My kitchen sink drained very slowly and not properly anymore (that’s ok after 10 years of ample use). Thanks to the vastness of the internet I came across an easy and convenient manly hint on the topic requiring only household items, so I tried that.
The summary? In my case, this did actually work 馃檪 Here’s how:
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s about Germany, the country where I was born and raised, where I have lived all my life and that was a decent, advanced industrialized nation about just one year ago. Now, our current green-leftist government is obviously diligently working hard on passing the nation right downwards to the third world.
This includes (among much else) meanwhile even official bodies declaring large-scale blackouts well possible this winter – due to our amateurishly conducted and eventually disastrous “energy turnaround”. Not even a year ago, people articulating the exact same warnings were disparaged as “nazis” (will always work in germany), “conspiracy theorists” or simply “weirdos”. I’m proud to state that I was one of them 馃檪
Uahhhh… 馃檨 I went to the basement today and discovered this. Seems I’ll have to defrost the fridge (actually, both of my fridges) to make sure they work properly again. Here’s how to do it (this is a manly hint):
I wanted to try pickling, so I decided to give it a try on the weekend, but starting with only small batches. My beloved aunt Inge would vividly oppose to the term “pickling” (she’s an institution on home grown greens as well as food-preservation and she’s some kind of an old-style, longtime proficient german homesteader, not the american style 馃檪 ). But I’ll try anyway.
I wanted to recreate a traditional and well-proven method of coating metal – destinctively not using simple oil nor lacquer or other modern substances. The solution is the so-called “Japanning“. I found a very interesting and informative YouTube Video from this guy (he’s somewhat crazy and absolutely cool!) and I recreated it. It’s a lot more time-consuming than modern coating methods, but it’s fun, it works and it gives me a feeling of “traditionalism”.
Here’s the formula for my simple cheese brining solution. Easy to make and shelf-stable for an eternity.
The goal is to produce a ~20% salt solution. I only brush it onto my cheese instead of dipping the whole slab into the brine. Mix and store in an airtight container and make sure to sterilize your brush before applying.
The recipe:
– 300 ml water
– 67 g salt
– 4,5 ml white vinegar
Got myself a (fairly simple) multimeter for the northern germany refuge lately.
I wonder if I will eventually arrive at a point in my life when I’ve memorized these two simple symbols without having to look them up. Every. Single. Time. 馃檪
Edit: Here’s a good explanation on how multimeters work (german language – sorry).
Update october 2020: New sauerkraut, substantially more information added 馃檪
Since I happen to be a “Kraut” by birth, I decided to home-make my own Sauerkraut. Fermentation using wild lactobacillus is an ages-old and easy way of preserving almost every reasonably hard/crunchy vegetable (read more here and here) you like. It’s easy and for our grandparent’s generation it was a perfectly common thing to do.
So what is this “fermentation thing” all about? In short: Fermentation is latin and means the decomposing of carbohydrates in foods by various bacteria or yeasts with no oxygen around. Besides improving digestability, this produces a wide variety of distinct aromatics and other substances, the most important one being acid (lactic acid in this case). Harmful bacteria cannot thrive in an oxygen-free, acidic environment, thus, our food becomes preserved.
Edit: Now with an image, because I made some bacon today 馃檪
So here’s my standard recipe for curing meat that I mostly use. It can be adjusted to personal needs in terms of herbs and spices, but I strongly recommend to stick to the directions concerning the curing salt.
Recipe (per kg of meat):
30-40 g curing salt (NOT pink salt, see below)
10 g brown sugar
1 tsp. freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary
Roux – Stolen Image (allrecipes.com)
I was asked by a member of the extended family circle about a recipe requiring a roux.
So let’s make a “Roux“… Ahh… yeah, right. Sure. Of course. This is french. It’s pronounced ( /藞ru藧/ ) and this sounds sooo much better than the german Mehlschwitze, which – honestly – sounds more like a sore throat 馃檪 .
A roux is used as a basis for things like heavy sauces, soups or stews. It thickens them up and makes them creamy and rich. Since it’s a base-ingredient, it is very versatile and can be used for a wide variety of cooking tasks from the standard french cuisine mother sauce B茅chamel up to New Orleans Gumbo. Google “roux usage” and you’ll see what I mean.
Some people find making a roux a little intimidating because, yes, you can absolutely screw it up, but if you follow these simple steps here, I promise you’ll nail it every time. It’s no magic.
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