|
Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 0:05:57 GMT
I'm trying to think of how to make a powder that would be like bouillon or stock or broth, just vegetable.
It can include herbs. It can include spices.
I realize it would need to take into account cultural influences, like the holy trinity, mirepoix, or sofrito, or the german ....what is the word? Bouillon is usually made with those kinds of beginnings.
Let's say you have a vegetable stock/bouillon/broth recipe, multiplied it by 10. Then dehydrated the ingredients in the recipe, so reduced the amount of ingredients (carrots/onion/garlic/tomato/peppers/herb/spice) by it's water holding equivalent. How can I say this better..what is the dry equivalent of an average sized vegetable.
Then you would have for example: 10 carrots, reduced to just dry, xxx oz/grams. Then follow the recipe and add all the vegetables/spices/herbs together in dry form equivalnts to make the useful powder. (somewhat like making the fake table tasty which was a great addition in my kitchen)
Then you take the bouillon powder, add somewhere around a teaspoon per cup of water, for the stewed vegetables taste in recipes.
Yes I have googled bouillons, stocks, and broths but haven't come up with a comfortable recipe. I haven't yet found the dehydrated equivalents of vegetables.
If you can help me think this through and come up with something, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 1:25:59 GMT
I have dehydrated tomatoes, dehydrated greens, dehydrated celery, dehydrated mushrooms, dehydrated granulated onion, dehydrated garlic.
I have pretty fresh herbs and spices, parsley comes to mind(from the garden), black pepper (from the amazon jungle, or amazon.com).
Some of the more particular recipes have leek, I don't have that. I don't have fennel the vegetable. I can get those but our childhood family lived without them.
I'm probably going to need to dehydrate some peppers and celery, because celery is kind of a given in the culture I learned to cook in. We are kind of german yukoslavian american. Onion is kind of a given too.
I'm particularly in favor of adding mushroom powder for umami flavor. (thinking on miso as well)
I'm trying to stay away from added salt for physical health reasons.
I've made stock before, strained it and then boiled it down to a tiny amount, that works too. Like a meat stock w/vegetables if that is what you are looking for. It needs to get frozen. I did that and I had to keep thawing it out to get a teaspoon of it.
Another popular way to do it is to cook all the items (meat and vegetables and herbs and spices) without extra water (steaming or microwaving), then blending it and freezing that mixture, to add to water.
A missing ingredient dependent on cooking method is to get the browning element, of the onions (caramelizing them) or the meat or carrots (roasting them). I'm not sure how intent I am at including that but I see no reason not to roast onions and carrots before dehydrating them if need be for flavor.
Since I'm making a vegetable bouillon/stock/broth, I may roast the carrots to give it some browning.
|
|
|
Post by Tim Horton on Sept 23, 2019 6:55:03 GMT
If it will help..... From our local bulk foods store, I've used French Onion soup (powder) as a base for a lot of the "Just Add Water" meals in a jar I've created.... It seems to have a lot of the things in it you would need to add to a bouillon powder with much less salt.
It is quite low salt, you can add most any dry herb, veggie, to taste.
I like it as a kind of soup in a mug with just very hot water.
|
|
|
Post by Cabin Fever on Sept 23, 2019 14:05:11 GMT
We have never done what you are trying to do. We have only made vegetable stock from left over vegetable peelings and scraps. Since you have concentrated and frozen veggie stock, I suppose you could freeze some of the concentrate in ice cubes trays for small uses. I also believe that I've seen flexible silicone trays (for freezing) that have teaspoon and tablespoon partitions.
I don't know, but it would seem to me that a dehydrated powder of veggies & mushrooms would work, but the powder would still have to steep for a period of time to get the same taste/effect as pre-made and frozen veggie broth.
Our veggie broth together with mushrooms and/or miso is the best!
