Dehydrated Apple Pie

Several years ago I recall reading about the enterprising women of California’s Gold Rush, the ones who built hotel and restaurant businesses, and their families’ wealth, by mining the miners’ pockets.  After the men had been eating their own generally lousy cooking for several months or more, they were willing to pay for good food. 

And one of the items on the dinner menus was fruit pies, apple and peach, from dehydrated fruits.  Home canning hadn’t been developed at this point, and the fruit orchards hadn’t yet been planted and producing.  Outside of berries in season, the only fruit available was dehydrated.  I didn’t think the dehydrated fruit pies sounded all that appetizing. 

But you know, we’ve got a couple cases of dehydrated apples.  It was time to try my hand at a dehydrated apple pie.  For research purposes.  Because it probably wouldn’t taste that good. 

Dehydrated Apple Pie

6 cups dehydrated sliced apples

3 cups boiling water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Double pie crust

Bring water (perhaps apple juice or cider would provide better flavor?) to a boil in a medium saucepan with lid.  Add apples to the boiling water, cover, and remove from heat.  Let rehydrate for 15 minutes.  Drain, and reserve the soaking water, if any.

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the sugars, cornstarch, and spices.  Gradually whisk in 3/4 cup of the reserved soaking water (or tap water).  Cook slowly until thickened.  Remove from heat and cool.

Stir walnuts, if desired, into apples.  Put apples into prepared pie crust.  Pour sauce over the apples and add the top crust.  Cut slits in the top crust and cover edges with foil.  Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes and then remove foil.  Bake an additional 15-20 minutes.  Cool to room temperature before serving.

Honestly, I didn’t expect much.  I really thought there was no way the family would be happy with a strictly-from-food-storage apple pie.  Becky makes a to-die-for maple syrup-glazed apple pie that received a blue ribbon at the state fair.  That’s our gold standard here.  And yet, this apple pie was pretty darn good.  I even thought about glazing it with maple syrup, but opted to just stick with the simple recipe posted above. 

The family at dinner last night—#1 son who eats anything that isn’t moving, #2 son who is King of the Picky Eaters, his wife Sarah, Lydia, and my husband scarfed it down.  I’m thinking of having it for breakfast right now.  No one would choose it over Becky’s pie, but it was really quite acceptable.  And when you take into consideration that it started with dehydrated apples that didn’t require any peeling—a huge timesaver—it tasted even better.  It made me wish I had a lot more dehydrated apples.

Links to related posts:

Survivalists, Preppers, and the 49ers

 11.23.22

DIY Cool Whip

As I wrote blogged about in July and August of 2020, garbanzo bean juice, also known as aquafaba, is just about one of the coolest things ever to happen to food storage.  Not only does that garbanzo bean liquid, which is often discarded as a thing of naught, become a perfect egg white substitute when whipped, it also makes a delightful chocolate mousse.  That chocolate mousse is reason alone to sing aquafaba’s praises. 

But wait!  There’s more!

Shortly after that first post on garbanzo bean juice, I stumbled across a recipe for making a Cool Whip substitute using aquafaba.  Admittedly, I have never been a fan of Cool Whip, well, not in the past 30 years, anyway.  Have you ever read the list of ingredients for it?  It’s all fake stuff.  It shouldn’t be in food at all.  So I haven’t made any desserts with Cool Whip in a Very Long Time.  But there was that one dessert, back in college….

Karin, one of my Russian House roommates, made it when it was her night for dinner.  We all loved it, some for the name, some for the dessert itself.  As this is a blog sometimes read by family members, I can’t share her actual name for it.  I ran across the same recipe a year or so later, and that cookbook called it Politician’s Dessert.  Trust me, this dessert does not deserve such a nasty name, so I will rename it, as you will see below.  Anyway, the recipe calls for Cool Whip, which I refused to buy, so I haven’t made this dish in 30 years. 

I did consider making it about 25 years ago, when I tried a food storage recipe substitute for Cool Whip.  It was an involved process using nonfat dry milk as the basis.  And while it may have worked for some people, it never worked for me.  Beating nonfat dry milk powder (and the other ingredients) even for 10 minutes is not going to produce Cool Whip.  But this?  Ho ho……  Yeah, this works.

Aquafaba Cool Whip (makes the equivalent of a small container of Cool Whip)

1/2 cup aquafaba from 1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans (save the beans for another recipe, perhaps hummus)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 cup powdered sugar*

1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon oil (optional)

Pour the aquafaba into a medium mixing bowl and add cream of tartar.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.  Add the sugar, salt, and extract and beat on high until fluffy white peaks form, about 2 more minutes.  Fold in oil, if desired, and serve immediately or freeze for later use. 

