Inglenook - for discussion

[Bondbug 32]

Yep. Scotland and British. And Wales and Welsh and both these, spelt differently, have alternative meanings.

 

As for diets and dieting ... too confusing. I eat what I like in reason, veg & fruit, and steer clear of pre-packed pre-prepared meals from the supermarket. A little fried, some pastry and pies (home-made), pizzas (home made - dead easy), stews, soup, veg & fruit from the market. Yes, we use a fair bit of oil, but for taste it isn't much use except olive oil. The French will tell you that goose fat does you no harm but that may be wishful thinking with their 'foie gras'. A little alcohol. A few cakes and things. Everything in moderation. If you eat much in the fatty line you need plenty of exercise to burn it off. It may take longer to prepare fresh stuff but it ends up a lot cheaper.

 

Don't grow veg, but we have some fruit bushes and a couple of good trees. Wife bottles and freezes a fair bit.

 

We eat well enough, and do well on a very low budget. We were the same before we retired, and brought the kids up that way too.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Bondbug

[locolagarto 15]

Yep. Scotland and British. And Wales and Welsh and both these, spelt differently, have alternative meanings.

 

As for diets and dieting ... too confusing. I eat what I like in reason, veg & fruit, and steer clear of pre-packed pre-prepared meals from the supermarket. A little fried, some pastry and pies (home-made), pizzas (home made - dead easy), stews, soup, veg & fruit from the market. Yes, we use a fair bit of oil, but for taste it isn't much use except olive oil. The French will tell you that goose fat does you no harm but that may be wishful thinking with their 'foie gras'. A little alcohol. A few cakes and things. Everything in moderation. If you eat much in the fatty line you need plenty of exercise to burn it off. It may take longer to prepare fresh stuff but it ends up a lot cheaper.

 

Don't grow veg, but we have some fruit bushes and a couple of good trees. Wife bottles and freezes a fair bit.

 

We eat well enough, and do well on a very low budget. We were the same before we retired, and brought the kids up that way too.

 

The sad thing here is that except for certain areas close to the farming communities( southern US and rural areas in the summer). fresh food is very expensive. if you live in an area that has to truck all the fresh food in, which is basically the entire north half of the united states, it is cheaper (and of course unhealthy) to buy processed foods. We eat better in July - September when all the fresh farm food out on the roadside stands. And its difficult for my wife who grew up poor in the farm areas of Guatemala, because the made everything from Scratch and only bought rice and salt and corn oil from the store. the corn and beans and fruits and vegetables all came from the land. the cheese and milk from the farmer next door. the eggs from the chicken coup.

 

And our busy lives make it so hard to grow a garden and prepare food now days.

[Bondbug 32]

Do you not have open markets over there? We get a few roadside stands in France, but not in this area. However nearly every village, every town, every section of a city, has its market day ... all sorts of stuff, clothing, ironmongery, seed and young plants for garden, fish, butchers, bakery, greengrocery, stalls making paella ... the lot.

 

In our village, where we have no market day, there are open markets within easy reach every day of the week ... Monday at Chateau-la-Valliere, Tuesday at Bourgeuil, Wednesday at Savigné-sur-Lathan, etc. etc. I don't think there are any industrial towns here which do not have a surrounding rural area providing fresh foos for the market. A tradesman will drive 3 hours to bring fresh oysters to the markets.

 

Are Mama Paula and your Grandmother the same person? I'd like to hear more about her/them. They sound like my kind of folk ... my generation too. Or perhaps you would prefer not to spread them all round the forum?

Edited March 13, 2010 by Bondbug

[locolagarto 15]

Do you not have open markets over there? We get a few roadside stands in France, but not in this area. However nearly every village, every town, every section of a city, has its market day ... all sorts of stuff, clothing, ironmongery, seed and young plants for garden, fish, butchers, bakery, greengrocery, stalls making paella ... the lot.

 

In our village, where we have no market day, there are open markets within easy reach every day of the week ... Monday at Chateau-la-Valliere, Tuesday at Bourgeuil, Wednesday at Savigné-sur-Lathan, etc. etc. I don't think there are any industrial towns here which do not have a surrounding rural area providing fresh foos for the market. A tradesman will drive 3 hours to bring fresh oysters to the markets.

 

Are Mama Paula and your Grandmother the same person? I'd like to hear more about her/them. They sound like my kind of folk ... my generation too. Or perhaps you would prefer not to spread them all round the forum?

