To each day its own unique dish.
“The act of nourishment is without a doubt the most important, after the act of breathing. But, it is also that which one executes most improperly and in the most disastrous way … ” [Georges Barbarin, Les Clefs de la Santé (Astra)]
Taste—the divine sense—was given to the mouth and belongs to the tongue for the literally vital purpose of foraging the flavors and distributing them. It gives our body exactly what it must—not more or less, not less or more—and no human is capable of affecting this dosage. Every natural product comprises its own ideal recipe and everything is balanced: body, salt, and naturalized by another … Because nature proceeds eternally—because it is divine—by concentration and synthesis, the man who has lost his way (and is proud to be lost!) only operates by analysis and dissociation.
Frugality is the good Goddess, whose ideal saying should be: to each day its own unique dish.
The body is not a fixed and static machine, but a mobile and dynamic construction; the intelligent use is not to use it but, contrarily, to improve it and to increase its potentialities.
The art of well-being is simply the art of living in an age when art is knowing how to kill, mostly.
As was explained in the preceding section on cooking, what is most important about food is not the matter but the life this matter carries. In the following paragraphs, we will not give recipes for conservation at the risk of completely denying the essential qualities of nutrients: it is better to go without eating than to absorb dead food. Therefore, we will not mention the brutal processes: freezing, pasteurization, lyophilization, ionizing radiation …
When catastrophic circumstances (war, earthquakes, tidal waves …), with their usual consequences, epidemics and famines, become the daily lot of the majority of humanity, it is time to learn to eat properly … that is to say, little … and to stop digging our graves with our teeth (if we still have those!) through illogical food.
In this age when nature proves less generous in its production of fruits, grains, and vegetables, it makes more sense to slow down our metabolisms (rather than murder our animal brothers) in an effort to subsist in a state of near-hibernation (a subject addressed in this book). If so few are prepared for this sort of asceticism, it is better then to use preserves.
The methods of safeguarding the nutritive properties of food for the longest amount of time possible date back to the earliest antiquity.
Drying, followed or not by smoking, can preserve fruit, fish or meat. The best and most natural drying processes remain those involving the intervention of sun and wind. One frequently associates salting with drying and smoking meats and fish, where it helps to add a layer of salt or spices to the brine so that the flavorings can deeply permeate the flesh. Some vegetables can also be preserved thanks to salt.
We distinguish between the methods that act by insulation, preventing the development of germs or fermentation, and those that act directly on the elements to destroy them. There are many methods (including smoking, salting, drying, and storing in oil, vinegar and alcohol).
Use the simplest methods just mentioned when you can. Nevertheless, we provide some recipes for storage where sterilization is sometimes necessary: it is better to eat sterilized preserves than sand.
—Avoid eating canned food older than one year as it gradually loses its nutritional virtue with the flow of time.
—Label the jars with dates of preparation.
—Place the finished jars in a cool, shaded area.
—Cook the fruits and vegetables very wholesomely, when the season is in full swing, and never too much at the same time to avoid being overwhelmed by the work of preparation, which is important.
—Set aside one day for vegetables and one for fruit, and eliminate, without regret, any that are slightly damaged, and which risk damaging the entire jar.
When in survival mode, one may be brought to consume canned preserves. One must absolutely reject those whose lids are curved, which indicates fermentation. Only those with a depressed lid are edible.
THE CELLAR It is only used to store good wine and, if it is very cool, dark, not too humid, vegetables, fresh fruit and preserves are stored there too. Potatoes are placed on hardwood, propped away from the floor with wedges. Carrots, turnips and other vegetables are put in layers of 20 cm, covered with straw. One can also pile them in heaps in sand, providing ventilation as chimneys made with straw; monitor for rotted elements that could risk contaminating others.
Fruits are arranged on wooden racks or stainless metal. Keep the ripened ones separately. Cheese placed on shelves keeps well together with canned fruits and jams.
Some leafy vegetables last several weeks if stored with their clods: salads, curly endive, chard, celery, red cabbage. Other vegetables can also be stored if the roots are cut at the collar to avoid further vegetation. One can store these vegetables longer by placing their roots in beds of alternating layers of very fine, dry sand.
The attic: one can store well squash, pumpkins, dried beans, fragrant plants, bulbs (garlic, shallots, onions).
THE CUP Pour a bit of water in a cup so the roots of the vegetables can soak it up for some days; for the vegetables with long tails (leeks, artichokes …) a tall container is preferred (bucket, jar); put in a cool place and change the water just like with flowers in a vase.
THE WELL Put a stone and food in a bucket, then suspend it with a rope while half of it is submerged in the fresh well water. Mark the rope to readily recognize the bucket’s correct position.
The little corner of earth: Choose the shade and dig a hole at the bottom of which one places stones to cover the sideboards. Place food in a closed container—some can even stay on the ground (to repel the insects, leave a cup of vinegar in the corner). Recover the hole with a layer of straw of sufficient thickness.
PANTRY Build a wooden box whose lid will be a wooden frame with a very fine lattice to serve as a door, with hinges on it. Hang it in the cool, airy shade of a tree. You might also replace both sides closest to the door with trellises to get better ventilation.
