Home-cured Corned Beef by me

We had this big beef brisket from last year (I wish I'd taken a picture of it, it was probably 18-24 inches long!) that we'd been saving for the purpose of making home-cured corned beef, after I'd seen a post on the Nourished Kitchen blog about it.

You can follow her instructions on there, or there is a recipe in Nourishing Traditions, as well. I followed both...yeah, it's usually hard to pin me down to one recipe. In the NK's recipe, it talks about curing the meat in the fridge. But I cured the meat for 3 days on the counter at room temperature, as it says to do in NT. I know, that would give most people pause... you did WHAT with raw meat? But the presence of whey, in which the meat was totally submersed, helps to combat bad bacteria that would cause the meat to spoil. I put a plate on top of meat with a glass jar filled with water, and a couple other heavy things on it to make sure it was pushed underneath the liquid.

I didn't have access to celery juice, as recommended, but I did substitute whey, for a total of 4 c. of whey mixed with water to submerge the meat, salt, and whatever mixture of pickling spices I had on hand... I believe it was green and black peppercorns, slightly crushed bay leaves, mustard seeds, coriander, and a pinch or two of clove powder.

I rubbed the meat with the spice/salt mixture, then rolled up the meat as best as I could and tied it with cotton meat twine. I asked for the cotton meat twine for purchase at the supermarket, and the meat counter guy gave me about 6' of twine for free! How nice!

Then I wrapped the meat with a dish towel, instead of cheese cloth. Next time I'll actually purchase cheese cloth, or not use a cloth at all. The towel held air in, which created a bubble, and made it more awkward to work with.

I used one of my crocks!

The flavor was awesome! This cut of meat is a little tougher, so it would probably work best to cook it in the slow cooker. But we actually did eat some of this meat raw, the boys couldn't get enough! We also love having corned beef hash. We grind up the meat in the food processor to make it a little easier to eat--it is pretty chewy.

The husband sliced it real thin, and we put several small packages in the freezer to pull out later.

It was actually much easier to do than I thought, and I wonder why it took me so long. Most of the time, I'm fighting with my own inertia!

New Year Goals for 2011

Yeah, it seems like everyone is setting goals. So I figured it wouldn't hurt that I do the same.

Last year, one of my goals was to learn how to bake with sourdough. I think I did a pretty good job with that, considering I now use sourdough several times a week, sometimes more, between bread, crackers, pancakes or waffles, bagels, noodles, english muffins, pizza, pitas, cookies, cakes. And it helps me plan ahead a little, too, because it requires me to start it the night before, usually.

So this year, what do I want to accomplish?

1. Do more cooking with eggs. For Christmas, I got a small cookbook with the basics (not just on eggs, but on all sorts of cooking tidbits) by Julia Child. I even made one of the recipes tonight, it was a corn timbale... basically a savory custard with corn in it. It was so good (even though I forgot the bread crumbs), that even Jeff was saying, "Hey this is so good, you could showcase this when people come over." He also said that about a souffle I made, also a great dish!! Not only are eggs just plain tasty, eggs from hens that are fed a good diet are fabulously good for you. And that ties in with number 2....

2. Learn more about chickens. And I mean from start (ordering and raising) to finish (butchering), and everything in between (feeding and growing). We plan to be doing more with chickens this year, hoping to raise some more broilers, hopefully for resale. And if we have enough extra eggs from our up-and-coming laying hens, then maybe we can sell some, too. We will be having a lot of extra eggs, so I'll be able to more easily do nutrient-dense dishes with eggs. We've (and by we, I really mean Jeff) already been giving special feed to the chickens that Jeff has formulated and mixed himself. The goal is to not give them any soy. Even the basic laying mash that you buy from the co-op usually has soy in it. (Remember, I have a soy sensitivity?) So even if you see people selling "farm fresh eggs", that doesn't necessarily speak to the quality of the eggs. They're just maybe fresher than the ones you buy in the store. We prefer to pasture our hens, but it's sort of hard when it's -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you know chickens are omnivores? They go crazy for meat, it's so funny to watch them.

3. Do more home-cured meat. I started with this a little already by doing my home-cured corned beef, which I have yet to post about. I can't wait to try more experiments.

4. Do more advance planning for a garden. Last year we were late getting up here and had limited resources, but thanks to being able to garden at Jeff's grandma's we were able to still have quite a garden haul. I don't know how much advance planning I'll be able to do, because, as you may remember, we are renting this place, and therefore we are also hoping to find a more permanent locale, so this goal may or may not be fulfilled. But we'll have a garden somewhere.

