Saturday was canning day for dill pickles and pears. Altogether my Mom, our friend Priscilla and I canned up 14 quarts of pickles and 4 quarts of pears in light syrup. The pears were from the tree in my parents’ back yard. It has taken awhile for them to begin to get really ripe and delicious. You’ll notice the lovely pink color… we added 3 drops of red food coloring to each quart. My Grandma Pickett used to do that, so we carried on the tradition.
As for the pickles, they are from a recipe of my Grandma’s also… she got the recipe from a neighbor in Portland, OR, so they are called:
Mrs. Volz’ Dill Pickles
Pack the cucumbers into clean, hot jars (we used quarts), leaving at least 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1 clove of garlic, a generous sprig of dill, and a grape leaf on top. The recipe says to use a horseradish leaf, so if you have those available, use that instead of the grape leaf (I learned from Priscilla that the grape or horseradish leaf makes the pickles more crisp… all those years I never knew the reason for the grape leaf). If you like, a small red dried hot pepper can be added to each quart jar for a little zip.
Meanwhile, bring to a boil a mixture of 1 quarts water, 1 pint vinegar and 1/2 cup pickling salt (don’t use regular salt with iodine — get pickling salt or use kosher salt). Pour the pickle juice over the cucumbers. Use a plastic utensil to remove air bubbles and make sure to leave 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims clean and add a canning lid (from simmering water); add the ring and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. (This was my addition… Grandma never did the water bath part. Back then, they just let the jars pop from the boiling water and didn’t water bath process them. Nobody ever died from her pickles, but I cannot recommend that you use that method.)
The work on the house continues… but we did have to make use of the wonderful cucumbers from Priscilla’s garden and the pears from Mom and Dad’s tree…
Yummy!When we moved here to Georgia, we knew this was a temporary move. Living in a rented house, we were not able to have a garden. One of the things I decided I’d like to learn about was making wine at home. I had read about the basic process online and decided to give it a try.
My first batch of wine – Apple Wine (1 gallon)
Before I went whole-hog on the winemaking thing, I decided to try a simple, inexpensive project to see just how it would work. I found a very good recipe and plenty of instructions online for EdWorts apfelwein.
Since I didn’t have a glass jug for the 1st experiment, I used the plastic gallon jug the apple juice came in, poured half out into a sanitized bowl, poured in 1 c. sugar, shook well, poured in part of the apple juice from the bowl, added 1/2 packet of the montrachet yeast, poured almost all of the rest of the juice in, leaving a bit of headspace in the jug.
The lids I ordered for the project didn’t fit the opening of the plastic jug, so had my 12 yr. old use his drill to drill a hole in the plastic lid that came with the jug to use with the airlock (and then sanitized). Using a tip I saw online, I filled the airlock with vodka about halfway.
Since I couldn’t find a local supply of glass jugs, I bought a bottle of that Carlo Rossi Cabernet in a gallon jug (really wanted the jug mostly) for future brewing in gallon batches.
After about a month, I racked the juice into the (empty of wine) glass gallon jug and let it continue fermenting. After the fermentation ended, we bottled it into recycled wine bottles and corked it. The addition of the sugar made it have a pretty good kick. This wine was very dry, a beautiful yellow color and definitely smelled like apples. It had a slight yeasty taste, so I might want to branch out on a more sophisticated recipe on the next try with apple wine.
Concord Grape Wine (1 gallon)
I’ve also tried using Welch’s grape juice concentrate from the freezer for a batch of red wine (and I ordered the other supplies listed for the recipe)… I found this recipe online for a 1 gallon batch:
This was another seriously easy wine that we fermented in the recycled glass gallon jug. After fermentation, racking and letting settle, we bottled it as well. This wine still tastes a lot like concord grape juice (can you say Mogen David?). Since we both much prefer a dryer wine, this one was relegated to service with wine coolers and sangrias.
Beaujolais (5 gallons)
I found a fabulous deal on wine-making equipment on Craigslist, including two 5 gallon glass carboys, a plastic primary fermentation bucket, a wonderful stand corker and all sorts of small winemaking tools (hydrometer, bubblers, etc.). This allowed us to move into larger quantity batches. Still considering ourselves complete newbs, I ordered a juice concentrate to make a batch of Beaujolais from ECKraus.
