Life is Better with Salt and Pepper | Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

Introduction
New prepping websites and survival websites are appearing almost every day on the internet. Prepping for an uncertain future has become a major international topic and people who have a little extra food set aside are no longer being called "hoarders" or "doomers." Instead they are being portrayed as practical and intelligent people.

The purpose of this article is to remind people that salt and pepper are two of the basic ingredients of most meals. All fast food restaurants have small individual packets of salt and pepper that they will give to any customer who asks for them. And almost all dine-in restaurants have a salt shaker and a pepper shaker on every table inside the restaurant. The reason is because these two seasonings are frequently added by a customer to enhance the flavor of whatever food the customer purchases from the restaurant. Most restaurant food already has some salt added to it before it is cooked, or while it is being cooked, or after it has been cooked. And pepper is also added to some foods in small amounts to enhance its flavor. But each person has their own unique opinion on exactly how much salt and how much pepper is "just right" and therefore restaurants provide these two seasonings to their customers so their customers can enhance their meals in exactly the way they prefer.

It should be mentioned that fresh eggs do not contain any salt or pepper. Fresh fish, chicken, beef, and other meats do not contain any salt and pepper. Fresh vegetables do not contain any salt or pepper. Freshly ground flour and cornmeal do not contain any salt. None of these foods will taste "normal" after they have been cooked unless a little salt (and sometimes a little pepper) has been added to the prepared food.

Salt and pepper are not expensive in April of 2024. If you are preparing for an uncertain future then please do not forget to include some salt and pepper with your long-term storage foods. Some long-term storage foods already contain a little salt in order to enhance their shelf-life but some do not. And any fresh food that you may be able to acquire will not contain any salt. And food will not taste "right" unless a little salt has been added to it. And salt is one of the spices that the human body must have in order to function correctly over a long period of time.

I originally discussed salt on my website on April 1, 2011 and that article can be read here.

I originally discussed black pepper on my website on March 19, 2011 and that article can be read here.

Discussion
In addition to salt and pepper there are two other common ingredients that are used to add flavor to many recipes. Those two ingredients are onions and garlic.

When onions are cooked with fresh wild game meat, the onions helps to neutralize the "wild" flavor of most wild game meat. The flavor of onions also merges with the flavor of wild game meat as it cooks and this can significantly enhance the flavor of the meat.

Garlic is also used in a manner similar to onions. Sometime garlic is used instead of onions and sometimes garlic is used with onions.

Onions and garlic can be purchased for long-term storage in salt or powder form. The salt form usually contains salt and less onion and less garlic. The powder form usually does not contain any salt and therefore it is more potent as a seasoning and less powder is needed to enhance the flavor of a recipe.

As I was collecting my recipes for my book "Grandpappy's Campfire Survival Cookbook" I noticed that the majority of the recipes included salt, pepper, onions, and/or garlic. Therefore I included a summary of all four of these seasonings in my campfire cookbook. The following information about onions and garlic has been extracted from my cookbook and that information is included below. I have also included two recipes from my campfire cookbook that explain how to make homemade onion powder and homemade garlic powder.

Wild Game Meat: The easiest way to use wild game meat in a recipe is to submerge the meat under water that contains salt for 12 hours in your refrigerator. (Note: Add 2 teaspoons of plain common salt per pound of meat to the soak water.) After soaking the meat in the refrigerator, grind the meat into a hamburger consistency. Then prepare the meat using almost any recipe your family currently enjoys (burgers, tacos, meatballs, chili, etc.). The ground meat will more easily and completely absorb the seasonings in your recipe and your family may not notice that you are serving them wild game meat instead of ground beef. Ground meat is also easier to chew and easier to digest than meat that has not been ground.

Dried Herb Powder or Herb Salt: Herbs dried into a powder are 4 times more potent than the same herb prepared as a salt. The recipes in this cookbook are based on the amount of "herb powder" required. If you use the herb in salt form then may need to "double" the amount of the "powder" recommended in the recipe to achieve a similar final taste result. And you may need to only use half of the amount of common salt recommended in the recipe.

Onion Powder: All wild game animals and all game birds can have a significant amount of their wild flavor neutralized with onion powder. And onion powder also helps to tenderize and enhance the desirable natural flavor in wild game meat and in game birds. Onion powder has a long shelf life and it can be used whenever a fresh onion is not available. Therefore onion powder is a very, very nice thing to have in a campfire survival situation where a significant part of your diet will be wild game animals and game birds. You may also have access to fresh fish but onions are usually not required in most fish recipes. Fortunately almost everyone is already accustomed to the taste of freshly cooked fish.

Recipe for Homemade Onion Powder
Ingredient: 1 onion, whole
Remove the paper thin skin with your fingers. Cut onion into slices as thin as possible. Put thin slices on a nonstick baking pan. Bake at 175°F (79°C) for about 2 hours or until the onion pieces will crumble in your hand. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Grind into a fine powder. Store in an airtight container in a dry cool area.

Garlic Powder: Garlic powder has the same benefits as onion powder when cooking wild game animals and game birds. However, it is used less often than onion powder in recipes for a variety of reasons.

Recipe for Homemade Garlic Powder:
Ingredient: 1 garlic, whole
Separate the garlic bulb into its cloves. Use your fingers to peel the thin skin off each clove. Cut the roots off the end of each clove and discard the roots. Cut the cloves into slices that are as thin as possible. Put the thin slices on a nonstick baking pan. Bake at 175°F (79°C) for about 2 hours or until the garlic slices will crumble in your hand. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Grind into a fine powder. Store in an airtight container in a dry cool area.

Conclusion
Except for God, nobody knows how the future will unfold.

However, it might be a good idea to include some salt, pepper, onion, and garlic along with your other long-term storage foods.

May God Bless,
Grandpappy.

Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com