Has anyone made a soup mix from home-dried veggies and herbs?

[freemotion]

Oh, I so wish we had an Amish store here! It sounds so wonderful. We will have to take a short vacation (craap, who will milk?) to Amish country again. We took a day on the way back from somewhere years and years ago, and always said we'd go back, we enjoyed it so much. Never happened, though. I have to go do some serious ss shopping there one day, for sure.

I have seen directions online to make your own sort of bullion by reducing broth then dehydrating it, but it seems so much easier just to can it. The dehydrated would be ok for some serious camping and living off the land kinda trip, not for me, thank-you-very-much. Sounds cool when someone else does it, but I like my house and bed and hot baths too much!

Thanks so much, keljonma, for saving me the trial and error of making up the soup mix, yours is perfect.

I just use the tomatoes in the stir fry because they don't break down like fresh ones and the chewy texture is kinda nice.

 

[ORChick]

You could also make a glace de viand with your meat or chicken stock. Depends on whether it is more important to you to save space, or energy. With a wood burning stove that is going most of the time, this is certainly what I would do. Once your stock (make sure you've used bones and cartilage, for a good supply of natural gelatin) is finished, cook it slowly with the cover off so that it reduces. As it gets lower in the pot you might want to pour it into a smaller pan. Keep on reducing as far as you can without burning. What is left will cool to a very stiff jelly - glace de viand. Pour into a container with a tight lid, and this will keep for a long time in a cool place - 'fridge if you can. You'll only need a small spoonful mixed with hot water for a cup of broth. I've done this a couple of times, and the resulting glace is wonderful, but usually I can't justify the long cooking. I generally only reduce it a little, and then freeze.

 

[freemotion]

Oh, cool! I do have a woodstove going full-time all winter, still going now. If it is still cool next week when I make catfood, I'll have to try that. I have to try EVERYTHING at least once!

I do make my broth from the bones, etc, and make my own catfood from whole chickens, so we have lots and lots of broth to play with. I simmer it for 24 hours, usually. It is amazing. Yummy. We were both sick with the flu a couple weeks ago and went through my frozen stock, it was great to have available. I still have lots canned.

I think it was that...what did you call it? Glace de viand....that was run through the dehydrator for camping food, easy to carry and rehydrate. Imagine that with keljonma's dehydrated minestrone mix.... We'd eat better camping then most people do every day!!!

 

[Wifezilla]

FM, are you adding a bit of vinegar to your bone broths? It helps pull calcium and other minerals out of the bones and in to the liquid. (but you may already know this )

 

[gettinaclue]

I didn't know that!

Thanks!

 

[freemotion]

Yep, being a Sally Fallon and Weston Price fan, I do! Raw ACV! One day, homemade....

 

[Wifezilla]

I should have known better!

Gettinaclue, yeah a little vinegar really helps. Home made soups are already healthy. If you are using a good bone broth as a base, it is worth it's weight in gold

"Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily-not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

Fish stock, according to traditional lore, helps boys grow up into strong men, makes childbirth easy and cures fatigue. "Fish broth will cure anything," is another South American proverb. Broth and soup made with fishheads and carcasses provide iodine and thyroid-strengthening substances."
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/broth.html

 

[freemotion]

And it is delicious!! I just found an ancient jar of "Better Than Bullion" that wasn't even opened, gotta be soooo old. I was horrified at the ingredient list. I will toss it in the trash, but the jar will be great for my homemade deodorant!

 

[SKR8PN]

Freemotion, I got a book called "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing " I found it used on Amazon and it tells you EVERYTHING you need to know to SAFELY cure any meat.

http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-C...d_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238158653&sr=8-1

 

[freemotion]

But does it require chemicals in the recipes?