Food Processing in the Dreamlands

The epitome of industrialization is the manufacturing of food. This takes two forms. One is the mechanized creation of meals normally made by hand; the other is processing raw foodstuffs into a novel form. By definition, any method that alters raw foodstuffs is processing, even cooking or preservation, or just cleaning vegetables and cutting them up into bite-sized pieces. However, practically speaking, processing is limited to the creation of foods that do not occur naturally and are not complete meals in and of themselves. Also, many techniques of preservation started out as methods to process food into different forms; for more information, see the post on food preservation. In fact, it is problematic as to whether the processing of certain foodstuffs was done solely to create a unique, enjoyable food, or also with an eye towards extending its self life. Being as mechanization on an industrial scale cannot exist in the Dreamlands, however, processing is performed by hand, using at best very simple machines to aid in the process.

Because each and every processed food has its own unique procedure, this essay will not be a general discussion of common methods, but instead will be a survey of commonly found processed foods and how they are made. Also, this list is not exhaustive; there are many more than be conveniently discussed in a short essay.

There are, however, a number of food-related products that are not considered processed, despite being extensively worked from their original, raw form. Two of the most widespread are grain processing and alcohol production. Alcohol is not considered a form of food, per se, while grain processing, which includes making flour, porridge, and gruel, generally leads to a complete meal (while "complete" is a relative term, there are many people in the Dreamlands whose diet consists almost entirely of bread and/or grain soup, and beer). Besides, aside from grinding the grain or roasting and cracking it, most of the preparation involves some form of cooking, which is generally not considered a method of processing.

Fruit juice processing is borderline. Some scholars accept it as a form of food processing, while others believe it is just a method to make it easier to transport. Whole fruit are notoriously inefficient to ship; they not only take up a lot of room, they are also prone to spoil quickly. Except for unripe fruit or particularly hardy species, fruit not meant for local consumption is pulped to remove its juice. That which is not used to make alcoholic beverages is concentrated through evaporation or boiled into syrup. These liquid forms are more efficient, because more can be shipped with less room, and if properly packaged have a longer shelf life. However, there is considerable dispute as to whether these constitute a true different form of food, or just a different form of fruit juice.

Perhaps the most familiar type of processed food is cheese. It serves as a way to preserve milk to extend its shelf life as long as possible, but cheese is ultimately derived from the true processed form of milk, curds and whey. Curds are the insoluble milk proteins suspended in the liquid phase, most of which are caseins, large structural proteins, plus the fat if it has not already been separated. Whey is the liquid phase, containing the dissolved proteins and the milk sugar. Separating these two components can be handled in a number of different ways.

One is to use a crude rennet (a complex of enzymes) preparation from young calf stomachs, or certain vegetable sources such as caper leaves, nettles, thistles, mallow, and ground ivy. Certain types of cultured molds can also produce rennet-like enzymes. Another way is the use of some form of edible acid, such as gluconic acid, tartaric acid, vinegar, lemon, lime, or fig juice, or wine. Bacteria can also be added to ferment the milk sugars into lactic acid. Boiling water often helps the acid coagulate, or curdle, the insoluble proteins. A third is to let whole milk go sour. The curds are then strained from the whey using cheesecloth.

Curds are used primarily to create cheese. Though the exact procedure varies considerably depending upon the variety of cheese to be made, the basic procedure common to nearly all cheeses starts with allowing the strained curds to set into a firm gel. A number of soft cheeses are finished at this point; for the rest further processing is required. In some cases, salt is mixed in before the gel completely sets, along with optional spices or berries. Other techniques include stretching and needing the curd in hot water, or washing in warm water to reduce its acidity. Once the curd gel sets, it is cut into small cubes to facilitate water drainage. These can be salted with dry salt or brine washes if salt wasn't added to the curd first.

