I pulled the sauerkraut today and I couldn't stop eating it. I have been experimenting off and on over the last three year in making sauerkraut and this one is the best so far. I wanted to share a few additional tips that I have found out in its making. First I used a 2 gallon Ohio stoneware crock that I picked up at ACE hardware and it worked perfectly. If you are planning on doing alot of fermenting I highly suggest one over a food grade bucket. Second, a seven and a half inch ceramic salad plate from Target fits perfectly inside the 2 gallon crock. Third, a one gallon jug of bottled water was the perfect weight for over the plate. Last it took about three and a half weeks to ferment to my liking, it may take longer is you like a stronger sour flavor, less if you prefer milder kraut.
Now that I have 6 quarts of sauerkraut what next? Well between myself and my family we ate one today. Another quart was transferred to a quart canning jar, lidded and put in the fridge for semi-immediate consumption. The remaining four quarts were bagged and put into the freezer for future use. It is great in Reuben sandwiches and hot dogs, good with kielbasa and perigees plus makes a nice bed to roast a pork loin or slab of ribs on. I have mentioned before that a good use for the sauerkraut juice is in a Bloody \Mary so below I have attached my recipe.
Sauer Mary
1.5 oz Sauerkraut juice
8 oz tomato juice
.5 oz grated horseradish
2 dashes hot sauce
3 oz vodka
1 dash lemon or lime juice
1 dash celery salt
2-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Mix in a highball glass. May be shaken vigorously or stirred lazily, as desired. Garnish with a celery stalk; a skewer of olives, pickles, carrots, mushrooms, or other vegetables; or even meat or fish (salami, shrimp, etc.) and cheese. Occasionally, pickled asparagus spears or pickled beans are also used.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Yeast Influxion
Sourdough pizza crust was a success! I modified the recipe we usually do that uses instant yeast. The added bonus is that we make pizza almost every Friday night and this way the sourdough starter will continually be used and kept up as long as I keep it in the refrigerator to slow the yeasts down! I love it when a plan comes together.
Sour Pizza
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs kosher salt
Sour Pizza
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs kosher salt
1 tbs pure olive oil
1 ½ cups bread flour (for bread machines)
1 ½ cups sourdough starter
2 tsp olive oil
Olive oil, for the pizza crust
Cornmeal, for dusting the pizza stone
Take the sourdough starter out of the fridge a day and a half before you want pizza. Since pizza night here is Friday, that means I take out the starter Thursday morning. This lets it wake up and you will get a better rise out of it.
That night start your dough. Add the sugar, salt, oil, four and starter in you mixer bowl. Stuff it in the mixer and attach the mixing paddle. Turn the mixer to medium and mix until it turns into dough. Swap out the paddle for the dough hook (Turn of the machine first, duh) and dial the mixer back up to medium. Make sure the mixer is not in a position to walk off the counter and leave it on for about 25-30 minutes. That is not a type-o, 30 minutes. Kneading the heck out of it creates gluten and gluten is good in yeast breads. So turn on the mixer and go watch a some TV.
After the mixer is done pull off the dough and work it into a smooth ball with your hands. Coat the dough with a little olive oil and toss it in a bowl about 3 times the size of the dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out then leave it until dinner time tomorrow. Feed the sourdough starter still in your jar ¾ cup water and ¾ cup flour.
Preheat the oven to 450° and dust your baking surface with cornmeal (baking stone, cookie sheet, jelly roll pan, Terra cotta tile, etc). Spread the dough out to pizza shape and put on top of the corn meal.
You may then build the pizza as you like. Usually sauce goes first but not always; tomato, alfredo or pesto for example. Next usually is cheese. We usually just do mozzarella but have used half blue cheese half mozzarella. Last is toppings, we usually don't bother with any since the crust is so good but go with whatever you like. Pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage, onions, peppers, olives, jalapenos, anchovies, smoked oysters, whatever you like. The sauerkraut from the post a while back is fantastic on pizza (I am totally not kidding on this one).
Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes. Keep an eye on it and pull it out when the cheese is bubbly and golden brown. And don't forget to put the sourdough starter back in the fridge.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Fungal Husbandry
I decided last week to try my hand at attracting wild yeast, feeding them, keeping them warm then eating them. I speak of course of sourdough starter. It turned out to be relatively simple though I foresee keeping them producing to be more of a long term commitment than I can handle.
The hardware consists of a quart glass canning jar, fitting canning lid and a thin dishrag. The software is 2 cups water (use bottled if your tap water is chlorinated) and 2 cups flour. Mix well the flour and water in the jar, cover the jar with the dishrag and secure it in place with the canning ring. Wait about 4- 5 days until it starts bubbling. Viola!
The theory is that wild yeast floating in the air will make their way into the mixture and begin fermentation. I decided not to chance it and cheated a bit and seeded the starter first. Thin skinned fruits attract wild yeasts and it forms a white film on the surface of the fruit (yummy huh?) I had a few grapes still on the vine that neither I nor the birds have gotten around to eating so I dropped about 5 into the flour and water mixture. Just make sure to fish them back out before you use the starter.
Now that you have a smelly jar of semi-rotten flour water, what do you do with it? I tried sourdough pancakes!
Sourdough Pancakes
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups lukewarm water
2½ AP Flour
2 tbs sugar
1 egg
2 tbs vegetable oil
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
In a large bowl combine the starter, water, flour and sugar. Stir until smooth, cover and let sit in a warm place for about 8-12 hours. (I did it the night before and had them for breakfast)
Heat your griddle. Beat the egg with the oil and salt and stir into the mixture. Combine the baking soda with 1 tbs warm water and fold that in too.
Cook and serve just like regular pancakes.
My wife told me they were 'different' and I do not take this as any sort of criticism. They were heavier then my chemical leavened (baking powder) pancakes. But not necessarily in a bad way, they were simply more substantial and I really dug the sour flavor in contrast with the syrup.
After I made the pancakes I fed the starter with ½ cup flour and ½ cup water then let it bubble on the counter for the rest of the day and put it in the fridge. That should slow the yeasts so I won't be required to use the starter quickly before it goes rancid. I plan to take it out in a day or so to wake up then we are trying sourdough pizza! I'll let you know if it goes well.
The hardware consists of a quart glass canning jar, fitting canning lid and a thin dishrag. The software is 2 cups water (use bottled if your tap water is chlorinated) and 2 cups flour. Mix well the flour and water in the jar, cover the jar with the dishrag and secure it in place with the canning ring. Wait about 4- 5 days until it starts bubbling. Viola!
The theory is that wild yeast floating in the air will make their way into the mixture and begin fermentation. I decided not to chance it and cheated a bit and seeded the starter first. Thin skinned fruits attract wild yeasts and it forms a white film on the surface of the fruit (yummy huh?) I had a few grapes still on the vine that neither I nor the birds have gotten around to eating so I dropped about 5 into the flour and water mixture. Just make sure to fish them back out before you use the starter.
Now that you have a smelly jar of semi-rotten flour water, what do you do with it? I tried sourdough pancakes!
Sourdough Pancakes
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups lukewarm water
2½ AP Flour
2 tbs sugar
1 egg
2 tbs vegetable oil
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
In a large bowl combine the starter, water, flour and sugar. Stir until smooth, cover and let sit in a warm place for about 8-12 hours. (I did it the night before and had them for breakfast)
Heat your griddle. Beat the egg with the oil and salt and stir into the mixture. Combine the baking soda with 1 tbs warm water and fold that in too.
Cook and serve just like regular pancakes.
My wife told me they were 'different' and I do not take this as any sort of criticism. They were heavier then my chemical leavened (baking powder) pancakes. But not necessarily in a bad way, they were simply more substantial and I really dug the sour flavor in contrast with the syrup.