THE COOLER A kind of chest very tightly sealed, and lined with insulating material into which is placed a waterproof container destined to receive the ice that will maintain a temperature favorable to food preservation. For this purpose, one might use polystyrene.
WICKER BASKETS Put the food in a moist wicker basket, cover it in damp terrycloth, put it in the sun always keeping the fabric wet; evaporation keeps the inside cool.
Simple Food Larder and Freezer
AN EARTHEN POT Fill it with fresh water and place a second container (also an earthen pot) in it. Put the food to preserve there and cover it, refreshing the water as needed.
A special, sterilized pot is not obligatory: a big pot or a washing basin can substitute.
The jars into which food will be sterilized must be absolutely clean, washed in boiling, salted water; also boil the rubber seals.
Clean rags are placed at the bottom of the pots and around the jars so the jars do not collide during boiling.
The full jars, lids closed, are submerged in the pot.
The time for sterilization is always calculated from the moment the water boils, when the pot is covered.
Always let the jars cool in the pot before removing them.
Release the fastening hooks: if the jar opens it is because air remains in the jar still and the time of sterilization was too short or the lids were not closed well or perhaps even that the rubber seals are defective. In these cases, begin the operation again.
Arrange the jars in a dry, cool place, protected from light. Do not forget to label them with the date of preparation.
Sterilization, which requires a stay in boiling water, kills the food’s vital elements:
—45 to 75% of diastasis
—from 60% of Vitamin C
—100% of minerals
—110% of fat-soluble vitamins, including the precious Vitamin D
OLIVES (interesting preservation due to non-sterilization): remove the stems, rinse several times in cold water; put in jars or in a barrel with one-tenth of their weight in coarse sea salt and pure water to cover the olives; cover partially; add water when needed; remove the layers of mold that forms on the surface during two or three months. Just before consuming, rinse them and put them in olive oil.
TOMATOES Taking 1 kg of tomatoes and piercing each one with a needle to make three or four holes, arrange them side-by-side without jamming them into the jar. Fill the jars with water to which you will have added 20 g of sea salt per liter of water; leave them to sit for ten minutes then sterilize them for fifteen minutes.
GREEN BEANS Wash the white beans (butter beans) and leave them in the boiling water for fifteen minutes after peeling them. Drain. Dry them with a cloth and put them in jars with sea salt (80 g per kg of beans). Seal the jar. For a long preservation, sterilize for ten minutes. Remove the salt before using.
PICKLES They should be small, very fresh and very firm. Wash them, wipe them off and nail dried cloves into them. Put them in jars in alternating layers of pickles, bay leaves and tarragon to two-thirds full. Pour salted, boiling water over them, then olive oil. Let cool then seal.
ARTICHOKES Cut the tails off beautiful, plump artichokes and remove the first leaves. Cut two to three cm off the following leaves. Quarter them and wash them in lemon water, then leave them to chill for twenty minutes in water with salt and vinegar added (1 tablespoon per liter). Spoon the artichoke quarters into the jars with the mushy salt water; add olive oil. Seal.
ASPARAGUS Wash them, cut them to the length of the height of the jar in which they will be sealed, taking care to prevent the lid cutting off their points. Dip them into the boiling water for five minutes; rinse them in cold water; drain and dry; put them into the jar full of boiled salt water and vinegar; cover with a layer of olive oil; seal.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS Submerge the cleaned sprouts in water that has just come to a boil, for five minutes; put them in a jar with a mixture of half water, half vinegar; cover with olive oil; seal. Consume without cooking after rinsing.
ARTICHOKE HEARTS Remove leaves and hair, rinse whole hearts in lemon water; let chill ten minutes in dry white wine vinegar (½ cup vinegar to 1 liter) that has been salted and peppered with two bay leaves and three slices of lemon added. Drain, dry, chill. Fill the jars ¾ full, cover with olive oil; add oil if necessary (hearts absorb the oil) and seal. Wait at least two months before consumption.
EGGPLANT After washing, cut the stems into slices the thickness of a finger; put a layer of salt on them and let drain for twenty-four hours; dry them between two cloths; put these slices in jars with a large opening; sprinkle with oregano; pour some drops of wine vinegar over them and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Seal. Do not consume for three months.
ZUCCHINI Let the zucchini, cut into wheels, soak for ten minutes in a mixture that was boiled of half vinegar, half water. Drain and dry. Wait some hours and put them in a jar and cover with olive oil.
BABY ONIONS Boil them in order to easily remove the first layer of skin; submerge them in salted wine vinegar that will have been boiled. Leave to marinate for fifteen minutes, drain; let chill; fill the jar ¾ full, soak in olive oil; seal and leave it for at least a month.
BASIL Wash the leaves in running water, dry them well and put them into a jar full of olive oil, which can also be used as salad seasoning.
CAULIFLOWER Submerge cauliflower separated into small bouquets into salted boiling water for three minutes. Drain and pour them into a jar of wine vinegar and a pinch of black pepper. Let cool before sealing.
NASTURTIUM FLOWERS For six hours, soak the wilted flowers in salt; drain well and place in a jar; pour in boiling wine vinegar; flavor with tarragon, thyme, bay leaves, garlic, pepper.
