a few weekends ago a fellow stove collector and i got together to try out some Classic Stoves and i took the opportunity to work on some meals for the upcomming canoe trips..first up was salt pork and pea soup.while a great knife or flashlight might be handy in a survival situation a meal that will stick to your ribs would be better,and as how the trappers and traders who used the nearby St Croix river lived on this stuff i thought i would give it a try.



i cut the salt pork in cubes and fried it then tossed it into a pot of pea soup that was simmering over my trusty Primus..i let it cook untill the soup was thick enought for a spoon to stand up in---well i can see why this was the mainstay of the Voyageurs who came this way from Quebec in the 17-1800's with canoe loads of trade goods and why they were nicknamed "lard eaters"--what you end up with is a nice pot of heavy pea soup with hunks of semi-bacon lard--not an afternoon snack but i'm sure it has lots of go power..i struck that from my canoe trip menu--but as a survival meal i'm sure it would be just the thing--OK--next--


something very modern--freeze dry pork chops..for the stove meeting i cooked these up following the directions on the lid.
soak in warm water--dip in egg and bread crumbs and deep fry in peanut oil--it worked..the result was like making the thin cut pork chops from your local store..tasty but a bit chewy.



want i really want to try was using busted up bits of the chop in a dry veg soup stew thats made with rice and cheese fill pasta with some sort of meat. dry beef or chicken just melds into the mush of this stew and i wanted "real meat". once again an old stove was fired up,a Svea 123,and for a test just the soup and chop bits were cooked up.



another long simmer to make sure the uncooked pork would rehydrate and cook in the boiling soup--



and i would say a total success!!!--the meal not the out of focus photo--tasty and "meaty"..cooked thru and tender..
i heard someone say a can of these chops would last for years..i froze the rest out of the open can and i'll use them over the next couple years for canoe tripping but i'm sure if you have any plans for long term storage they would work out just fine..just Google "#10 cans-pork chops" for a supply.

Very Cool, and it sounds great. Do we get the recipes, or what?

So the freeze dried is as good as, or better than regular dried meat?

Thanks for the post and especially the photos.

So, want to go canoing down here in Texas?
I'll do the dishes afterwards.

What are the refrigeration requirements for the salt pork?

-Blast

Hey Canoedogs,

Your Pork-Veggie Soup looks very good, I would eat that on a canoe trip, no problem.

How do you like the Mora 2000 knife? I had one in my hand at a gun show about a year ago and did not buy it; I thought the change in grind at the tip looked weak but I am sure it is a good slicer? It gets good reviews on the Internet and I regret not buying it.

Thanks,

Mike

AWESOME post, and looking good. I have a few cases of MH meats only. Think I am down to 12 maybe 14 cans of the FD pork chops, but I also like the ground beef (due to usage options, and diced chicken again usage options). Nice to see other use them. I have tried them in verde, straight up on the grill after a LONG soak in cold water to bring them back from the dead, diced and fryed a few for burritos type of a thing.

As for after opening results I found this at MREdepot and when I ordered a few cases from MH last year they verified it but said.... humidity in your area can throw off off these times.

upto 5yrs in a freezer after opening but not reconstituted
upto 1yr in a fridge after opening but not reconstituted
upto 60days without refridgeration but not reconstituted
upto 5 days in the fridge after reconstituting

More can be found on them here:
http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-265/Freeze-Dried-Pork-Chop/Detail

I have bought cases of stuff from Steve before, but not these. These are old batches, so half the shelf life on them are gone, but for this type of application, they would be great (more so due to half price from other vendors). From MH they will last 25-35 years. Weird thing about the pork chops, they DO NOT directly list expiration or manufactur date on the can. These are also one of the few that have USDA info on the top of the can. IE since uncooked. After purchase you can call MH with the weird code on the bottom and they can tell you info about shelf life left, manufacture date ect.

When I bought mine form MH they were the same price as they are on MRE depot so I was afraid they were older surplus but the crew at MH said they were fresh and made within the last 4 months, they just could not move them. I have used 2 cans as experiments and or mailing overseas since food here cost a arm and a leg. Nice way to offset living cost here and make a few bucks from per diem on the side.


