SC - Cassia bark vs Cinnamon

[LrdRas@aol.com]

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. In fact, I've added one file to the FOOD
> section of my Florilegium for just such a method:
> drying-foods-msg  (27K)  8/24/98    Drying foods in period and for the SCA.
>
> 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

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