Beerbread!

Okay, so survivalism isn't just about knowing wilderness survival and stuff. It's also about surviving tough economic times like this. What would you do if the price of food rose astronomically? Wouldn't it be wise to make your own food if it was cheaper that way? Do you know what kinds of food preserve well and will last you for months if need be?

One of the things I heard about on Jack Spirko's "The Surival Podcast" is being self sufficient. Growing and making your own food to save money. One of those things is making your own bread and a fun little thing to try might be trying to make beer-bread, so as suggested, I gave it a shot.

THE INGREDIENTS: there are many different variations and you can really make the recipie your own by experimenting but here's what I used:

1. 3 cups Flour (sifted)
2. 1/4 cup Sugar
3. 1 tablespoon fresh Baking Powder
4. 1 teaspoon Salt
5. 1 (12oz) bottle of Beer
6. You'll also need a breadpan, wooden spoon, measuring tools(tbsp, tsp, cup) and butter to grease the breadpan.

**I added a little extra sugar, baking powder and beer.

THE STEPS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well. It'll be hard to do after the beer is added.


3. Add in the beer. As you stir, the beer with react with the dry ingredients to make the mixture very sticky and very hard to mix. Just put some muscle into it and use a good strong wooden spoon. You can add another couple ounces of beer if you want, I did and found it loosened everything up just a little and made it easier to stir.
4. Put it all in a greased breadpan and bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
5. Let it cool for a while in the pan, then a little more out of the pan, then dig in!

NOTES & MODS:

Store in a nice dry place like any other bread. Got a breadbox? Cool. I don't :(

Whether it's a plus or a minus for you, don't worry about the alchohol, it dissolves once you bake it.

Make sure you sift the flour to make the bread lighter and fluffier, not like a brick.

Also note the crust is often hard. There are ways to change this (i think the melted-butter on top thing will, haven't tried it myself yet) but this is generally to be expected.

As mentioned before you can really tweak things and add things to make this recipie your own. The recipie I used suggested sprinkling extra sugar on top to make a nice sweet crust so I did.
I've also heard it recommended to pour melted butter and garlic-salt on top, or add garlic and/or herbs to the dry mixture. Either try your own experiments for look stuff up online for ideas.

It's remarkably quick and easy to make but it can be screwed up if you do things wrong, like don't sift the flour, or don't store it right. Mine was delicious the night I made it, but quickly wen't nasty because I don't have a good place to store it. It's worth mastering though b/c it's quick to make and it ends up being a good snack or dinner-side that's cheaper than buying something.

Ah! One last note!I don't think it matters what kind of beer you use, but it might be interesting to experiment with different kinds. I first heard that light beer works best so I used Miller, but while baking I read online that for folks who want to try heavier beer, you should add things like garlic and herbs and butter if you use heavier beers like Guiness. Anyway, have fun!

***Also: I took more pics, but my memory card was loose so most of them didn't save properly, hence no pics of the sticky beer-included mixture, nor the baking.

Charcloth

0. the story
Today I made my own charcloth.

Charcloth is charcoal-like fabric that catches an ember or spark very well and retains that heat, burning slowly to make it useful for igniting kindling to start a fire.

It is made by burning the fabric used to make it in the absence of oxygen so that it gets all of the oxygen and moisture sucked out of it and gets charred without being consumed by actual flame. What's left over is a black brittle thin charred cloth.

I made my own today and will share the steps and specifics of how to make it with pretty pictures.

1. the materials

a. The right cloth. Use only 100% pure cotton cloth. T-Shirts work well, but make sure it's not too thin. Color doesn't really matter, but White is preferable because it makes it easiest to see the change that happens to the cloth.

b. Scissors

c. An tin container with an air-tight lid. Just think ALTOIDS. You can use one of those containers. Personally, I used a tin container that my Ren & Stimpy Uno cards came in.

d. A knife, or other sharp pointed metal object. I guess you could even use a good hard-tipped ballpoint, but don't blame me if you eff up your favorite pen. I said knife first. ;)

e. Matches or maybe a lighter. Something to start the fire.

f-g. A fire... which progresses to a burned down fire, or even a little tiny camp stove thingy. Anything that will burn very hot, Such as the extremely hot coals of dying fire.

