is Nixtimalized (which we will do in a later post). Nixtamalization chemically changes the corn so that its nutritional value is increased. Pellagra is a disease caused by eating dent corn as a staple, as without nixtamalization the nutrients in the corn are unavailable to humans.. Basically hominy is Nixtimalized corn. Coarsely ground hominy is grits, and finely ground grits is masa.

The great thing about tortillas is that all you need is a bit of masa, some water, and salt if you like.

The tools are simple also. A dry skillet and your hands is all you really need at the most basic level. A comal (flat cast iron griddle) and a tortilla press is used if you specialize.

To make the dough

  • Add 2 cups of masa into a large bowl
  • Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of very warm water to the masa.
  • Mix let sit for 5 minutes.
  • Working the masa into dough, to me it seems a little like putty. If at any point through the tortilla making process the dough seems too dry or too wet, add a little more water or masa to the dough.
  • Take a piece of the masa dough and shape it into a ball the size of a plum, or slightly large golf ball. Make about 16-18 balls from the dough.

To Press Tortillas

You can pat the balls into tortillas, but that is difficult for a beginner.
You can also roll them out on a floured surface.
I use a press.
To use a press, take two pieces of wax paper, parchment paper or plastic from a plastic bag and cut them to the size of your press.
Open the tortilla press and lay one piece of wax paper on the press.
Place the dough ball in the center.
Place another piece of wax paper over the masa ball.
Gently close the press and press down, until the dough has spread to a diameter of 6 inches. If you press it too much the dough will stick to the paper and not peel easily

To Cook Tortillas

Heat a skillet on high heat. Use a SMALL amount of oil to lubricate, but make sure it is light… You are not making fry bread.
Cook the tortilla for ½ to 1 minute on each side. It should be lightly toasted with little air pockets.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate for storage.

Nachos

While I am making tortillas I normally make some nachos at the same time.
You use the same tortillas, you just cook them differently.

Once I press out the tortillas I normally cut them into 4 quarters. I then fry them in hot oil until they are a nice golden brown.

I then drain them and season them to taste.

You can be flexible with the seasonings, but a nice “Dorito flavor” can be done with taco seasoning, a little cayenne pepper, and a little citric acid for bite.

How to Make Homemade Rootbeer

How to Make Homemade Root beer

 

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So while experimenting with Mead recipes the other week I made yet another trip to the local brew store and happened to see some soda extracts. I had seen them before but never got some.  Today I was in a creative mood.  That landed me right in the middle of a “why the heck not moment”.

I picked the root beer extract because I don’t like cream or orange soda.  Alternatively, I wasn’t far enough on board to try sarsaparilla (yet)…

Making Homemade Rootbeer Is Very Simple

It actually took me less time to complete than it took me to convince the wife I would not blow up the kitchen or make a huge mess. A few minutes of “I cleaned up after the tofu” and “I promise I won’t make a mess”, sprinkled in with promises of a back rub and generous thanks for being such a help with the camera earned me a camera woman for this project…

Inside the extract box were several sets of instructions. Depending on if I wanted to make 4 gallons of root beer all at once, make it in actual beer bottles, or for the beginner two 2 liter soda bottles. I would have done it in beer bottles, but I wasn’t quite ready to drop the money in bottles, caps, and a capper (yet), so I choose the soda bottle method.

The Process

I rehydrated some yeast in a coffee cup while I dissolved a couple cups of sugar and a tablespoon of extract in a gallon of water.

Next I split both the yeast and the extract/sugar solution equally into the 2 bottles.

I added a little extra water to fill the bottles to within about 1 ½ from the top.

I then shook them up and put them in a 5 gallon bucket to ferment.

The yeast will eat the sugar and release carbon dioxide and a little amount of alcohol as a byproduct. That’s what will turn my root beer into soda. Without the yeast and the sugar the extract would not the carbonated.

The instructions said to wait 4-6 days for the carbonation to pressurize the bottles and then put it in the refrigerator to stop the carbonation. Otherwise the bottles could explode. By putting the bottles in the bucket, if I don’t check the bottles enough and catch them in time, any soda explosion, would be trapped in the bucket and won’t get me beat up by my wife.