5. Do more with "wild" food. Have you ever heard of Nettles? Stinging nettles? You know those annoying plants that grow everywhere and hurt like the dickens if you touch them? Did you know they are really good for you, vitamins, minerals and such?! I have some recipes for things such as nettle soup and nettle tea. If I get really brave I may even try a mushroom or two, but I need to find someone who can show me how to find the right ones. There are also weeds everywhere that can be used for food, you just have to know what you're looking for.

6. Learn about homeschooling. I would love to homeschool Judah, but I haven't buckled down and done the research yet. And I'd like to start doing something this fall when Judah turns 4. We'll see if I'm made of the right stuff!

So those are my big personal goals for the year. There, I'm glad I got that off my chest. :-)

Rendering Beef and Venison Tallow

What could be more fun than spending your day rendering beef and venison tallow? Spending your day rendering tallow with your husband! :-)

What is tallow? Tallow is rendered from fat, usually from a cow or a lamb... or in our case, a deer. For whatever reason, rendered and unrendered fat from a pig is called lard. But I digress.

To render the tallow, you cook the fat down, strain out the chunks, and what you're left with is tallow. I know that sounds a bit simplistic, but it's really not much harder than that.

Here's a good link for directions, if you're interested. It tells how to do it in the oven, crockpot, or stovetop. We tried the oven and the stovetop. I prefered the stovetop method, as the oven method seemed to take a lot longer than I'd like... it took all night. However, the chunks were quite a bit bigger than the shavings we used for the stovetop method.

Chunks of deer fat in food processor. My husband kept deer fat from hunting season this year--they process their own deer--and cut off the parts with bloody or meat still on it, so it's purely the deer fat.

Chopped up fat.

The above fat went into a pot and got cooked down.

After it gets cooked, you should be left with hardened bits on top. Strain those off and put the liquid fat in jars, where it will eventually harden. See the bits in the pan below. They're called cracklings, which you can use. I plan to give the deer cracklings to the birds and cats, but I want to use the beef cracklings as a bacon bit substitute.

My husband wanted to clarify the tallow, which we did before it was bottled. In my awesome 1895 version of "The Presidential Cookbook", it says to clarify fat by boiling some sliced potatoes until the potatoes are brown. The potatoes help to get rid of impurities in the fat. The recipe made it sound like the impurities just evaporate, so we ate the potatoes. They were tasty. :-)

Why in the world would we want to make tallow?

You can't buy this type of tallow in stores. At least not where I live. The beef fat we acquired from down in southern Minnesota when we lived there, from a farmer who pastures his cows. Grass-fed fat, that's right. Extra good for you. And you can't buy venison tallow, at least I don't know of anywhere you can buy it. If you can find tallow and/or lard in stores, it's usually hydrogenated. Those are trans fats, which you may have heard are really bad for you.

Also, we love cooking with tallow and lard. Whatever we make with it is so satiating that we feel comfortably full, and feel no need to continue eating.

I think we ended up with 7 pints and 3 quarts of tallow when all was said and done. So we should be good for another 6 months, hopefully.

Hens, and Chickens, and Kittens, Oh My!

Okay, so obviously this post is quite dated. Some of you may have heard that we got chickens waaaaaay back in the summertime. And then I mentioned in passing on Facebook that we got some baby chicks, and that kittens decided to adopt us. Here's more to the story.

First, the cats. Here they are, making a mess.

Beginning of October, a mama cat and her four kittens came onto the porch and decided to stay. We later discovered they were from the neighbor's. The mama cat has since left, and one of the kittens is no longer with us (I ran over it...I felt so awful!), but we have Smoky (grey and white), Sharpy (calico/tabby mixture), and Creamy (cream colored).

We feed them with scraps, leftover deer pieces, etc. They're doing alright in these sub-zero temps, since they have a shed to shelter them. They like to try and come inside, but then they never know what to do once they are inside.

And of course the boys love them.

Next, the hens and chickens.

We got 16 laying hens back in June and kept them at my husband's grandma's house till we officially moved into the log cabin in July. Then in about August, we had to butcher three of those hens, one had a goiter, and two had leg problems.

September 10 we got 50 baby chicks, 25 broilers (a faster-growing chicken with white feathers that is supposed to be ready to butcher in about 8 weeks) and 25 laying hens (that will be ready to start laying eggs in the spring).

Here you see what box they came in through the mail. You need to dip their beaks in water mixed with apple cider vinegar when taking them out of the box. You could do plain water, but the ACV is good for them.

Due to our complete lack of knowledge, we lost a lot of chicks. It didn't help that the chicks arrived, via USPS, on one of the coldest and wettest days we'd had. One thing you don't want to expose baby chicks to is cold and wet.

We also had some rat problems. And because the genetic make-up of the broilers is to grow very quickly, I think they're a less hardy bird, more prone to sickness. At least that's what it seemed like with ours!

