We had quite a day. David has been working hard on his truck, which needed a $900 transmission rebuild, rather than a “cheap part.” Luckily, he and his girlfriend, aided by Will, pulled the transmission, and David and friends, Niles and Ian, helped him put it back in. Both jobs were tedious and cold, as it’s now 19 degrees F…on a warm day! Tonight, the truck rolled off the ramps under its own power. Whew!
And today, Will is nearly finished rebuilding our old yellow John Deere 1010 crawler, Old Yeller. There are just a few adjustments and some tranny fluid and reverser fluid to add, and it should be good as new. Double whew! I’ll be so glad when there isn’t a vehicle parked in the new storage building, propped up by blocks and jacks. (I’ll bet the guys will be too!)
To celebrate tonight, I baked a lemon cake with cream cheese and pie cherry frosting for the crew. (1 plain lemon cake mix, plus 1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened, mixed with 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp. lemon juice and 1 can of on-sale canned cherry pie filling for the icing) I had to laugh when I broke the eggs in a bowl. One was from our chickens, the other is a store egg. Orchard chicken egg= orange yolk, firm white, store egg= pale yellow yolk and runny white. Our chickens had molted and I had to buy a couple dozen eggs. Boy am I glad we don’t have to buy them all the time! I wonder what they feed those poor chickens?
Readers’ Questions:
Hopi Pale Grey seeds
If you have some extra Hope Pale Grey Squash seed sometime I would like to have a few.
John Oler
Watonga, Oklahoma
Sure, John, I’ll be glad to send you some seeds. Unfortunately, I have found that some crossing with Amish Pie Pumpkin occurred (I thought they were different species! Wrong. Both are C. Maximas). You may get a couple pink squash! By careful culling and breeding you can breed back to pure Hopi Pale Greys in a couple of years. But if you want pure seed, you can get it from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Let me know. — Jackie
Canning ham
I started canning some ham in pint jars. It was hot when I started and they went for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Then it ran out of water. My husband thinks it went long enough but I am worried.
Nancy Foster
Dallas City, Illinois
I’m assuming that you were pressure canning your ham. I would probably keep the ham, but be sure to check it well, then bring it to boiling temperature for 15 minutes BEFORE using each jar. Five minutes isn’t a lot, but it’s always safest to process the food for the entire length of time. — Jackie
Good grain mixture for pizza dough
I was wondering if you know of a good grain mixture for high gluten flour for tossing pizzas? To buy this flour is about 8 times the price of regular all purpose. I’m not sure if it’s a mixture or if there is a specific method to removing the starches from the flour.
David Rose
Buena Vista, Colorado
I’ve had very good luck by simply using a good hard wheat flour, and adding a little dough enhancer. I get mine from Emergency Essentials. I also use their very good yeast, which I can buy for less than $4.00 a pound. While I don’t toss my crusts, the dough is certainly elastic and “alive” enough to handle that. I’m just not that coordinated! — Jackie
Using potato water for bread making
In the article “Try Growing the Popular Potato” in the ninth year anthology, author Alice Yeager mentions using a mixture of potato water, flour, salt, and sugar to take the place of yeast in bread making. I can’t find a recipe like this in the BHM recipe index and was wondering if you had a bread recipe that uses this technique. My search of the net only yields bread recipes that call for adding mashed potatoes along with yeast.
Kathy Yount
Elizabeth, Arkansas
I believe what Alice was referring to was the old practice of catching wild yeast in the sugared potato water/flour, which makes sourdough starter. Although this can certainly work in some cases, in others, you end up with something other than a wild yeast…or a poor tasting one. It’s safer to start a sourdough from a tried and true batch and keep it alive, using some and replacing some of the flour, sugar, and water as you use up the starter. In that way, it keeps going indefinitely. — Jackie
Bread pans
I have been making my own bread now for about a year. I am just using metal bread pans, but am reading in other places about stoneware pans and cast iron bread pans. I use cast iron skillets a lot. Just wondered what you used or what you thought was better.
Terri Starrett
Dow, Illinois
I use heavier tin bread pans. I’m sure that stoneware or even cast iron would probably work well, but I sure have no complaints about my plain old bread pans. And they are a lot cheaper, too!
P.S. Let me apologize for being so late answering you. A couple of my e-mails got misplaced. Yours is one. — Jackie
Boiling home canned foods
Have always seen specific instructions to be sure to boil home canned vegetables for a certain number of minutes before using or even tasting them. Is it necessary to boil home canned meats and soup stocks before using them?
Ruth Marvin
Goldendale, Washington
Yes, it is recommended that we bring canned vegetables and meats up to boiling temperature and hold it there for 10-15 minutes…just to be sure that any possible bacteria is killed. This can be oven, stovetop or frying…anything at “boiling temperature,” which is 212 degrees F, below 1,000 feet above sea level or less.
P.S. I’m sorry for having taken so long to answer your question; yours was another e-mail that had been misplaced. — Jackie
I use glass pans. I bought them years ago because I was tired of inconsistent results with the motley assortment of pans that I owned at the time. I have to turn the temp down 25%, but they make a great loaf of bread everytime.
I agree on the eggs. I’ve been buying them from the Farmer’s Market and not only is the color better, but so it the texture and taste. The last week of the market, I bought as much as I could. Unfortunately, they are now nearly gone. I live in the city and cannot have fowl and to be honest, I do not really have time at this point in my life.
My wife makes some excellent artisan breads using a cast iron dutch oven. She preheats the oven with the dutch oven (with the lid). Upon preheating, she adds oil to the bottom of the pan, puts the dough in and bakes it half the time with the lid on and then half the time with the lid off. She tried for years to get a good crust and a good crumb using misters, pans of water and a homemade steam injector. Using a dutch oven contains the moisture from the dough and keeps the temperature from fluctuating. Since she first tried it, she hasn’t made bread once without it. Her bread has never been better. Best of all, the $20 dutch oven takes the place of a $2500 professional steam injection oven.
Isn’t it amazing the color and texture difference in the eggs? I get from a local farmer who trades me 3 dozen eggs a week for 6 loaves of bread. Yeah, i know, great deal for me! In those odd weeks where I need extra eggs nad have to buy, I shudder at using store bought, and have taken to buying the organic free run ones, because they are the closest in comaprision. The cost however, is crazy. $4 for a dozen eggs makes me re-think whether I can wait for next weeks egg delivery or not!
Having baked all our bread for the past 22 years, I’d like to make the quick comment that I use Vitamin C as a dough enhancer. Cheap, easy to get, and works great. I just buy a bottle of Vitamin C tablets at the local drugstore, grind up all the tablets at once in my spice grinder, pour the resulting powder back in the bottle, and I’m ready to go. I sprinkle a tiny amount into the dough; my regular batch makes 4 loaves. Also, wanted to say that my experience is the same as Jackie’s with pans: I just use tin pans that I’ve acquired along the way and they work great. I buy my yeast in 5 lb bags from our food co-op. Never any complaints about my bread, either, Jackie!
Thank you for your answer about the ham. I will boil it for 15 minutes before using it. It turned a dark redish pink. Not pretty but hopfully will be good.
Again thank you.
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