For some hard cheeses, the cubes are heated to a range of 95–131 ºF to drive out the remaining whey. In a process known as cheddaring, the set curd is cut into larger pieces called loaves, which are turned and stacked numerous times. Afterwards, it is milled into smaller cubes. Regardless of how it gets to this point, the curd is packed into moulds and pressed to drive out excess moisture. The more pressure is applied, the harder the final cheese. The cheese is then removed from the moulds and ripened by being allowed to age under specific conditions while bacteria and mold transform the texture and intensify the flavour by breaking down proteins and milkfat into amino acids, amines, and fatty acids. The action of microorganisms can also produce a crusty edible covering called a rind that can protect the cheese from spoilage, while other cheeses can be dipped in wax or wrapped in canvas or burlap.

Curds can also be used to make various kinds of yogurt or desserts. When dried, they can be added to flour and other milled or ground grains to increase the protein content. They can even be eaten by themselves, or mixed with whey. Whey can be drunk as a beverage, substituted for water or milk in cooking, made into certain kinds of cheeses, used as a nutritional supplement, or even added as a fertilizer to acid-loving plants. Cream can also be skimmed off whey and used to make butter, both of which can serve as a cheaper substitute for sweet cream or butter, or to add a buttery flavor to cooked foods.

Speaking of yogurt, it rivals cheese as the first processed food derived from milk, but it is not made in the same way. Both require that milk proteins be curdled, but whereas cheese separates the curds from the whey, yogurt leaves them mixed together. Acid and salts will cause curds to settle out of the liquid phase, but yogurt begins by heating the milk to 176 ºF. This not only kills off any harmful bacteria, it also curdles the proteins, but in a way that keeps them in suspension so they do not settle out. The result is a thickened milk that more closely resembles cream. The milk is allowed to cool to 112 ºF and bacteria are added to ferment the milk sugars into lactic acid. The acidity helps preserve yogurt, though salt is often added to increase its shelf life.

Tofu is made in a manner similar to cheese, except that it derives from soybean milk. Dried soybeans are rehydrated in water, then ground wet, boiled, and filtered. Soybean milk, or simply soy milk, can be used as a substitute for animal milk, but if mixed with edible acids, gypsum (calcium sulfate), or nigari (magnesium chloride obtained from seaweed), the proteins will coagulate to form curds. These are then separated from the soy whey and pressed into a soft cake. Tofu can be further processed by being dried or fermented for longer shelf life.

Though most raw foods can be processed in one form or another, meat is probably the type of food most often processed, with milk a close second. The reason is that meat tends to spoil faster than most other foods. While most forms of "processing" are in fact methods of preservation, some qualify as true processing, and other techniques process the meat into a different form without actually preserving it.

After cheese, sausages are another extremely familiar example of processed food, but like cheese they are mostly meant as a way to preserve meat. Sausage making actually uses a number of different methods, being an example of 'hurdle technology'. As such, 'sausage' refers to the final food product, not the preservation process. Though the type, number, and sequence of steps can vary considerably, making sausage involves grinding or cutting meat into very small chunks, mixing it with spices, wine, vinegar, salt, and other ingredients, and stuffing it into casings to contain it. In addition to the salting and fermentation taking place, the meat can also be smoked, dried, and/or cooked. Though one of the few processed foods that most closely resembles the raw food it's made from, many sausages can in fact look very different from meat.

Another form of preservation that is considered processing is jerking, the technique of drying thin strips of salted meat to form jerky. Virtually any meat can be jerked, provided it can be cut into thin strips and trimmed of fat. It is then coated with salt and subjected to low heat drying, such as over a weak fire or exposed to the sun. The salt inhibits bacterial growth until sufficient moisture has been removed to cure it. Often times it is also smoked, both to drive away insects and to further protect against bacteria, as well as impart flavouring. While standard jerky is not truly processed, other forms are marinated in seasoned spice rubs or liquids, or even ground and mixed with seasonings before being pressed into shapes. Jerky compliments hardtack as the quintessential travel/adventuring foods.

