Making Sense of Things

Posts tagged with homemade

• 12 February 2012 - How to make sauerkraut and cultured vegetables at home

  Recently we’ve tried making our own sauerkraut. It’s so incredibly easy and healthy that it seemed silly not to try and of course, share it with you! This post shares two methods – with salt and with whey. The kefir whey version is quicker to ferment and ready for eating.

  What is Sauerkraut?

  Sauerkraut literally means ‘sour cabbage’ in German – it is naturally fermented thinly sliced cabbage. It has a distinctive tangy flavour and is often used on hot dogs, as a condiment to meals but also much more… as an ingredient in soups, salads and sandwiches too, for example.

  Its flavour and preservation is a result of lactic acid that forms when the bacteria, the cabbage’s natural flora, ferment the sugars in the juice that is extracted from the cabbage by adding salt. You may remember the lactic acid explanation when we fermented butter too!

  There are many … Read the rest

• 24 January 2011 - How to make cottage cheese at home

  In addition to butter, yoghurt and brie, we’ve loved making cottage cheese at home too. It’s so easy we almost don’t want to tell people.  We normally use 2L of Cleopatra’s raw cow’s milk, removing the cream and putting it aside to make our butter.  To remove the cream simply leave your milk standing upright in the fridge so the cream can naturally separate from the milk – you will see a definite line.  Once separated, just make a small hole at the bottom of the bottle, take the lid off the top of the bottle and let the milk drain from the hole in to a separate jar.  When it has drained to the cream line, pour the cream into another container.

  We simply pour the skimmed milk in to our large glass jar and allow it to curdle at room temperature for a maximum of 5 … Read the rest

• 13 January 2011 - How to make yoghurt at home

  Yoghurt is our weekly must make product.  We usually use 2L of Cleopatra’s raw cow’s milk (including the cream on top), heat it to 85° C then let it cool to 43° C. Since raw milk is illegal to sell for consumption in Australia, Cleopatra’s raw milk is sold as Bath Milk, for cosmetic purposes only… but if you aren’t “brave” enough to use raw milk or can’t get a hold of it, just buy some organic pasteurised unhomogenised milk (see the UPDATE at the end of this post for more information).

  

  We then add 2 grains of the yoghurt culture… we got ours from cheeselinks.com and chose the type below but you can find other types elsewhere too… (you can also use a few tablespoons of a good quality store bought yoghurt instead, see the UPDATE at the end of this post).

  

  … and incubate it overnight at around … Read the rest

• 5 January 2011 - How to make butter at home

  We love our cultured butter!  And actually it’s really easy to make!

  We simply ferment some fresh raw cream (off the top of our raw milk) by leaving the cream on the kitchen bench until little bubbles start to form – around 24-48 hours. The lactobaccilis bulgaricus bacteria that’s naturally found in the cow will induce the ferment.  You can’t really see the bubbles in this picture because they are pin head size!

  

  Once the cream is fermented, we put it in the fridge as it’s easier to work with when cool.  Once cool we simply whiz it with a cake mixer (a food processor would be easier but we don’t have one) until the cream turns to butter and separates from the buttermilk.

  

  Then we strain the butter from the buttermilk…

  

  Then we wash it 3 times in bowls of cool water until the water runs clear, to remove … Read the rest

• 25 December 2010 - Homemade Christmas

  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

  Check out the goodies we made as gifts for Christmas! Click on a photograph to read the tag better

  Your email:

   

  … Read the rest

• 21 December 2010 - How to make brie cheese at home

  Recently we’ve been making a fair bit of brie cheese.  We’ve been using the Cleopatra’s raw cow’s milk (including the cream on top!).   4L makes 3 good size brie cheese wheels. We simply heat the milk up to 32°C in a big sterilised pot, add in a mesophilic starter (the culture), the penicillum candidum (this is the white mould that grows on the outside) and the rennet, stirring in an 8 shape for around 2 minutes.  Then we leave it, off the heat, for around 45 minutes.

  When we have returned to the pot the milk has set so we cut it with a knife in to cubes which are then ladled in to our cheese moulds (basically food grade plastic tubes with holes in them).  We put the moulds on top of upside down plates, in a tray so that the whey can drip out of the holes and … Read the rest