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So I've just spent an hour or so chopping up bits of dead cow to make jerky for Rob's trip. Yep, vegetarian-for-more-than-a- quarter-of-a-century me ... it's not helped by the fact that it dries better in really small pieces and I was being extra careful to cut any fat out. Since fat doesn't dry properly, if there's too much of it in the finished jerky it can send it rancid. Normally I don't worry too much about tiny bits, as we store the stuff in the freezer anyway just to be on the safe side, but this batch will be travelling on the trike with Rob, so I wanted to make extra sure that it wasn't going to poison him. (He had salmonella once. It wasn't pretty.)
Still, the cats were happy with the scraps...
Also humming away in the dehydrator is the contents of a tin of mango pulp which I bought at Asda this morning and seems to be the ideal consistency for making fruit leathers. Later I'll stew some cooking apples for more apple leather and I need to call the campsite at Mablethorpe (the start point for the journey) as we'll be driving out there next Wednesday evening and camping there overnight, ready for an early start on Thursday morning.
All of which is to say that the trike was despatched from Australia yesterday and with any luck will be delivered here on Friday. Rob will still have to get the electrics sorted, but he's hoping to be able to get a practice ride out to his parents' place this weekend. We're very grateful to Mick at Greenspeed, who, once it became clear that there was no way that Rob's own trike would be ready in time, offered to send out the demo machine so that Rob could go ahead with the tour.
Still, the cats were happy with the scraps...
Also humming away in the dehydrator is the contents of a tin of mango pulp which I bought at Asda this morning and seems to be the ideal consistency for making fruit leathers. Later I'll stew some cooking apples for more apple leather and I need to call the campsite at Mablethorpe (the start point for the journey) as we'll be driving out there next Wednesday evening and camping there overnight, ready for an early start on Thursday morning.
All of which is to say that the trike was despatched from Australia yesterday and with any luck will be delivered here on Friday. Rob will still have to get the electrics sorted, but he's hoping to be able to get a practice ride out to his parents' place this weekend. We're very grateful to Mick at Greenspeed, who, once it became clear that there was no way that Rob's own trike would be ready in time, offered to send out the demo machine so that Rob could go ahead with the tour.
busy
Can you explain what fruit leather is? I think I can partly guess and it sounds delicious! I should put the drier to more use.
And yay for the trike and the tour!!! Are you going with him? Like following in the car or something?
Well, I haven't tried either, but Rob likes them both :-)I suppose it sounds weird that I'm prepared to cut the stuff up but not to eat it, but for me there's a fair bit of difference between the two. And I'd really prefer not to do either, but I'm not setting Rob loose with a sharp knife :-)
Chicken has to be cooked first (I cheat and buy precooked sliced stuff from the supermarket :-)) and Rob likes it with a marinade of sweet chilli and garlic sauce. The beef he prefers without any marinade at all.
Basically just fruit puree (can be cooked or uncooked, depending on the fruit) spread out on a sheet of greaseproof paper and dried in the dehydrator until it forms a flat sheet. It's yummy! Some sharper fruit needs a bit of sugar added, but most is fine without. Apple is good, also apricot - I suspect the mango will be nice too, we'll see :-)
You have one too? I think you're the only other person I know who does. Do you make apple slices and such?
No, I have to stay home and look after the cats and post his blog entries for him :-)
*lol* Well, I know you are vegetarian. What I meant was "tried to make it". No, I can quite relate. I can't eat pork and I still prepare it for J. Which is even worse I think because I'd *love* to eat it and can't.
I bought the drier mostly for jerky. J and I both love it. I've also done apple slices and a few other fruits, like prunes and apricots. J is a chicken though and wants me to turn it off when we sleep and definitely when we are out of the house. That means I can only run it on a weekend and have to haggle for the nightly run to boot. It's silly really. The thing never goes above lukewarm.
The fruit leather sounds great and it sounds like it'll dry better and faster than whole fruit. I'll give that a try. I guess the first will be apple sauce. The thick kind with apricot mixed in.
Poor you :-( Allergies?
If it makes him feel any better, I've left ours on overnight many many times and we've come to no harm at all :-)
If anything it probably takes a bit longer, because it's wetter to start with and the paper reduces the air flow. Very much worth it though!
Your task sounds gruesome, even to a red meat-loving omnivore such as myself. You have my praise for doing such a thing. *bows*
Here's hoping that Rob has an enjoyable and food-poisoning free trip, wherever it is that he's headed. Isn't March/April an awfully wet time of year to make a start?
He's off on a circumnavigation of the British mainland (with a brief excursion to the Isle of Skye en route if I recall correctly. Starting and finishing at Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire and going anticlockwise round, as close to the coast as the available roads will allow.
Should you feel so inclined you can follow his progress on his blog Glyde Round Britain (http://glydearoundbritain.blogspot.com/) (so called because the model of his new trike is called the Glyde). I may also mention it here from time to time :-)
It's not my favourite thing, but I suppose there are worse jobs. This batch didn't smell too bad at least - some bits of meat smell really strongly of blood, which is rather horrid.
The idea is that the weather should be reasonably mild, but not too hot - wet weather is pretty much a given most of the time here anyway :-)
The fruit leather sounds really yummy. Is it possible to make this without a dehydrator? It sounds like something I'd probably love to eat.
I'm going to follow Rob's blog, because this circumnavigation sounds really amazing. A bit crazy perhaps, but in the good way. I hope it all goes well.
I rather like the smell of frying bacon. I worked in a supermarket for a long time and the guys who worked there chopping meat for the butchery department always smelled really awful though.
Yes, but it's more difficult - you can do it in the oven, but it needs to be able to do quite low temperatures and you have to leave the door partly open so that the moisture can escape. details on how to do it here (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_fruit_leather/) if you want to try it.
It is really nice though - and a lot of fruit doesn't even need sugar added to it, so should be good for your diet! Last year we had a glut of strawberries and some of them went a bit soft before I could get them picked, so I made leather from them - that didn't last long! :-)
Thank you. And that first sentence probably sums Rob up quite well actually :-)
My difficulty is a different one from yours: quite often when I post a comment the first attempt results in a rude message telling me it's never heard of the journal I'm posting to. I've taken to copying each comment now, just in case.
I'm tempted to get a dehydrator for Julz for his birthday, since we both like to snack and often make the poor nutritional choice - what make is yours, and where did you get it, if you don't mind me nosing?
I don't mind a bit :-)
It's a Stockli brand one and we bought ours from the lovely Bob and Rose at Backpacking light (http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product109.asp?PageID=1). I can heartily recommend them - they're splendid folks and their customer service is brill!