Similar to jerky is pork rinds. The skin of pigs and most other animals is usually made into leather; however, skin which is boiled to render its fat into lard is soft enough to cut into pieces. These can then be roasted or fried, which causes them to expand into a crispy consistency not unlike potato chips. They have almost no carbohydrates; their fat content can be high, but it's mostly unsaturated or even healthy, or at least innocuous. They make a good high-protein snack compared to potato or corn chips, and they can be flavoured before cooking.

Spam is similar to sausage, except it is precooked and canned. The name is a portmanteau of "spiced" and "ham", and is a mixture of chopped cooked pork shoulder and ham with salt, water, sodium nitrite as a preservative, and potato starch as a binder, pressed into loaves. As it cools, it acquires a glaze of aspic, a gelatinous substance derived from cooled meat stock. Additional ingredients can impart different flavours, while meats other than pork can be added or substituted. The mix can even be made into a paste for spreading instead of slicing. Spam rivals sausages as the most convenient form of meat for regular use, but whereas adventurers and travelers tend to use sausages, homemakers prefer Spam.

Spam is one way to render otherwise tougher cuts of meat, or low-quality meat gleaned from nonstandard portions of a carcass, into an appetizing form. Another method is making forcemeat. This involves emulsifying ground meat with fat. The 'straight' method involves grinding meat and fat together into a smooth consistency that can be sliced. 'Country-style' adds liver and various garnish ingredients, and renders it into a coarser consistency. 'Gratin' involves browning the meat before grinding, whereas 'mousseline' uses lighter, smoother meats mixed with eggs and cream to form a mousse-like consistency.

Pâté is simply 'straight' forcemeat mixed with vegetables, herbs, spices, and wine, cognac, Armagnac, or brandy, and ground into a spreadable paste. A terrine is an even coarser version of 'country-style' forcemeat, except the mix is gelatinized by aspic, which is cooled meat stock. Head cheese, also known as brawn, is a special type of terrine made from animal heads, minus the brains, eyes, and ears. Whole chunks of meat are used instead of ground, and the aspic forms a more extensive and obvious part of the whole composition.

Similar to forcemeat is pemmican, except that instead of grinding the meat and fat together, the meat is first dried, then pulverized into tiny pieces, almost like a powder. It is then mixed with melted fat (the best is from bone marrow) in a 1:1 ratio and allowed to cool and set. Crushed dried berries, herbs, and spices can also be added.

Pemmican has two major advantages over forcemeat. The first is that it has a long shelf life. If properly prepared and stored in leather or canvas pouches, it can last for weeks, even months. The other is that it offers a convenient way of rendering a freshly killed carcass into well preserved portable rations. Though it takes time to thoroughly cure the meat, it can reduce the mass needed to carry by 75% as well as allow it to be packaged for easier transport.

In many wild areas, the trade in pemmican is as important as that in furs, hides, and ivory. In fact, animals killed for their hides and horns are usually rendered into pemmican as well. Though of little use as a staple food, it rivals sausages and jerky as travel or adventuring food, it can serve as a survival ration (with chocolate to provide a source of carbohydrates), and it is often eaten as a famine food.

There are many ways to prepare meat for consumption, but two common methods found throughout the Dreamlands are also considered true processing techniques. One is the pasty. Literally a cross between a pie and a pocket sandwich, it consists of an unbaked pastry crust filled with meat and vegetables, then folded closed and crimped along the edges to form a seal. It is then baked without a dish. The filling can be made of just about anything, and it is usually a good way to make use of dried or salted meats. Though not a form of preservation, a well cooked pasty can, if properly stored, keep for a day or so, and they are often purchased by travelers and adventurers in the morning to be eaten for lunch. They also make a good method of preparing lower quality meat, offal, tripe, and famine food into an appetizing form.

Despite being the butt of jokes and the stuff of gastronomic nightmares, haggis is actually quite popular in the Dreamlands. It consists of the heart, lungs, and liver, called the pluck, usually of a sheep, though other animal sources can be used. The organs are minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and simmered in the stomach. Despite the unappetizing description, the result has a nutty texture and a robust, savory flavour, though it can take some convincing to get neophytes to try it.

