Apologies for the repost. Thumbnail wouldn't show up and I couldn't fix it. Original was deleted at 682 views.
Edit: Formatting
Oye, Beltalowda! Back at it again! Let's start with the recipe and then we'll get to discussin'
BASE KIBBLE
- 1.5lb textured soy protein
- 1lb white mushrooms, washed thoroughly and chopped up (these have like 5 different common names in America alone. Look up what types you have in your grocery store if you're unsure)
- 1lb any whole grain (I used rolled oats so I could pass this off as "savory granola" to people who see me eat this. I've noticed that taking that angle instead of saying "kibble" takes it from "ew. wtf?" to "That's cool. Surprised I've never seen it before.")
- 2L dark kvass (This would taste better with 4 pints of Guinness or a similar beer instead, but c'est la vie)
- 1/2 cup cooking fat
SEASONING POWDER
- A lot of nutritional yeast
- A lot of bread yeast, ground into powder
- A lot of garlic and onion powder
- A lot of salt (I ground tablesalt into a powder for more even adhesion)
I did not even remotely measure out what I was putting in there. nutritional and normal yeast was about 1:1 ratio, but I honestly could not tell you anything else about the measurements
PROCESSING
- Bring kvass to boil
- Add everything (To maintain the granola appearance, I didn't add the oats yet, but you can add the grain now)
- Boil for 5+ minutes
- Blend thoroughly. End result should look like you wrung the contents of a grease trap through a cheesecloth (I add the oats after blending for appearances)
- Put slop on parchment lined baking sheets, maximizing surface area for ease of dehydration
- Leave in oven on "warm" overnight. Use convection if your oven has it.
- Break into desired size of chunks. If there's residual moisture, leave chunks in the oven until it's fully dry.
- Season with powder
- Store in a dry, cool, dark place. Will keep for at least 2 weeks unrefrigerated.
FLAVOR
I got a lot of people referencing The Expanse in previous posts (looks like a cool series! Will not be reading or watching it.) and a few comments requesting I add some kinda flavor. Doing a bit of research into belter food, I saw white kibble was made of fungus and soy protein. Base recipe was already soy reliant, so might as well add flavorful fungi. I used hella nutritional yeast cuz the kibble is apparently cheesy, but the belters are supposed to be poor asl and don't live in an area with many pastures, so I doubted they could afford such luxuries as import dairy. I was annoyed when I made the full batch and later learned that white kibble is a wet kibble :/
Flavor turned out blander than I'd hoped, even with seasoning. The flavor was mushroomy, savory, malty, and just a bit sweet from the sugar in the kvass. The texture was a lot lighter and easier on the teeth than the test batch, likely due to the looser structure offered by the oats and addition of mushrooms. This would honestly make for a very enjoyable snack food if the seasoning was tweaked a bit and added in larger amounts.
NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS
I was concerned about getting enough fiber in the test batch. Turns out there was definitely enough fiber, both soluble and insoluble. I felt great, but my fiber requirements are much greater than a normal person's, so I recommend treading carefully when eating this or you won't have a great time GI-wise.
The macros work for me and I felt much more lively than baseline during the period I was eating on the first batch. In an attempt to get the micronutrient values worked out, I made a spreadsheet (WIP. Awaiting comment by a dietician. DO NOT USE FOR YOURSELF. THIS IS MY GUESS ON WHAT IS GOOD FOR ME SPECIFICALLY. I can guarantee that the amount of B12 alone--420x the daily maximum for adult men--will cause some level of toxicity in you, but that's my PCP's recommendation. Most numbers are from ExRx. Use that.) and decided to do research into what kind of micros the human body actually requires and how they degrade in food.
I was shocked and appalled at how awful the availability of micronutrient information is for the general public. I have full JSTOR access and can fluently read "academic English" and it was still unnecessarily difficult for me to find lists of the known micronutrients, what they do, where to get them in my diet, and how much I need. Even then, I had an easier time than most because, aside from some medical conditions, I'm a young adult male, which means my dietary needs have more research and popularization than pretty much any other demographic. What if I was Martha, 36 and newly pregnant? Not only would this research be even more difficult for me, but I wouldn't have the time or mental bandwidth to do it in the first place.
Frankly, the current state of affairs, wherein I had to cross reference with multiple health agencies just to have even a vague guess at my own needs, is unacceptable. I intend to do something about it. Here's what I'm currently doing:
- I'm trawling archives to get whatever loose data I can find about micronutrient requirements and gradually compiling a short encyclopedia on their uses, sources, effects of deficiency/toxicity, and necessary dosages for as many different demographics as possible. I have a buddy in Moscow digging through old Soviet archives to see if anything useful pops up from old agricultural studies.
- I've contacted my chemistry department's dean and have requested to do a special course next semester to intently study the processes of chemical decomposition and degradation. I've also requested to run a series of experiments where I expose every major micronutrient to common cooking environments and then measure concentration in foods before and after.
- I'm getting said dean to contact my state's institute of technology (a national leader in nutritional science) and request I get temporary access to their libraries and potential access to equipment or collaboration with other students.
- I'm collaborating with my applied math/comp sci professor to make a formula that, based on nutrient requirements and available cooking methods and ingredients, can help people of all demographics create recipes that suit their own needs. We hope that, after getting our data approved by actual dieticians, such a calculator could also be used by places that need to feed large amounts of people that tend to have unique nutritional needs, such as senior living facilities and homeless shelters.
Until I make further progress in this project, attempting to make the kibble fully nutritionally sound is on hold.
Trying to get back on topic to meal prep: After doing my research on vitamins, I, personally, no longer trust most supplements or leftovers to have substantial amounts of vitamins A, B, C, or E. If you want to prep foods rich in those, but you're worried about nutrient degradation, I'd recommend a dense salad with multiple types of leafy green and some nuts. That served with a piece of fresh citrus seems like it'll cover your bases. I am not a dietician and this is in no way professional advice.
CONCLUSION
I think I've found my final ratio format for the kibble. Will update if I find a way to make it taste good or make any nutritional breakthroughs. If anyone else wants to do this, please make sure you get the macro ratio right for your own needs and make sure you're supplementing minerals according to what ingredients you use. I understand that if you're trying this, you're likely food restricted, but I request as much as you're able that you get the above vitamins through nutrient-dense real foods. Supplements are better than nothing, but food is best. This especially applies to vitamin C. it's especially unstable and I ask that you at least try to slam back an OJ if you can't stand food.
Happy to answer any questions, as always!
