Twenty Ways to Include Fermented Foods in Every Meal

Fermented and cultured foods are a wonderful source of probiotic bacteria needed to support good health. If you’ve been thinking about adding more of these foods to your diet, but are unsure of exactly how to accomplish this, these twenty suggestions for including fermented and cultured foods into your meals and snacks may help you out.

Breakfast

• Cultured dairy (yogurt, kefir, buttermilk) are naturals for breakfast. Add yogurt, kefir or buttermilk to your morning smoothies or top granola or oatmeal with fruit and homemade yogurt. Don’t do dairy? Try homemade coconut yogurt.
• For the more adventurous, make breakfast bowls with yogurt and cooked beans and grains.
• Top your scrambled eggs with fermented salsa.

Lunch

• Add chopped fermented pickles to tuna, salmon, or ham salad sandwiches.
• Use fermented mayonnaise in place of store-bought mayonnaise.
• Tuck some lacto-fermented dilled carrot chips into bagged lunches. These are always a favorite with kids.
• Put lacto-fermented ketchup on hot dogs and hamburgers.

Dinner

• Have a small portion of raw sauerkraut with dinner. It pairs well with almost everything. Start with a tablespoon and slowly increase the amount to avoid gastro-intestinal discomfort. When you are ready, experiment with different kinds of sauerkraut such as:
  • Cortido (Latin American Sauerkraut)
  • Southwestern Kraut
  • Golden Kraut
  • Chlorophyll Kraut
• If you are having soup, let the soup cool a bit before stirring in some homemade sour cream or juice from any lacto-fermented vegetable.
• For salads, try making your own ranch dressing using lacto-fermented mayonnaise and cultured buttermilk or Italian dressing made with kombucha.
• Serve some fun lacto-fermented chutneys with dinner entrées.
• Make tacos and top with sliced fermented jalapeños and cultured sour cream.
• Experiment with a new kind of vegetable salad.

 Snacks and Extras

• Pair your favorite chips with a cultured dairy ranch dip.
• Serve cut-up veggies with a kefir dill dip.
• Slice and dry sourdough bread and use to dip in fermented hummus.
• Snack on an old-fashioned lacto-fermented dill pickle.
• Make fun and fizzy water kefir sodas or lacto-fermented ginger-ale.
• Make some fun-shaped dairy-free gummies.
• Serve a probiotic-rich dessert like a kefir-gelatin, fresh fruit with yogurt sauce, or a kefir soft-serve ice cream.

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Bone Broth Tallow Soap

In this house we make a lot of beef bone broth. The byproduct is beef bones and all the other left-overs from making broth as well as the tallow that rises to the top of the broth and solidifies in the fridge.

In trying to have as little waste as possible, we use the bones and left-overs as food for our Black Soldier Fly maggot farm. What do we do with all the tallow? Freeze it. We have frozen tallow for years and when we build up a huge enough supply (or run out of soap), we render it all together and make a big batch of soap.

Soap is actually quite easy to make and you only need a few tools, lye, fat and a good recipe. We also used Red Oxide Powder for color, and Euphoria Essential Oil Blend for the scent.

Lye can be somewhat dangerous to work with if you are not careful, so this is not a project for young children.

The basic method for making soap is to measure out (by weight) the amount of fat you have and then use the appropriate amount of lye based on a lye calculator such as this one: http://ift.tt/1ShfWaE

You must first mix the lye with water and let it cool. The chemical reaction between the lye and water will heat up the water quite a bit, so always use caution in this step. Always wear protective gloves when handling lye.

When the lye and fat both reach your desired temperature (about 85 Degrees F and 90 Degrees F respectively), You can add the dye (if using) to the fat. Then slowly stream in your lye/water solution into the fat while stirring.

We use a hand held mixer for this part. Add the essential oils here as well. You will want to stir/blend until it reaches a thick consistency.

The next step is to pour it into your mold! We used some of these molds. Aren’t they pretty? But you can use any container you would like. Let your soap set in the mold for about 24 hours and then take it out and cut it to your desired shape and size. Then you need to let them set for about 2 more weeks! I know, it is so hard to wait!!

That’s it! Soap for a year!! I am thinking that if we can swirl some red and green soaps together, this would make awesome homemade holiday gifts! And what a way to use broth making leftovers right?

