Food Storage (for Camping Events) #2 - Period Pickled Eggs

Well I made 2 batches of chicken in the crockpot that were cooked so nicely they literally fell off the bone (yum!), and then used some apple vinegar to boil down the bones and skin to make stock. The stock is now cooling in the fridge so that the fat separates for removal before it is dehydrated. Once I dehydrate the batch, I'll post an update on that. if it works all have a great method to make chicken stock powder to take with me to camping events.

I began doing some research on medieval forms of preserving food since I'd like to have meals I didn't have to have a cooler and ice for that would last several days safely. Information on pickling popped up in knowing how much my family likes eggs, I figure that would be a place to start. Right now I'm just gathering notes on what I need since it'll be a couple days before I can actually do the pickling. It seems simple enough.

6 to 10 eggs, boiled and peeled (depending on the size of the jar)
1/4 tea. salt, cinnamon, coriander (the recipe calls for these spices, but the person doing it uses cumin instead of coriander. Knowing how well the 2 good together, I am thinking I should 1/8 teaspoon of cumin as well and see what happens)
glass jar ( I have a huge one that might work for this, might even fit his much as10 eggs, or I might just make a smaller batch and experiment with my half-gallon jar)

vinegar to cover (thinking to use apple vinegar for this)

I just have to boil the eggs, cooling them down enough to peel them. Then I roll the eggs into the spices (mixed up) and place them in the jar. I think just for the heck of it I might add some garlic and onions to the mix. Then I cover it all up with vinegar and put the lid on tight. The original website didn't say how long to let the eggs sit, but most the other places I saw said 2 weeks at least in the fridge before eating.

Easy Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs

Food Storage (for Camping Events) #1

Okay the school semester is over and I'm making plans for being able to camp with the kids at SCA events next year. I've traded with a friend for a modern tent (10 man, I traded a Doumbek for it). I still have to pick the tent up and make room to store it along with the rest of the camping stuff I'll be gathering over the next few months. Clearing out space in the attic over the next week or so. I have another friend offering me a couple cots. I've been gifted a lantern for outside (wood w/ candle) and an electric lantern for inside the tent (battery powered). Its a start. We don't have room to cart a lot, but I want to make sure we at least have what we need for my city kids to be comfortable and not cranky so more fun is had for all.

One thing I've thought a lot about is feeding ourselves there. One kid is a semi vegetarian (he eats fish only) and the other kid is a meat eater so not only do I have to consider their tastes/needs, I also have to find the best way to store the most (they are both around teen ages, so hearty eaters) without needing to use a cooler. I have been looking at several options. Dehydrated foods (hoping to pick up a dehydrator this week to start trying out some of this), vacuum sealing (I just bought a handheld sealer online along with attachments for sealing regular and wide mouthed jars), and pressure canned meats (need to get a good pressure cooker). With well stored dry goods, and along with the medieval spices research I've been doing (another post coming on that), I figure I should be able to have a good bit of versatility in my meal planning.

The first thing I think I'd going to prep is bases for soups and stews. For example chicken and veggie stock. Now I know I could just freeze them, but that would still required cold storage at events. For this reason I plan to experiment with making my own stock powders that I can just rehydrate as I need them. This is easy enough with the veggie stock because I can just dehydrate the veggies desperately and then mix them for powdering. The chicken stock option took some research because its need to be cooked to a liquid state and then gelled when cooled. I did find mention of removing the fat and then cooking the stock down to a paste that can then be placed on the fruit leather trays on a dehydrator. I plan to try this and see how it works. I'm a big fan of slow cooker meals so I have been looking at chicken recipes that I could later turn into batches of broth. I want to keep the broth simple so I can add whatever spices later I want to without flavors clashing. I found some good recipes for slow cooker chicken though I'd like to play with using more period spices then the recipes I've found call for. After the family is done with the chicken then I'll take to bones a make me some broth. :)

The best recipe I found was this one (see vid below) which uses apples as one of the ingredients which seemed much milder taste (I was thinking of the neutralish stock I needed for later) then the others which were using lemons. I don't have the chicken stock she asks for, but I do have some veggie stock left I think, so I'll just use that instead. I don't think I'm going to add the mushrooms this time. Thing #2 is not fond of them so since this is her first time having chicken this way best to add as many "preteen disapproved" things as possible. I'm also going to play with the spices a bit, maybe hit the Spice House today to get some of the period spices I've been wanting.

A People's History Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - Documentary

I found a very cool documentary on Period food culture in England.

Muromachi period

Okay going back to the research for my daughter's garb I think we've decided on being easy on ourselves and doing the Muromachi period. My daughter didn't seem too keen on the 12 layer royal outfits of the Henian period. I figure after spending two plus days researching the clothing of the period she wants her persona in, I should also gather some other info as well for her to get to know. 

What is the Muromachi period?  (thanks to the MMA)

The era when the Ashikaga family occupied the position of shogun (the clan occupied the shogunate for nearly 200 years). Rivalry between daimyo resulted in the Onin War (1467–77) and the collapse of the shogunate's power. This caused the Age of the Country at War, which extended from the last quarter of the fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth century.Despite the social and political upheaval, the Muromachi period was economically and artistically innovative.Contact with China, which had been resumed in the Kamakura period, once again enriched and transformed Japanese thought and aesthetics. One of the imports that was to have a far-reaching impact was Zen Buddhism. Although known in Japan since the seventh century, Zen was enthusiastically embraced by the military class beginning in the thirteenth century and went on to have a profound effect on all aspects of national life, from government and commerce to the arts and education.

Kyoto, which, as the imperial capital, had never ceased to exert an enormous influence on the country's culture, once again became the seat of political power under the Ashikaga shoguns. The private villas that the Ashikaga shoguns built there served as elegant settings for the pursuit of art and culture. While tea drinking had been brought to Japan from China in earlier centuries, in the fifteenth century, a small coterie of highly cultivated men, influenced by Zen ideals, developed the basic principles of the tea (chanoyu) aesthetic. At its highest level, chanoyu involves an appreciation of garden design, architecture, interior design, calligraphy, painting, flower arranging, the decorative arts, and the preparation and service of food. These same enthusiastic patrons of the tea ceremony also lavished support on renga (linked-verse poetry) and No dance-drama, a subtle, slow-moving stage performance featuring masked and elaborately costumed actors.

An example of a classy Muromachi Period lady, wearing a katsugu on her head Japanese

Painters of the Muromachi Period (1338-1573) The Chinese-art of ink painting was first introduced to the Japanese through trading during the Muromachi period. The first painters were the Buddist priests who taught Zen Buddism. They regarded these paintings as tools to spread doctrines. As they started to use painting as a medium in Buddism indoctrination, many art forms started to lose its Buddist quality, such as sculpture.

Famous painters of this period were Shubun (1500), Sesshu (1420–1506) and Josetsu (1425). Their inspiration was of landscapes. In this period, paintings on fusuma, or Japanese screen doors, started. Onkoku Togan was another great artist in this period. Inspired by Sesshu, his works include the fusuma paintings found in the Obai-in Temple in Kyoto. In this temple alone can be found 44 fusuma paintings done by him.