OK, I wouldn’t call this a perfect Cool Whip substitute, but it works pretty well, especially if you don’t add the oil at the end.  In my experience, the light, airy texture of the aquafaba Cool Whip is much better before the oil is added.  However, it tastes a bit better after the oil is added.  So it’s a toss-up. 

*Note.  Most store-bought powdered sugar contains cornstarch to prevent clumping.  In some recipes, however, the off taste of the cornstarch comes through, and this is one of them.  If you make your own powdered sugar from granulated sugar (buzz it in a food processor for a little bit), your aquafaba Cool Whip will taste much better. 

Prep School Daily’s Decadent Pudding Dessert

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Cream cheese layer

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

6 ounces Cool Whip (3/4 of the small container, about 3 cups homemade)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Chocolate pudding layer

1 1/4 cups milk

1 small package instant chocolate pudding (or use Magic Mix pudding recipe)

Vanilla pudding layer

1 1/4 cups milk

1 small package instant vanilla pudding (or use Magic Mix pudding recipe)

For the crust, mix the crust ingredients until crumbly.  Press into a 9x13 pan and bake 10 minutes at 350°F.  Cool completely.

For the cream cheese layer, mix all ingredients well and pour onto cooled crust.

For the chocolate pudding layer, beat ingredients together and spread onto cream cheese layer.

For the vanilla pudding layer, beat ingredients together and carefully spread on top of chocolate pudding layer.

Top with remaining Cool Whip.

Links to related posts:

Aquafaba

Chocolate Mousse from Aquafaba

Hummus

Magic Mix

 11 feb 2024

Chilblain, Immersion Foot, and Trench Foot Injuries and Treatment

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on knowledge and understanding you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher care is available.  As long as our society is functioning, you should leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the professionals.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care. 

Chilblain, immersion foot, and trench foot are cold injuries to parts of the body, usually the face and extremities caused by exposure of tissues and small surface blood vessels to low temperatures.  The extent of the injury depends on the temperature, duration of exposure, wind speed, humidity, lack of protective clothing, and/or the presence of wet clothing.  The harmful effects of exposure are increased by fatigue, existing injuries, emotional stress, tobacco use, alcohol, and individual susceptibility. 

Chilblain is a mild form of cold injury that occurs at a moderately cold temperature—above freezing—usually in the range of 32°F to 61°F.  It most commonly affects the back of the hand, but it may also affect the lower limbs, especially the shin area of the legs. 

The skin takes on a bluish-red color and becomes slightly swollen.  It may itch and burn, both of which become worse as the skin warms.  If exposure is brief, these symptoms may disappear completely.  Intermittent exposure may result in a chronic condition with increased swelling, deep red-purple skin discoloration, blisters, and bleeding ulcers which heal slowly and leave numerous pigmented scars.

The treatment is to apply Vaseline.  Individuals susceptible to chilblain should avoid exposure to cold temperatures or wear wool socks and gloves.[1]

Immersion foot occurs when the feet are exposed to a cold water, usually below 50°F for more than 12 hours.  It most frequently occurred among shipwrecked sailors in lifeboats with the accompanying wet clothing, adverse weather conditions, and poor diet.[2]

Trench foot occurs primarily in damp environments where the feet are in damp or wet socks for hours at a time.[3]

Immersion foot and trench foot can look quite similar to frostbite, but are often more swollen than the latter.  The signs and symptoms are white, macerated skin.  Capillary refill is slow and the pulses near the afflicted foot may be weak and thready. 

Both immersion foot and trench foot are treated the same.   The feet should be washed in warm water, no more than 104°F.  Apply a thin layer of Vaseline as needed for discomfort.  Keep the feet dry and warm, but not exposed to direct heat.  The patient should stay off his feet and keep them elevated as much as possible.[4]

There was no mention of treatment of these conditions in any of the herbal references I normally consult.  An essential oils reference suggests that geranium essential oil is effective for treating chilblain.  Lavender and rosemary may also be beneficial. 

Links to related posts:

Frostnip and Frostbite

References:

Survival and Austere Medicine, 3^rd Edition, 191.

[1]  The Ship’s Medicine Chest and Medical Aid at Sea, 1978, 103.

[2]  Ibid.

[3]  Ibid.

[4]  Joseph Alton, The Survival Medicine Handbook, 213-14.

25 october 2022