I followed the instructions that came with the concentrate, adding the ingredients recommended and following the procedure. We bought a siphon system to help with racking (and have been very happy we did).
This batch of wine never was as clear as we would have liked, but it was still pronounced “drinkable” and is completely gone! I used it in cooking and also as a holiday Gluehwein with good success.
This is most definitely our best batch yet… only 5 bottles left and going fast. We have no more wine in process since the move to NM is imminent. This batch gave us the encouragement to continue…
Future Plans
I recently got a new stainless steel juice extractor so that we can make our own juice to start the wine-making from scratch. We will probably continue to order juice kits in the meantime, but I look forward to making juices to store in the pantry and also for winemaking in the future. Isn’t this a cool gadget?
We cannot wait to get settled so we can get back to brewing. Did I mention we also tried our luck at brewing beer? That’s another post in the future…
If you don’t have your own greenhouse, wintertime can be a time when you don’t have much of your own home-grown fresh food. Sprouting can be a tasty and nutritious addition to the winter diet. When I first learned about sprouting, I also discovered there is an entire community of people who are really enthusiastic about it. I discovered the site, SproutPeople.org. By reading information and watching videos at their site, I was encouraged to try it out.
Seed Sprouter I purchased one of their Easy Sprout Sprouters and have found it to be very excellent. My favorite sprout (so far) is broccoli. Broccoli sprouts are simply yummy. They are great on salads or sprinkled on sandwiches (whole wheat, ham and swiss…).Broccoli Kit
To sprout broccoli, you first snap the extra filter piece (for small seeds) into the sprouter, then add 2-3 Tablespoons of broccoli seed. Rinse well to remove any dust and then add 1 cup cool water to the sprouter. Let it soak for 8-12 hours, after which you drain all the water out and shake it well to remove as much water as possible. Seeds in sprouter
After two days of rinsing every 12 hours, the sprouts are looking good:
After Two Days... Ready to enjoy.
After 6 days, we have beautiful, delicious fresh broccoli sprouts. I have to admit that we used some early on salads as they were growing this week. They were quite tasty. Now that they have grown long enough, I dehulled them by covering them with water in a bowl, allowing the hulls to float to the top and skimming. Ready to eat!Using my salad spinner, I’ve got them as dry as possible, let sit for about another hour and refrigerated to keep them fresh and delicious.
SproutPeople have a great video demonstrating this process as well:
I love the taste of freshly-baked whole wheat bread. By making it myself, I can decide what ingredients I use, grind my own wheat berries, and make it much less expensively than I could ever buy it.
Hard White Wheat
By purchasing and storing the wheat in berry form, you can safely keep it for years without spoilage. Whole wheat flour, in contrast, goes rancid very quickly. I usually only grind up enough for a couple of batches of bread at a time, using half immediately and freezing the other half.
My grain mill is a Wondermill Junior Deluxe unpowered hand mill. I decided to buy this one after getting great reviews from a fellow bread-maker in Ft. Worth. The great thing about this mill is that you get two different types of grinding stones. One set of stones is for grains; the other is stainless steel and can be used for oily things, such as flax seed, peanuts, coffee, etc. I did add my own modification in the form of a plastic bowl guard around the grinding stones. Some of the newer models have a modification built in to keep the flour from making a huge mess as the grinding is going on… my simple (and inexpensive) modification works fine, too.
It takes about 15 minutes for me to grind up about 5-6 cups of flour. Today I also enlisted the help of my boys (free labor). The wheat we ground today was the last of the hard red wheat that I have here in Georgia. The boys actually prefer the taste of the hard white wheat. It seems to have a milder flavor.
Whole Wheat Flour
After grinding the wheat, I use my breadmaker to knead the dough. I’m primarily interested in the bread machine for mixing and kneading the dough. I do not bake bread in the machine. The main problem with baking bread in the machine is that there is no flexibility for how long your bread needs to rise properly. That, along with the sometimes strange shape of the loaf, makes baking in the machine unattractive (at least to me).