One misconception is that the finished dish is sliced like a roast, but this also assumes that the stomach is itself eaten; squeamish readers will be happy to note that it is not, it serves merely as a container. In fact, many haggis makers stuff the filling into sausage casings. Instead, the stomach is cut open and the filling scooped out. A common fable told to new Dreamers is that the haggis is actually a small mammal native to the many hills and mountain ranges that dot the Lands, explaining the ubiquity of the dish, but this sometimes backfires when the Dreamer turns out to be a proper Scotsman. One reason for this ubiquity is that, like a pasty, haggis is a good way to prepare cheaper, lower quality meat or preserved meat, but in fact the filling can include anything, provided some form of grain meal and animal or vegetable suet is included.

Haggis is properly classified as a pudding; in fact, it is called the "Great Chieftain o' the Puddin'-Race" in a poem by Robert Burns, Address to a Haggis. It features as the main dish of a Burns Supper, along with neeps and tatties, and a dram. However, this is not the kind of pudding that modern American Dreamers are familiar with. Technically, a pudding is any dish that incorporates a source of starch and fat, usually in the form of grain flour and suet, though sugar, cream, and eggs can substitute.

There are two general types: savory puddings, which use meat (which can be left out or substituted with vegetables) and are served as main or side dishes, and cream or sweet puddings, that are served as desserts. Puddings can almost literally be made out of anything. Dessert puddings typically use cornstarch, gelatin, eggs, rice, or tapioca to thicken a mix of sugar and milk or cream, and can have flavourings added, such as bread, chocolate, fresh and dried fruit, treacle or syrup, honey, molasses, fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, and nuts.

Several types of dishes that are sometimes called puddings but are not, are pottage, polenta, and mush. Pottages are more like thick stews or soups and are made out of whatever is available. Pottages often sit on the fire for days with new ingredients added as it is consumed. Mush is essentially cornbread that is boiled rather than baked, and allowed to set into a gel. Polenta can be made from corn, but also from wheat, millet, spelt, chickpeas, or chestnuts. It is boiled to a paste, then baked, fried, or grilled. Mush and polenta are also sometimes called porridge.

The last processed food to be discussed is gelatin. Gelatin is the name for a preparation of collagen, a major animal structural protein. It is normally obtained by boiling bones and skin as well as cartilage. If left dilute, the jelly-like substance that congeals as the liquid cools is called aspic, but it can be concentrated using filtration and evaporation, at which point it forms the denser gelatin. It can then be dried, ground into powder, and shifted for storage. A more industrial approach is to first treat skin and bones with a dilute acid solution to desalt them, then treat them repeatedly with hot water to degrease them, removing as much fat as possible. They are then treated for a longer period with a stronger acid or alkali solution to partially dissolve the collagen.

Extraction is achieved using water or acid plus heat. This is a multistage process where both the heat and the acidity are gradually increased. Once dried and ground, sugar and flavouring can be added to the gelatin powder, which can be reconstituted with hot water and then allowed to set as it cools. An alcoholic beverage can also be substituted for some of the water. One advantage of gelatin is that it can be poured into decorative moulds. Also, especially hard gelatins made with a minimum of water have a long shelf life if keep clean and dry. Substitutes for gelatin include agar and carrageenan, obtained from seaweed, konjac obtained from the plant of the same name, and cornstarch.

As a final note, processed foods are not the same as convenience foods. While many convenience foods are, or can be derived from, processed foods, many are also simply preserved or specially packaged forms of regular or raw foods. Examples of this kind of convenience food are nuts, candy, and pickled eggs, vegetables, and fruit. Other common convenience foods are dried soup "paste" (soup that has had the bulk of its water removed until it forms a thick gel-like consistency), sandwich wraps, and stews or pot roasts stored in pots or wrapped in sealed wax paper or leather bags and boiled in water.