What other foods/drinks do you craft?

[gamble]

Hello and Happy Holidays
Just out of curiosity :What other foods do you craft? My wife and I love to cook and like to try to make homemade when we can.
Homemade: wine, kruat, kimchi, pickles, chutneys, mayo, berry liquors, kombucha, soft cheeses, fresh pasta
Tried but not again: Butter(spoiled too fast) Mustard, Sourdough(Store 1 mile away sells Zingermans’) Mead (Not our taste) Aged cheese, Beer (not big Craft beer fans and local breweries are close by)

 

[sour_grapes]

I do have interest, but don't do a ton. I generally ferment some jalapenos and/or habaneros in the summer, for either ho-made hot sauce or just pickled peppers throughout the year. I also always have some preserved lemons on hand. I generally make ~2 quarts of them at a time, which lasts me a year or more.

I have made kraut a few times, but I have run into mold problems. I just bought these fermenting lids for mason jars:
https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Fermenter-Wide-Mouth-Weights/dp/B0789QYV52/
They have a one-way air valve, and a little pump, like a VacuVin. I am doing a batch of preserved lemons right now (since early Dec.), and I just bought a head of cabbage to try some kraut again.

I LOVE kimchi, so I always want to make that. However, I cannot for the life of me find gochugaru locally. (The Asian community in Wisconsin is dominated by SE Asians; WI is home to one of the largest Hmong populations in the country. So you can find anything from SE Asia, but not so much elsewhere.) Maybe I'll have to mail-order some! EDIT: Okay, I just went off and ordered some from Amazon!



I do make my own bacon. Does that count?

No goes:
I have made soft cheese once or twice, but not a win over commercial.
I have tried to keep a sourdough starter going, but eventually tire of feeding it and give up.
A couple of years ago, I placed a special order of fatback to make lardo. I had to buy 100 lbs of it, so I got a bunch of friends to go in on this, about 10-15 lbs apiece. I got 20 lbs, and after removing the pigskin, netted maybe 12-15 lbs. Then I salted and seasoned it, and put it in my attic to cure. Unfortunately, the mice found it. They didn't actually eat that much, but it was enough to spoil it, and for me to just throw it all away and forget the entire sordid affair!

 

[gamble]

Lots of Korean stores in Suburban Detroit, supplies were never an issue. When I asked my Korean freinds were they go to get their gochugaru : Amazon! Finding a real good Daikon may still be an issue(no real subsitute). Attached is my recipe if you are intrested.

Bacon is on my to do list.

 

[sour_grapes]

Lots of Korean stores in Suburban Detroit, supplies were never an issue. When I asked my Korean freinds were they go to get their gochugaru : Amazon! Finding a real good Daikon may still be an issue(no real subsitute). Attached is my recipe if you are intrested.

Bacon is on my to do list.

Thanks for the recipe and the tips! Too funny about Amazon being the go-to even where it is available locally!

 

[Boatboy24]

I do make my own bacon. Does that count?

Yes, it does! I make my own as well. Need to get a grinder and try my hand at sausage.

 

[mainshipfred]

I'm just getting started after seeing all the good food posted on the forum. Initial purchase was a kamado grill and a bunch of accessories for Christmas. In another post I said I was going to get a sous vide since it appears a lot of people use them. My real problem is finding time.

 

[NorCal]

Every year; Limoncello, grape and apricot jelly
Have done; beer, soft cheese

 

[user 36973]

I like making my own yogurt. It tastes much better than store bought stuff. I use whole milk and a small yogurt from the grocery store as a source of bacteria, preferably plain or vanilla. It's hard to find small containers of plain though.

If you use milk with less fat, it can be runny. This is why yogurt in the store has gum arabic and such in it as thicknening agents. Also, I've found that if you don't boil it, then it will be runny. I know, most every website on yogurt making tells you not to boil. You'll have to take my word that the recipe below works.

Here's my easy recipe:
1) Heat the milk up in a pot just to boiling and let it gently boil for 5 minutes while constantly whisking the bottom of the pot to keep it from burning.
2) Place the pot in the sink with ice water and let cool to 100F.
3) While cooling, sanitize 4 quart-sized jars and a spoon. I use iodophor.
4) When milk is down to 100F, spoon in the yogurt from the store and whisk it into the milk.
5) Pour into your sanitized jars and place in oven with the light on for 15 hours. Overnight works perfectly. I pre-warm the oven to 100F, place the jars in a 3-gallon pot and add warm water almost up to the lids of the yogurt jars. This buffers against temperature changes.
6) Place them in the fridge and enjoy as soon as the next day. They'll keep unopened for a month or so.

 

[gamble]

I'm just getting started after seeing all the good food posted on the forum. Initial purchase was a kamado grill and a bunch of accessories for Christmas. In another post I said I was going to get a sous vide since it appears a lot of people use them. My real problem is finding time.

Got a cheap (Ananova) sous vide about a year ago for Steaks: I like mine rare, wife medium. I sous vide to rare, finish on the grill keeping my wifes on for longer, both happy. Everything I have made in sous vide has been great. Did a pork loin last week for the first time and ,oh my gosh, like eating pork butter.