Here’s my recipe:
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread
1 cup lukewarm water
1 egg
4 T. oil
2 T. honey
1 T. vital gluten (this is a must for 100% whole wheat bread… makes the texture much better)
1 tsp. dough enhancer (check ingredients on this… some of them out there have weird ingredients)
1/2 c. oatmeal
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt (I like kosher salt)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast (I buy SAF yeast by the pound)
Dump all the ingredients into the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer (wet ingredients first in my machine). Let the machine run through both knead cycles on the standard breadmaking cycle. This should take about 1 hour.
After the 2nd kneading, split the dough in half, form loaves, cover with a dish towel and let rise in two greased 8″ loaf pans. The time this takes will vary, depending on temperature of your kitchen… just watch until it doubles.
Bake 25 minutes in 350 degree oven. Remove from pans immediately, cover with dishtowel and let cool on a rack.
Doubled in size...
I usually freeze one loaf immediately (unless we wipe out one loaf immediately). This bread is so delicious for sandwiches.
Is it cheating to use the bread machine? I don’t know… I do know that it kneads it very well and makes it so easy to do that I rarely buy bread in the stores. To me, it’s just a good use of a useful tool. I have never cared for the result from a bread machine when the entire baking process is used. I only like it for the kneading help.
Notes: You can vary this recipe very easily to suit yourself. For example, if you would like to add in some ground flax seed for additional nutrition, you can substitute 3 T. of ground flax seed for 1 T. oil. You’ll need to either increase the water slightly, or use just a bit less flour for this. Also, if you don’t want to use honey, you can use 2-3 T. sugar instead. You can also leave out the oatmeal and just use all wheat flour, substituting about 1/2 c. flour for the 1/2 c. oatmeal. Many times I will use part whole wheat flour with part all-purpose white flour to suit my picky youngest boy. What we moms will do to sneak extra nutrition into foods kids like! When you aren’t making it 100% whole wheat, you can omit the vital gluten and dough enhancer, too. Instead of vegetable oil, you can use butter or shortening or coconut oil…the list is endless…
One thing I do plan to learn to do when we get back to New Mexico is bake bread in my solar oven. I have seen many online articles about this and will definitely make use of the techniques when I have decent solar exposure to use (where we live now our house is surrounded by huge trees — I kid you not — there is virtually no place I could place the solar oven and expect to get several hours of decent sun other than right out by the road in front of our house…).
Do you have a favorite bread recipe? I’m always looking for new ideas…
Shortly after I began learning about dehydration I found a great deal on Potatoes – $1.99 for a 20 lb. bag. With this being such an excellent value, I decided this would be my next experiment. Little did I know that this would become the all-time family favorite dried food.
Potatoes must be blanched* before they are dried, so drying potatoes is not quite as carefree an operation as with tomatoes.
I’ve put together a little picture tutorial on the method…
Ready to go...
*Any vegetable that must be blanched before freezing must also be blanched before dehydration. This is a good rule of thumb. Any decent all-purpose cookbook with instructions on freezing food will give you a guide for this.
The blanching method:
After peeling (optional) and dicing or slicing, blanch the potatoes in boiling water until cooked sufficiently to heat up clear through. How long this takes will depend on the thickness of your slices or dices. I found that about 3-4 minutes was usually sufficient. After a batch or two, you can tell by looking at them whether they are done enough. It’s a bit of an art…
I soon discovered that, if improperly blanched, the potatoes were no good… the parts of the potatoes that were not blanched properly turned black when dried.
After blanching, cool immediately in an ice-water bath.
Arrange on dehydrator trays and dry at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. The potatoes should be completely dry all the way through for proper storage. Slices should snap when broken in two. Cubes should be dry completely to the center.
The potatoes reduce greatly in size during the drying process and store very well.
To save freezer space, you can also take dehydrate frozen hashbrowns. Since they have been prepared for freezing, you don’t need to blanch first. You can just dump a package of frozen hashbrowns right onto the dehydrator trays and dry them. These are another favorite…
After dehydration, potatoes can be easily used in soups, stews, pot pies and the like. However, our family’s favorite way is to fry them in butter to add as a side dish to a meal.