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 14:58:44 GMT
Tim Horton, that's a good idea if you can purchase it. I've rarely seen any soup mixes w/out salt. If anyone finds a salt free one, not just low sodium, I'd sure like to buy it. Someone could make a million dollars if they sold a salt free (and fat free and sugar free) soup bouillon/broth/stock powder. How many of us have heard we ought to cut back on our sodium, from family, friends, and doctors? I mean, first I'd like less salt because then I have a choice to add it later, but, it's very inexpensive to buy salt. I don't want to spend money on something of a bouillon or broth powder that the first ingredient is salt. Even the low sodium allows 17% of a daily allowance-that's a lot. Maybe it has some value adding salt as a preservative effect but that I'm unsure about. If anyone knows that please pipe up. Morga bouillon powder: Sea salt, maltodextrin, yeast extract, soy sauce, leek, parsley, celery, fenugreek, lovage, carrots, parsnip, turmeric, onions. Seitenbacher Vegetable broth seasoning: Nutritional yeast extract (yeast, salt), carrots, onions, turmeric root, parsley, leek, nutmeg, garlic, lovage, celery, pepper, balm, dill, paprika, rosemary, mustard. Hearty Vegetable Broth ingredients: 1 medium onion coarsely chopped 1 carrot cut into 1-inch pieces 2 celery ribs coarsely chopped 3 garlic cloves crushed 2 dried mushrooms 1/3 cup fresh parsley coarsely chopped 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoons white miso paste has lots of salt in it Savory Spice Blend to taste Savory Spice Blend 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast * 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon dried basil 2 teaspoons dried thyme 2 teaspoons garlic powder 2 teaspoons dry mustard (mustard powder) 2 teaspoons paprika 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds I'm fairly certain, my family, the early settlers didn't have miso or nutritional yeast. So I'm leaving those out. I have them but they are manufactured/cultured products. Serious Eats Vegetable Broth Ingredients 1 ounce dried mixed mushrooms such as oyster, porcini, or morel 1 medium yellow onion, split in half 1 large carrot, roughly chopped 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped 2 to 3 leeks, greens only (reserve whites for another use) 3 cloves garlic, smashed 1 (4-inch) piece kombu (dangerously high in iodine-exceeding the upper limits for iodine) 3 bay leaves 6 sprigs thyme 6 sprigs parsley 1 tabespoon whole black peppercorns 1 teaspoon fennel seed 1 teaspoon coriander seed (this recipe is cooked and then strained, so the whole spices are removed when the flavor is imparted, with ground dried spices, I would use less in proportion to the vegetables) Serious Eats Quick and Easy Broth Ingredients 4 medium carrots, peeled and roughly diced 4 stalks celery, roughly diced 2 large onions, roughly diced 4 medium cloves garlic, smashed Sprigs of fresh parsley, thyme, and/or a dried bay leaf This recipe is really great because it is the basic bones of vegetable stock. Everything else is kind of extra special added. Very familiar tastes to me, would include thyme and bay leaf. Umami flavor=mushroom powder. I don't see tomatoes on any of these! That's kind of unexpected. I thought I'd need some dehydrated green or red peppers, but it looks like none of the ingredients ever list needing that either. I'm going to need to dehydrate carrots and celery. It looks like they all use carrots or turmeric for the lovely yellow color a broth usually has. If anyone has a broth/stock/bouillon recipe or bought product, could you check and see (if you like it) if it has any peppers (bell) or tomatoes in it? I don't HAVE to add those, but it is curious to me that none of these mention those things. I guess I'll start dehydrating and paring down the ingredient lists/recipes and see where it leads. If anyone has their 'grandma's vegetable soup recipe' and doesn't mind sharing. Please post it. Is there another source you like on the internet for recipes, a trusted source you use? Links to products and recipes. www.amazon.com/Morga-USDA-ORGANIC-Vegetable-Vegetarian-Seasoning/dp/B01LX1DP2H/www.amazon.com/Seitenbacher-Vegetable-Broth-Seasoning-oz/dp/B00BRAX71Q/nutritionfacts.org/recipe/vegetable-broth/nutritionfacts.org/recipe/savory-spice-blend/www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/02/hearty-vegetable-stock-vegan-recipe.htmlwww.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/11/quick-and-easy-vegetable-stock-recipe.html
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 15:23:24 GMT
We have never done what you are trying to do. We have only made vegetable stock from left over vegetable peelings and scraps. Since you have concentrated and frozen veggie stock, I suppose you could freeze some of the concentrate in ice cubes trays for small uses. I also believe that I've seen flexible silicone trays (for freezing) that have teaspoon and tablespoon partitions. I don't know, but it would seem to me that a dehydrated powder of veggies & mushrooms would work, but the powder would still have to steep for a period of time to get the same taste/effect as pre-made and frozen veggie broth. Our veggie broth together with mushrooms and/or miso is the best! I'm a fan of miso too, and mushrooms. Miso soup is pretty darn good.