The thing you don't want is a lot of huge crazy flames

2. the steps

a. Cut the cloth into pieces using your scissors, that will fit in your container.

b. Poke a teensy hole in the lid of the tin container with the sharp object. It should be very small. Not pinhead small, but small.

c. stick cloth in the container and close the lid.

d-e. Start the fire, at let it burn down

f. Place the container filled with cloth on the hot coals. Lots of white smoke will start billowing out of the hole

g. When it's all cool take it off and open 'er up! You haz charcloth!

3. the f.y.i.'s

a. You don't need a raging fire to heat the tin up. It won't hurt if the coals are flaming a bit, but it doesn't need to be like roaring fireplace.

b. The hole in the lid is very important! When you put the tin on the hot coals, it's going to heat up the inside of the tin, causing any oxygen and moisture inside to expand and spew out the of the hole in a white colored smoke. If you don't have the hole on the top, the expanding gasses will have nowhere to go, causing the lid to explode off, and the last thing you want is a hot tin object flying off into your face or anyone else's.

c. Since hot coals are obviously going to start cooling, you can put some more wood/coals around the tin to be lit up and keep everything nice and blazing hot inside that container. It needs to be hot enough to char the crap out of the cloth inside but again, not raging-fireplace-hot.

d. you're going to want to do this outside, not on your stove. Whatever ink or print on the container is probably going to melt off onto your stove or burn up into a rather bad-smelling toxicky smoke which you don't want that floating in your air.

e. When the white smoke stops billowing out from the whole in your lid, it should be good, but just leave it there until your container and coals have cooled enough to make it safe to touch and remove.

f. When all's cool you should have some nice charcloth inside! gratz!

g. The lid may be hard to take off, just so you know, because the metal might expand a bit, or any print on the tin might melt over the lid and container. Just put some muscle into it.

Appendix: Afterthoughts

I made the mistake of doing mine over a very violently burning fire because I had trouble controlling the flame. I think this made the process happen too fast because it burned through the coals and wood fuel very very quickly so it got very nice and hot, but it burned out too fast to make sure the process was thoroughly completed. Try doing it nice and slow if you can. It takes practice to get the kind of fire and heat you need to do this.

It might also take more than one try to find the right cloth. I used a very old undershirt t-shirt which was too thin so my cloth came out overly brittle.

Mine didn't hold an ember very well unless I assisted it by blowing to keep oxygen flowing to it.

I also found lots of shiny material inside my container with the cloth. I'm guessing it was the ink from the print on top of the can leaking inside through the hole and causing this chemical residue to be left behind.

Hopefully the next time I try this I will be more successful because I'll more evenly and effectively create a bed and nest of hot coals to evenly and thoroughly heat my container and use a thicker T-shirt.

Failed Friction-Fire Hand-Drill

So I tried a hand operated fire-drill yesterday, but failed.
You guys know what I mean right? It's basically the classic image of someone trying to start a fire by spinning a stick very fast between the hands, while applying downward pressure to help the friction. You cut a notch in the area you're drilling so that dust that comes off falls down into one place until that dust becomes so hot that you end up with a small coal.

Here's an image. Borrowed it from http://blog.makezine.com/. All credit goes that-a-way. I didn't have the patience to make a crude ms_paint rendition of my own. ;)

Why Mine Didn't Work:
I actually expected to fail, otherwise I would have taken pictures.
I think the fact that I'm very very near the coast was a fair detriment to my attempt because of lots of moisture in the air during this time of the year and the fact that the wood pieces I used were not nearly as dry as I would have preferred.
Not only that but my drill wasn't very straight or smooth or easy to work with.

Maybe one Saturday before the fall really comes to So-Cal I'll try to find time to take a drive up to the mountains to find some better materials and I'll make a real attempt I'll take some pictures.

I'll also try other versions of the fire drill with bow and strap to help the process.