PICKLES Soak for twenty-four hours in sea salt; wipe off and put them in a jar to ¾ full. Add little onions and black pepper; pour boiling wine vinegar over; let chill; seal.
ZUCCHINI Soak for one hour; cut into 2-cm slices; immerse in boiling water for fifteen minutes, drain; fill jars to ¾ full; pour boiled wine vinegar on and add peppercorns and salt; add a layer of olive oil; allow to cool then seal.
GARDEN VEGETABLES Let these vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, leeks, zucchini, celery, shallots, fennel, eggplant, green beans …), halved, soak for five minutes in lightly salted, boiled water. Drain and let dry; place in jars; pour on boiled vinegar; add parsley, marjoram, basil, garlic, dried clover, cinnamon, and salt (only after cooling).
The following vegetables store well simply in boiled salt water after sterilization of different time frames: asparagus (10 minutes), green beans (30 minutes), artichoke hearts (60 minutes), peas (70 minutes), whole tomatoes (65 minutes).
This method of preserving vegetable roots (carrots, radishes, beets, celery, turnips, parsnip, potatoes …) ensures freshness from May through the winter.
VEGETABLES Choose the unbruised ones; gather them well by taking care to not scratch the earth adhering to the roots; if it is too humid, let them dry.
CONSTRUCTION Dig a 50-cm-deep trench, avoiding ground that is too wet. On the bottom, put an initial layer of thin branches and straw. Stack the vegetables in a pyramid. The silo measurements are based on the amount of vegetables to be stored. Cover with a good thick layer of stiff straw and a layer of dirt, 10 to 25 cm thick according to the chance of freeze. To help, arrange, as needed, an opening facing north that you can reseal with a straw and dirt plug. Pay attention to the internal temperature: if it is too high, reduce the thickness of the layer of soil to prevent fermentation and rotting.
Skin the chestnuts and place them on trays lined with chestnut leaves. Hang these very high above the hearth of an old fireplace (to avoid burning or charring). If the fire is lit daily, the chestnuts will be totally dehydrated after two weeks and as hard as dry wood. Seal them in jars and soak them for a whole night before use.
Well-smoked sausages will store marvelously for at least a year and will maintain a nice golden brown color and a strong aroma and smoked flavor. Hang them from nails in an old fireplace after wrapping them in a layer of muslin—one can obtain similar results using a brazier (avoiding the use of those made with barrels that contained oil or chemicals). Hang the sausages from a board above the fireplace. The wood chips that smoke very well are: beech, elm, birch, oak … Avoid resinous trees. Add to the flame, thyme, rosemary and juniper. Smoke duration: between 20 and 30 minutes.
Beat 60 g of soft butter to a froth; add 100 g of honey, a whole egg, a bit of orange blossom water, a pinch of anise powder or cinnamon or grated vanilla. Slowly incorporate flour into this mixture, sufficient to obtain a stiff dough. Work this dough by hand, then leave to sit for 10 minutes. Shape into a 3-cm-thick cake and cook it on medium heat for 25 minutes. To assure quality storage, make the cakes thinner and smaller (like dried petits fours).
Press the fully ripe grapes with the help of a pestle or in a juicer; pass the juice through thin muslin; then, reduce it by half on the heat, stirring constantly and skimming.
Add to the cooked grape juice equal parts of thinly sliced pears and a vanilla pod; mix evenly and let sit for twenty-four hours in a porcelain container. Cook again in a jam pan, stirring constantly. Judge readiness with the aid of a syrup thermometer—it is ready at 37. Stop cooking and put in jars; store in a dark, very dry place. A very tasty jam, obtained without adding sugar or honey.
The liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals and destined to nourish their young. For humans, nursing lasts for about two years and it is very undesirable to replace the gem that is maternal milk with some other product. After this period of twenty-four months, the newborn no longer secretes rennin, an element that is totally necessary for the digestion and absorption of milk. Some nomadic people, like shepherds, are able to absorb it their whole lives—if milk remains the base food source, the human body remakes rennin. Everyone else who consumes fresh milk must, for good digestion, drink lemon juice to curdle the milk in the stomach.
Milk enters into human nutrition by way of the cow, the goat, the donkey and the camel.
Composition of whole, raw, fresh cow milk (100 g): water 87 – carbs 4.7 – fats 3.8 – protein 3.3 – C, Cl, Cu, Fe, I, Mg, P, K, Na, S, Zn – Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, C, D, E …
After a certain amount of contact with air, milk curdles on its own, but it is recommended to cause this transformation with help from pressure to avoid the development of pathogens.
A citrine-colored, fatty substance, lighter than water, very fusible and held in suspension in animal milk. To make butter, you collect the cream from milk that is churned. It takes around 28 l of milk to produce 1 kg of butter. Once well beaten, you submit this to a number of washes in order to eliminate the serous fluid, which quickly goes rancid. One can knead it with sea salt in order to insure better storage (Breton butter). Being above all composed of saturated fatty acid, butter becomes a source of much lower-quality fat compared with those made from cold-pressed vegetable seeds (sunflowers, squash, corn …).
Butter is stored in a cool, dark place, quenched in fresh water or left under an earthen butter belle, which allows for the refreshing the water around it.