After I made the pancakes I fed the starter with ½ cup flour and ½ cup water then let it bubble on the counter for the rest of the day and put it in the fridge. That should slow the yeasts so I won't be required to use the starter quickly before it goes rancid. I plan to take it out in a day or so to wake up then we are trying sourdough pizza! I'll let you know if it goes well.
Monday, January 9, 2012
I Shout, You Shout, We All Shout for Sauerkraut!
I would like to be the first to say that the title above is not just awful, but god awful.
Santa brought me a book this year on natural fermentation. In it, among other strangely interesting things to rot, is sauerkraut. Home fermented sauerkraut is a completely different beast than store bought. Not only is the flavor different but it is still alive. Yes, that is what I said. Alive.
Home fermented sauerkraut teems with live lactobacilli and what give it its sour taste is lactic acid, a byproduct of these lactobacilli living out their happy little lives feeding on the cabbage. This zombie sauerkraut is reputed to be very healthy, I am not sold on this but it tastes good.
Sauerkraut
10 pounds Cabbage (Green, Red, Nappa, Bok Choi, whatever)
5 tablespoons salt
2 gallon crock or food-grade plastic bucket
1 plate that fits inside the crock/bucket
1 weight (clean rock, jug of water, etc.)
kitchen towel to put over everything to keep out the bugs.
1. Shred cabbage. I used the rotary shredder attachment for my mixer. You can also do it with a knife, mandolin or grater. Put the shredded cabbage in the largest bowl you have.
2. Sprinkle the cabbage with the salt. Mix well with you hands.
3. Load it into you crock or bucket (the cabbage, not the bowl). Mash it down with a tamper of some sort. You can use a potato masher, clean length of 2x4 or even your fists. The salt draws out water from the cabbage and you want that water to rise to the top so no air gets to the cabbage.
4. Put the plate on top of the cabbage and the weight on the plate. This will keep the cabbage under the brine. Then top the whole thing with a towel and let it sit in a warm spot for a few days.
5. Once every few days skim the scum off the top of the brine and rinse it off the weight. Try to get any mold off the top if it appears as well.
6. After 4-6 weeks you should have sauerkraut. I usually portion and freeze it. You can also boiling-bath-can it because it is acidic enough or just eat the whole batch and use the juice to seed a new batch.
7. Sauerkraut juice also tastes good in a bloody mary BTW.
Santa brought me a book this year on natural fermentation. In it, among other strangely interesting things to rot, is sauerkraut. Home fermented sauerkraut is a completely different beast than store bought. Not only is the flavor different but it is still alive. Yes, that is what I said. Alive.
Home fermented sauerkraut teems with live lactobacilli and what give it its sour taste is lactic acid, a byproduct of these lactobacilli living out their happy little lives feeding on the cabbage. This zombie sauerkraut is reputed to be very healthy, I am not sold on this but it tastes good.
Sauerkraut
10 pounds Cabbage (Green, Red, Nappa, Bok Choi, whatever)
5 tablespoons salt
2 gallon crock or food-grade plastic bucket
1 plate that fits inside the crock/bucket
1 weight (clean rock, jug of water, etc.)
kitchen towel to put over everything to keep out the bugs.
1. Shred cabbage. I used the rotary shredder attachment for my mixer. You can also do it with a knife, mandolin or grater. Put the shredded cabbage in the largest bowl you have.
2. Sprinkle the cabbage with the salt. Mix well with you hands.
3. Load it into you crock or bucket (the cabbage, not the bowl). Mash it down with a tamper of some sort. You can use a potato masher, clean length of 2x4 or even your fists. The salt draws out water from the cabbage and you want that water to rise to the top so no air gets to the cabbage.
4. Put the plate on top of the cabbage and the weight on the plate. This will keep the cabbage under the brine. Then top the whole thing with a towel and let it sit in a warm spot for a few days.
5. Once every few days skim the scum off the top of the brine and rinse it off the weight. Try to get any mold off the top if it appears as well.