 

[sour_grapes]

I made a sous vide contraption over a decade ago (from a temperature controller and a crockpot). Still going strong!

My wife used to make kefir, but has more or less stopped.

Yes, it does! I make my own as well. Need to get a grinder and try my hand at sausage.

Have always been interested in curing meats for charcuterie, but never really pulled the trigger. (Not including the aborted lardo attempt described above, and the bacon.) I don't have a location that I think has the right conditions. Might give it a try with whole-muscle cured meats rather than sausages, just from a safety standpoint. (I do have curing salt, but still...)

 

[ceeaton]

My wife just got me a small meat slicer, bacon is first on the list. I just did a Hungarian polish sausage that I stuffed/cold smoked w/cherry wood for a day (on and off), then hung for 3 days (at cooler temperatures than suggested). I didn't pass away from this earth yet, so I think I didn't get any bad things growing in there. Though I've been really laid back and mellow lately. Went really well with a pizza I made today. Only issue is I used tender quick, you've got to use so much that it gets really salty (only 0.5% of both nitrate and nitrite). Have some Insta Cure #1 and #2 on order. Just worried about using the #2 and hanging something for a month at less than fridge temperatures. Maybe I'll get the kids to try it first? Just kidding, really just kidding...

 

[BernardSmith]

Kefir? But kefir culture grows at room temperature. There is no need for a sous vide to make kefir.
I make all kinds of soft and hard cheeses using kefir to culture the milk and indeed, make a kefir hard cheese from the kefir itself. That takes about three days of pressing under a great deal of weight. I bake my own bread and make lacto fermented pickles. I occasionally make my own tofu but have never managed to make it as firm as we like. I also make my own seitan (we are vegetarians, not vegans - so we make mead too). And I make my own liqueurs - including mocha, orange, pomegranate, and horseradish.

 

[sour_grapes]

Kefir? But kefir culture grows at room temperature. There is no need for a sous vide to make kefir.

They were completely independent reports.

I cook sous vide.

My wife makes kefir.

 

[Hannahmwh]

Hello and Happy Holidays
Just out of curiosity :What other foods do you craft? My wife and I love to cook and like to try to make homemade when we can.
Homemade: wine, kruat, kimchi, pickles, chutneys, mayo, berry liquors, kombucha, soft cheeses, fresh pasta
Tried but not again: Butter(spoiled too fast) Mustard, Sourdough(Store 1 mile away sells Zingermans’) Mead (Not our taste) Aged cheese, Beer (not big Craft beer fans and local breweries are close by)

 

[BernardSmith]

They were completely independent reports.

I cook sous vide.

My wife makes kefir.

arghh.. sorry. My mistake. I must have read your post too quickly.

 

[sour_grapes]

Yes, it does! I make my own as well. Need to get a grinder and try my hand at sausage.

Fun fact: The word "botulism" derives from the Latin botulus, meaning "sausage." Basically "botulism" originally meant "sausage disease." because the conditions for the botulism bacterium to thrive were prevalent in sausage making.

Thank goodness for curing salts!

 

[gamble]

Ok, sausage off the to do list

 

[sour_grapes]

Ok, sausage off the to do list

No, no, I wasn't saying that! Just read up on it, buy curing salts, and take care.

Although, as I alluded to post #10, I think I will start with whole-muscle charcuterie!

 

[winemaker81]

My wife and I use few processed foods, preferring in general to cook from scratch, so we do a lot of things most folks don't do -- although this group is far from typical!

Things I make at least irregularly: wine, beer, liqueurs (limoncello, limecello, orange-cognac, cherry-cognac), bread, non-cured sausage (Italian and breakfast), fresh pasta (egg noodles, spaetzle), vanilla extract, soups using fresh stock **.

Things I've made but not recently: yogurt, mayonnaise, dill pickles, pickled jalapenos.

Things I want to try: cured sausage, clotted cream, cheese (mozzarella, ricotta, maybe others), kefir. I'll probably get more ideas from this thread.

And I make my own liqueurs - including mocha, orange, pomegranate, and horseradish.

Horseradish liqueur? That doesn't sound appetizing ... is it for drinking, cooking, or something else?


** We buy the rotisserie chicken at Costco, and when we get home I immediately debone the bird. This is more compact and is far less wasteful than picking off the carcass, plus it's much easier to use. I put the carcass along with onion and celery in the pressure cooker with 2 to 3 cups of water/white wine, and cook for 15 minutes. Strained, it's a VERY rich stock that needs to be cut at least in half with water, and even then it's a rich stock.

Christmas dinner was ham, and I froze the bone right after the meal. It's defrosting along with a quart of chicken stock -- bean soup is on today's menu! Given the amount it makes and there's only 2 of us, it's also on the menu tomorrow and probably Thursday ....

 

[gamble]

No, no, I wasn't saying that! Just read up on it, buy curing salts, and take care.

Although, as I alluded to post #10, I think I will start with whole-muscle charcuterie!

Was joking... sausage is still on the list...beef sausage

We I worked in France I was offered some cured sausage, that to my American palet was a. very pork and b.very soured. Still ate it to be polite but it was 12hrs of white knuckle waiting for vomiting. Happy ending, None came