This is the product of curdled milk by way of fermentation. Heat the milk to 50° C, add an enzyme, pour into sandstones or glass pots, cover with woolen fabric and leave for six to eight hours.
These are the foods obtained by coagulation of milk following (or not) fermentation. Here are the different kinds of processes:
FRESH CHEESE Curdle the milk, gather the coagulum into molds in open air and in a basket so the whey can flow—this then gives it the desired shape.
FATTY CHEESE Preliminary preparation is similar to that of fresh cheese. Next is salting and pressing the coagulum several times. Place in a cellar on a bed of hay until it softens and becomes thick. This is how Brie is made.
HARD CHEESE Heat the milk, lightly creamed, to 25° C and pour the rennet; beat the coagulum for a few moments; return it to the heat until the crumbs become thick and are in a yellowish state; remove this dough from the heat; stir to agglomerate and it turns elastic. Pour it into a mold; send it to the press for twenty-four hours; leave the cheese like this for four or five months in a cellar, being sure to salt it every day. Examples: Gruyère, Comté, Parmesan …
CHEESE BY COMPRESSION Curdle the non-skim milk, knead the mass and squeeze it through a strainer to dry it; put it in a cylinder, pierced at the bottom with holes. When the mass has homogenized, submerge it in salted water then sprinkle it with table salt; wash the cheese in whey, scrape and put it in the open air until crust turns reddish. Examples: Cantal, Gouda …
Note: Rennet, an acidic substance extracted from the stomachs of young ruminant mammals fed on milk, contains coagulated diastase.
An egg keeps for ten to thirty days in a cool, dark place. All poultry and bird eggs are edible for humans: chicken, duck, goose, thrush, pigeon …
Eggs preserved in limewater: Take fresh eggs under five days old, pour water over them and brush them to destroy the dermal sheath. Put 1 kg of limewater in a tub. Slowly pour in 10 liters of water; stir; let sit and settle. Collect the limewater and add 600 g of sea salt. Put eggs in containers, stacking them big end up. Cover with limewater and leave them in a cool place. They remain fresh for six months.
A nutrient that is first quality for humans: its sugars, as well as those contained in fruit or nuts, are directly absorbed by the body, unlike beet or cane sugars. It is absolutely necessary that honey not be heated or pasteurized. The best way to eat it is to eat it on the comb without trituration. Well-extracted, good quality honey will keep for six to twelve months in a dark place. See the other sections in this book and our other book, Les plantes melliferes: l’abeille et ses produits (Lechevalier).
Note: Two other bee products are excellent sources of nutrients: pollen and royal jelly.
Sugar, generally extracted from beets or sugarcane, is a toxic food, unlike the unheated sugars from honey or those from fruits and nuts. It is thus better to pass them up. In Canada, a better sugar is obtained from the sap of maple trees.
In times of shortage, one can extract the sap from other trees for the same reason: linden, birch, carob … In Les plantes alimentaires chez tous les peuples: Volume 4 (Lechevalier), the extraction of the maple tree sap is described:
“As with birch (Betula verrucosa), one allows the precious sap to flow through holes put in the trunks of adult trees. In spring, before the leaves, a bucket is placed at the foot of each tree on the ground to receive the sap flowing through tubes attached to the holes in the trunk. This sap is collected daily and deposited in barrels on which one pulls to fill the boiler. In all cases, it must boil for two or three days following extraction. An active fire carries out the evaporation process and the foam is carefully removed and again the sap, nearly liquor, turns syrupy—this is done after it is cooled in order to separate impurities … In the last leg of cooking, the syrup is poured into a boiler and by an intense and sustained heat we quickly bring it to the consistency required for molds … ”
Dried beans, chickpeas, split peas, soy, fava, lentil … are nourishment that stores well for three to eight months in glass jars or strong paper sacks. Let them soak for a few hours before cooking, which greatly reduces cooking time and avoids scalding. It is recommended to not mix legumes with other food energies because they will become very much indigestible and cause bloating and indigestion. The lentil is the lightest dried vegetable and the most easily absorbed.
A Japanese tribe advises eating live fish, even while it is still underwater. The toxicity of fish flesh is less than that of land animals: they are much less rich in saturated acids and contain more mineral salts. Here are three methods for preservation:
IN BRINE Herring, sardines, mackerel—gutted, rinsed and placed, alternating layers of sea salt, in jars or barrels. Rinse the salt off before consuming.
DRIED Gutted, washed, sliced, the fish is put in the sun to dry.
SMOKED This method appears to us to be the best because the combustion from the wood revitalizes and purifies animal flesh.
Man would be wrong to complain about not being a carnivore. Otherwise, being a scavenger would be a blessing: the meat we eat, to become edible, is softened for ten days as it decomposes. Its absorption might be considered a crime (against an animal raised or tracked in order to be digested) and against our own nature: it is surely one of the biggest causes of humanity’s involution. In the West, it is mostly a sign of social success (the same as having a car) and is tainted with old barbaric notions of possessing the attributes of a leader in order to reign supreme or absorbing the flesh of an enemy or an animal to acquire strength. However, if you prefer to feed on the suffering of another living being, why not just enter the greater evil as hunter?
Knowing that it takes 30 kg of grains to obtain 1 kg of slaughtered meat while two-thirds of humanity dies of hunger and one-third lives in deficiency and is malnourished, we could instead feed ten billion more individuals if we would eat only grains.