Yeah, Cabin, I've made the stock then concentrated it and I should have frozen it in cubes so I didn't have to thaw it to get a tablespoon of it. I ran out of it pretty quick.
The other day I was making split pea soup and I needed some stock or bouillon (salt in that) and I was using better than bouillon, and it kind of irritated me that I can't find a bouillon powder. I thought, gee, is it such a big deal to ask for salt free/oil free/sugar free bouillon powder? But it is.
That stuff cooked for more than an hour. Most of my soups and stews cook a fairly good long time. Good point about the steeping time. I'll make sure everything is ground finely so it imparts its flavor and pay attention to steeping time.
I also used better than bouillon in my stir fry vegetables, when I was cooking the onions and mushrooms, then later the red/green bell peppers. I'm trying to get away from using anything with oil and to to control my use of salt.
The other place we use the bouillon (not just me), is for a comforting cup of hot bouillon. When we get sore throats or flu/cold to keep hydrated. I'd like to taste something other than just salt. Once I get this powder made, it will probably need to sit a bit to steep the flavor out.
I wanted also to thank you again for the suggestion of using Benson's Table Tasty. I made a fake version based on the ingredient list, and it rocks corn on the cob. It is really good on hot stuff. We use it on popcorn too. I've gone through about half of what I made (almost a cup) and I'll definitely make it again. It's a mess/pain to make with all those ingredients but it turns out so good, so I'll double it the next time I make it.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 23, 2019 19:09:41 GMT
nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/uga_dry_fruit.pdfIn this publication, it gives some good advice. 1. There is a soaking time in boiling water, for rehydrating vegetables. (meaning: steeping time) 3/4 to 1 and 1/2 hours, as you said Cabin Fever, 2. To avoid bug damage, an oven method of pasteurization, after dehydrating especially beans--I'm not using beans but it make sense to kill off bugs and eggs. Baking at 160 deg F for 30 minutes. Easy and can't hurt. (I have experienced bug damage with dehydrated tomatoes--so this rings true for me.) extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/drying-vegetables-9-308/This article discusses dehydrating vegetables with a blanching time, then a dehydrating time. Carrots, celery, onions, 4 minutes. I'll use this blanching time. They are dry when they are brittle, since I'm going to grind them up. It also has the number of pounds of fresh vegetable to the number of pounds of dry vegetable. Carrots 15 lbs (fresh) 1 and 1/4 lbs (dry) Celery 12 to 3/4 lbs Onions 12 to 1 and 1/2 lbs www.ncc.umn.edu/food-and-nutrient-database/The nccdb, nutrition coordinating center database is most easily accessed with cronometer.com It tells me that a medium carrot weighs 61 grams. A medium onion is 110 grams. A medium stalk of celery is 40 grams. (who knew all this information was available?) Now I just set my recipe (the most subjective part), and multiply it by 10 or so, convert it from grams to ounces to pounds, for fresh, then dehydrate, convert to lbs dry for each item and rewrite the recipe using dehydrated ingredients and amounts. Then if all goes well, I should have a recipe for bouillon/stock/broth powder made from dry vegetable/herbs/spice powders. I want enough to get through a year without having to buy products with sugar/oil/salt, and go through all this mess/work more than once.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 24, 2019 2:05:36 GMT
Just goes to prove someone will be a millionaire. There is a mostly vegetable little salt added product out there. I found it in the canning and preserving with love, page support group. epicure.com/en-ca/products/food/broths/vegetable-broth-mix#/product-details-nutritional-infoThe sodium is 2% of the rda. woo hoo. Ingredient list is: Onion Carrot Nutritional yeast (inactive) red bell pepper (wow--the only one I've seen like this) herbs sea salt celery seed black pepper $11.50 for 4 oz, or $46/lb. But they deserve to get rich.
|
|
|
Post by Cabin Fever on Sept 24, 2019 19:29:20 GMT
I wonder if a person wouldn't get something similar if they just mixed one of the varieties of Mrs. Dash's Salt Substitute with some nooch?
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 24, 2019 19:40:13 GMT
Cabin Fever , yes. Here's ingredients for benson's table tasty: Nutritional yeast extract (No Candida Albicans, No Msg), carrot, red bell pepper, onion, lemon, arrowroot, garlic, celery, dill, paprika, allspice, sweet basil and parsley A bouillon/stock/broth would start with carrot, onion.....then the rest.
Edit: Adding that it is 26.99 for 3 3 oz containers, $48/lb.
