Review: titanium pry bar

Time to cover another piece of EDC that has slipped beneath my reporting radar for too long. Its no secret that i'm fond of titanium tools, they're strong, light and non-magnetic. I'm also very fond of pry-bars. Remember kids, your knife is not a pry-bar. Nor is your screw-driver. 

I've always been "the knife guy" in my circle of friends, because I always have at least a pocket pen-knife on my person. More and more these days, environments are less and less permissive when it comes to knives, so I've looked to alternatives. A quick self-audit showed me that I open a lot more boxes than I do cutting food,  and the leading edge of a pry-bar can do a number on most packing tape I've encountered. So I've added more pry-bars to my collection than knives of late. I also find myself making adjustments to equipment and storage units to make things fit more often that I am cutting things. In my search for a more perfect EDC pry-bar, I came across this listing right ebay link for this very functional tool. 

Machined from a solid billet of TC4 titanium alloy it lays 11cm long by 1.6cm wide and 1cm tall. It has a stiffening channel milled down it length on both sides a set of two crenellations at the tip end and three at the butt end as well as a deep scalloping for ergonomic grip. A lanyard hole at the butt end adds a good retention and draw option. The working end of the pry bar comes down to a symmetrical edge with a 2cm slope ending at a flat 1cm wide,  2mm final bevel. 

Its not a chisel, its a pry bar and that final edge is strong whilst being fine enough to slip in to most locations I've needed to pry up. That said, some jobs have required a little persuasion either lifting, wedging or just tapping the tool in to get that wedge started. Once started though, the tool performs nicely, lifting with the sturdy and ergonomic body. After a long period of it living in my pocket along with other elements of my EDC I whipped up a small leather belt pouch from some scraps, where it has been a handy tool for all my prying, tape cutting and even occasional flat-head screw driving need. All in a mere 45g item.

This is a lovely tool that I've enjoyed using and just nice in the hand as a fidget toy.

Home Front: Dried food stew

 Pushing on with a food and meals theme, I thought i'd make a start with this simple meal. I started out by collecting my ingredients. I'm a big fan of dehydrating food and I wanted to try my home-dehydrated items out. I had bought and dehydrated bags of frozen peas, corn and diced onion. ( hint for the novice, do these all separately to avoid mixing when they fall through the grills when shrunk by dehydration).1kg  frozen peas yielded 252g and 1kg frozen corn yielded 223g corn kernels. Pictured here was 1 cup of each, a half cup of dehydrated onion, 1 cup of  "soup mix" (beans, split peas, lentils,  I also used a handful of  hard jerky I had made, cut into 1" squares, a tablespoon of seedy mustard, and a half teaspoon each of granulated garlic and fennel seeds. So the only wet ingredient was the mustard. The rest could be stored in a sack and if in a decent jar, would last pretty much indefinitely.  

It was light on seasoning, but I wanted to make as minimalist a meal as possible, to see what little you could get away with and still have a palatable meal. 

I wanted to push the rustic angle so 

I opted to prepare this in a piece of stoneware I had acquired at an op-shop. This  Stoneware Tureen had a close fitting lid and wing-handles and similar items can be found elsewhere too. I put all the ingredients into the tureen and added 6 cups of water, put the lid on and put it in the oven on low for a number of hours. 

With plenty of water and a long and slow cook everything re-hydrated nicely and with a couple of stirs to blend flavours, it came together nicely. The jerky softened up and the peppery marinade I had made it with blended into the stew just a little, but pleasantly so.

The peas, soup mix and onions all softened up and thickened the soup into a hearty stew. The corn re-hydrated about 70%, enough to be tender, but not juicy. 

I tested it after a couple of hours, stirred it and  added a little more water then left it to bake some more. The beef softened up but was still a bit tough. smaller chunks or perhaps some beating to soften the fibres might help next time. 

I cooked it down till there wasn't any standing liquid, which might have been a mistake, but it was soft, not soggy when I decided it was "ready" and ladled myself out a serve. It smelt great whilst slow cooking and whilst not exciting to look at, was both surprisingly tasty and filling, with a couple of good ladle fulls making a solid meal and this made several servings worth. 

If and when i make this again, I think id use beer or stock for the liquid base, and add some form of fat or oil just to bolster it and add richness. Perhaps bacon or spec in chunks?

Some additional seasoning wouldn't go astray, perhaps even just a bay leaf or two. 

It was certainly a good way to make use of my dehydrated ingredients and made a very satisfying set of meals for what would be a very light  batch of ingredients (I forgot to measure, bad scientist).

This kind of meal is called a pulse. It is very ancient and exceedingly simple to make. Next time with more rigorous record keeping. 

What else should I add? Might try dehydrating frozen carrot next. 

This is certainly a meal one cold make in the coals of a campfire, even semi-buried in ashes and returned too after ranging for a solid evening meal. Well worth trying, even with the risk of burning. 

dehydrated MRE style meal

'pocalypse-stew!!