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Sauerkraut update

There is a bit of scum and it tastes a lot of onion. I should have tried making it without the onion.

I am going to leave it a bit longer before I put it in the jars. When it goes into the jars this will stop the fermentation process.

Sauerkraut

As promised here is a post with no promotions!

After hearing The Food Programme on Radio 4 a few weekends ago I thought that I would have a go at making some Sauerkraut.

As I normally do when I try and make something new I look at loads of different recipes or instructions and follow a combination of them in no particular order or without any reason.

For Sauerkarut I looked at the following:

Wild Fermentation

BBC food

and Great British Chefs

I also looked in two books we have Sloe Gin and Beeswax by J Newdick and S Allison’s Book of Preserving

The basic summary of all those recipes is:

Cabbage + Salt + Time – scum = Sauerkraut

Or in a bit more detail

  • Chop or grate cabbage
  • Add salt about 15g per 0.5kg of cabbage
  • Pack into a tub/pot (clean)
  • Put some sort of stopper (that fits inside the tub/pot so not really a stopper more a lid that  is too small for the tub/pot) or plate on top of the cabbage keep this pressed down with some sort of weight
  • Leave for about 5 days the stopper/plate should be under water- brine is made from the water drawn from the cabbage
  • Any scum get rid of it
  • Leave for about 2-3 weeks taste to see when you like it
  • Get rid of scum every 3-4 days
  • After about 2-3 week it is ready to eat
  • If you don’t want to eat a cabbage in a couple of days put it in some sterile jars

I have basically done the first few steps of the above- I added one onion maybe a mistake as the kitchen stinks of onions . Also in the mix was caraway seeds, dill and juniper berries. I am waiting for the first 5 days or so. 

 

New Host and Domain Registration for JackEagle.com

After the introductory offer I got from ipage when I was first setting up my website ended I have since changed my hosting and domain registrar.

I have moved the hosting to Hostgator Get some money off Host Gator by clicking on this link the main reason for this was price and some alright reviews I read online. I found that most reviews for hosts were mixed. Hostgator did a great job of transferring my site from ipage and got it up a running very quickly. The website seems to be running faster than when it was hosted on ipage.

My domain registration has transferred to Hover get some money off by following this link

Hopefully this will all work out okay! My next post will not contain any links for money off i promise!

I have also spent sometime setting up the plugin Postie which is great for emailing blog posts. This works great if you have limited internet access and quickly want to post something without using the wordpress app.

Renewable Energy Bulb

www.bulb.co.uk/refer/jack241

If you have been thinking about green energy now is the time to switch to Bulb. If you do this using the link above then we both get a some cash back ££££££. 

Do this by Monday 20 November and we both get £100, do it after then we both get £50. So switch now.

If you want anymore info just send me a message. When Sarah read this she said she thought it was a virus/spam post it is not! 

Another BBQ

Sarah’s family came over for a BBQ and I cooked quite a lot of pulled pork following this recipe: Amazing Ribs Pulled Pork I got some boned pork shoulder with skin and most of the fat removed from Edis of Ely Pork Butcher There were four pieces, 2.095kg, 1.758kg, 1.684kg and 1.768kg.

It took about 6 hours on the BBQ. One piece had to start in the oven because there wasn’t enough space on the BBQ, but once the meat has shrunk down there was room. I wrapped the pork in foil with a bit of apple juice when it got to around 65℃, as the meat looked like it was beginning to stall.

We ate the pork with choice of two sauces, KC classic BBQ sauce and Columbia gold sauce and every one really enjoyed it.

Logs

Last weekend we headed back to my parents’ house in Lincolnshire and I split a few logs with my brother-in-law. The logs were then added to a self-supporting log pile, that my dad and sister had set up. This is basically a rectangular box of logs with all the other logs thrown in the middle. The idea is that this allows the logs to dry out, it is important to get the corners strong!

There is a lot more information in Lars Mytinng’s book Chopping Staking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way. Here are a few photos and videos.

BBQ Herb Chicken

We had a BBQ and cooked this Kefir (Yogurt) and Herb Chicken.

Roughly followed this recipe but changed it a bit and used a whole chicken, and used this for BBQ tips

Marinade the Chicken overnight:

Then set up the BBQ

Then check on it!

and enjoy

It tasted a lot better than it looked.

Edinburgh

So we made it here. The ride seemed fairly tough today well really yesterday as I am writing this on the train home. I think it was all the stuff we were carrying, we were pretty tired and there were lots of ups and downs and shared use paths with people and dogs to avoid. 

Good views over the firth of forth and the new bridge they are building. 

It was a good little tour seems a bit strange to be going home and back to work so soon. It didn’t really seem like we got into the routine and tour life. It was good fun and a good route.

Due to bad Wi-Fi on the train I am posting this from home. 

Ice House Tentsmui Forest

Shortly after leaving the coop. We cycled through the forest. On some fairly smooth off road tracks. There were a few people about dog walkers and cyclists.

We made dinner some pasta, tomato sauce, beans, peas, onion, mushrooms and garlic. There was to much food, we had a beer with dinner. We washed up with a small amount of water, put the tents up.  

The flies and midges have started to come out and are bit annoying but don’t seem to be biting yet hopefully. I think we are going to have pudding and watch an episode of peep show before bed. I am feeling fairly sleepy.