I'm not going to be able to calculate cost of making a dehydrated vegetable powder because some of this comes out of the garden, and the cost of the dehydrator running, is variable at like 10 dollars/month, last time I ran it for months. The cost of my time, well, it's immeasurable.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 26, 2019 2:15:56 GMT
I decided I should set a recipe, that I can change when I've had a chance to think about it for a while.
Issue: browning some of the vegetables, not important enough. If the flavor is not dynamic enough and needs some depth, will consider it next time along with the addition of turmeric, paprika, basil, oregano.
Issue: steeping time is reduced with grinding the dry vegetables/herbs spices, not going to worry much about it this time. The proof is in the use of it so I'll decide after this batch.
Issue: bug damage, worth worrying about, blanching, then heat pasteurizing afterwards, for sure.
Issue: buy a mix of no-salt flavor, add nooch. There are a lot more herbs and spices, and citric acid, than in a vegetable powder, so I'll try this blander vegetable powder for bouillon/stock/broth and see how it goes. I also think the tomatoes and green peppers flavors are more pronounced in a flavor powder to replace a salt flavor powder, so I'm keeping them out of the vegetable powder. They work magic in salt replacer flavor. The tomato or pepper flavor might overwhelm the carrot.
Recipe 4 med carrots fresh
4 med stalks of celery fresh
2 med onions fresh 1 t dehydrated garlic 1 oz dehydrated ground mushrooms (shiitake) ?? thyme dehydrated ground ?? small amount of bay leaf, dehydrated ground ?? small amount of parsley, dehydrated and ground
I want this to be be mild and soothing. Say we get a cold or flu, something mild to drink hot for hydration, or making a stew or soup, a mild flavor that doesn't overpower the kind of soup it is. I'm thinking of something mild like potato soup, or broccoli soup, or leek soup, nothing that is overwhelming. Slavenian (sp?) jugoslavian, German, American, base. None of these flavors screams loudly, they are all mild and familiar.
This is all going on hold until Oct 10 or 11, the carrots and celery will get processed, some of it dehydrated beginning then. We only have 4 things left in the garden, celery, carrots, lettuces, some green peppers.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 27, 2019 0:49:57 GMT
Rethought leaving the celery in until the 10th of Oct, it might freeze, and we have enough stuff to cover for an early frost. Took out 15 lbs of celery, threw away about 2 lbs-bug damaged and hollow, so 13 lbs of celery are in the dehydrator. We didn't realize that these celery seeds were so incredibly small. Between my overplanting, and DH over transplanting them to bigger containers we ended up with way too many celery plants. But given this recipe deal, it's a blessing in disguise. This is what a lousy picture of 15 lbs of celery looks like.
Late last night DH told me I needed to add our parsley powder to the recipe so I did. Then I woke up and thought, it needs some black pepper, just a little.
Recipe 4 med carrots fresh 4 med stalks of celery fresh 2 med onions fresh 1 t dehydrated garlic 1 oz dehydrated ground mushrooms (shiitake) ?? thyme dehydrated ground ?? small amount of bay leaf, dehydrated ground ?? small amount of parsley, dehydrated and ground ?? tiny amount of black pepper ground
If you have a suggestion on the amounts, or more ingredients, or anything please pipe in before I make this stuff in the middle of October.
|
|
|
Post by Tim Horton on Sept 27, 2019 5:50:24 GMT
The seasoning products you mention, and what of the recipes I can read sound similar to a product I know called Mrs. Dash.. I'm sure all are good products for what they are intended.
OK... So... However, I think there is a difference.... In everyday, uninterrupted life a no salt and very little sugar product will likely be much better for many people than other alternatives. And that choice is fine.. In an emergency (fill in emergency of choice) you will need at least a little salt and sugar to get the most nutrition out of what is available then. I guess that is why I have been working with things like the French Onion Soup powder as a base for many of my "Just Add Water" jar recipes.