Do you make soaps?

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A Closer Look: New England Sourdough Starter

This is an easy sourdough to activate and work with. Someone else has used the word “robust” and that seems a perfect description. It might be a mild flavor but it still does have a sourdough flavor that is very popular at our house. I thoroughly enjoy making bread with this starter. -Bonnie

Today we are going to take a closer look at the Cultures for Health New England Sourdough Starter.

Product Highlights

Our New England Sourdough Starter originated in the 1800s and is an easy sourdough starter to use and maintain. It rises quickly, and makes wonderful bread and other baked goods, like Sourdough Dinner Rolls, Sourdough Crepes, and more!

Your New England Sourdough Starter: What’s in the Box?

• Each box contains 1 packet of dehydrated New Englad Sourdough Starter Culture
• Store in a cool, dry place until ready to activate.
• Activate using white flour and unchlorinated, unfluoridated water.
• Our New England Sourdough Starter is easy to use and maintain. Feed daily for frequent use or weekly, if baking infrequently.
• Learn more about maintaining a sourdough starter and baking with sourdough.

New England Sourdough Starter Ingredients:

• Organic white wheat flour, live active cultures
• Non-GMO

New England Sourdough Starter Instructions and Troubleshooting:

• Dried sourdough starter cultures can be ready to create baked goods within 3-5 days.
• Sourdough starters culture at room temperature, 70-85ºF.
• Instructions for using this starter are included and can be found here.
• Having trouble activating your sourdough starter? Browse our Sourdough Troubleshooting Articles or contact us for assistance.

New England Sourdough Starter Shipping Information and Shelf-life:

Our New England Sourdough Starter Culture is shipped in a barrier-sealed packet as a dehydrated culture. The starter is best if stored:

• At room temperature (68° to 78°F): 12 months
• In the refrigerator (40° to 45°F): 12+ months
• In the freezer (0° to 25°F): 12+ months

New England Sourdough Allergen Information:

Manufactured in a facility that produces products made with gluten and dairy.

Product Q&A

Q. I bought this starter a few months back, but haven’t opened it yet. It has been in my cabinet since I bought it. Is it still good?

A. Although we recommend storing your unopened sourdough starter in the freezer to maximize shelf life, under normal circumstances the starter will be fine at room temperature for up to 12 months.

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Q. What ingredients are in this sourdough starter?

A. Our sourdough cultures contain water, flour, and wild yeast. We use only organic flour and filtered water to perpetuate our sourdough cultures.

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You can read more Reviews and Q&A for the New England Sourdough Starter here.

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Weekly Recap – November 21st Edition

It’s time for the weekly recap.  Leave your favorite links or ideas in the comments below!

This Past Week on the Blog

In case you missed them, here are a few highlights from this past week:

A Closer Look: Salad Sprouts Seed Mix

My Adventure with a Piesporter Wine Kit – Join Sarah as she tries out one of the new wine kits!

Tangy Citrus Water Kefir Gelatin Dessert – Citrus juice and water kefir have a delicious affinity for one another. The slightly sweet and fermented beverage just cries out for a hit of tangy brightness. This gelatin dessert combines the two in a delicious dessert or snack that you can gladly hand out any time of day.

Raw Goat Milk Yogurt (you eat with a spoon) – I finally made a raw milk yogurt that turned out thick and creamy.  Read about how I did it!

Calendula and Olive Leaf Healing Salve – This all-purpose salve can be used for any and all minor injuries to replace commercial anti-bacterial creams.

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Calendula and Olive Leaf Healing Salve

This all-purpose salve can be used for any and all minor injuries to replace commercial anti-bacterial creams.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons calendula flowers
• 3 tablespoons olive leaf
• 2 tablespoons lemon balm leaf
• 4 tablespoons beeswax granules or emulsifying wax
• 2 tablespoons rosehip oil
• 15 drops tea tree essential oil
• 10 drops lavender essential oil

Instructions:

