Re: Fermented foods

My basic soft cheese recipe

For each pint of milk (I use semi-skimmed) you need 1/2 tspn rennet. Only other ingredient is salt, to taste, though you can flavour the cheese by adding herbs of your choice at Step 1.

1. Over a low heat, bring the milk and salt slowly up to blood temperature (use a finger to test). Remove the pan from the heat.
2. Stir in the rennet and leave for about 15 mins, or until set.
3. Tip or spoon the set milk into a muslin cloth, tie the cloth and suspend it over a jug or bowl.
4. Leave overnight to drip.
5. Transfer cheese from the cloth into a bowl and refrigerate.
6. Enjoy!

Seemples!

Re: Fermented foods

Thank you. Will try that Deb

I make my yogurt which is great because you can put whatever you like into them. Honey, sliced strawberries, pureed fruit etc.

Once you have bought your first plain yogurt you can use that for the base of making your own.

Re: Fermented foods

Thankyou.. One question..How long does it keep?

Re: Fermented foods

Not long - think cottage cheese.
Having said that, I don't make loads at once, and what I do make gets eaten pretty quickly, so no chance for it to go off!

Re: Fermented foods

I quite like sauerkraut and would also be interested to hear about anyone else's ventures into fermented foods as they are allegedly very healthy.

The nearest thing I make is the "starter" for bread making (sourdoughs) which is of course simply flour and water left to ferment naturally under the right conditions. Also, yeast waters which is another form of bread raising agent in which you simply put some fruit (easy choice is a handful of raisins) into a jar with some water and leave that to ferment. The result is a lovely sweet fermented liquid that can be used in place of bakers yeast.

Re: Fermented foods

Your bread (in your albums) look really nice Realist

I wish my sourdough breads would turn out like the one set as your album cover

With regards to my own adventures in fermented foods, I regularly make sauerkraut and have made sourdough bread, yoghurt, kefir and ginger beer (with kefir grains) in the past

Re: Fermented foods

How are you making your sourdoughs then Azz? Do you have a specific recipe? Have you ever attended any bread making courses?

Re: Fermented foods

Sorry I missed this.

My recipe for the sourdough was rye flour started with a bit of Kefir or yoghurt whey.

Then for the dough was 50% wheat and 50% spelt, with some olive oil and a little salt (and water). I do not used bleached (white flours).

Also re your PM about fermented veg, what do you want to know?

Re: Fermented foods

Ok. Rye is imo the best flour to use for a starter. However it needs no other help to become a good yeasty starter other than the addition of water. There is a general misconception that adding "stuff" to a starter will help it. Generally it doesn't help at all. For example some people throw sugar in there or baker's yeast or honey or some other ingredient. All this does is hamper the natural process and creates something the natural yeasts have to compete with.

Rye flour + water in the right proportion and kept at the right temperature is all that is needed.

50% wheat (I presume you mean wholewheat) is a high percentage and spelt can be one of the hardest flours to manage as it can make for a wet sloppy dough.

It is better to use a decent percentage of white bread flour in the mix until you have mastered all the techniques and then gradually increase the % of things like wheat or rye flour.
You should be able to get hold of good strong bread flour that hasn't been bleached. If you are in the USA then I believe Bob's Red flour is quite renowned for example.

Try a mix of 50% strong white bread flour with 25% wheat and 25% spelt.

The hydration level is important of course and again another are where you start in safe ground (around 55-60%) and then work up to higher hydrations of 70-80%.

To get good height on your loaf like the one in the picture you mentioned, cook the loaf in a tall pot or dutch oven which will support the sides as it rises. I just use a basic stainless steel cooking pot, shape the loaf into a boule and lower it into the pot using greaseproof baking paper.

Re: Fermented foods

Ok. I intend to make some sauerkraut.

All the recipes I have read state you cut up the cabbage, sprinkle lots of salt all over it and mash it into a jar so that the natural juices cover the whole thing.

My instinct tells me that this will produce a very salty result so how is that managed. I've read some recipes which recommend throwing away the initial juices but surely that means most of the natural yeasts will be lost.

My other query is this. I presume that once you have created one successful sauerkraut you can use a portion of that to "inoculate" a fresh batch rather than starting from scratch again. Is that right?