Or maybe I'm just being too picky about this.. My 5 cents of opinion... so far.....
|
|
|
Post by feather on Sept 27, 2019 14:38:03 GMT
Tim Horton, I don't think you are being too picky. Once we put a strangle hold on salt here, our taste buds changed. So it's just a difference in my taste buds, compared to your taste buds (or how mine used to be), for how much salt we choose to use. It's what you are used to. The french onion soup powder probably has a normal amount of salt for what most of the population is used to. It's popular and doesn't speak to how healthy it might be. I can't tell you that french onion soup powder is unhealthy because it might be your only source of salt, I have no idea. There's quite a bit of scientific controversy on how bad or good salt is, in what amounts we eat per person per day and that it affects all of us or just salt sensitive people--too much controversy to know the answer. I don't think that we (my husband and I) recognized all the sources of salt. It's in ketchup and mustard, every soy sauce, processed soup mix, most dried soup mixes, every chinese sauce in a bottle, nearly every canned item or baked item. Once we started reading every label, we were surprised to find so much salt in bought bread, and if you look you find sugar in canned beans (added sugar in canned beans is ridiculous). There's added oil coating raisins with some raisins we had purchased. So if you can imagine, meal after meal, we were getting way too much salt, sugar, and oil, without ever realizing it. So I asked myself, what IS a normal amount of salt (not taking into account high blood pressure and it would be prudent to reduce salt intake because I had high blood pressure)? Salt is present naturally in food. Not in the additives of food but the actual food. Just like protein is present naturally in just vegetable food. Just like fat is present naturally in just vegetable food. So if you take 20 onions, carrots, and celery stalks, how much sodium is there in that? 1637 mg. (8.2 grams of fat and 59.6 grams of protein) How much salt is that? It's a good part of a teaspoon. 2325 mgs of sodium, is equivalent to about 1 teaspoon of salt. I guess for my purposes (and my taste buds), we have sodium in the food, we have salt in almost all packaged and processed items. With all the layers of salt/sodium, we're not having a shortage of salt. I'm going to make a powder that doesn't have any added and at least be aware of any I use when I eat. I appreciate your input and it kind of pushes me in the direction of continuing to make or buy plain spices, herbs, and dehydrated vegetable powders instead of premade mixes because of the salt in them. It's not like we don't use salt at all either. We do use it but much more sparingly than before. Sometimes our salt of choice (and sugar) is a small chopped pickle, or some bragg's aminos, or low salt soy sauce, but now we are more aware of it.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 1, 2019 17:38:22 GMT
15 lbs of celery (with another patch outside still growing), after washing and sorting, I lost 2 lbs of it to bug damage and hollow cores. 13 lbs of celery dehydrated, then ground in the food processor, then in a spice grinder, then heat treated at 170 deg for 35 minutes to avoid bug eggs from hatching, if any. Weighed and jarred. 8 oz of celery powder. Wow.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 10, 2019 18:09:54 GMT
12 lbs of celery, in the dehydrator at 135 deg F to make into powder tomorrow. Now to prep the carrots to be ready tomorrow for the dehydrator.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 10, 2019 19:49:37 GMT
Math day to figure out how much of the carrots need to be dehydrated.
Main recipe is: average med sized
4 med carrots 61 grams x 4 = 244 grams
4 celery stalks 40 grams x 4 = 160 grams
2 onions 110 grams x 2 = 220 grams
Ratio of dried veg to fresh veg, then multiplied by grams needed from above.
Carrots 1.25/15 x 244 = 20.33 grams Celery .75/12 x 160 = 10 grams Onion 1.5/12 x 220 = 27.5 grams
Multiplied by 20 recipes, then convert to ounces
Carrots 20.33 x 20 = 406 grams = 14.21 ounces (dried carrot powder) Celery 10 x 20 = 200 grams = 7.05 ounces (dried celery powder) Onion 27.5 x 20 = 550 grams = 19.4 ounces (dried onion powder)
I have enough of the celery and onion powder already.
I need approximately 4 x 20 = 80 carrots. In grams, 244 x 20 = 4880 grams fresh carrots in 20 recipes. Convert to ounces = 172 ounces fresh carrots. Convert ounces to pounds = 10.75 pounds of fresh carrots or more, to go into the dehydrator tomorrow.
Prep: Start with the smallest carrots of the harvest and work towards the larger less mangled looking ones.
Scrub and take off the top and bottom. Cut 1/4 inch thick or less, in the food processor. Blanch for 4 minutes. Cool in ice water. Drain well and put them in the dehydrator.
---- Do I have enough garlic? 1 tsp garlic per recipe x 20 = 20 tsp or 6 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons garlic. I have more than enough.