1. Create an herbal-infused oil using one of the following methods:
   • Quick method: Combine the coconut oil, olive oil, and dried herbs in the bowl of a double boiler. Simmer for 30 minutes.
   • Solar method: Omit coconut oil. Add an extra ½ cup olive oil; combine the oils and herbs in a jar. Allow them to sit in indirect sunlight for several weeks.
2. Carefully strain the herbs from the oil using a coffee filter or several layers of cheesecloth. Be quick with this step if using the quick infusion method, as the oil must remain warm in order to strain it from the herbs. Press the herbs gently to extract all of the oil.
3. Return the strained oil to the double boiler and add the wax. Warm gently until the wax has melted into the oil. Remove the mixture from heat and immediately mix in the rosehip oil, tea tree oil and lavender oil.
4. Pour into a clean, sterile airtight container to cool and set.

How to Use Calendula and Olive Leaf Healing Salve:

Apply liberally to minor scrapes, scratches, cuts, bug bites, and sores.

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Raw Goat Milk Yogurt (you eat with a spoon)

I really didn’t mean to write yet another post about cultured dairy today. It’s not like it’s the only DIY project I’ve got going on right now with melt and pour soap, fermented vegetables, beet kvass, goat cheese, kefir of all kinds, and sourdough all hanging out in my kitchen.

But, raw milk yogurt is an elusive thing for those of us with a real food bent – like perfectly brewed kombucha and super-gelatinous bone broth. Before I get too nerdy on you though, let me just say that I tried out a new method, it was simple, and it worked.

So this may be my new method for making homemade raw yogurt because it was thick and creamy.

There are as many ways to make yogurt as there are ways to eat it and many of us don’t even make it the same way twice.

But, if you’re looking for a raw milk yogurt recipe that can be used with any culture and is thickened with gelatin, might I recommend this recipe?

Equipment

If you are using an electric yogurt incubator, she recommends this one for its low-temperature methods. I generally just use a warm water bath atop my stove to do the incubating. Whatever method you use, keep the temperature around 110 degrees to avoid pasteurizing your beloved raw milk.

Ingredients

Besides fresh milk, you’ll need some yogurt culture as well as gelatin. You can use any culture you prefer and notice that they have different attributes, flavors, and consistencies. Whatever you happen to have should work, though be sure to save some culture for future batches since raw milk can fuss with the bacteria present in the culture.

The Results

If you’ve ever attempted raw milk yogurt, then you may know how, um, pourable the stuff can be. Pourable as in the same consistency as milk or kefir on a good day type pourable. Which is why decently thick raw milk yogurt is the prize.

And I’m happy to say that this stuff made great yogurt that you actually eat from a bowl! Whenever I make raw milk yogurt – testing this alteration in incubation or that tweak in thickening agent – I keep in mind that smoothies are the worst case scenario. But this stuff pleased all of my big and small yogurt-eaters who are used to Mama’s thick yogurt made from milk heated to 160-180 degrees.

So thank you, Domestic Soul, for a raw milk yogurt technique that really works!

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Tangy Citrus Water Kefir Gelatin Dessert

Citrus juice and water kefir have a delicious affinity for one another. The slightly sweet and fermented beverage just cries out for a hit of tangy brightness.

This gelatin dessert combines the two in a delicious dessert or snack that you can gladly hand out any time of day.

Ingredients:

• 3-3½ cups water kefir, (less with orange or grapefruit juice, more with lemon or lime juice)
• Citrus fruit juice (choose one)
  • ½ cup lemon or lime juice
  • 1 cup orange or grapefruit juice
• 4 tablespoons raw honey, to taste
• 5 tablespoons gelatin powder

Instructions:

1. Combine 2 cups water kefir (2½ cups with lemon or lime) with the citrus juice, whisking well. Taste and add as much honey as desired.
2. Pour 1 cup water kefir into a small saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over the top and put over a very low burner. The mixture should be just barely warm in order to dissolve the gelatin powder and to protect the beneficial probiotics and enzymes of the water kefir.
3. Once the gelatin begins to dissolve, remove from heat and whisk well, scraping bottom and sides of pan.
4. Once gelatin has completely dissolved, combine with the water kefir-citrus juice mixture. Pour the liquid into a large glass bowl or baking dish, then place immediately in the refrigerator to chill for 4-8 hours.

Once set, serve cold, plain or with whipped cultured cream or whipped coconut cream.

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