6. After 4-6 weeks you should have sauerkraut. I usually portion and freeze it. You can also boiling-bath-can it because it is acidic enough or just eat the whole batch and use the juice to seed a new batch.
7. Sauerkraut juice also tastes good in a bloody mary BTW.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Weighty Responsibilities
I think I have mentioned before that I am not much of a baker. Where cooking is more gut instinct and spontaneity, baking is about precision. Basically a subdivision of chemistry, baking requires exact measurements and procedures and because of these exacting requirements I have taken to weighing most of my baking ingredients.
Why weigh? It has to do with dry granule shape and size. A cup of sifted flour weights less than a cup of unsifted flour because the sifted flour has more air in it and therefore less flour. This inconsistently can screw your baking royally. Another example is salt, salt is salt right? Not exactly, if you compare the weight of a cup of table salt with kosher salt, the table salt weights more because its grains sit tighter together than the flakes of the kosher salt. If you weigh pickling salt it will weigh even more since its grain size is smaller. Smaller grain size means less air and less air means more salt and more salt means more weight.
If I can manage it I try to use recipes that are based on weight rather than volume. A digital scale is not a huge investment if you like baking ($20 at Wal-Mart) and most can weight in ounces and grams, allowing you to use metric and standard recipes. They also have a tare or re-zero function, allowing you to reset the zero of the scale. Why is this important? It allows you avoid doing any math while measuring ingredients and we all know that math is the (square) root of all evil.
First put your mixing bowl on the scale and hit the tare; the display now reads 0.00. Add the first measurement then hit the tare button again. This keeps you from trying to remember 8 ounces of butter added to 12 ounces of flour is 20 ounces, 22 after adding 2 ounces of sugar and so on.
To help illustrate the concept I have included my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe - altered to use weight measurements. To give credit where credit is due, the recipe is from Alton Brown's Cooking show 'Good Eats.' Which is why it is kind of, well, Wierd. The only alteration I have made is to add chopped walnuts because that simply makes a superior chocolate chip cookie.
Chocolate Chip Cookies - By Weight
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
12 ounces chopped walnuts
Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.
Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Chill the dough for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375° and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.
Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling rack and wait at least 5 minutes before consuming.
Why weigh? It has to do with dry granule shape and size. A cup of sifted flour weights less than a cup of unsifted flour because the sifted flour has more air in it and therefore less flour. This inconsistently can screw your baking royally. Another example is salt, salt is salt right? Not exactly, if you compare the weight of a cup of table salt with kosher salt, the table salt weights more because its grains sit tighter together than the flakes of the kosher salt. If you weigh pickling salt it will weigh even more since its grain size is smaller. Smaller grain size means less air and less air means more salt and more salt means more weight.
If I can manage it I try to use recipes that are based on weight rather than volume. A digital scale is not a huge investment if you like baking ($20 at Wal-Mart) and most can weight in ounces and grams, allowing you to use metric and standard recipes. They also have a tare or re-zero function, allowing you to reset the zero of the scale. Why is this important? It allows you avoid doing any math while measuring ingredients and we all know that math is the (square) root of all evil.
First put your mixing bowl on the scale and hit the tare; the display now reads 0.00. Add the first measurement then hit the tare button again. This keeps you from trying to remember 8 ounces of butter added to 12 ounces of flour is 20 ounces, 22 after adding 2 ounces of sugar and so on.
To help illustrate the concept I have included my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe - altered to use weight measurements. To give credit where credit is due, the recipe is from Alton Brown's Cooking show 'Good Eats.' Which is why it is kind of, well, Wierd. The only alteration I have made is to add chopped walnuts because that simply makes a superior chocolate chip cookie.
Chocolate Chip Cookies - By Weight
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
12 ounces chopped walnuts
Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.
Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips and walnuts. Chill the dough for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375° and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.
Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling rack and wait at least 5 minutes before consuming.
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