Are you phosphorus or the opposite, potassium intolerant?

[jmintuck]

I cannot take very much POTASSIUM without the risk of getting sick to my stomach. What I can "barely afford" is tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli and A larger than the tip of a knife, or 1/2 teaspoon, at most of the UK spread Marmite. I have a big-ass jar of that,
500 grams that is going to last till I give out, possibly, lulz.

Other people say they can not have mochas, lattes or chocolate or cheese without getting sick, somehow. Which one do you have, and what foods do you miss with your "custom restrictions"?

[Charlie B53]

I have gout.  Very much purines triggers crystals in many of my joints.  I don't get sick in the way I normally think of sickness, as in an upset stomach.  I get PAIN.  Like broken glass inside my joints.  I cannot move.

Trigger foods are shellfish, which I love, and seriously miss.  We used to live North of Seattle.  I used to go out on the boat a few times every week, year round.  Toss the crab pot out,  Shrimping in season and load the freezer for the next year.   Digging fresh clams, oysters.   Now I can't hardly eat any of those or I pay dearly for it, for DAYS.

Many nitrates also trigger reactions.  Ham, bacon, hot dogs. many smoked lunch meats.

Lots of things that I used to eat regularly.

No more.

[jmintuck]

I haven't yet attempted shellfish or much seafood yet. Have to really study them before major holidays, where I might encounter them. Oysters with Tabasco sauce were dang GOOD from when I remembered them years ago, but we were by the ocean, where they were fresh as hell.

Up here in Central-Western Canada, I can never imagine them as wonderful. I have to sometime go back to sea for this particular delicacy. Here, we have Prairie Oysters. Don't ask me! I KNOW, Google it.

I will even have to look up what lobster contains before I would even attempt it, just so I can prevent getting a "figurative and literal" together heart attack. ANYTHING to avoid my KRYPTONITE!

What is SO screwy is that I SEVERELY challenged everything by having a tiny bag of potato crisps and a 2/3rd's cup of hot chocolate. I thought, "WTF, NOW you're gonna pay like a B!***. " .

Nope, the next day I felt OK.

Next day still, I accidentally ran into a real fking helping of real Kryptonite and got scared to DEATH! I had eaten what had turned out to be banana chocolate chip loaf/cake. Once the taste registered, mid-cake, I froze very hard,

booth in consuming that and abject terror. I thought, For p*ck Sakes! Now you did it, Timmy! WTF is wrong with you!? My thoughts raced around and screamed and buzzed like a kicked hornet's nest. I existed in terror of a sickness

for a couple hours or so last night.I was TERRIFIED of getting a vomiting spell this early in the game before Monday, which happens to be a good dialysis day.


Good news, nothing happened, AGAIN after both the challenge and scare.

[Charlie B53]

I'm just blown away how you can be so reactive to potassium and I am TOTALLY opposite, having to take TWO potassium tablets THREE Times a day, and my Potassium still runs in the low ranges.   Just bizarre

Shellfish are usually high in iodine.  When I was shrimping in season the Wife would get sick from the iodine unless I soaked them, kept changing the inky black water until it wouldn't darken any longer.  Then it was safe for her to eat.

Now living here in mid-Missouri we rarely get the opportunity to indulge in seafood.  Today the local grocer had Canadian Snow Crab on sale.  Because SHE wanted it we bought TWO boxes.  Even on sale we have NEVER paid so dearly for crab.  So we pigged on crab tonight, and will again the second box tomorrow night.  I am VERY afraid that I will be paying dearly for this as shellfish is a major gout trigger.   QWAP!!!   In my defense, it may be worth it.  It's been 20 years since we've pigged out on crab.

I seriously miss living in Puget Sound.   Taking the boat out a few times weekly.

No Prairie Oysters for me.    And yes, I do know what they are.  I rather shuck mine out on the beach!   Raw with a dash of Tabasco, or lemon.   Same with fresh shrimp straight out of the water.  Pop off the head, peel, and straight to my neck.    But with gout, those days are about over.  If not over at least extremely limited.  Or pay the consequences.  lol

[jmintuck]

Those oysters with that dash of Tabbasco, OMG, I want a few NOW! NO PRAIRIE OYSTERS- Oh Hell NAW!

[Charlie B53]

Both Mom and Dad grew up on farms.  Lots of animals.  Cattle and sheep ranches nearby.   It was a seasonal part of their menu.

Glad they were married and living in town when I was young.