On a side note, I made a post about the canned Yoders bacon over at AR15.com in the food section last year. Not bad stuff either. Utah Walmarts now carry the yoders canned bacon in tactical camo cans, and also Red feather butter and cheese!!!! Way to go UTAH! (too bad at walmart, I really do hate going in that place)

I'm the one who camped with Canoedogs and ate the breaded pork chops, something I've always wanted to try. The chops were better than I thought they would be, definately a great food addition to trips. Any bit of something resembling meat to add to a diet of dried food goes a long way. The chops weigh next to nothing and could be diced at home for trail meals.

In your soup, the idea to simmer them a bit to soften up is a great idea. I still have the supply you gave me in the freezer for further experiments. My spring schedule will free up a bit toward the end of April and I should have time to experiment.

thanks for the feedback--heres the recipe for Garg..for one person a pack of Spring Veg Knorr Soup--thats a cup or so of soup, for two guys toss in a second pack..i add another cup or so of water for the other dry stuff that go's in--Knorr also has a kosher veg soup thats not as salty and has other veg's in it like zucchini but any pack of dry soup thats to your likeing would work i guess--i add wild rice that has been cooked and dried.if i don't have any of the wild stuff at hand i use a "instant"--10 minute cook--brown rice..white instant rice works but you have to add it later in the cooking or it gets sort of mushy and i don't use it anymore because i want a one pot,no fuss sort of meal that will cook while i get my tent up or do other camp chores--other than that dry meat of some sort.i have used freeze dry chicken,beef and in the past the freeze dry breakfast sausage patties that are hard to find now.i also did home dried buffalo burger but none of these had any "teeth" to them so i'll use the pork chip bits now..the other major item is tortellini.the dry cheese filled pasta comes with tomato and cheese or just a variety of cheese and really makes this glop tasty.thats about it--sometimes i'll toss in the sun dry tomato,dry mushrooms and onion bits that i add to my powdered egg breakfasts..on a cool,wet day after paddleing for hours this Garg has filled me up many times and is always a hit with the canoe buddys.i pre-pack the meal in a zip-lock bag so all i have to do is open the soup pack and dump the rest into a cooking pot that water has been added up to the "scum line"--
Blast-- i have no idea how long the salt pork would last--
in the old days a "wad" of pork and a bag of dry peas was stuck away as a back up meal for canoe trippers but maybe they made it different then so it lasted longer--more salt??..

Swamp--the Mora 2000 is now my main camp knife..that thin grind on the tip seems to be as strong as the blade on any knife i've used..that rubber handle is great in the wet and unlike some handles does not feel cold..

Spoolup--i got that at LDP camp foods..your right about the long soak the chops need.i think the ones i breaded and fried could have sat while we were out hiking and been a bit better.
but what i have left will just be the meat for the Garg--



the real thing out on the canoe path with a bottle of Mango Tang and rum to wash it down---

CANOEDOGS;
Old style salt pork was fresh pork bellies (the same cut as bacon) packed fresh in dry salt and turned every few weeks until cured.
It was harder, and it was dry.
The meat part resembled that dried italian ham (prosciutto crudo?) a lot in texture, though the fat part was still fat.
The salt pork had to be soaked for at least a day to get rid of enough salt to become edible, the same as with salt cod (Bacalao)
It keeps like salt cod does too, forever (over a year?) so long as it is dry

The last time I saw actual salt pork in a store was in 1992. Salt pork, because of the time needed to rinse the salt out of it, is just to hard for most people to use.
All I have seen called salt pork since 1992 is wet brined pork, and it is not the same thing at all.

scafool--great information..thats sort of what i thought but did not know the details..i just had to give my "salt pork" a rinse in warm water to get the salt taste down to the point where i just just get a taste of it..from what you posted i can see how these guys it the old "how to camp" books could keep this stuff around and not have it go bad..thanks---
by the way we can still get salt cod in wood boxs down here-

Yum. Boxes of salt cod.
That is another thing I have not seen lately.

One of the construction camps I worked in had a Portuguese cook. Every Friday was fish day and salt cod appeared at least once a month.
It is delicious when done up right. It has a different flavour and texture than fresh cod too.

