It has been nearly a year since my last post and although I do not have much of an audience, I still feel bad because I am supposed to be tracking my progress in converting to real food. So here it is:
I will try to publish a new post at least once every week!
I definitely have more than enough material because, even though I have not posted in a while, I have been busy researching and slowly converting my kitchen. So here is a list of things to look forward to me posting about:
Kefir water
Sourdough starter (I named it Sebastian)
Abundant Harvest
Soaking grains
Sugar
Oils
Recipes
Cooking ware
Food storage
and more....
God bless :)
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Making Butter
Oh yeah!!!
I got to thinking a month ago about preservatives and how they are in EVERYTHING and how I will have to give up things like ketchup, mayo, tobasco, margarine, etc. I looked in the fridge and saw some 1000 island dressing and I was reminded of the time that I ran out a year ago and wound up making my own. And then a light bulb went off! "I bet I can make my own condiments!"
After quite a bit of research I feel very confident that I can make some butter, the first condiment I will be replacing. Here is what I need:
But first, how does whipping cream become butter? Heavy whipping cream has little bubbles of butter fat incased by membranes. When these membranes are broken the butter fat is released and molds together. A tool is necessary to break these membranes but it doesn't have to be complicated. I have seen one method which includes a mason jar where a man put the cream into a mason jar and shook once every second for about 3 minutes. The membranes around the pockets of fat were being broke against the glass and he eventually had butter. I will be using a hand mixer but a food processor is the most recommended. Of course there are modern butter churns but I don't feel like wasting money on something that can be done with something I have.
Why use heavy whipping cream and not milk? Well, heavy whipping cream has more butter fat than milk.
I bought Clover Organic Farms heavy whipping cream for a few reasons:
1. It's NOT ultra-pasteurized. I would have bought raw but it cost $12.00 and this brand cost $3.49.
2. It's organic.
3. The cows were not treated with the Growth Hormone rBST
4. The American Humane Association has it Free Farmed Certified.
I will expand on reason number 1 but the last three reasons do not need to be expanded on for the purpose of making butter. When cream, milk, what have you, is pasteurized it goes through a heating system to kill off bacteria. The more it is pasteurized the more bacteria is killed. You may be thinking this is a good thing but in my opinion it is not. Pasteurizing kills off the the good bacteria known as probiotics. Probiotics aid in digestion which is super useful especially with dairy. Many people who think they are lactose intolerant are really just missing the natural digestive aid. Raw milk is a great way to keep these probiotics in your digestive tract to aid in the digestion of other food as well. For the use of making butter, the bacteria is also great for weakening the membranes surrounding the butter fat by releasing lactic acid making the membranes easier to break!!! Are you tracking? Conclusion: Probiotics are rad!
If you paid attention in any science class you know that bacteria does not work well in cold environments so I will be taking my cream out of the fridge and placing it on the counter for 12 hours. This gives the bacteria time to release the lactic acid and weaken the membranes. It will also sour my cream. This is a good thing because it will give my butter and the butter milk a better flavor. Sour does not mean spoiled. It just means the milk has a tart taste. Also, souring milk is a controlled outcome whereas spoiled milk is an uncontrolled outcome. Ex. the cream I leave on my counter to sour is controlled because I put it there for a determined amount of hours compared to letting cream go pass the expiration date, spoiling in my fridge because I forgot about it or could not use it fast enough.
After the 12 hours I will put the cream back in the fridge and let chill for 4 hours. Then....
I got to thinking a month ago about preservatives and how they are in EVERYTHING and how I will have to give up things like ketchup, mayo, tobasco, margarine, etc. I looked in the fridge and saw some 1000 island dressing and I was reminded of the time that I ran out a year ago and wound up making my own. And then a light bulb went off! "I bet I can make my own condiments!"
After quite a bit of research I feel very confident that I can make some butter, the first condiment I will be replacing. Here is what I need:
But first, how does whipping cream become butter? Heavy whipping cream has little bubbles of butter fat incased by membranes. When these membranes are broken the butter fat is released and molds together. A tool is necessary to break these membranes but it doesn't have to be complicated. I have seen one method which includes a mason jar where a man put the cream into a mason jar and shook once every second for about 3 minutes. The membranes around the pockets of fat were being broke against the glass and he eventually had butter. I will be using a hand mixer but a food processor is the most recommended. Of course there are modern butter churns but I don't feel like wasting money on something that can be done with something I have.