Rehydrate the potatoes by placing in a bowl, pouring boiling water to cover and let soak for 15 minutes or more.
Drain well, fry in butter until nicely browned… salt and pepper to taste and enjoy.
Wintertime is my time for knitting. Every year (or almost every, I should say) about the time it starts to get cooler I begin wondering where I stashed that bag of yarn I found on sale. The yarn slips through the fingers so nicely in the cooler months… plus there is that feeling of wanting to wear some nice, warm socks, gloves, scarves, hats… I’ve almost run out of sock yarn in the past few weeks… the picture is a pile of the socks I’ve made recently.
I’m currently working on a pair of gloves (not a beginning project, but really fun on double-pointed needles for the more experienced).
Gloves in progress...
I learned to knit from a neighbor lady, Mrs. Easton, who lived across the street from our home when I was about 7 years old. Having attempted to teach a 7-year old to knit, I can now fully appreciate the patience that dear lady must have had. For several weeks in a row, I’d go over to her house at a specified time and learn the basics of knitting.
She taught me how to rewind my skeins of yarn into nice, round balls of yarn with the starting thread sticking out from the middle. It is ever so much nicer to pull from the middle so that your yarn doesn’t roll across the room with every pull as you are knitting. I’ll admit that I tend to dig around in the skeins and find the “pull from the middle” thread without rewinding usually, but I know how to do it if need be!
Then, she taught me the basics of casting on using the “Knitting-on” method. Using a burgundy maroon wool yarn and size 8 needles, we began making a (very lovely – you can imagine how the first project made by a 7 year old looked) potholder.
I found a nice YouTube video demonstrating this method here:
It is an excellent method of casting on, leaving a nice finish on the edge, while remaining stretchy. This is the method I use most often even still, after all these years.
Next, Mrs. Easton taught me to knit using the “Knit” stitch. Another YouTube demonstration showing this method is here:
When each row is knitted using the Knit stitch only, you end up with a pattern called the Garter Stitch. This gives a sort of horizontal ribbed pattern to your knitting.
She also taught me how to knit using the Purl stitch. This stitch is the opposite of the knit stitch. Using this stitch on alternate rows creates what is called the stockinette stitch. Alternating knitting and purling within a row can create a vertical ribbing and is commonly seen at the edges of projects like sweaters, mittens, gloves, etc. I found an online video demonstrating this stitch as well (she also demonstrates how to bind off using a purl stitch method).
She also taught me the proper way to hold my thread to keep a steady tension. Now at that point I had no idea there were so many different ways to hold the yarn… Pinky wrap (that’s the method I use), continental, throwing… and many variations on each. This video gives a reasonable explanation of the method, although it is not the favorite of the person demonstrating… feel free to investigate other methods and find what suits you. I find my knitting to be of very even tension and matches the knitting gauge pretty closely using this method, so I’m not changing!
Finally, after many weeks of struggling with dropped stitches (she helped me fix the mistakes, but still there were a few “holes” where my errors were evident), gaining the coordination to knit row after row… I had an almost 8” square knitted potholder. The final thing was to learn to bind off. This video gives a very simple demonstration of that technique.
With these simple techniques, you have the basics of everything there is in knitting. Everything you find in patterns will be these skills or a variation of one or more of them. This was the full extent of my toolbox when I began. By buying knitting magazines, or some books with beginner patterns, you can start from here and learn to knit anything… color combinations, knitting on double-pointed needles, felting… the world of knitting is fascinating and useful.
A project from last year... hat and gloves
I buy yarn when I find it on sale, most often. I’m always thinking about projects for the next winter and looking whenever I’m in a fabric or craft store. I also love buying yarn online from www.KnitPicks.com . I think they often have yarn at a very good price and have a great selection of colors and types of yarn.
Over the years I have accumulated a pretty large collection of books that have many different methods and stitch patterns, as well as methodology for creating your own patterns using various types of yarns and needles. I once had the great good fortune to buy a lot at an auction of things gathered by another avid knitter of a previous generation. I have a huge collection of knitting needles in varying sizes from that great find.