Nevertheless, meat is more nutritious than sand and during famine one may be pushed to eat meat. The best method of preservation is smoking.
All animal flesh can be smoked: fish, bird, serpent, mammal.
Choose a slope, dig a trench 3 m long × 50 cm wide × 50 cm deep; cover with flat stones and dirt to make a kind of fireplace. At the top of one end, place a grill on a tripod, creating a sort of tipi with a sheet of metal or canvas or branches covered with dirt; make a hole at the top of the shelter’s opening so the smoke can exit. In front of the lower end of the hole, make a highly combustible fire after having placed the flesh, cut into small pieces, on the grill; take care of the fire for the next ten hours, then store the meat in a dry, dark, well-ventilated place protected from predators.
A second method of drying, without digging a trench, comes from the Indians from Quebec … this difficult method can be used to smoke a ham.
Place a tripod over an outdoor fire, set up cross timbers onto which you place the pieces to be dried. Return when the exposed side is dried. Smoking time: three to six hours.
In lands where winter is excessively harsh, meat is often preserved by simply burying it in the snow.
André Simoneton wrote this about fruit in Radiation des aliments (Le Courrier du Livre): Fruit, a superior food, all has a wavelength: it is at its maximum when fully ripe. The sensation of well-being that we experience in the stomach when we absorb fruit is precisely a function of this conglomeration of vibrations that we know ranges from infrared to ultraviolet. It is a gathering of solar vibrations seized by the fruit. In nature, the Sun overruns everything. Totally submerged in its waves, the fruit has stored it all to the max. These vibrations are released in the stomach and give us this lovely feeling—a true, localized sunbath.
NO PREPARATION: EASILY STORED IN THE ATTIC Grapes are hung in clusters with soft wire making sure to submerge the cluster’s tail end in water that can be refreshed.
Apples are placed on the floor without anything touching them; persimmons, winter fruits, harvested in December, January, are stored in the same way.
IN A JAR Firm-flesh fruits (apricots, cherries, pear, plum, peaches …) are stored by way of the same sterilization process used with vegetables. Plunge the ripe fruit in boiling water for one minute and quickly rinse them in cold water in order to easily remove the pits. Put in a jar and sterilize for forty-five minutes.
DRIED Put the fruits (apricot, peach, prune, banana …), cut in two, on a wooden rack, which will be exposed to the Sun for ten days, making sure to turn them over. Do the same with grapes and figs, without cutting them (grape seeds are removed once dried). Cover them or bring them inside at night. If there is not enough sunshine, one can complete the drying in an oven on low heat. Store in jars or strong paper sacks. Dip the dried fruits again for twelve hours before consuming them in order to reconstitute the water that they had at maturity so that they are also easily digestible.
Almond, chestnut, hazelnut, pistachio, pine nuts dry more easily than their aqueous brothers. It suffices to free them from their husks and leave them for some time in a dry place after having passed them through a warm oven for some minutes. Store them in jars or in strong paper sacks. Pay attention to the risks of rancidity.
From flowering plants (plants which have visible fruiting bodies and are replicated by excellent seeds) one obtains excellent oils simply by cold press. These can be stored in a cool place, in good conditions (opaque glass bottles or metallic cans), for nearly a year.
There are four vegetables whose oil is not extracted from seeds: truncheon (bulbs), raffia, palm and olive (pulp). The latter has become the best dietary oil. One also uses sunflower, pumpkin, almond, hazelnut, pine nut, corn … Grape seed oil can only be obtained by way of heat and is, therefore, a denatured element. The residue from the pressing of oil-producers supplies an excellent nutrient for livestock: rapeseed. We insist on cold-pressed, a procedure that preserves all of the oil’s radioactivity properties, and we should also add that it is therefore not advised to cook them.
Prunus (cherry trees, plum trees, peach trees, cherry laurel) provide their pits for a good dietary oil. The main toxins are eliminated during extraction and remain in the rapeseed.
One may harvest the wild, oil-producing vegetable seeds (cardamine, mustard, lettuce, nettle) and toss in more substantial fruits (almonds, chestnut, sunflower, beechnut …) and proceed thus in the end to obtain the oil:
Pour a little water in the bottom of a large stew pot, then three blocks on top of which a fine metal sieve or tightly stretched piece of canvas should be placed. Bring the water to a boil then place a layer of crushed seeds (¼ to ¾ inch thick) on top of the sieve. (Seeds can be chopped with a meat chopper, for example, so that they are around a millimeter in size.) Cover the container and steam for a period of three to six minutes. Immediately remove the pulp this creates and pour it into a fruit press lined with cloth. Pressure should be applied to the pulp for 20–25 minutes. The pulp will release up to 80% of its weight in oil.
In a large salad bowl, alternate layers of seedless fruit and honey (all kinds do well but the best is any flower honey—as long as it is organic and unheated). Proportion: 750 g of honey for 1 kg of fruit.
Let lie for one whole night. The next day, boil in a copper basin. Cook on a very low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (no part of the mixture should ever approach boiling). To know if the jam is well cooked, from time to time remove a drop of the mixture and drop it into cold water: it should fall to the bottom as a drop and settle there.
