Yogurt FAIL

So I tried my hand at making yogurt, it was....interesting.... and the results were edible, I think. The dogs didn't get sick at any rate........

I started out with 1 quart of raw milk, stuck it in the crockpot, turned it on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Then I turned off the slow cooker and let it sit for 3 hours.

I then added my store bought yogurt culture. (this could have been my problem, because I think I should have taken some milk out, mixed in the starter, and then mixed it all together)

Lid back on, and wrapped it all nice and cozy to keep it warm, and let it sit for 8 hours.

(yeah, it felt weird to let warm milk just sit out on my counter, kinda skeeved me out to be honest)

In the morning I ended up with this beige, runny, lumpy mess.

I refrigerated it in the hope it would firm up, and it did, a little....

However, it remained beige and lumpy...

Icky yogurt FAIL

Fed it to the dogs, they loved it....

Not making yogurt again..........until I get an actual yogurt maker, hint hint Santa...

Making butter from unhomogenized raw milk

I've been experimenting with milk; making butter, and boy have I learned alot, so I'm gonna share it with you!

Let's start at the beginning...MILK, well actually it's the cows, but to shorten this up we'll start with milk. The milk you buy in the store is homogenized and pasteurized. What do those two words mean?

Well...homogenization is essentially breaking up the fat globules in milk into smaller sized globules so the cream doesn't seperate from the milk. Here's a much more interesting in depth discussion of the why's and how's of homogenization.

Pasteurization is basically a heat sterilization process. It's used to kill the "bad bugs" in milk. It also kills the good bacteria, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other beneficial ingredients found in raw milk. There's a whole debate about raw vs. pasteurized milk going on, and it's so lengthy that it warrants a whole post of its own. At any rate, this link will give you some more info about the pasteurization of milk. As far as legality, in Massachusetts it is legal to sell raw milk right from the farm, but you won't find it in a store. The farms that sell it are also subject to monthly imnspections and tests, far more frequent than mainstream commercial dairies.

Now another factor is what the cows eat...do they eat grain, grass, hay? Does it really make a difference? Well I'm no cow expert, but here's what I knew starting out, the feed affects the butterfat content of the milk, and milk from grass fed cows has more good fatty acids (CLA) than milk from grain fed cows.

So I found myself 3 kinds of milk, all unhomogenized, some pasteurized, some unpasteurized.

So far I have no churn, just using the "mason jar + milk + lots of shaking" method, which takes alot of shaking. I figured I'd enlist some help, but first I wanted to make sure it worked.

I let the cream rise, sucked it off with a turkey baster, and let it sit out and come to room temperature. Then Aaron shook it alot...

Aaron's test batch, it actually worked!!

I grabbed 2 little family members with lots of energy and put them to work shaking.

This one liked to shake under my desk..

Having fun? 

...they were great on clean up, including dishes.

I even made them make their own supper! 

Mmmmm...calzones..... 

But wait this post is about butter... so here ya go..

 

Here are my findings:

 

Butter from grain fed, organic, unpasteurized, unhomogenized cow's milk- From Cook Farm in Hadley, MA

• Color: very light color
• flavor: good, but margarine-like, almost oily

 

 

 

 

Butter from grass fed, organic, pasteurized, unhomogenized cow's milk- From Natural by Nature, purchased at The Living Earth in Worcester, MA

•  Color: much brighter yellow, clearly much yellower than grain fed
• Flavor: creamier, more buttery

 

 

Butter from hay fed*, organic, unpasteurized, unhomogenized cow's milk- From Robinson's Farm in Hardwick, MA

• Color: yellow, darker than grain fed, but not as bright as grass fed
• Flavor: Creamy, very buttery and smooth tasting, the best of the three

• *The cows are usually grass fed but in late November, early December they start getting hay.
• I'd be interested to see how the color/flavor changes when the cows are back on grass in the Spring
  

The butters shown in the same order as above from left to right: grain fed, grass fed, hay fed

This picture shows the color differences pretty well.

The Verdict: the last butter is the best.