 

You know I find this thread one of my favorites. Like sitting under a shade tree with a tall glass of iced tea and just shootin the breeze with old good friends.

 

Mama Paula is my wife's Grandmother and she still lives in Guatemala with the last 3 of my wifes brothers. That women has more love in her heart than any person I have ever known. One my 2 visits there she was the first up in the morning and the last down at night. and I never see here stop to serve herself. she was constantly doing for others.

 

On the first trip 4 years ago. I had never met my wifes family in Guatemala. we had been there only 3 days and went to the market for food. when we returned at about noon, Mama had all my dirty clothes hand washed and hanging on the line to dry. dirty underwear and all. this women saw me as her own child after 3 days. And she has treated me that way ever since.

 

The water in town comes from a spring at the top of the mountain,( I thought this was strange, too. But the water comes out hot from the Volcano!) anyway they don't use it to cook or drink. so every morning I would walk about a 1 Km down the hill to the small general store and buy a 5 gallon bottle of water and hoist it on my shoulder and march back up the hill. She was so grateful for that, she still asks my wife when we will be coming back for a visit, because she needs some water.

[Bondbug 32]

You know I find this thread one of my favorites. Like sitting under a shade tree with a tall glass of iced tea and just shootin the breeze with old good friends.

 

Great. That's just what it is meant to be.

 

But got to go now - see you tomorrow.

 

"Tomorrow"

You get wonderful people like Mama Paula particularly in rural areas, but she does sound special. I fear her breed is dying out, but I hope I am wrong. They are not all like her mind you.

 

Not always rural ... I remember similar kindness among out of work coal miners who were my grandfather's brothers and sisters when I was a kid ... long time ago. Our daughter got similar kindness from Russian people who she had never met before, poor people but would share their last crust with you. She had trouble handling such kindness from people so much worse off than she was - she was at University at the time touring with the college choir.

 

Your wife is lucky to have such a family. Wish I could say I had been so good with my kids.

 

Do I take it that you yourself are not from Guatemala?

 

I think I had better get the courtyard built outside this 'inglenook kichen', and plant a tree for you. Any preference?

Edited March 14, 2010 by Bondbug

[Bondbug 32]

It worries me a bit that people think of a thread as "soandso's thread and we mustn't butt-in or interfere". This thread or the bar thread should not be like that. This is supposed to be a place where anyone can pop-in, relax, talk about food and drink matters, ask general questions about cooking and drinks, ask questions about terminology in different countries ... subjects that do not refer to illustrated recipes, which have their own threads. It doesn't really need my presence.

 

This should be an ideal place for folks like Chattius and Loco and Mama Paula and Gogo and Peggy who (among many others) have a fund of general food and drink talk. I would like Chattius to tell us about the wine in his country. My questions to Chattius about fermented cabbage and sweaty feet are the type of discussion that should really be posted in here (with the window open).

 

It is NOT "Bondbug's thread". It should be EVERYBODY'S THREAD.

 

Humpht. Humpht.

 

I have two questions for anyone who cares to look in.

 

1. is about a kitchen weapon that I saw here the other day, and which the French call a "pelle à brûler" (I think!). You may know those odd circular moulds on a thin handle, used I think for doughnuts. This was something about the same size, more solid, a flat circular iron on a 9" handle. It was on the gas in the kitchen when I looked in to talk to a neighbour. It was for burning the top surface of a crême brûlé - which is basically an egg custard with sugar on top. The individual bowls were of a size which allowed the hot iron to be placed on top of the sugar to caramelize it. Has anyone come across these? Has anyone used one or seen it used?

 

2. I wondered how many people are influenced by the name of a dish when they choose from a menu. For instance would you prefer "Chicken with Hunter Sauce", "Poulet Chasseur" or "Pollo Cacciatore"? Would you choose "Aubergine cooked in the pickling style" or "Baigan Achari"? When you go to an Italian or French restaurant do you recognise that the same things exist in English/American cooking under an English name, or do you choose something because it sounds posh/superior. Do you prefer "pommes frites" or "French fries" (a crass misnomer) in a restaurant to "chips"? That question is for the Brits as the name chips is used for different things in other countries.

 

I am going outside to sit under Loco's tilleul tree and ponder, in the cold wind that seems to be chummy with the sun here. Got some socks to darn. Tea will be served at 4pm GMT.

