Misc BOOK REVIEW: The Meals In a Jar Handbook by Stephanie Petersen

[moldy]

I bought this book a while back. I wanted to have some meals I can put up at the pasture house (shed) that we can use while working up there. The house is poorly insulated and without heat, so canned goods are out. We do have access to water and electricity by microwave/crockpot or a Weber-type grill.

The only downside to this book is she uses a lot of commercially prepared dried items: freeze dried veggies, meat, and cheese. I substituted my home dried things for veggies and meat. The cheese I haven't tried drying yet (the meat was a new thing for me too). Most authorities don't approve of drying eggs, cheese, meat, or any dairy at home - so DON"T DO THIS AT HOME. Unless you are a rebel like me, and then you take your own chances and the consequences of those.

Anyhow... I've found most of the recipes are passable. Not something I'd want to eat every day, but it would keep me to the next meal and would keep me from driving 20+ miles into town or back home. The Beefy Taco Rice was good (a little spicy), and the breakfast items are nice to fix the night before and throw in my lunch bag to fix in the morning with hot water from the coffee maker. I'd give it a C+ overall. Your rating might be higher if you use the commercial stuff.

 

[Faroe]

Assuming you haven't yet run into them, and they are still up, you might enjoy the Dehydrate2store videos, by a woman named Tammy. She does a lot of dried things that she just throws into a crock pot. Most of what she dries is either from her own garden, or packages of frozen veggies that she puts in the dehydrator.

I would like to try dehydrating meats. I really don't see how one could go wrong, esp. if the meat is already cooked, and after drying to a crisp, it is packed in salt. Half of what I read about food preservation seems overly fear based. I just want reliable information.

IIRC, that book got so-so reviews on Amazon. I was interested in the concept, but wasn't convinced the book would actually be of much help. I don't care for commercial processed junk either.

 

[Cardinal]

I have dried meat to make pemmican, in this case meat does not and should not be dried over 115 degrees, and this is done in the raw state. Pemmican came out great, no health problems.

 

[moldy]

Half of what I read about food preservation seems overly fear based. I just want reliable information.

I completely agree. The Dehydrate2Store lady has a book also. I have it, just haven't cooked much out of it. I plan to write a review of it later when I have a chance.

 

[Melodi]

I make jerky frequently, although of course my UK dehydrator says to "Never" do so, but I checked the stats on the dehydrator and looked in my US book and it was a perfectly safe machine for making jerky in (you do need to check it depends on the temperature while drying).

While food safety is always a concern, especially with meats and dairy, I have also noticed a worrying trend (much stronger in the UK than North America) towards making nearly everything "unsafe" or "not advised" without clarifying the difference between "really-really, I mean really don't do this" and "well we've been doing this for decades and no one has ever gotten sick but one jar at one lab had an issue and we can't trust folks to use common sense so we'll say it is now banned." The first category would be things like water bath canning meats (don't, just don't) the second would be pressure canning squash or pumpkin that is pureed, it may not be a good idea but it probably is OK (I gather Summertyme had tons of the stuff when they changed the rules and I had squash and no one had an issue).

I think the real agenda is a combination of Nanny State (especially in the UK) and the fact that corporations don't really want people seriously doing home preserving in a big way, they are happy to provide jars and canning kits for a "hobby" level of canning and delighted with ladies who make a few jars of jam each Fall. But they really don't want the general public figuring out just how safe and easy (if a bit time consuming) canning is, provided you follow the rules and have some time set aside to do it; if people went back to gardening and food preservation to the degree they did during the second world war, they would feel a great deal of pain in their marketing departments.

 

[Melodi]

Oh and thank you so much for the book review, I had considered buying that book and now I won't bother; way too many things we couldn't probably buy here anyway and even if we could I wouldn't be likely to use them.

 

[DIMDAL]

Thank you for that book review, I've had it on my wishlist for a while. I found the site Backpacking Chef to be very informative. I think some of you might be interested in his dehydrating meat page.
http://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-meat.html

 

[Deemy]

Interesting as I found the book worthwhile in helpful ideas. Of course they want you to use their food but it does give you ideas on how to come up with your own ideas! I thought the book very worthwhile!

 

[Kathy in FL]

Interesting as I found the book worthwhile in helpful ideas. Of course they want you to use their food but it does give you ideas on how to come up with your own ideas! I thought the book very worthwhile!

I think we had a long thread on this type of thing around here some place.

ETA: I think this is what we were working on wasn't it? http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...r-pantry-storage)-not-BWB-or-pressure-canning

 

[Freeholder]

And even water-bath canning meat can be done successfully and safely! My mother and grandmother used to water-bath can wild game (moose, caribou, salmon) in half of a fifty-five-gallon barrel over an open fire while on hunting and fishing trips, and nobody ever got sick from it. It took a lot of tending, but we had a year's supply of meat out of it.

That said, I have two pressure canners, and that's what I use to can my meat, but if I had to, I would go back to water-bath canning. I've also eaten a lot of home-made jerky and smoked salmon, with no deleterious results!

Kathleen