 

 As for the leftovers from making butter; the buttermilk

 ...the first 2 times there wasn't much left so the dogs got it. The third time I saved it and will be making Sunday morning whole wheat buttermilk pancakes! YUM

 

In general, making butter with a canning jar is fun, but not something I'd consider doing to supply all of our butter needs. It's time consuming, messy(especally if the lid comes off), and a lot of work for very little butter. I did try using our food processor for the last batch, and I didn't like the results, the butter got too hot and was hard to seperate from the buttermilk. In the future I have hopes of buying a real butter churn which makes the idea of making larger batches much more conceivable.

 

 

http://www.lehmans.com/  sells a churn similar to a Dazey churn that I think would serve us well.

 

one day....one day..hee hee

 you will live in my house and I will make butter with you.

and I will have my own cow, and some chickens, and bees, and turkeys and sheep....and a big old broken down farmhouse with land and stone walls...

But until then I buy my raw milk, make my butter, and dream.

=0)

Improved Horehound Drops

I made horehound drops again this year, with some minor improvements. (Last Year) I used a buttered pyrex dish, that didn't work out. This year I did the cookie sheet with parchment paper on top, WAAAAAY better for getting the drops off.

New improved drop remover design

Scored drops

 The scoring didn't work so well, out came the big guns (notice the hammer).

Used confectioner's sugar again this year to coat them, it helps with the bitter flavor, at least at first...

 

Also I may have slightly burnt it, it got to 300 degrees and a little over, FAST this time, but this stuff is so bitter, you can't tell. =0) The one good thing is these drops are far less sticky than last years, I'm guessing because they for sure got to 300 this year? (the hard crack candy stage)

By next year I should be a pro! =0)

If you'd like some drops, let me know, they're an acquired taste, but great for colds, sore throats, and asthma.

Drops packaged, labeled, and ready to go.

Making Traditional Bavarian Sauerbraten

As some of you may know my mom's family is from Germany; Bavaria more specifically. My mom was born in Munich in fact. I've grown up eating some really great, filling, traditional German foods, and now that I'm older I like to try my hand at our recipes. I had a bunch of family over recently for Sunday dinner. Cooking German food for my mom's side can be tricky, they know what it's supposed to taste like, and everyone has an opinion, of course, on how sour or salty or sweet it should be. I've compiled the best recipes and advice from everyone and here's what we get for sauerbraten. It's mostly a secret family recipe, you lucky people you.

Ingredients for marinade:

• 4lb pot roast (with fat trimmed off)
• 1 1/2 C Red wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 C red wine
• 12 peppercorns
• 1T mustard seed
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 1/2t salt
• 1/4t pepper

Ingredients for cooking:

• marinated roast
• 3T butter
• 12 carrots, sliced thin
• 6 onions, sliced

First combine all marinade ingredients (except meat) in a large saucepot, bring just to a boil. Let cool slightly.

Put meat in large bowl and then pour mixture over meat. Let cool, cover tightly, and put in fridge. Marinate for 5 days, turning meat daily.

On day 5 remove from marinade (save it, you'll need it later), drain and pat dry. Melt butter in a dutch oven, then brown meat on all sides.

I made 2 because I had a number of guests. Here's the browned meat and the other one just getting started.

Once browned, add 1C marinade, and the carrots and onions. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, and simmer for 2 hours. If you need to, add more of the marinade as it cooks.

Then strain the liquid in the dutch oven and use it to make gravy.

I'd love to tell you how, but I can't, it's secret, and umm... actually I'm not even sure how to do it right, that's Omi's department.

Along with sauerbraten we had semmelknodel, blaukraut, and creamed spinach. For dessert we had American favorites: pumpkin and apple pies. I think in the end everyone was pretty happy and full.

ummm ok I'm hungry now!

making crabapple sauce

OR......... how to waste a few hours..................

Everytime we walk the dogs we walk by this really neat crabapple tree, and for the past 2 years I've been thinking about trying to make crabapple sauce.

So this year, we finally tried it.


We picked the crabapples, washed them, cut out the bad spots and put them in our dutch oven with a little bit of water so they didn't scorch. Cooked them, covered, until soft.

Don't they look pretty? They smelled good too.

Once they were soft enough I used my ricer to mush 'em up good.

PS...hot apple mush burns....