 

OMG I just referred to my last 10 posts then forgot where I was and thought OMG I have double, no triple, no quadruple posted in here. Aaaaargh

The old grey matter is seriously deteriorating.

Edited May 5, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

Honestly, I didn't know what a inglenook is before leo-ing it. (LEO = english -german dictionary). Our house was build in early 18th century so it has a chimney running through the whole house, and the 'living room' still has an open fireplace and the kitchen a wood fired oven together with a modern one. Our power supply is overground through the forest, so at storms we have often a power outage if a branch hits the cables.

 

Hessen ist the german state which has the most forest, so most old houses are timber framing:

The main weight carrying stuff is oak, elements below a heavy weight carrying pole are often filled with stone. To fill the normal elements you first insert smaller poles from beeches. Then you weave in willow twigs.

Then comes the ugly part: you mix fine cut hay and stray with horse apples and clay. Add water and smear it on the willow twigs. The horse apples are pre-rotten and the bacteria will make the hay and stray rot too. So the clay can breath through tiny holes while being still a good isolation from cold. Pure clay will result in wet walls.

So the chimney is a bit away from the mainly wooden walls, standing free in the mid of the room.

 

The wood fired oven has 2 purposes: as a reserve at blackouts and to make Waffeln. Waffles from electrical ovens are far less tasty than using an old Waffeleisen (waffle iron) which is put direct into the flame of a wood oven.

 

Our 'iron' is very similiar but has a slightly finer pattern. The advantage of such an ancient beast is obvious: the waffles have 4 times the size of ones made with a modern waffle-machine. We do them mainly sunday mornings in winter and so the whole living room is warm from the fire already. And its way faster to do enough waffles for up to 12 people. The first ones are normaly eaten already before the last ones are even started.

[Bondbug 32]

I have not seen that construction. Something near. Perhaps the willow weave prevented the infil from shrinking away from the oak and leaving gaps. "Wattle & daub" was a tradition wood/straw/mud form in GB, but the mix in yours sounds extraordinary ... rotten apples! We did use cow dung for "parging" - lining the inside of chimneys. Only thing that resisted the acids that made brick chimneys "bend". But rotten apples! Live and learn.

 

Odd what you say about clay. I remember a village in Scotland of clay houses, which had set so hard they could not demolish them. The walls may have started wet but they set harder than concrete.

 

That is some waffle iron! They made them solid in those days. Todays waffle irons are comparatively flimsy things. Don't remember ever having waffles at home. One thing about old buildings and barns ... enough space to keep stuff even if it is not in constant use. We have a barn and a lean to, stuffed with "junk" ... a fair bit of it is ear-marked for future use for building work. Much of the work I have done in the house re-uses old materials ... old beams that were taken down when the barn roof was re-done are used for step facings, mantel shelves, lintol facings; old clay tiles for new window ledges, and the mantelpiece and so on. Good to have room to store stuff while it is waiting to be given a new life.

 

We have two open chimneys which get used occasionally. Incredible how much heat a wood fire gives out, and visitors love it. We use our wood oven about every 10 days - bread, stews, pizzas, cassoulet, cakes, egg custard ... whatever the wife comes up with. But it is a fairly new one that we had built in about 10 years ago ... 90cm internal diameter, but quite enough for what we need - not the old type that were big enough to live in. Made by a firm over in Alsace.

 

I was just looking at your Merc. I had a fairly recent Merc van, done out as a camping car. Pride and joy ... till I skidded into a ditch one wet night and had an argument with a tree and a concrete bridge. Broke my heart that did. That model of yours was used a lot for minibuses in GB. Good reliable machine. I don't understand these people that sit in public offices and feel obliged to scribble on bits of paper all the time. My job at one time, but I never got a power complex ... nor promotion.

Edited May 5, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

Mother's Day

We just finished washing, ironing clothes and preparing a late breakfeast so my wife could sleep a bit longer. Suddenly the phone rang and my wife was called to hospital, being at standby.

We planed a bicycle tour, but had to change. So my wife drove to hospital and myself taking the kids and visiting my parents at Wetzlar. We walked to a Climbing forest just 3 Kilometres away from my parents. It is a forest with ropes, rope bridges leading from tree to tree in 4-8 metres above ground. My father stayed home to prepare an evening meal, because it's mothers day he said.

In evening, and my wife joining an hour before, the kids were a hell of hungry when returning and my father surprised us with a special sort of Eisbein. In southern germany and in the alpes Eisbein is roasted. In our region it is normally cured and then cooked and served with Sauerkraut.