Why use heavy whipping cream and not milk? Well, heavy whipping cream has more butter fat than milk.
I bought Clover Organic Farms heavy whipping cream for a few reasons:
1. It's NOT ultra-pasteurized. I would have bought raw but it cost $12.00 and this brand cost $3.49.
2. It's organic.
3. The cows were not treated with the Growth Hormone rBST
4. The American Humane Association has it Free Farmed Certified.
I will expand on reason number 1 but the last three reasons do not need to be expanded on for the purpose of making butter. When cream, milk, what have you, is pasteurized it goes through a heating system to kill off bacteria. The more it is pasteurized the more bacteria is killed. You may be thinking this is a good thing but in my opinion it is not. Pasteurizing kills off the the good bacteria known as probiotics. Probiotics aid in digestion which is super useful especially with dairy. Many people who think they are lactose intolerant are really just missing the natural digestive aid. Raw milk is a great way to keep these probiotics in your digestive tract to aid in the digestion of other food as well. For the use of making butter, the bacteria is also great for weakening the membranes surrounding the butter fat by releasing lactic acid making the membranes easier to break!!! Are you tracking? Conclusion: Probiotics are rad!
If you paid attention in any science class you know that bacteria does not work well in cold environments so I will be taking my cream out of the fridge and placing it on the counter for 12 hours. This gives the bacteria time to release the lactic acid and weaken the membranes. It will also sour my cream. This is a good thing because it will give my butter and the butter milk a better flavor. Sour does not mean spoiled. It just means the milk has a tart taste. Also, souring milk is a controlled outcome whereas spoiled milk is an uncontrolled outcome. Ex. the cream I leave on my counter to sour is controlled because I put it there for a determined amount of hours compared to letting cream go pass the expiration date, spoiling in my fridge because I forgot about it or could not use it fast enough.
After the 12 hours I will put the cream back in the fridge and let chill for 4 hours. Then....
IT'S BUTTER MAKING TIME
Now mix!
Keep mixing
This stage is whipped cream (all it needs is sugar)
You want to keep mixing pass the whipped cream stage
Now it's separating and starting to make a sloshing sound. Keep mixing.
See how it's turning yellow? Also, if you look close enough you can see liquid (buttermilk)
If you can't see it here's a better view
I used a potato masher to basically squeeze the buttermilk from the butter
Drain buttermilk into a storage container (buttermilk biscuits anyone?)
Now it's time to wash your butter. It's called washing but it's more like rinsing. This step is important because you do not want any milk left. It will become rancid faster than the butter and if any milk is left in the butter it will also make your butter rancid faster.
Keep adding ice cold water and draining in the sink until the water runs clear
At this point I transferred the butter to another container and smoothed to make it pretty
And there you have it. Glorious, natural butter!
Alright! Take your cream and pour into a medium bowl. The cream will be white.
Now mix!
Now it's separating and starting to make a sloshing sound. Keep mixing.
*Salt to taste at final stage or leave unsalted.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
A little about me and why I want to switch to real food.
My name is Becca. I am a 25 year old wife and mother of two handsome boys. I work as a waitress at a local diner who's bread and butter, no pun intended, is that everything is homemade. I am saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ my savior.
Oh, and I love to cook!
I grew up on a ranch where the closest city was a hour's drive away. There would be days that my mom would spend all day cooking. I love my mom's cooking and I owe all my love for cooking to her and God.
Now, enough about those things. They are just quick points that will further be developed as I go through this journey.
Did I mention I love to cook? I love making everything from scratch. I even love peeling potatoes to make my own mashed potatoes. I make my own flour breading for frying things, I make roux for gravies and sauces, my favorite term in cooking is mier poix, I even went to cooking school for half a semester*. What's missing? Well, I use things like bleached flour, margarine, I have Kraft American cheese in my fridge and, although I don't carry sugar in my home, when a recipe calls for sugar I use refined cane sugars. And really, those are just a few things out of the hundreds that I could mention about processed foods.
