Probably the most remarkable dried food of all is the evaporated egg.
Take ½ dozen eggs and beat them up hard with an egg beater. Take two
flat bottomed baking pans from the kitchen and spread a very thin layer
of egg thereon. Now in drying should you put this in the oven it will
cook whereas if simply set in the sun during the day the moisture is
evaporated and a crust of the essential elements retaining all the
nourishment and flavor of the egg remains. True the product is shapeless
as far as the ordinary conception of an egg is concerned but it is very
effective for cooking where weight and fragility in packing are
concerned. After the eggs have been in the sun all day remove indoors
and if dry run through a cleaned coffee mill. This pulverizes the mass.
It should next be completely dried out in the sun and packed away in
empty molasses tins with pry up lids.
A pound of evaporated egg equals four dozen fresh eggs and one
tablespoonful of egg powder with two tablespoonsful of water represents
an egg. It is useful in omelets, scrambled or in combination cooking.
Besides being a great saving in weight since one does not have to carry
around the water, the evaporated preparation enables us to utilize eggs
on the hardest kind of a hike where if we were forced to use fresh eggs
their place in the knapsack would be positively prohibited because of
their fragility.
PEMMICAN
When much fat is required for the body as in colder regions no food has
been found to surpass Pemmican. Peary says:--“Pemmican is the most
concentrated and satisfactory of all meat foods and is absolutely
indispensable on long Arctic sledge journeys.” For a ten pound lot take
of lean meat, 5 pounds; fat (suet) 4 pounds; dried fruit (raisins) ½
pound and of sugar ½ pound. Cut the meat in thin slices, dry several
days as directed under “Jerked Meats.” Pulverize between two stones or
otherwise grind and mix well with the suet, melted, to a paste, add the
ground currants or raisins and sugar, allow to cool and pack away. Eat
raw, boiled with flour or fry.
LEMONADE POWDER
This makes an agreeable lunch drink and is really necessary to keep the
system in good order. Take the clear juice of three lemons and 15
teaspoonfuls of sugar and put into a broad, flat baking pan. Since so
much water is to be evaporated it is best to dry this out in an oven,
but prolonged exposure to a hot sun will do the trick. The lemon powder
should be perfectly dry and then pulverized and stored in pry up tins.
For use put the powder in water to the desired strength. The addition of
citric acid crystals in small amounts is a help, but when relied upon
alone to make lemonade, as recommended by some writers, will not make a
drink which takes the place of the concentrated lemon except as to
taste.
BREADS
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