I tried to render some fat tonight from Kroger beef.

I've done this before and tallow is usually hard and white. You can snap it. What I got from this Kroger beef was not hard at all. It was exactly what the fat looks like in documentaries about liposuction. It was not cow fat. What the fuck is it?

...and after reading this I'm not keen on trying it again:
"Most of the serious toxins that you read about are lipophilic (or, hydrophobic) and hence will tend to partition into animals’ fat in the wild (i.e. bioaccumulate). Examples include dioxins, PDBEs, PCBs, etc."

3rd-Gen Basil

We've been saving the seeds of our basil plant for about 2 or 3 years now. The plant we have now is the grandchild of our first plant. It looks like the most amazing basil plant I've ever seen. It's so vibrant, strong, tasty, attractive. And it has just flowered, so we can keep this line forever.

Save your seeds people! If you grow anything and you're not saving seed, you're an idiot.

Make Yoghurt!

Yoghurt is amazingly easy to make. Like, seriously. If you're going to make it though, make large amounts. That way you will save cash. But really, it's cool to have your own batch growing.

I like tangy yoghurt, I like Greek yoghurt. The other day I was almost out of Greek yoghurt, and I wouldn't be going to the store anytime soon. So I made up a batch of yoghurt, incubated it and when I got home from work I had a bunch of free delicious yoghurt to eat. Blah, just do it.

So this is how yoghurt is made

INGREDIENTS
946ml milk
1 tbsp yoghurt

METHOD

• Heat milk to 180F/82C. The longer you hold it at this temp, the thicker your yoghurt will be.
  
• Let it cool. Wait until it's 110F/43C.
  
• While waiting, boil jars to sterilize. (Or you can just take them out of the dishwasher when it's just finished.)
  
• Preheat storage area. You'll have to keep the yoghurt warm for about 8-12 hours.
  
• Add yoghurt to milk. Stir.
  
• Pour milk into jars.
  
• Cap jars.
  
• Wrap with warm towels, store for 8-12 hours.
  

You can incubate it in a crockpot filled with 110F/43C water, set on warm then turn off and put your jars in, cover with a towel. Try to maintain 110F/43C.

...but what I do is, wrap the jars in towels, put them on top of the dryer in the dryer cupboard, then dry some clothes. Keeps the cupboard warm.

That's it! You need a tbsp of yoghurt to make about a litre of yoghurt. You can use the yoghurt you make to make the next batch of yoghurt too. I've read that after a few turns of doing this, that you should start with a fresh batch, but that doesn't make any sense to me. If you have a healthy, culture going, then by all means use it.

Btw, the iPhone sucks fucking dicks for taking pictures. iPhones are lame, guys. Worst phone ever.

--edit: made more yoghurt today (4th Aug 2011), did it with about 1 minutes work total, and took a bath while I waited for the milk to cool. This time, I shook up the jars to get that yoghurt dispersed in the milk. Checked on it 8 hours later and it was super thick. Success! Shake your jars!

Good Ginger Snap Cookies

This isn't a food blawg. But you really ought to go and make these ginger snap cookies.




Prep. time: 10 mins
Bake time: 12 mins

INGREDIENTS

• 286g (2 cups) flour
  
• 216g (1 cup) sugar (brown or white, I used white)
  
• 136g (3/4 cups) vegetable oil
  
• 75g (1/4 cups) molasses
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 tsp baking soda
  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 2 tsp ginger
  
• 1 tsp cloves
  
• 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  

METHOD

• Mix all ingredients together.
  
• Roll dough into small balls (about an inch wide).
  
• Put a bunch of white sugar into a large bowl, drop in the cookie balls, shake them around to coat with sugar.
  
• Set oven to 149 °C/300 °F.
  
• Place cookie balls on a baking tray and chill in fridge for about 10 mins, while oven preheats.
  
• Bake for 12 mins.
  

Makes about 36 cookies.

Free Bramble Jam

As honorary members of the Slow Cycle Club, Whitney and I often find useful things in our neighbourhood.

We're currently living in Conway, AR and this is a car-dominant city. The advantage to us is that, on foot and on bicycles, we find so much useful, hidden stuff around here that you simply can't see from a car. Our bicycles are the key to a more useful and intimate second city. This is true of all cities, I'm sure, but it's especially welcome to us here.

On one of our meandering bicycle routes, I found bramble bushes. When I was a kid in Scotland, my family would go bramble picking and then my grandmother would make it into pies or cobblers. Discovering bramble bushes here is awesome.

We only managed to grab one jar full of berries, but it was enough to make about 3/4 of a jar of jam.