Let cool before putting it into jars.
In the Great Pyramids of Egypt, grains of wheat were found, which were sown and which after 5,000 years had every possibility of germinating. In good conditions, grains have admirable storage capacity. However, there is not often a pyramid to make the excellent storage conditions. Its replacement: the monstrous, concrete silos of contemporary agriculture industry, pouring toxic preservative products over the grains. We must simply find again the granaries of our distant ancestors—the Egyptians, the Romans … Grains can most certainly be stored for less time to ensure their nutritional bounty. The danger is predators like rats and weevils, while the latter will be killed after an exposure of the grains to the Sun. If Sun exposure is not sufficient, heating it over fire for several minutes will have an effect. Regarding rats—devoted and intelligent human companions—they are not easy to be rid of. Sophisticated traps, poison, shooting remains the means of greatly restricting their monstrous capacity to reproduce. Here, our friends the cats and ratter dogs offer an excellent contribution.
Wheat has become the best grain for humans. It comprises constituent elements for the human body. Spelt, a beautiful variety for the common good, is given to man through organic farming and its cultivation calls for less rich soil. One must never, however, neglect the other grains: oat, corn, millet, barley, rice, buckwheat, rye, milo.
Do not forget, it is better to grind flour as needed because, in this shape, grains quickly lose their nutritional qualities (from one to three months).
Note: Even today, a number of primitive people store their grains in raised, earthen silos (which are placed out of reach of rodent predators).
TIPS The best harvesting time, in the mountains, is from the end of June to mid-October; in the valley, from early September to the end of October. This operation is delicate. Place the mushrooms in the bottom of one large basket, and in another basket, place the unknown species whose identification we entrust to a connoisseur. Respect the non-edible species that nature needs. A good time for picking is just after sunrise. After the rains, the birth of mushrooms! But it is necessary to pick them when they are as dry as possible. Never pick all the mushrooms from the same place: they will not be able to grow there anymore.
PREPARATIONS Brush them without water or clean them with a cloth dampened with vinegar water to carefully remove the impurities. Cut into strips according to their size and mode of preparation.
Dried: Use porcini, mousseron, chanterelles, morchella … Pass them through a wire, spacing them 1 cm apart. Hang in the sun. When they are dried, store them in a paper sack or in jars where they can stay for several months. Before using, bathe them for a half-hour in warm water or for two hours in cold water. Help yourself to the perfumed water of these mushrooms.
Some very good mushrooms to dry:
Craterellus cornucopioides, Sarcodon imbricatus, Boletus edulis: all three are gathered in summer or fall. Very flavorful; used as a condiment.
Marasmius oreades: Gathered in spring and fall; only the hat is good.
Russula aeruginea: gathered in spring and fall; recommendation: ground up in soups.
In oil: for 1.5 kg of mushrooms, boil 2 liters of water with some bay leaves added to it and 20 peppercorns, parsley, 4 dried cloves, a pinch of Celtic salt. In a strainer placed atop this concoction, let the mushrooms soften in the vapor for fifteen minutes then spread them out on a cloth and allow them to dry. In jars, between layers of mushrooms, add crushed pepper and bay leaves. Cover with olive oil and add a sprig of parsley. Seal. To be consumed two months later.
Marinated: For 600 g of mushrooms, boil 6 dl of vinegar (or a shot of mustard) added to a half tablespoon of cinnamon powder, a half tablespoon of ginger coffee, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar, salt, pepper, some dried cloves. Pour the cooled liquid over the thinly sliced mushrooms and leave to marinate in a cool place for two days. Drain. Put back into the marinade and shake for five minutes then pour the cooled mushrooms into the jars. Seal and wait thirty days. Once drained, these mushrooms sprinkled with parsley will taste even better.
In vinegar: For 500 g of small mushrooms, boil a half liter of vinegar, a clove of garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon, three dried cloves, salt, pepper, and add this to mushrooms cut in two, vertically or quartered following their thickness. Allow to chill for a few minutes. Once cooled, fill the jars and add vinegar (if this did not evaporate completely during cooking). Before sealing the jars, place a leaf of wax paper on the inside of the lids.
Some mushrooms to store in vinegar:
Xerocomus subtomentosus—above all, use the hats; Russula vesca; Russula aeruginea; Russula integra—the whole mushroom; Russula cyanoxantha—green and yellow; Lactarius deliciosus. All are gathered in summer and fall.
Oyster mushroom—collected abundantly at the end of fall and winter; Clitopilus prunulus.
Note: Sparassis crispa, gathered in fall, lasts long when stored in a cool place with the foot in water.
Cantharellus cibarius—summer and fall. Due to its firm flesh, it stores well in a cool place and stands up well during shipping.
Lactarius volonus—summer and fall. A particular taste is excellently revealed when seasoned with cumin.
Chew the liquids and drink the solids: a perfectly wise, dietary axiom; one must, actually, not swallow a mouthful of solid food without having previously turned it to liquid by mastication. Chewing liquids as if they were solids is for the purpose of absorbing the vital elements orally and in preparation to absorb them by way of basic digestive routes.
Regarding water, part of this book is wholly devoted to this essential element.
