July 26th, 2012 | D.I.Y., Traditional, bacon, baking, berry pie, D.I.Y., fruit pie, lard in pastry, making pastry, offal, pastry, rendering, slow food
Suffice to say that I have a greater understanding of the scent of a medieval household after my first experience rendering suet.
I’ve been reading The Great Mortality by John Kelly, a riveting account of the black plague and how it wound its way through Europe in the 14th century. Needless to say a key ingredient in its spread was the incredible filth of households in this period. People bathed rarely and garbage (think dead animals, toilet offerings, rotten food) was strewn about the streets. They also used lard or tallow in making candles. According to Kelly, lard wasn’t a preferred source of fuel because of the smell.
So let me get this straight. People who were surrounded by rotting flesh and human excrement complained about the smell of burning lard. How could this be?
July 20th, 2012
Not half bad for my first time!
I called my pie 'Star Kissed Strawberry' and, as the name suggests, it was a baked strawberry pie. Most strawberry pies are fresh rather than baked so I thought it might be fun to make a pure baked strawberry pie. To keep it interesting I infused a homemade strawb ...
July 19th, 2012
And I was a wreck. I had made two test pies. One was perfect - the second was a horrific disaster. The disaster pie led to a reworking of my pie plans, a subtraction of sorts. I am definitely the type of person who likes to overcomplicate, subtraction is not my forte. While I know this is my pattern ...
July 14th, 2012
As I wandered my way through fermented hot sauce links and recipes online, I found a recipe for sate chili sauce. This is one of my favorite sauces in the world, but I've never known how to make it. Now that I know what is in it (garlic, lemongrass, chili, fish sauce, need I say more??? delici ...
July 10th, 2012
My fermented hot sauce was bubbling and brewing away in the corner for several days. It developed a little bit of white mold, which I promptly scraped off. I did notice mentions of mold in various blog posts so I didn't worry overly much, it seems to relate to the fermentation process. Once I fel ...
July 4th, 2012
I never used to like hot sauce. That changed during my first camping trip. I was 19-years-old. Traveling to the site with a fellow newbie girlfriend, en route we picked up a lot of beer, a 12-pack of hot dogs and a sack of buns. That was it. We had no tent, no sleeping bags, no nothing. Just ...
June 28th, 2012
Sieu Thi Dong Thanh Supermarket! I was let on to a little food gem this morning and I sense my relationship with Vietnam will never be the same. For those wondering, I've never actually been to Vietnam. The closest I've come is my lovely Vietnamese nail ladies who fill me up with stories a ...
June 21st, 2012
It was my brother's birthday on June 2nd or 3rd (I always forget), which coincided perfectly with the curing of my pig cheek. To celebrate his 26th birthday I decided to make an EPIC pork-filled breakfast and it was EPIC indeed. First, about my brother. We are five years apart (I'm older) ...
June 17th, 2012
This is my last semester of classes before I finish my Masters degree. While I still have a practicum to finish and thesis to write I am beginning to feel like I am close to the end. In honor of this ending, I wanted to really celebrate the student life this summer, by this I mean not working full t ...
June 13th, 2012
The Roman bacon was ready. It had been ready for a couple of weeks but it was trapped in my storage closet. (See Part 1: Roman Bacon for recipe and details on making this tasty treat) I have lived in my apartment building for seven years. I have had a key to my storage closet kicking around solo ...
