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.