Strawberry Electrolyte Gel

Greating my friends, I made these for my trinity alps trip. Due to getting stuck in a snow storm, I didn't get to push myself hard enough to properly evaluate the functionality of this snack. I enjoyed the taste, but think I can improve on the texture of these.


I start with 1/3 flat of fresh organic strawberries ( 0.5kg)


Strawberries are scored in parallel lines, 5-8 cuts per berry, and flavor
is extracted by covering with evaporated cane juice (200g)


After a short rest, and a quick stir, it should look like this gooey mess


There are lots of ways to get the juice from the mix, I use cheesecloth


drain, drain, drain, drain . . . rinse with OJ . . . I collected almost 100ml of juice.


Add the juice from some oranges to bring volume to 100ml.


Pastuerize the liquid, and add in some dissolved gelatin (21g), then pour into a container to set


Cube, and toss lightly with a small amount of sugar. I cut mine so that I could easily squeeze them out of my refillable squeeze tubes. This amount filled one tube completely.

I hope to get the write up done for my trinity alps trip soon.

It's backpacking season, be safe out there,
Cayenne

Calories per gram ratio

Lets brainstorm about Calories per gram.

Fat is 9Cal/g
Carbs are 4Cal/g
Protein is 4Cal/g

For most intents and purposes, Calories only come from these components of food, and the amounts per unit of the food is known from internet databases.

Looking only at these components, there is a linear relationship between percentage of Calories from fat, and Calories per gram of digestible matter.

Calories_Per_gram = (PercentCaloriesFromFat / 20) +4

A "perfect" food would contain only these components in significant quantities. Crafting a recipe for any given Caloric density would be a simple matter of punching in the numbers into the equation to determine the needed fat percentage, and building from that.

PercentCaloriesFromFat = 20 * (Calories_Per_gram - 4)

Protein : Carbohydrate ratio would be a matter of when the fuel was to be burned. I like proteins at night, and carbohydrates in the day, both with generous amounts of fat.

I have a variety of isolated proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Preparing a menu could be a simple matter of seasoning protein and carbohydrate blends and preparing those with water and fat on the trail. Except I want, and need, texture to my foods.

The challenge in optimizing the Cal/g ratio then becomes a function of creating enjoyable texture from carbs and proteins, that can be dried and rehydrated later. These should be crafted in a way that would allow the maximum amount of fat to be tolerated during the meal. This would seem to be the next step in the fake meat project I started last year, but I am not sure. If I want to push the Cal/g ratio higher, I need to be able to find a texture I enjoy when prepared in fat.

Since I've never kept stats before, the bars are my current record on a Cal/g scale. I typed up the recipe for the bars today, so as soon as I select some pictures it will be ready to post.

I'm thinking I can make a hot dinner that breaks 6 Cal/g.

Cheers,

COMING UP !
Trinity alps trip report, and strawberry electrolyte chewable gel.

Ravioli :: No Recipe

I haven't posted anything in a while. I got sick with bronchitis, and pretty much took a month off from life. I'm still a little bit depressed, but things are starting to look up again.

I am thinking about making a ravioli for the trail, a nice protein rich packet of flavor wrapped in a high carbohydrate dumpling. My gut instinct says I want beef stew inside a chewy dumpling, with a gravy type of sauce. I'm still thinking about the best way to go about doing such a thing for the trail.

While I don't have a recipe to share yet, I do have some gratuitous photos, just keep scrolling till you find them. I'm still playing with the fake meats, here as a ravioli filling.

Enjoy, and Thank You,
Cayenne


Four egg yolks, some egg white, and a splash of oil are massaged into one cup of flour, wrapped in plastic and set out to rest for an hour at room temperature.


roll it thin, and cut out ravioli halves with metal shot glass


add some filling


put another circle of dough over the filling, and seal with a fork


repeat until you have enough to cook


cook and serve. I ate these with browned butter and a carrot chutney