We've had to keep one of the white broilers inside with us for at least a month because it had gotten one of its toes slashed by what we think was a rat, and so it couldn't walk properly. One thing that chickens do is pick on those that are hurt. So the others were pecking on that poor chick's leg till it was bloody! The chick's leg has since healed somewhat, but we've come to call it "Peg-Leg" because that's what its leg is like: a peg leg. We were finally able to return Peg-Leg to the coop with a bandaged leg, and it seems to limp around well enough without getting picked on too much.

Do you see Peg-Leg's bandage?

So the final count is 9 white and 16 black, I think. That is very poor for the amount we started with!

These are our laying hens. Their feed trough is in the middle. See the deer carcass in the background? They like to peck at that. During the warmer months, they are free-range and love pecking around for bugs, worms and frogs. Hens have their own personalities, and it's funny to watch them run around. Now there's snow everywhere and so they stay inside. We just lost another one due to poor health, so we're down to 12.

It's mid-December now, and we are planning on butchering the broilers in the next couple days. We've had them for over three months now, we probably should've butchered them sooner, but for whatever reason, just haven't. To be continued...

My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe

I got this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Healthy Choices, put out by Keepers at Home. I haven't taken any pictures of the process yet, but hopefully in the near future I can get some added... just wanted to get this recipe up here for the local Weston A. Price chapter meeting tomorrow!

My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe

adapted from "Sourdough Bread" in Healthy Choices, p. 104

1 c. sourdough starter

2 T. molasses (originally 1/2 c. sorghum)**

1/2 c. oil (I use melted coconut oil or olive, or a mixture of the two)

1 T. salt

1 1/2 c. warm water

6 c. flour (if I use flour from Natural Way Mills, I tend to use less)

**I first subbed 1/2 c. molasses, which was good, but for some, it could be a little overpowering, which is why 2 T. is a good amount. I'd imagine you could also use honey, which I haven't tried. I think I maybe should add a smidgen more water to make up for using less liquid sweetener.

Mix first 5 ingredients and half of the flour. Beat vigorously for several minutes. Knead in the rest of the flour. (I usually knead it for about 10 minutes or so, sometimes giving it a 5 minute rest period, and then an additional minute of kneading. Also, I do the "windowpane test" to test for readiness.) Grease bowl and let rise until double. (I usually put in the oven with the pilot light on to give it a favorably warm environment, and let it go for about 4 hours.) Punch down and shape into loaves. Let rise until almost double (usually another 4 hours). Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes. (I put the loaves in the oven, then turned it on, which gave a nice rise.) Grease tops with butter. Yield: two 1 1/2 lb. loaves.

What I do is refresh my starter at night before bed, then in the morning I mix up the dough, and let it ferment for a total of about 8 hours, and is usually ready by supper. It fits well into my day. It actually doesn't take that long, most of the time spent is waiting, during which time you can do other chores around the house.

Enjoy!

Sourdough Resources

I love everything about sourdough. The way it leavens dough with a "wild" yeast that I caught myself, the way it makes the flour you mix with it more nutritious and digestible, they way it makes me get all excited about practicing science experiments in the kitchen, and the way it tastes.

My first experience with sourdough was in 2008, following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions for making your own sourdough starter and rye sourdough bread. Let's just say I needed more practice! I tried a couple times, but finally vowed to get a sourdough starter going beginning of 2010.

While I'm definitely not an expert at this, I am constantly learning and trying out new things with sourdough. I'm going to be making some sourdough bread to take to the next Weston A. Price meeting, and bringing some starter to share, so I wanted to do a post to help the novice sourdough user.

If you received a bit of sourdough starter from me, put it in a quart glass jar, and do a 1:1 ratio of flour to water, maybe start with 1/2 c. of each and let it set out overnight, or a few hours anyway. You should start to see bubbles form through the side of the jar. At this point, it's active, and you can start using it!

If you don't have any sourdough starter and want to try making your own, read-on!

Starting a sourdough starter. There are several methods, but I think simpler is better. Try and follow a method that uses just water and flour, like in Nourishing Traditions. Here are a some sites that do that.

• Naturally Knocked Up Sourdough Starter
• Another sourdough starter, ignore the fact that it's from a vegan website, but it's another way that seems slightly smaller in amounts you use

Feeding a starter.

• Here's what I do: add a little flour (rye or whole wheat) and a little water (filtered or well water from tap) and mix with whatever starter is left in the container. The consistency I go for is thicker rather than runny. It will last longer in the fridge if it's more "sponged". I rarely measure what I put in there, but try to shoot for a 1:1 ratio of water to flour. And I try to replace the amount that I used, at the very least.
• The Naturally Knocked Up link above advocates changing jars. Here's what she says: "Upkeep on a starter is very simple. If you do not use your starter for one week, transfer to a new jar, feed it a 1:1 ratio of flour and water, and set it back in the fridge. OR After you use it for a recipe, feed it the same 1:1 ratio and let it sit out again for just a couple hours before storing in the fridge. (transfer to a clean jar about once a week) If your starter starts getting a bit too thin, go ahead and pour out the watery layer that settles at the top!"

