Month: July 2022

This is soup. Or it will be, once I’ve tamed all that gorgeous natural gelatin into a liquidy submission with some heat!
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My son wasn’t keen on the “blobby bits” (i.e. the cartilage) in my oxtail stew. So I hid them by blending the stew up and renaming it a soup. After leaving it for a day in the fridge this is what I found!
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So not only does he get the “blobby bits” without realising, but he’s also getting all that collagen in the jelly goodness.
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Sometimes it’s just about tweaking the packaging, as it were. A skill I’m acquiring through necessity as my son ages!
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Happy weekend to you all.

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I love sauerkraut. But making it can often seem like a chore. There are other things I’d rather be doing…baking some bread, reading about the joys of lard, trying to replicate a dish I just heard about…
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Creativity in the kitchen is important. Anything we can do to to minimise the time we spend on the routine – the things we want but the making of which doesn’t fire us up – allows us more time to engage with our passions, which keeps those fires of inspiration burning!
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Sauerkraut doesn’t need to take all day, bread doesn’t have to be complicated, your sourdough starter should not run your life, herbal ‘supplements’ can be easily incorporated into food…all things that @farmandhearth and I talk about in this week’s podcast. Listen in to hear some easy ways to make your kitchen quicker and simpler.
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And if you’ve got your own ‘easy way’, a time/energy-saving method that you’ve honed, do let us know!
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You can find us as @ancestralkitchenpodcast on your app, or download/stream via the link in my profile.

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Have you wet-rendered fat?
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I finally got some local grass-fed beef fat and since Ximena over at @thefunctionalforce opened my eyes to using water and salt in rendering I’ve been excited to give the wet method a go!
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I watched Marisa’s @bumblebeeapothecary video on You Tube twice then dove in! It was more fiddly and took more time than my usual dry rendering *but* I’ve ended up with a tallow that is really clean and virtually odourless.
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It’ll keep longer like this and I’ll be able to use it for face cream, something I’ve been wanting to make for ages.
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This pic is from the first render, I’m straining the ‘cooked’ fat through muslin and catching the liquid (a mixture of tallow and water/salt) underneath. After this I did a second render of the tallow, with more salt and water, to help eliminate impurities.
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Check my story today for more pictures and some video of the final product!
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Happy July 4th to my USA friends 🙂

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Here’s the beautiful broth from the beef bones in my story today.
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I’ve 6 jars like this. They’ll set like jelly, the fat layer available to take off or break up and mix back in.
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I’ll drink the stock on it’s own, sprinkled with salt. I’ll use it to cook grains in. I’ll let it loosen up leftovers when I pull them from the fridge to heat up for a quick supper. I’ll add it to one pan meat and veg dishes for extra richness.
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Do you have any unusual uses for stock you want to share?!
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If you haven’t yet, check out the @ancestralkitchenpodcast on stock (it’s number 26), our most downloaded episode – there’s obviously a whole lot of goodness there!
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Happy weekend from my kitchen to yours.

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