Another rare treat if you run into it is Naval beef. Naval beef is packed in barrels or pails in wet brine, very very salty.
It is soaked to reduce the salt a bit and then used in dishes like Navy bean soup. (or Jigg's dinner)

The common thing to all of these, and to the original types of bacon cures, is that they did not rely on refrigeration to preserve them.
(I don't trust modern cured meats to last without refrigeration or freezing)

Anyhow, I was asking earlier about how the freeze dried meat compares to regular dried meat. I know that pork is almost never simply dried because of the fat levels, but sometimes you can get beef that has been properly made into jerky just by drying instead of salt or sugar cured.
I have not tried freeze dried meat yet and have always suspected it to be like freezer burned meat.
Your review of it makes me wonder and I will be trying it out this summer.

I'll have to look into the Knorr Soups. I've made some of their sauces before, but haven't tried the soups.

Thanks!

The only reliable method of curing meat is the use of Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite. It has been used for thousands of years. Salt/Sugar cure or smoke cure is not reliable enough to ensure a safe finished product. That said, I have eaten more than my fair share of salt/sugar cured meat in my lifetime without any ill effects. You just have to exercise greater care in the processing.

We often shoot grouse on moose hunting trips. After years of eating our 3 local types (Ruffed, Spruce and Sharptails) I decided that I would no longer shoot the spruce grouse as the meat is very dark and to me tastes like liver (uck). My hunting partner was not part of this decision and he continues to shoot "any grouse", so spruce grouse still find there way into our cooler. To hide the strong taste my partner pan-fries the cubed meat and adds it to Knorr soup that is then allowed to simmer on the back of the wood stove in the wall tent. The liver taste is not completely gone using this method, but it is mild enough that even I enjoy this thick soup.

I still don't shoot spruce grouse because in Ontario they count in your limit with ruffed grouse and I would much rather fill my limit with them as they are delicious!

Mike

scafool--oops..went off on a tangent there and forgot the question..freeze dry V.S. just dried--the chops are the only large bit of meat i've tried that was freeze dried and i can see after some expermenting with it that you really have to soak it a long time to get it anything like a real pork chop.
i have seen instructions that say to soak it longer and then keep it in the frige overnite to really get water into all the meat cells--if thats the right term--i know when it was boiled in the soup/stew it was like any real chop i ever had..the other freeze dry stuff was by Mountain House i think .chicken and beef and the bits were so small that i really did not notice them in the Knorr rice side dishes i added them too. i did try dry meat or what passes for Jerky these days but it took forever to get soft in the stew and cutting it was another cooking chore i wanted to avoid..a local Buffalo farm has Jerky in their store but i never did like chewy meat. what i'm doing of course if putting together camp meals and not something to store away "just in case"..--salt cod in wood box's with blue printing??--Minnesota is a Swedish sort of state and you can get Old Country foods in quite a few places.
i get a dry cure,hard salami that last for weeks on the trail at a butcher shop in Minneapolis that carrys the cod along with fish in toothpaste tubes and other "treats"--

Swamp--just to keep this a "survival" post--we call Spruce Grouse "fool hens"--they will hang around your camp and can be killed with a swift whack with a stick or well aimed rock.
while i've never done that i surprized some guys who had done just that on a portage trail who took me for a Ranger because of my all tan canoeing clothes and at first were trying to hide the dead birds..when they saw i was not with the DNR they held them up like a stringer of Walleyes--

Hey CANOEDOGS,

I agree spruce grouse are "fool hens" here also and I have seen them killed with sticks and stones before. For a while at the moose camp we had a rule that you could only kill spruce grouse if you did not use a gun; this rule only confirmed that I am useless with a slingshot.

Sorry for diverting your thread about freeze-dried pork to fool-hens, you know how story telling goes, one leads to another...

Thanks for the info on the Mora 2000, I am going to pick one up next chance I get.

Later,

Mike

FYI, Yoders makes canned bacon. 12 bucks for 50 slices of bacon is pricey, but nothin beats the real thing.

Yoders Bacon