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Here comes science!

[Ed.:  I would like to heartily welcome Dr. D. Gustibus to ScavengerGourmet.com and thank the good doctor for this, and hopefully many more insightful and entertaining articles to come. -Mr. Carnegie]

Hello!

My near and dear friend Mr. Carnegie asked me if I would write the occasional post on this fine blog, to which I agreed. In keeping with the general theme of this blog and given my background (PhD in psychology), my posts will focus largely on the intersection of food and science. Eating and drinking are activities we engage in every day yet I imagine many of us don’t think about the hows and whens and whys and whats of how and when and why and what we eat…or with whom 🙂

Fortunately, there are a great many people out there who make it their business to delve into these topics and I intend to share some of these fascinating insights with you, the fine readers of this blog.

Let’s start off with a “heartwarming” topic: Comfort food. The term is widely used and, I imagine, familiar to most. But, is comfort food really “comforting”? That is, why do we so often seek out those foods that are high in fat, sugar and starch?

Some yummy lookin' ribs on the smoker

Continue reading “Here comes science!”

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Pemmican – Part 2

This is Part 2 of THIS post.

When I last wrote on the topic, my meat drying was approximately 50% complete.  The next afternoon the elk and a few honey-dates were nice and dry and ready for pulverizing!

This is what the elk looked like right out of the drier (a.k.a. toaster-oven).

Because of the underwhelming power and quality of my food processor, I decided that it would be prudent to cut up the larger strip into smaller pieces. This worked, but overall my food processor just didn’t cut it. 😉 It worked out in the end, but the texture ended up a little too coarse for my liking…although still very tasty. Continue reading “Pemmican – Part 2”

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Pemmican – Part 1

(Part 2 of this article is now available HERE)

Interested in this ancient food for some time, and looking to pack on a few healthy calories, I thought it was time to give pemmican a try.

Basically, pemmican is pulverized dried raw meat and hard rendered fat. Some people add a small amount of berries, nuts, or spice, but basically it’s raw meat and fat. It’s best known as a calorie-dense Native American food that will last years without refrigeration.

Now, I have to admit, I’ve never eaten pemmican before, but I’m a big fan of jerky and biltong, so how bad could it be, right? Continue reading “Pemmican – Part 1”