For the last few days I have been following the general procedure for starting a sourdough starter. Essentially, culturing yeast and other microbes from the air on a growth medium of water and whole wheat flower. It sounds very scientific but it's really just leaving out a slurry of water and flour while hoping you catch the right beasties. Luck is a big factor and if you are unlucky the smell will let you know. There has been no activity to report on until this morning.
Today the starter smells nice and yeasty with a mildly fruit character similar to a cider. This is just the first sign that we have active fermentation and it seems like a good culture. Cooking a sourdough of any kind is still a few days off at the least but this is a great development. Working with sourdough is a long process and one that requires a lot of patience but once it's finished the rewards are well worth the wait. I know one friend that got frustrated after the first couple days and scrapped her starter. Any time fermentation is a factor in something you are making it is going to take a long time. This is doubly true when fermenting with wild yeast as they are slow to start and very slow to finish.
I find it a bit odd that I am this excited about yeast and bacteria. This is how supervillains start.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Ricotta Cheese
Making ricotta is a surprisingly simple task. When I first read the recipes I was a little doubtful that it could actually be that simple. Ms. Scratch and I had been thinking about adding cheese making to our random food hobbies and ricotta was a nice baby step into that realm.
Yesterday, in anticipation of the snow, I went out and bought a gallon of whole milk and some distilled vinegar. With that, a thermometer, a stock pot and a fine strainer I was ready to make ricotta.
Bringing the lightly salted milk (1/4 tsp of salt) to 180 degrees on our gas range took a little while because I was being overly cautious of scorching. I didn't really have room for error as we were using the whole gallon and I didn't feel like dealing with bad weather and the driving habits it can illicit in other people. Once we were in the range of 180-182 degrees we added 1/3 of a cup and one teaspoon of distilled vinegar and slowly stirred for one minute. After allowing it to rest, covered with a clean dish cloth, for two hours we were ready to finish up our creation.
Draining the cheese is just a matter of pouring the whole concoction into the strainer. Let it sit until it has reached the consistency that you want. We let ours sits for a while and pressed it a bit as we don't like how wet store bought ricotta can be. Next time we are actually going to leave a little more moisture in the mix but it was delicious regardless.
We made ravioli that we froze and ate the ricotta with some fresh baked bread, strawberry rhubarb preserves and honey. Well worth the small amount of effort it took to make this healthy treat.
Deceptively easy isn't it?
Yesterday, in anticipation of the snow, I went out and bought a gallon of whole milk and some distilled vinegar. With that, a thermometer, a stock pot and a fine strainer I was ready to make ricotta.
Bringing the lightly salted milk (1/4 tsp of salt) to 180 degrees on our gas range took a little while because I was being overly cautious of scorching. I didn't really have room for error as we were using the whole gallon and I didn't feel like dealing with bad weather and the driving habits it can illicit in other people. Once we were in the range of 180-182 degrees we added 1/3 of a cup and one teaspoon of distilled vinegar and slowly stirred for one minute. After allowing it to rest, covered with a clean dish cloth, for two hours we were ready to finish up our creation.
Draining the cheese is just a matter of pouring the whole concoction into the strainer. Let it sit until it has reached the consistency that you want. We let ours sits for a while and pressed it a bit as we don't like how wet store bought ricotta can be. Next time we are actually going to leave a little more moisture in the mix but it was delicious regardless.
We made ravioli that we froze and ate the ricotta with some fresh baked bread, strawberry rhubarb preserves and honey. Well worth the small amount of effort it took to make this healthy treat.
Deceptively easy isn't it?
Sourdough Starter
Many times in the past I have made food with only local ingredients to enjoy the flavors of New England. Local cider, home grown vegetables and locally hunted deer meat make for a meal that can't be replicated perfectly anywhere else. This can be taken a step further with naturally fermented foods. Of course we could talk about making local hard cider but I'll save that for another time. I want to talk about a food that many forget is actually fermented at all.
Sourdough bread. All leavened bread is fermented at least a little so that the yeast produces carbon dioxide and makes the bread rise. This will always lend a little flavor to the final product. Sourdough takes this a step further and relies on wild yeast and bacteria to give it the distinct flavor we are looking for.