So what do you think? It's really not too difficult. And it's fun! If you're interested in learning more about sourdough breads, I enjoyed the books below. Even if I don't follow everything an author says, there's always something to be learned!

Books I have read:

Classic Sourdoughs by Ed Wood

Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads

Local Breads by Dan Leader

And here are some favorite recipes of mine, either that I have already tried, or plan to try in the future.

Recipes I use/have used:

• My all-time favorite pancake recipe
• My Fav Sourdough Bread Recipe
• Everyday Sourdough Bread--A great step-by-step with pictures
• Sourdough Blueberry Muffins--I modify this recipe a bit. To me, the whole point of using sourdough is to impart more digestibility and nutrition by soaking the flour, and this recipe doesn't incorporate that. So, I take the flour and sourdough amounts and add just enough water to make a medium thick paste. Instead of sugar I use honey. And I drop a few blueberries on top of the muffins. I find that if I mix them in, they all end up in the bottom of the muffin. And if I ferment the dough overnight, to be ready in the morning, this recipe makes about 10 muffins.
• Sourdough Chocolate Cake--I used this in a bundt cake pan that I greased really well, turned out great!
• Rustic Sourdough Noodles--Love these. Don't ever use regular noodles anymore. I just roll them out and cut with a pizza cutter. If you had a noodle press, that would work too.
• Buckwheat Sourdoughnuts--I've only made these once so far, but I definitely want to make them again, maybe with all whole wheat. Also, I think I cooked them a little too long, so some of them got a little crunchy. But still, we were in love when we ate these hot out of the palm shortening, which, by the way, is a great use for palm shortening!
• Staititai--an ancient kind of pizza that I found to be super easy and yummy!
• Sourdough English Muffins--don't always have success but when they do work, they're awesome! It depends somewhat on the temperature in my kitchen.

Things I want to try:

• Sourdough Cottage Loaf
• Sourdough Whole Wheat Crackers
• Sourdough Tomato and Basil Crackers
• Sourdough Pull Apart Dinner Rolls

Hopefully that will give you a start. And have fun!

Homemade Deodorant

I've been using homemade deodorant for three months now, and I truly LOVE it! It works better than anything I've ever tried before, and believe me, I've tried quite a few of the so-called "natural" deodorants out there.

I stopped using deodorant/anti-perspirant about four years ago, because I was tired of all the chemicals. I remember writing a speech in college about the aluminum in anti-perspirant being linked to Alzheimer's, and it got me researching that topic quite a bit. Plus, deodorant/anti-perspirant never worked very well for me at keeping the stink and sweat at bay, no matter what I tried.

Then I moved on to the deodorants at the health food store that supposedly had fewer chemicals in them, but was never real happy with how they worked. And I still didn't know what all the ingredients were!

Finally I decided to make my own. I wish I had taken the plunge YEARS ago! Since I'm really into DIY stuff, I found this recipe at the Naturally Knocked Up blog. It uses only four ingredients: coconut oil, cornstarch (or arrowroot powder), aluminum free baking soda, and tea tree oil (or another kind of essential oil, but the tea tree oil is used for its anti-bacterial properties, and helps with any smell issues you may have). Keep your old deodorant containers to put your homemade deodorant in. I need to have three old containers to have enough space to put this recipe in!

I use coconut oil a lot (we buy it in bulk and wait for specials to get a good price from Tropical Traditions... if you buy small amounts at your grocery store, it can be pretty spendy) so I always have it on hand. I don't recommend substituting another kind of oil. Coconut oil is very high in saturated fat, so it is in the solid state up till 75 degrees F. when it starts to melt. So you may need to keep this in the fridge if you are somewhere that gets warmer than that.

Make sure you read the tips listed on the above link for using the deodorant. One tip is letting the deodorant soften with the warmth of your skin before you smooth it on. It doesn't rub on right away like your typical deodorant. I find myself sort of dabbing it on.

Also, I like how the blog's author talks about this deodorant allowing the body to work the way God intended it to. Sweating is a way to remove toxins from the body, and when you block the toxins from coming out, that means they move somewhere else in the body. Ick. Personally, I'd rather let the toxins come out, rather than letting them hang around.

Both my husband and I have been using this first batch of deodorant exclusively for three months, and I only now had to make a new batch. We both love it! We're normally pretty sweaty people, but when using this deodorant, even when it's been hot out, we've had great success.

If you're looking for a different deodorant, give this recipe a try!