Really, knitting is a wonderful skill to have on the homestead. I highly recommend you investigate it (or renew your interest in it).
Check out my friend Tiffany’s lovely knitting project here: Alpaca Mitts – really beautiful. Tiffany is much more adventurous on intarsia knitting and does some really complex patterns… I’m hoping for more of her projects to be posted over there.
There is also an entire community of knitters sharing ideas, projects, photos, etc. over at Ravelry.com. I don’t post much over there, but have been very amazed and impressed with some of the beautiful work submitted by members.
Dried TomatoesAlmost all vegetables work really well for dehydration. When I first began learning the tricks of dehydrating, my first tomatoes were producing faster than we could eat them up. Since they don’t require any special preparation (no blanching), they are one of the easiest veges to dry for storage.
Simply slicing them about 1/4″ thick and arranging them on the dehydrator trays, then letting them dry overnight produced wonderful, bright-red, delicious slices of summer. When you eat a dried tomato, you’ll be surprised at the very distinct flavor. Since tomatoes are used in so many things we make in the kitchen, including chili, many soups, italian foods, etc., dried tomatoes offer lots of possibilities as a dried food. Many people take the dried tomato slices and grind them into tomato powder. The powder can then be used to reconstitute for use as a sauce or paste. The powder also takes less space for storage.
I also tried making the tomatoes into a puree and then drying them like a fruit roll-up. This worked well, but I found it was more difficult to get them really dry, so they had a shorter shelf life. It did work nicely when I wanted to make chili and wanted to get the tomato sauce flavor. I just dropped in a tomato rollup and added a bit more liquid to the recipe.
If you, as I did, have an abundance of the cherry tomatoes that you want to dry, simply slice them in half or thirds and place skin-side down on the trays and dry as you would regular-sized tomato slices. You can even use them for your own sun-dried tomatoes by covering the dried tomatoes with olive oil and storing in the refrigerator until use.
After drying tomatoes to a very dry degree, as recommended when long-term storage is the plan, I store some in mason jars and some in mylar bags. For those stored in mylar, I also include oxygen absorbers before sealing the bags to help them to store longer. I have sometimes used oxygen absorbers in the mason jar storage, but not always. I do, however use a vacuum sealer to pull as much air out of the jars as possible before storing in my cupboard. This method has worked very well for me. After nearly three years of storage in mason jars, the tomatoes I’m still enjoying in my cooking from my first summer garden’s bumper crop still look bright red and beautiful and have a wonderful flavor.
I realize that canned tomatoes and tomato sauce are generally pretty inexpensive in the grocery stores, so many people would, perhaps, wonder if it is really worth the trouble to store them from your garden… I would say it is very satisfying to eat food you grew yourself, knowing that no pesticides were used and remembering the pleasure from picking them from your own vines. I don’t really think you can put a price on that.
As I have mentioned before, I love my Excalibur (9-tray) dehydrator, but I also use my Foodsaver vacuum sealer constantly. The Foodsaver has a very convenient hose attachment that allows you to seal standard and wide-mouth mason jars to increase storage life. I made a YouTube video demonstration of this some time ago (please realize that my oldest boy did the camera work and there was a bit of extra camera movement that some have not appreciated!).
Plan ahead this winter as you pore over seed catalogs, planning for your summer garden. Leave plenty of room for tomatoes!
You might be interested in this earlier post about dehydration: Dehydrating From Your Garden
Since we left Ft. Worth, I’ve not had a garden. It has been something I’ve missed a great deal. However, almost 15 months since our departure, I’m still enjoying the fruits from that garden because of dehydration. I initially got interested in dehydration from a website called Dehydrate2Store.com. Tammy Gangloff, the owner of the site, has wonderful videos showing tips and techniques for getting started with dehydrating, her preferred equipment and supplies and ways to use the dehydrated foods.
Thank you, Ronco!
Like many folks who fell prey to late-night TV advertising (in my case, while on business trips back in the 1990’s), I had purchased a Ronco dehydrator many years before. I used it successfully to make beef jerky, dried apples and fruit leather. But, as with many things, my interest faded and I got rid of that old dehydrator during one of the purges I make when we prepare to make another move to a new place. So, dehydrating wasn’t a completely new concept to me.