Then back in the dutch oven they went, and I cooked it down to a good consistency, and added my sugar. It tasted pretty sour and bitter, so I added more sugar, and more, and more, and more..... pretty much I added more sugar than apples....... nothing helped, it tasted awful, so it all went in the garbage! YUCK

The only good thing was, this was a test batch so I didn't pick a ton.

So.... I discovered those crabapples up the road, are not so good for applesauce....

Harvesting and making elderberry jelly

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A few weeks ago, while walking the beasties, I saw some bushes loaded with berries that I suspected were elderberries. So I did some research, consulted with all my books, and a few folks I know and these are indeed Elderberries (Sambucus Canadensis).

Note: Be careful when foraging. Make sure you have correctly identified what you are picking. Elderberries do have some poisonous look alikes. Some people confuse them with poke berries which are poisonous, and there's a red variety of elderberries that aren't edible. Also the leaves and stems of the elderberry are poisonous.

I'd recommend buying a few books or even taking a class with a wild edible food expert.

Now Aaron had his doubts about making jelly out of berries we picked on the side of the road (or "crazy berries" as he called them). So I "correctly" labeled a couple jars just for him.

This is an elderberry, tiny aren't they?

So, once you have correctly identified plants, it's time to pick berries. Make sure you get ripe berries, not green (green makes you sick). Don't bother picking individual berries, just pop off the whole cluster at the joint. (gather about 3-4 pounds) Gather the rest of your ingredients.

• 
  
  4 1/2 C sugar
• 
  
  1/4C lemon juice
• 
  
  1 packet of pectin

Gently rinse. Take the berries off the stems, this is a little time consuming, but I found the best method was to pick off and discard any undesirable berries (these were a little late so some clusters had little "raisins" and some wrinkly berries). Once those berries are off, then hold the cluster upside down and rake your thumb over the berries.

Then I rinsed the berries about 3 times, twice letting debris float to the top and pouring it out with the water.

Next mash the berries in a saucepot over medium heat. While it comes to a boil keep mashing to release the juices. When it reaches a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Then place berries in a jelly strainer, or a fine sieve would work, maybe even a few layers of cheesecloth. Let it strain out for a few hours. In the meantime you can prepare your canning jars. I used about 10-12 4oz jelly jars.

Measure about 3C of elderberry juice into a saucepot (use a big one this stuff foams up). (I found I got about 1C juice from each pound of berries) Stir in lemon juice and pectin.

Bring to a boil. Add sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon (this will stain your spoon purple, be ready)

Bring to a boil again, stirring continuously. Once it reaches a rolling boil that doesn't diminish when you stir, start timing. At 2 minutes remove from heat and ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.

Wipe rims of jars, position 2 piece lids.

Process in a water canner for 15 minutes.

Remove and let cool. Listen for the pop that means the jars have successfully sealed.

Enjoy your jelly!!! It tastes a little like grape, but with a wilder flavor.

How to make peach pie filling

I loove peaches and peach pie, and I was tired of canning. So, I searched through my trusty, wrinkled, and stained copy of the Blue Balls Book of Canning, or whatever it's called, and found this recipe for peach pie filling that you FREEZE.

Here goes

Gather ingredients. (which I did first this time.)

• 
  
  6 pounds peaches
• 
  
  1 lemon (for 2t of peel and 1/4C juice)
• 
  
  2 1/4Csugar
• 
  
  1/2C flour
• 
  
  1t cinnamon
• 
  
  1/2t nutmeg

Wash peaches and blanch them in boiling water. This makes it MUCH easier to peel.

Peel and pit them, and cut into slices. Now the book says "treat to prevent darkening", I sprinkled lemon juice on them, but they probably meant their "fruit Fresh produce protector". Whatever, lemon juice worked for me.






 Combine sugar, flour, and spices.



Rinse and drain peaches. Stir into sugar mixture. Let stand 30 minutes or until juices begin to flow. LEMON!!

Stir in lemon peel and juice.

Cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. That took about 10 minutes.

Ladle hot mix into freezer jars, let cool off for no more than 2 hours.  FREEZE This was easy peasy lemon squeezy (lol, get it?)

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