Do I have enough dried mushrooms? 1 oz dried mushrooms x 20 = 20 ounces dried mushrooms ( a pound and 4 ounces) (ordered some, though I have some, just not enough)
|
|
|
Post by Cabin Fever on Oct 10, 2019 20:23:39 GMT
Okay, I am not following how you determined the ratio of dried to fresh weight of the vegetables.
For instance, celery you used .75/12 or 6.25% Does that mean average celery is composed of 6.25% solids and 93.75% water?
From your own experience, you dehydrated 13 pounds of fresh celery, which resulted in 8 ounces (0.5 pounds) of dehydrated powder. This would indicate for your celery, the ratio should be 0.5/13 or 3.8%.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 10, 2019 20:38:05 GMT
Okay, I am not following how you determined the ratio of dried to fresh weight of the vegetables. For instance, celery you used .75/12 or 6.25% Does that mean average celery is composed of 6.25% solids and 93.75% water? From your own experience, you dehydrated 13 pounds of fresh celery, which resulted in 8 ounces (0.5 pounds) of dehydrated powder. This would indicate for your celery, the ratio should be 0.5/13 or 3.8%. Yes, for instance carrots are 88% water. So celery is along those lines too.
extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/drying-vegetables-9-308/
It also has the number of pounds of fresh vegetable to the number of pounds of dry vegetable. Carrots 15 lbs (fresh) 1 and 1/4 lbs (dry) Celery 12 to 3/4 lbs Onions 12 to 1 and 1/2 lbs
In my own experience, I'd say that the university of colorado state, is probably more exacting than I am in measuring or driving out all the moisture (95% of the moisture should be driven out.)
Yes your calculations 13 lbs of celery giving a ratio of .5/13 or 3.8%, that MY celery had a different wet fresh to dry ratio. It could be my large weight measurement, the type of celery that I grew, I might have over dried or under dried them, compared to what they did.
That's why I prefer to use their ratios.
I appreciate you asking. I rechecked some of it and feel pretty confident about it. I'm probably going to put it together in a couple days now.
|
|
|
Post by Cabin Fever on Oct 10, 2019 21:42:56 GMT
Thanks for the explanation. I guess if it were me, I wouldn't even worry about ratios and moisture contents, etc.
For instance, let's say my fresh broth recipe called for 4 carrots (244g), 4 celery stalks (160g), and 2 med onions (220g). But I wanted to make 20 recipes of dehydrated broth powder.
I might start with 80 carrots (or 4.9kg), 80 celery stalks (or 3.2kg), and 40 onions (or 4.4kg). Dehydrate them down, grind them into powder, mix everything together, and call it good.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 10, 2019 22:05:42 GMT
You can do that. You can even put your name on it, a new brand, 'Cabin Fever vegetable bouillon powder'. You can even take credit for how good WIHH's soups taste, with a fabulous product like that. Mr Feather here will be taking credit for how good my soups taste due to all the growing and harvesting of all the ingredients. I don't want to dehydrate much more than the necessary amounts of carrots, given I have limited amounts of celery and onion powders now. I'm using an already dried onion powder, so I have to convert it one way or the other.
|
|
|
Post by Cabin Fever on Oct 10, 2019 23:41:19 GMT
Gotcha!
As far as our vegetable broth goes, we save every bit of onion peel and root, every celery root and tops, and every bit of carrot tops/bottoms/peels. We have a special plastic bag in our freezer that all of our veggie scraps go into. When the bag is full, WIHH boils it with water, and then strains it to make a gallon or two of vegetable broth. The broth is frozen in containers for future use.
What I like about your broth is that with yours a person is actually getting the all the solids from the veggies. With ours, most of the solids are strained out.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 11, 2019 0:06:35 GMT
Cabin Fever, Mine gets more fiber or solids. Maybe only a gram or two at best. On the other hand, it is possible you are getting more b12 in your broth than I am. Both good things! I have about 30 lbs of carrots from our harvest today. Soooo many mis-shapened ones, and some good straight almost smooth ones too. Our carrots were an after thought for us, one package of seed, where ever we had room. We lost at least half of the carrots to some kind of animal underground chomping on them, so it could have been a 60 lb after thought. That would have been something to manage.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 12, 2019 15:24:00 GMT
I had ordered 1 lb of dried shiitake mushrooms. I've ordered and received very very dry mushrooms, and then today mushrooms with more water content. The very very dry mushrooms I ordered previously were out of stock, pun intended.
