Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 343 kcal | 97 kcal |
| Protein | 18.6 g | 5.3 g |
| Fat | 8.3 g | 2.4 g |
| saturated | 3.7 g | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 45.8 g | 13 g |
| sugars | 3.2 g | 0.9 g |
| Fibre | 3.3 g | 0.9 g |
| Sodium | 525 mg | 149 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 720 g pre-cooked & dried macaroni noodles
- 1 1/2 cups dried ham
- 2 1/4 tablespoons powdered butter (optional)
- 2 1/4 tablespoons powdered milk (optional)
- 2 powdered cheese packet or 6 tablespoons cheeses
- powder
- Combine the following in a separate snack-size bag:
- Bread crumbs
- Oil (optional)
- Parmesan cheese (dry)
Instructions
- Slice the ham thin and across the grain before it is dried. Thick ham dries into something that never softens again, and cutting across the grain is what lets it break up in the bowl.
- Dry the ham at 71 °C for 6 hours. It is ready when a strip is stiff and brittle at the edges with no soft greasy middle — blot any fat that beads on the surface as it cools.
- Cook the macaroni a minute short of how you would eat it, then rinse it cold and drain it well. Rinsing removes the surface starch that would otherwise glue the dried pieces into a single lump.
- Spread the noodles out and dry them until they rattle and none will bend. Pasta holds water at its core long after the outside has hardened, so break one and look for a pale opaque centre.
- Bag the dried noodles and ham together, the cheese, milk and butter powders in a second bag, and the breadcrumbs, parmesan and oil in a third. Fat and powder stored together go stale much faster than either does alone.
- In camp, pour about three cups of boiling water over the noodles and ham — just enough to cover — and give it fifteen minutes somewhere insulated. This is a rehydration rather than a boil, and the ham needs every one of those minutes.
- Drain off what is left, then slake the cheese, milk and butter powders into about six tablespoons of hot water before any of it meets the pasta. Sprinkled on dry it sets into orange grit that never dissolves.
- Stir the sauce through, then finish with the crumb and parmesan mix and a drizzle of oil.
- The dried noodles and ham keep three months bagged in a cupboard, and it is the ham that sets that limit as the only thing here carrying fat. Freeze the bag if it is going to sit longer than that.