Yeast and other microbes are all around us and they are like the fingerprint of your area. Not only are the strains of wild yeast unique but they change with the seasons. Some beasties are happier in the summer weather and they will lend distinctly different flavors when compare to their cousins that are more active in the winter. The flavors that come from wild yeast and bacteria are wildly variable. A few times in the past I have brewed with wild yeast but I have never tried baking with it. This will be my first attempt.
Sitting on my counter right now is a shallow and wide container with 3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water and the juice of a tangerine. The initial acid helps to promote the growth of the bugs we want and stave off those that we don't. The sour part of sourdough comes from acid producing microbes similar to those found in lambic style beers and yogurt. I am hoping to get a strong culture of wild yeast and company bubbling along soon
I will be feeding this culture for about a week and I will keep you updated on its progress. There is not much to report that is exciting at the moment but that will change when I am baking a brewing up a storm in the last stretch of winter. If only my new ingredients and brew pot were not delayed by the weather.
Sourdough bread. All leavened bread is fermented at least a little so that the yeast produces carbon dioxide and makes the bread rise. This will always lend a little flavor to the final product. Sourdough takes this a step further and relies on wild yeast and bacteria to give it the distinct flavor we are looking for.
Yeast and other microbes are all around us and they are like the fingerprint of your area. Not only are the strains of wild yeast unique but they change with the seasons. Some beasties are happier in the summer weather and they will lend distinctly different flavors when compare to their cousins that are more active in the winter. The flavors that come from wild yeast and bacteria are wildly variable. A few times in the past I have brewed with wild yeast but I have never tried baking with it. This will be my first attempt.
Sitting on my counter right now is a shallow and wide container with 3 tablespoons of whole wheat flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water and the juice of a tangerine. The initial acid helps to promote the growth of the bugs we want and stave off those that we don't. The sour part of sourdough comes from acid producing microbes similar to those found in lambic style beers and yogurt. I am hoping to get a strong culture of wild yeast and company bubbling along soon
I will be feeding this culture for about a week and I will keep you updated on its progress. There is not much to report that is exciting at the moment but that will change when I am baking a brewing up a storm in the last stretch of winter. If only my new ingredients and brew pot were not delayed by the weather.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
My Manifesto and How I Started
Hi there.
For the purposes of this blog, you can call me Mr. Scratch.
I am not a cook. I am not a food critic. I am in no way a food professional. Food is just something I love and that I love making. For a long time now I have always enjoyed taking anything that I love and making it for myself. On occasion I make my own clothes, I have grown my own produce and I have always cooked for myself when I have the time. What really got me interested in making everything from the most basic ingredients was home brewing. That is one of the topics that I will be going over in this blog. I'm not sure that I will be growing my own wheat and barley any time soon but I can't say it's out of the realm of possibilities. Living in an apartment without a garden puts up a few roadblocks in the world of agriculture.
What I want from this project is simple. I am using this blog as a tool to record my attempts at making the food I like from the ground up. The sense of fulfillment that I get from just cooking a meal is a simple but good feeling. It's cheaper, healthier and almost always more delicious. Taking that same meal and using only ingredients that I have made makes that good experience into a great one. I want to share this passion with anyone willing to follow it and anyone that has an interest in food.
For the purposes of this blog, you can call me Mr. Scratch.
I am not a cook. I am not a food critic. I am in no way a food professional. Food is just something I love and that I love making. For a long time now I have always enjoyed taking anything that I love and making it for myself. On occasion I make my own clothes, I have grown my own produce and I have always cooked for myself when I have the time. What really got me interested in making everything from the most basic ingredients was home brewing. That is one of the topics that I will be going over in this blog. I'm not sure that I will be growing my own wheat and barley any time soon but I can't say it's out of the realm of possibilities. Living in an apartment without a garden puts up a few roadblocks in the world of agriculture.
What I want from this project is simple. I am using this blog as a tool to record my attempts at making the food I like from the ground up. The sense of fulfillment that I get from just cooking a meal is a simple but good feeling. It's cheaper, healthier and almost always more delicious. Taking that same meal and using only ingredients that I have made makes that good experience into a great one. I want to share this passion with anyone willing to follow it and anyone that has an interest in food.
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