If you grew up eating them you would acquire a taste and might like them.  I don't know.  Haven't tried and hope I don't.   no desire to find out.


Clams, squid, octopus, all can be good, depending on the cook.


Mom used to tell me about scrambling eggs and calves brains.  That's another thing I do not intend to find out about.    Lungs?   Nope.   Liver?   Not the way Mom made it.   Mine is great!    Heart?   Stuffed and baked, Good.     Unfortunately Dr tells me all organ meats are very high in cholesterol, so I rarely fix heart or liver, maybe only once or twice a year when the sweet onions are freshest.

[KatieV]

My sister is serving us beef tongue for dinner tonight... She cooked it yesterday, then is going to shred it and cook it again today.  She's making tacos with it.

[Charlie B53]

Dad used to smoke meats in an old old rounded top refrigerator he converted to a smoker.  Occasionally he would smoke beef tongues. Peeled and sliced very thin they were great, either for snaking or on a sandwich.

He woud smoke all kinds of fish, ham, turkey, beef jerky.    I still have a few pieces of his very hard smoked jerky, so dry you cannot break it, more like wood.  It takes a very sharp knife to slice off a thin sliver you can suck on for an hour before it reconstitutes enough to chew and digest.  Dad's been gone almost 30 years, these pieces of jerky are still just like they were when he finished them.   Enough salt in them they will never mold or decay.

[jmintuck]

Dad used to smoke meats in an old old rounded top refrigerator he converted to a smoker.  Occasionally he would smoke beef tongues. Peeled and sliced very thin they were great, either for snaking or on a sandwich.

He woud smoke all kinds of fish, ham, turkey, beef jerky.    I still have a few pieces of his very hard smoked jerky, so dry you cannot break it, more like wood.  It takes a very sharp knife to slice off a thin sliver you can suck on for an hour before it reconstitutes enough to chew and digest.  Dad's been gone almost 30 years, these pieces of jerky are still just like they were when he finished them.   Enough salt in them they will never mold or decay.

I am sorry for the loss of your Dad. But that jerky sounds wonderful to just bite on for the flavor. I would like some of that if I found somebody to make some for me. Do you have his smoker to make your own, or have somebody do this?

[Charlie B53]

His smoker is long gone to one of his friends.   I have no doubt that I can build another once I find an old rounded top refrigerator.  Those old ones had real insulation, none of that newer foam stuff.  All the insides were metal coated with a porcelain type finish.  It withstands heat perfectly and easily cleaned.   Using a hole saw, drill a bottom and top vents, add pipe and a gate valve to control inlet air, with some sort of covered cap to keep out rain.  Screens also a good ides just to make sure no bugs can get in.

Dad fabricated a heavy wire base to hold a stovetop electric burner and a thermostatic oven control to regular the temperature of that burner.   Stacked large wood chips, usually fruit woods although he sometimes used alder or hickory.  Covered that with an old metal coffee can he punched a few holes in.  This restricted the air to the wood so it couldn't burn with a flame, only smoldered against the hot burner element.

We cut wood strips and built our own shelving.  Riveted channeled alum onto the sides so the racks would slide in and we could adjust the heights depending on the thickness of whatever he was smoking.

More channel riveted to the inner ceiling so he could hang large items from stainless hooks we bent from rod.

Fruits and veggies dried using only low heat, no wood.

Meats and fish require salt to absorb flavor.  More salt = more flavor   Making the brine was often my job, most any salt will work, sea salt works very well.  Must be strong enough to float an egg.  Soak time depends on the size and texture of the flesh.   Large items, whole hams, turkeys, we would often inject with brine using a very large syringe.

His later years he was experimenting with low salt techniques as his heart Dr was very strict about his cutting out salt in his diet.

I was living on the other side of the state and not around enough to learn how well it was working.  I did eat some of the fish he smoked and canned.  Very tasty.  And very surprising that the carp turned out just as well, if not better, than the salmon.

Someday.  Just not today.

I have acquired an old round top, the problem is this one is two door.  Not a large single door.   I would have to cut and place maybe four 'vents' between the chambers.  It could still be done.   Just details.

I also need to find the broken wire buried between the house and the barn.  I only have 110V to the barn until I find and fix that.  Electric stove elements need 240.    I haven't been willing to try to dig that line up.  I need to find a better way to locate to broken spot so I can dig only what is needed.   Too many trees and roots to dig the whole line.

And I get too tired too easily.