FRUIT JUICES Those fruit drinks called soda contain more sugar than water and chemical colorings and there is even not one gram of fruit sometimes. It is preferable to drink living fruits, precious because of the richness of their vital water, which is full of vitamins. Their sugar is directly absorbed and they are full of minerals and trace elements. Juice with a glass or porcelain juicer: oranges, grapefruit, mandarins … In a cloth bag, fruit can be pressed by hand—strawberry, raspberry, blackberries, mulberries (fruit from mulberry bushes), wild blackberries, currants, blueberries. The fruit juice is filtered, added together if necessary or not, to natural or mineral water.
Barberry water is a special juice obtained with 750 g of barberry fruit—pitted, crushed and mixed to 1 liter of water. After having left it to settle for one hour, pass it through a cloth and add 180 g of sugar, stir, fill and put into bottles and store in a cool place.
SYRUPS For a syrupy consistency, syrup is obtained by cooking fruit juice with a significant amount of sugar added to prevent molding.
Cook on low heat in a copper basin or in a bain-marie 1 liter of fruit juice for 1,750 kg of sugar; stir; skim; when the liquid attains 31° C on the syrup thermometer, filter (twice, if needed). Put into bottles, let cool, seal and store them in a cool place. For strawberry syrup (from the woods, preferably), steep in layers of fruit and sugar for twenty-four hours before using the reconstituted juice in a sieve.
Orange flower syrup: Let infuse for 2 hours in ½ liter of boiling water, 40 g of orange flowers and 1 kg of sugar; cook in a bain-marie for 10 minutes, filter, put in bottles, let cool, plug.
WINE This is the product of fruit of a vine (Vitis vinifera) whose production process has varied through the centuries innumerably and, in the past fifty years, it is once again a healthy drink of infinite good taste as long as taken in small quantities. Today, man has succeeded in rendering wine undrinkable just as he has made bread inedible.
We pay homage to Bacchus when we offer non-denatured wines. The tastes and aromas multiply when wines come from vineyards and from a special class of sunshine.
Silica (sand) affects the lightness, aromas, the brilliant qualities.
Limestone (calcium carbonate) affects the strength, the greater portion of alcohol, the solidity and the duration. It gives white wine the taste of flint.
Clay ensures smoothness, the palliative quality, background, harmony, other qualities.
Iron assures the color, the duration …
Red wine is obtained with red grapes that one puts in a vat after crushing (trampling or pressing), which is done daily for the first four days of fermentation. The duration in the vat is a function of the heat prevailing in the vat, the nature of the grape’s variety, and the degree of the grape’s ripeness. This fermentation is shortened as much as possible, especially for the fine, delicate wines: they take four to eight days in Bourgogne, six to ten days in Provence, ten to fifteen days in Médoc … White wine is obtained with white grapes and also with peeled, black grapes. Champagnes are often prepared with white wine taken from black grapes and added to wine from white grapes. Rosé wine is obtained from the juice of peeled, black grapes in the middle of fermentation and to which the liquid is later added which was extracted from drawn-off wine. After removing from the vats, the wines are put in a barrel, where they are aged, before being put in bottles.
MORE WINE Fermented fruit juice that has transformed to alcohol under the action of sugar’s natural yeast makes excellent wines. Black currants, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, currants, apples, elderberries are excellent choices. Wash the fruits, crush them as soon as possible after gathering them and add one liter of water for 10 kg of fruits. Cover with cloth and let sit for twenty-four hours. Pass through a thick sieve into a barrel and stir. Add 1 liter of water and 100 g of sugar per liter of juice. Do not fill to the rim; leave room for the foam to settle and expand. Anticipate that a certain quantity of juice will have to be added as the liquid level diminishes with the continued draining of the foam. At the halfway point, stop and let ferment from ten to twenty days (the exterior temperature between 20 and 30° C). If the fermentation process is too long (because the boiling is minimal) or the quality of yeast is insufficient, then add 10 cm3 per hl in the form of brewer’s yeast (necessary for the raspberries and strawberries). Squeeze into bottles after fermentation.
Apricot wine: Remove the pit from 2 kg of almost-ripe apricots, crush in a mortar, add 1 liter of water, let sit for twenty-four hours, press to extract the pulp, add a shot of brandy for 3 liters of juice, let ferment and let sit until the apricot wine becomes clear. Put in previously boiled bottles, rinsed with alcohol.
Chamomile wine: Let a big handful of dried flowers infuse for fifteen days in 1 liter of good red wine, the zest of a lemon, a piece of fresh angelica root, twenty pieces of sugar. Filter with a cloth and put in bottles.
Nettle wine: Cook 2 kg of nettles (the ends of branches) on a low heat in ten liters of water with four lemons cut in two. Filter the juice and add 1 kg of sugar (red). To the cooled liquid, add 1 tablespoon of brewer’s yeast, leave three days in a hot place then some days in a cool place. Put in bottles and consume a week later. With a bit of ginger added, this nettle wine will be even better but it doesn’t store well over long periods of time.
LIQUORS These are spirituous drinks obtained artificially either by fermentation (kirsch, rum, gin …) or by mixing brandy or alcohol with some aromatic plants or their products and sugar (curaçao, absinthe, anisette …).