I always thought jam was complicated but it really isn't. Mash some berries, add some sugar, boil it until it reaches 104 °C/220 °F (about the same time that you think to yourself, "is this going to explode?") and then pour it into a sterile jar. I added some ginger and some lemon juice to it too. That's it: awesome jam in less than 20 minutes.

It's about 3 parts berries, 2 parts sugar.

Beer Bread

Beer Bread. It's easy, quick, tasty and no-fail bread. Make it.
I slapped it together so it looks pretty messy, but it's going to taste awesome.

My great grandma used to make this for me when I was a little girl. :)

The recipe I'm using today is as follows:

INGREDIENTS
384g sifted all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
50g sugar
340ml beer
113g melted unsalted butter

METHOD
Mix all dry ingredients then add the can of beer. Mix.
Pour into loaf pan. I butter my pan and coat it with corn meal.
Pour the melted butter over the bread.
Bake @375 °F/191 °C for 1 hour.

The result: a slightly sweet, crunchy crusted delicious bread. Mmmmm.


I also decided I wanted some honey butter to go with my bread. I blended 2 sticks of unsalted butter, a generous amount of honey, a tablespoon of cream cheese, and some vanilla scraped from a pod.

YOUR FACE IS MADE OF BREAD

Every urban homesteader should be able to make bread and after 5,000 failed attempts, I've finally figured it out.



INGREDIENTS
240g warm water*
16g/2 tbsp oil
28g/2 tbsp honey
26g/2 tbsp brown sugar
10g/1 tbsp milk
6g/1 tsp salt

360g strong white bread flour
2 tsp instant/easy bake yeast

Some butter for greasing the tray.

*yeast works optimally at 30-37 °C (86-98.6 °F), above 37 °C they become stressed, according to Wikipedia.

METHOD
Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir.
Add flour and yeast, and knead until it's mixed up well and that's all.
Place dough in an oily bowl, turning once to grease the top.
Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place, let rise until size doubles.
Punch dough down. Knead a little and form into loaf shape.
Grease a baking tray with butter, put the loaf on it, and let rise in a warm place again until it doubles in size again.
Preheat oven to 190 °C (374 °F). Bake for 35 minutes on a low shelf.
Remove loaf from oven, allow to rest on a wire rack. When cool, slice it up, eat.

Notes:
Greasing the tray with butter works much better than oil.
You don't have to knead the dough. Let the yeast do all the work.
Getting the water to the right temperature makes a huge difference.

I don't use loaf pans but you might want to try it. In previous experiments, I've found that the middle doesn't cook well with a loaf pan and there's still alcohol left over. With this method, there's a lot more surface area for the alcohol to escape from, the taste of which indicates a less than successful bread.

Other people who write about breadmaking always say they could never go back to store-bought bread and I've always thought they were aloof for saying so. But I'm feeling the same. After you make and eat this stuff, store bread looks and tastes like shit in comparison, like they're tried to make something as bread-like as possible without actually being bread.

Apple Crumble

Yellow for Rainy Days

I like to cook. I like baking and making pretty things. :) Today I decided to bake lemon poppy seed loaf with almond vanilla glaze. Care to join?


(Korgan says: If you're a metric-phile like me and the sight of U.S. cup sizes incites violence in your mind, look away now.)

For the lemon poppy seed loaf:
1 box of lemon cake mix
1 box of instant lemon pudding
4 eggs
1 c. water
1/2 c. oil
1/4 c. poppy seeds

Mix all ingredients, beat for 10 minutes with electric mixer, divide into 2 loaves, pop in the oven at 350°F for 40-45 minutes and POOF! Delicious lemon poppy seed loaf.


For the vanilla almond glaze:
1/3 c. butter
2 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I used 3 vanilla bean pods)
2-4 tbsp water
Dash of almond flavor

Heat the butter until melted. Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and almond. Stir in water 1 tbsp at a time until smooth.



Once the loaves had cooled a bit, I poked holes in the top of them with a chopstick, then slowly drizzled the warm glaze over the top.

The cake is moist and delicious and the glaze soaks into the top wonderfully.


Remember, baking is better with cute aprons. :)

The best kind of kraut is sauerkraut

Three weeks ago, I made sauerkraut. This is my first batch.


Sauerkraut is essential for reuben sandwiches. It's a great side for lots of dishes, contains a lot of vitamin C, keeps for a long time and it's easy to make.

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. You submerge slightly salted shredded cabbage underwater and leave it to ferment. You can taste it a few days to a few weeks later to see how it is. You can include other vegetables such as garlic, onion or carrot.