Extreme Drying
However, Tammy’s tips gave it an entirely different focus. Instead of dehydrating foods to the stage that leaves them dry, but not crisp (as with many of the commercially available dried fruits), she advocates drying the foods to about 95% dry– very, very dry. Once the moisture is removed to that level, the foods will store for a very long time and allow you to enjoy the fruits of your garden for very long periods to come. By combining the idea of drying the foods more with the tips on storing them so that they are not exposed to oxygen through the use of mason jars and mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, the storage life of the foods are greatly extended. In fact, for many foods, that life can be up to 30 years with proper storage.
Maintaining Nutritional Value
Another attractive feature with dehydrating foods is how much nutrition is preserved through this method of food preservation. Since dehydrating of fruits and vegetables is done at a relatively low temperature (usually at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit), less loss of food quality is experienced when compared with canning or freezing foods.
One aspect of dehydration that is especially helpful is the fact that storage of dehydrated foods is very simple and requires no refrigeration or freezer space. These dried foods can be stored is a relatively small space at room temperature, for much longer than I really anticipate storing them (I really plan to use mine up before the 30 year mark!).
Sidenote: I became a bit less than thrilled with freezing things in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when I lost my entire freezer full of raspberry and strawberry freezer jam! That was the point that I returned to the more traditional canning methods so that I wasn’t dependent on a steady power supply to keep my preserved foods.
The Cadillac of Food Dehydrators
After watching Tammy’s video demonstration of efficient dehydration, I decided I needed a very good dehydrator for our home. She recommended the Excalibur dehydrator, which I ordered directly from the manufacturer. As it happened, I bought a refurbished unit that had been used for trade shows or demonstrations and got a significant discount.
Excalibur Dehydrator
The 9-tray model I purchased does not have a timer, which people have asked about occasionally. I have never missed not having a timer, I must admit. Dehydrating is not an exact science — the food won’t overdry if you leave it an extra 15 minutes (or an hour — haha). The main features you want to be sure to have on any dehydrator is a thermostat and a fan that blows the air across the trays from the back of the unit. I like the Excalibur because of its high capacity and trust all the customer reports of its long life and durability.
Foods that Dehydrate Well
Among the foods that we have particularly liked to dehydrate are the following: Carrots, Celery, Onions, Peppers, Herbs, Tomatoes, Bread (for croutons and bread crumbs), Apples, Pears, Peaches, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Potatoes, Blueberries, Pineapple, Mushrooms and Garlic.
For a way to preserve more of the bounty from your garden, check out the possibilities with dehydrating… you won’t regret it.
Yummy, white fluffiness... melts in your mouth.As long as I can remember, my Mom’s Divinity was a candy we all looked forward to at Christmastime. Guaranteed to send a diabetic into sugar shock, its light fluffiness never fails to satisfy that sweet tooth craving.
Once I was old enough to help with Christmas candy-making and baking, I always took part in helping to prepare this recipe. Mom always made several batches of it each year so that she could share with neighbors and friends, so there were several opportunities to learn the skill along the way. So, I never dreamed I’d have so much difficulty getting consistent results when I was out on my own.
Let me just say that I’ve had some very lackluster batches in the past years, some so soft that they could be referred to as “spoon candy”, some so dry and crumbly that they wouldn’t stick together.
This year was going to be the year I got it right. After a few long conversations with Mom, picking her brain about the finer points of deciding when to call it “ready” and add the vanilla, I got it right. I think it is now duplicate-able infinitely and want to share it.
Divinity (with notes and secret techniques)
2 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks with high powered stand mixer
2 1/2 cups sugar (I told you about the sugar coma thing)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
In a 2 quart saucepan, combine the sugar, syrup, water and salt. Cook to the thread stage (230 degrees). Meanwhile, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Use a stand mixer with a good motor. Don’t try this with a small hand mixer (You’ll burn the motor out). Dip out about 1 cup of the syrup and slowly add to the beaten egg whites while beating. Scrape down the sides.