Why make the switch? (If my husband's gut isn't enough of a reason, I don't know what is [awkward laugh])
But seriously, the top of my list of concerns about my family's diet is our meat consumption. The meat and dairy industry is just barbaric at best. You don't have to dig far to see the inhumane ways that animals used for eating are raised and slaughtered. Animals are raised in small pens with no room to turn around and the assembly line slaughter makes me wonder if the slaughterer must have become numb to it. And quite possibly the worst that I have seen is the egg farms. Chickens are crammed into cages with no room to move and there little chicken feet are getting cut up from walking on wire their whole lives. The only break they get from standing on wire is if their little chicken friend dies for them to walk on because the egg farms are so huge that dead chickens go unnoticed. I haven't even mentioned the hormones they pump into those animals so that they can grow bigger, faster. Hormones that we, in turn, consume. Is this really where I want my food coming from? No thanks. The more of this meat I eat, the more I contribute to these awful living conditions. And although we are just one family, I bet that I have at the very least eaten a cow in my lifetime. That is at least one cow who's sad little life existed purely so that I could eat it.
I will touch some on produce, although I have not done much research on this mainly because our budget is low and I am just not up to going completely organic yet without the funds. I know if I do the research I will be convicted and spend the extra money. However, there are things about synthetic pesticides and such that do concern me and I do plan to buy solely organic produce when we can afford it and that will be soon, God willing.
You may be thinking to yourself, "This lady really hasn't mentioned anything new." And you would be right, I haven't. These are all things that we are informed and know about. But these are things that I have blocked from my consciousness until recently and thus the beginning of my journey to Becoming a Real Food Foodie.
Oh, and I love to cook!
I grew up on a ranch where the closest city was a hour's drive away. There would be days that my mom would spend all day cooking. I love my mom's cooking and I owe all my love for cooking to her and God.
Now, enough about those things. They are just quick points that will further be developed as I go through this journey.
Did I mention I love to cook? I love making everything from scratch. I even love peeling potatoes to make my own mashed potatoes. I make my own flour breading for frying things, I make roux for gravies and sauces, my favorite term in cooking is mier poix, I even went to cooking school for half a semester*. What's missing? Well, I use things like bleached flour, margarine, I have Kraft American cheese in my fridge and, although I don't carry sugar in my home, when a recipe calls for sugar I use refined cane sugars. And really, those are just a few things out of the hundreds that I could mention about processed foods.
Why make the switch? (If my husband's gut isn't enough of a reason, I don't know what is [awkward laugh])
But seriously, the top of my list of concerns about my family's diet is our meat consumption. The meat and dairy industry is just barbaric at best. You don't have to dig far to see the inhumane ways that animals used for eating are raised and slaughtered. Animals are raised in small pens with no room to turn around and the assembly line slaughter makes me wonder if the slaughterer must have become numb to it. And quite possibly the worst that I have seen is the egg farms. Chickens are crammed into cages with no room to move and there little chicken feet are getting cut up from walking on wire their whole lives. The only break they get from standing on wire is if their little chicken friend dies for them to walk on because the egg farms are so huge that dead chickens go unnoticed. I haven't even mentioned the hormones they pump into those animals so that they can grow bigger, faster. Hormones that we, in turn, consume. Is this really where I want my food coming from? No thanks. The more of this meat I eat, the more I contribute to these awful living conditions. And although we are just one family, I bet that I have at the very least eaten a cow in my lifetime. That is at least one cow who's sad little life existed purely so that I could eat it.
I will touch some on produce, although I have not done much research on this mainly because our budget is low and I am just not up to going completely organic yet without the funds. I know if I do the research I will be convicted and spend the extra money. However, there are things about synthetic pesticides and such that do concern me and I do plan to buy solely organic produce when we can afford it and that will be soon, God willing.
You may be thinking to yourself, "This lady really hasn't mentioned anything new." And you would be right, I haven't. These are all things that we are informed and know about. But these are things that I have blocked from my consciousness until recently and thus the beginning of my journey to Becoming a Real Food Foodie.
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