Here's where I get an issue where the water being driven off (or not enough water driven off) that causes problems. Not just with the powder rotting or something. The mushrooms I ordered have 13% water, so they are whole and pliable. They aren't dry enough to shatter in the food processor. They will have to be dried further before I can do anything with them to powder them. I'll have to break them up, then process them in the food processor and possibly the spice grinder.
mushrooms are 8% vegetable matter, and 92% water. That means it takes about 12 lbs of fresh mushrooms to make 1 lb of dried mushroom vegetable matter.
There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet, probably because mushrooms absorb water and even mushroom powder absorbs water from the air. The cooks type of internet information says that 2 and 1/2 to 3 ounces of dried mushroom powder equals 1 lb of fresh mushrooms (meaning it only takes 5-6 lbs of fresh mushrooms to make 1 lb of mushroom powder).
That is a large conflict of information, 5-6 lbs of fresh mushrooms or 12 lbs of fresh mushrooms to make one pound of mushroom powder. For the purpose of the bouillon powder, I've resolved the conflict of information, to be practical, to use an amount somewhere in the middle, towards the very dry side so it doesn't rot and less possibility of clumping.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 13, 2019 21:09:48 GMT
Dried the shittake mushrooms for a day/night. Put them in gallon zip lock bags. Then son pounded them for a few minutes with a hammer and they are very pulverized. They shattered. When I have a dry food processor I'll powder them completely, dry them in the oven at 170 deg F for 30 minutes, just to drive off any other moisture and guard against bug egg damage. I was making a mixture of 'pop', smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, two of which are clumping due to our humidity in the summers here. I put all of that into the oven on parchment, at 170 deg F for a half hour, and then mashed it and broke it up fine, before putting it in the heat treated glass jar. Now that should stay clump free for the winter, to put on our potatoes and popcorn. The carrots. I have carrots everywhere, on the stove, counters, bread board, both sinks, processor and that counter, probably the floor too. Cleaned the carrots, chopped them thin with the food processor, then blanched for 4 minutes in boiling water, put them on dehydrator trays. Now dehydrating at 125 deg F until crispy, tomorrow or the next day. I'm going to try to get one more tray of carrots before I tackle cleaning up the carrot mess. 15 lbs of carrots fills the dehydrator.
Edit: This was the best price for dehydrated vegetables I've seen, by Frontier, $11.57 for one pound, the only drawback is that they used potatoes in it, probably for fill and not flavor.
|
|
|
Post by feather on Oct 16, 2019 17:49:00 GMT
The carrots filled all the trays in the dehydrator. Somewhere in the 13-15 lbs amount of sliced and blanched carrots. It ran two days and they were dry and pliable but not dry enough to shatter well in the food processor. I am drying them further in the oven at 170 deg F to drive out all moisture, for about 2 hours. Then I'll grind them in the spice grinder, and weigh them out. Put them in jars. Then I can put the bouillon/stock/broth powder together. I'm drying some red peppers, not for this, for flavor in fake table tasty or fake mrs dash. I believe this will be my final recipe. In order of highest to lowest weights/measures. Bouillon/Stock/Broth Powder (w/o salt)Mushrooms 20 oz (dehydrated ground mushrooms shiitake) Onion 19.4 ounces (dried onion powder) Carrots 14.21 ounces (dried carrot powder) Celery 7.05 ounces (dried celery powder) Garlic 20 t or 6 T + 2 t (dehydrated garlic) (approx 2.5 ounces) 6 T of parsley, dehydrated and ground 3 T thyme dehydrated ground 5 t of black pepper ground 2 and 1/4 t bay leaf, dehydrated ground End weight 64-70 ounces, or 3.9 lbs for 20 recipes. Each recipe amount would be 3.5 ounces of vegetable/herb dehydrated matter.
EDIT: practical volume of entire dried recipe is about 4 quarts. Some of the recipes were for 2 qts of broth, some for 4 quarts. Splitting the difference, 3.5 oz of bouillon powder for 3 quarts of water, to make bouillon, would be a little over 1 oz of powder to 1 quart of liquid. 1 oz powder is about an estimated 2 tablespoons. So I would use a little over 2 tablespoons of powder per quart of liquid bouillon that I'd want.
EDIT TASTE TEST: 1 heaping teaspoon in 8 oz mug of hot water, 2 minutes, pinch of salt. DH: It's really nice. Me: It's good. Wow. I'm glad I did this.
EDIT: DS tasted it and he likes it too. It has a full vegetable taste.
|
|