Continue cooking the rest of the syrup to the hard ball stage (260 degrees). Again, dip out about 1 cup of the syrup and slowly add to the egg white mixture while beating. Scrape down the sides.
Cook the rest of the syrup to the hard crack (300 degrees) stage (if you are using a water test method, the syrup will actually make a cracking sound when you drop the hot syrup into the cold water).
Finally, pour the rest of the syrup into the egg white mixture while beating.
This is all pretty straightforward… this next part is where I always messed up. It takes a long time beating this mixture before it is ready. After you’ve added all the syrup to the egg white mixture, you have to beat it for a long while. I timed it this time and it took me fully 15 minutes before it was ready. Start watching it very carefully once it starts to show any sign of solidifying… in my case after about 8-9 minutes… this could vary a bit. I think mostly I have lacked patience to beat it long enough in most of my failed batches… THIS IS THE SECRET TECHNIQUE… don’t give up too soon on the beating!
So you ask… “How do I know when it is ready?”
When the divinity starts to hold its shape when you turn off the beaters, and just starts to set up like meringue, it is ready. At first, it is very liquid and soft (obviously won’t hold its shape)… then, gradually it will start to solidify slightly. When you see this, stop beating, add the vanilla very quickly and make haste to spoon it out in dollops onto a sheet of waxed paper.
Mom likes to press a pecan half into the top of each dollop (cuts the sweet taste a bit) and has been known to add a drop of either green or red food coloring with the vanilla for a touch of color.
I realize there have been a lot of food articles this week… bear with us — Christmas is coming.
A little over a month ago, I decided to try out making my own lactofermented sauerkraut. I had been reading about the health benefits of eating naturally fermented foods (aids in digestion and tastes yummy).
Not being sure how much we would like it, I did not go out and immediately buy a sauerkraut crock, but tried it out using what I had around here. That turned out to be an empty plastic 5 quart ice cream bucket and lid.
I started out with two large heads of cabbage purchased at the grocery store (they seem to be very reasonably priced this time of year), kosher salt (any non-iodized salt will do) and an inexpensive mandoline slicing machine I picked up at Aldi awhile back.
I peeled off a couple of the large outer cabbage leaves to use as the top layer in my sauerkraut bucket, then used the mandoline to finely shred the cabbage. This is a messy process, so I ended up with little cabbage bits scattered around. As I shredded, I packed the cabbage into the ice cream bucket, tamping it down with my potato masher, sprinkling kosher salt on as I went. I used about 1 1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of kosher salt per head of cabbage (this can be varied somewhat to suit your taste, although you don’t want too little since the salty atmosphere is required for proper fermentation).
After it was all shredded, salted, tamped down, I used the reserved cabbage leaves to cover the shredded cabbage, and topped it with a china plate that fit inside the bucket. To add weight to press down on the plate, I filled a ziplock bag with water and placed it on top of the plate.
Within just a few hours, the cabbage had released enough liquid to cover the sauerkraut. For the first week or so, it remained on my kitchen counter so I could observe the process. However, it began to exude a less than desirable smell and was then moved to the basement to continue.
Over the last month, I checked it every few days, adding bottled water once when it needed (don’t add chlorinated tap water).
In the last week, it has developed a really nice sauerkraut smell, so today I transferred it all into mason jars (and sampled some along the way). This yielded about 2 1/2 quarts of sauerkraut, which can be stored in the basement to continue fermentation (as long as the lids are not tightened down and gas can escape) or moved to the refrigerator to stop the process at the current level of “sour-ness”.
Can you believe how easy this is? I think I’ll branch out by adding apples and caraway seeds on the next batch, maybe a few juniper berries (reminds me of our years in Germany).
It is really quite tasty, with a slightly different taste than the stuff you buy in cans… I think it is time for German bockwurst to go along with the sauerkraut. Guess what is for dinner tonight…
The pears were from the tree in my parents’ back yard. It has taken awhile for them to begin to get really ripe and delicious. You’ll notice the lovely pink color… we added 3 drops of red food coloring to each quart. My Grandma Pickett used to do that, so we carried on the tradition.