The tastiest are those obtained with fruits: pear, apple, anise, cherry, prune … In Abruzzo (Italy), the mountain people make a liquor called “centerbe” from the mountainside’s one hundred magnificently aromatic herbs. In France, The Brothers of the Holy Family also prepare a much weaker liquor: Kylon.
In the device below, heat the wine contained in the flask. After some moments, a colorless liquid is collected in the test tube, which will taste like scorched alcohol.
In wine, there is alcohol that boils at 78° C and water that boils at 100° C. The alcohol is therefore more volatile than water and, by the process of heating, the alcohol and water turn to vapor. So, upon contact with the test tube’s cold walls, there is condensation, which is to say a return to liquid state. What is therefore collected in the test tube is a mixture of alcohol and water and it is the active ingredient for wine distillation.
The Alembic is based on the same principle. The alcoholic liquids heat in a boiler and the alcohol and water vapors reach the swan neck tap and serpentine coils and are condensed into “eau-devie” (brandy).
BEER This is a fermentation preparation for hops and barley. There are various operations:
Malting: The goal is to germinate the barley and improve the sugar necessary for fermentation. It then takes the name “malt.” Soften the barley in water and spread in thin layers on the floor (room temperature). When the sprout has grown, heat to stop fermentation. Reduce this dry malt to thick flour.
Brewing: An operation that involves soaking the product in water heated to 60° C. Remove the liquid then heat it with the hops that will release its bitter, aromatic and preservative components. You then obtain the beer must that is put into vats (coolers) where it is cooled to 15° C after having separated the hops. Then put it into deep vats with a little bit of the diluted brewer’s yeast obtained from previous operations; allow to ferment for a few days, then remove the yeast.
Clarification: Occurs with animal gelatin or white Flanders glue. Put this smooth (and also nutritious) drink in bottles and enjoy in small quantities.
CIDER This fermented drink is obtained with apples. Expose the apples to the sun for a few days in a dry place. Crush half of them (trampling or with a mill). Brew with one-fifth of their weight in pure water. Put in a vat, leave to ferment some days and put in a closed barrel or in stoneware bottles if one wants to obtain a sparkling cider or, if not, move to a barrel containing grape must with honey turned into syrup.
VINEGAR As the name indicates, it is a condiment beverage obtained by the acid fermentation of wine thanks to “the mother vinegar” (Mycoderma of acetic fermentation) and it can titrate to 8% of acetic acid. One may steep roses, garlic, tarragon, pepper and all aromatic plants.
One can obtain vinegar with all beverages susceptible to fermentation but the best (both in terms of diet and taste) remains vinegar from cider and mead.
The same as oil and aromatic plants, vinegar helps preserve a number of nutrients. One may obtain wild vinegars in the following way (from the sap of wild pear trees, birches, palms, oaks):
On the south side of the tree, 1.2 meters from the ground, make an incision 10 cm long from top to bottom. On both sides, stick a sleeveless knife blade in the wood at the bottom of the incision, under which an earthenware or glass vessel is placed in order to collect the sap. Heal the tree’s incision by rubbing dry dirt or ashes on it. Pass the sap through thin linen then quickly put it in stoneware or glass bottles. Let settle for three months. Then remove dregs from the clear part. The older the vinegar, the better.
In this book, we address everything involving plant infusion, decoction and maceration.
COFFEE AND ITS SUBSTITUTES A decoction obtained from roasted coffee seeds; it is a euphoriant, nerve and heart tonic, intellectual and muscular stimulant, but its abuse causes muscular incoherence, tachycardia, depression, nervousness; symptoms due to the alkaloids it contains: caffeine, cafeotoxine.
But, contrary to tea, coffee is also a food (although low in nutrients): Vit PP, magnesium, copper, rubidium, zinc, fluorine. The roasting makes the seed lose fats, carbs and proteins. In times of scarcity, one replaces this with nontoxic plants that are often not even like coffee in color: chicory root, carrots, chestnut, fern, dandelion, salsify, acorn (soft or ordinary), rosehips, carob seeds, chickpeas, barley, corn, rye, knee holly, hazelnut, chestnuts, juniper, linden tree fruit …
Dry the roots in an oven for twelve to twenty-four hours. Remove the glands of their bark. Mash them in water that is refreshed every few hours to remove the bitterness.
Barley and other seeds are malted: the germinated seeds are put to dry in order to stop the germination.
Everything is roasted on a household grill or in a frying pan, ground and stored in strong paper bags or in airtight containers.
Infuse for three to ten minutes according to taste.
TEA AND ITS SUBSTITUTES Tea is the infusion of leaves of the tea tree, which contains the alkaloid theine, of equal advantage and inconvenience. One distinguishes between two kinds: green tea (simply dried) and black tea (having undergone a kind of fermentation). By mixing them with other ingredients (mint, bergamot …) one obtains an infinite number of delicious aromas.
There are also infinite tastes in tea replacements, which don’t have the consequences of the abuse of real tea. We pay homage to sage leaves, briar (Swiss tea), oregano (field tea), blackthorn, hawthorn, white birch, brambles, holly, wild strawberry …
Another infusion also related to tea: simmer a stick of cinnamon in water for ten minutes, filter and serve lightly sweetened with honey.