He was marianating some Eisbein at saturday with herbs. He planed to cook some at sunday and use the rest at thursday which is a holiday here, not knowing that our plans would change and we would visit them.

When he said he would organize some evening meal I was thinking of a pizza or something like this. But he surprised us with Eisbein in 6 variants, cooked, roasted, roasted with a herb mantle, cooked with a herb mantle, roasted with beer and herb mantle and cooked with beer.

 

He said he didn't know what my kids would like and honestly the only time my oldest ate Eisbein was in Munich, roasted at a Biergarten. And the youngers never ate it. It is way to time intensive normally to do it. And in my youth I only remember to have eaten it was at village festivals when whole village came together in a big tent to do Kirmes (kermesse?) or to celebrate a village team to win championship and stuff like this.

 

So I was surprised to have it served by my dad and even more that my kids were devouring all the variants, without saying something like IIIIIEKS, that is too fat. I asked why he never did it when I was young and he said he wasn't retired then to have time.

Edited May 10, 2010 by chattius

[Bondbug 32]

Eisbein. In southern germany and in the alpes Eisbein is roasted. In our region it is normally cured and then cooked and served with Sauerkraut.

He was marianating some Eisbein at saturday with herbs. He planed to cook some at sunday and use the rest at thursday which is a holiday here, not knowing that our plans would change and we would visit them.

When he said he would organize some evening meal I was thinking of a pizza or something like this. But he surprised us with Eisbein in 6 variants, cooked, roasted, roasted with a herb mantle, cooked with a herb mantle, roasted with beer and herb mantle and cooked with beer.

 

One more dish for the records

- Eisbein - not to be confused with Eiswein! From your link I take it that the roasted version is Stelze? Odd how few countries have the tradition of what the English call "crackling". Even in Scotland we could never get pork with the skin on, and in France they think we are joking.

 

But we manage roast pork, with crackling fairly often.

 

My wife occasionally prepares "hock" (I hadn't realised how German the name is!) sometimes boiled, sometimes roasted, but more often she puts a hock in a big jar to salt it. We often have 'peaspudding' (northern England) with it and always apple sauce.

 

Man Chattius you have a great family.

 

(Gets out map of Europe ... how far is it to Hesse? .......)

[chattius 2,522]

Hock and Hachse sound related. With Hachse we normally name the roasted variant.

And at soccer slang: Auf die Hacken treten = to step/kick on someones lower legs

 

Eisbein is not a icy leg (Eis = ice and Bein = leg). Ausbeinen is a still used word in german and means to cut the bones(bein) out (aus) of the flesh. The Eis ( old german is) was the old name for the bone below the elbow in a foreleg.

 

Eisbein from a cow is named Hesse everywhere in germany except in the state of Hesse it seems. We eat it normally as Beinscheibe (leg disc):

Cooked for 2 hours in a herb soup (which is then served before the main dinner) and the flesh served with selfmade horseradish (grews wild around the house) sauce and potatoes. The bone still has the mark so it results in a tasty soup. The fine fibres in the flesh will make a very tasty meat.

Edited May 11, 2010 by chattius

[Bondbug 32]

Hell, I'm hungry. Going to have to get my wife onto this one. I like the cooking in soup, then eating the soup as starter and the meat as main. I think there is a fondu set up like this in reverse ... that is, you fondu the cubes of meat for the main course in the soup then have the soup afterwards.

 

Your Beinscheibe (?) would be ideal for next time we light the wood oven - end of week probably. Beef cuts like that are easy to get here.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

P.S. What is your advice for drink with this, where decent beer is not available?

Edited May 11, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

Well, fear I am the one who keeps germany's alcohol consum per head low. At work we handle with explosives so biggest amount I drink a day is one class of beer, if I drink at all. My wife is assistant surgeon and doesn't drink much too.

What we normally do is 'apple juice' or 'apple wine' mixed with 2 third mineral water.

 

Apple wine is similiar to cidre but not sparkling. In our region the Apfelwein is called Speierling, because we add a few Speierling to the apples at production. Speierling is the fruit of the service tree (?).

We also add Mispeln (common medlar). But that is special to our family. We have several dozen Mispel-trees. Its wood was used for fine wooden work.

 

We put all the apples, Speierlinge and Mispeln on a truck and drive them to a Kelterei (a place where fruits are pressed and bottled as juice or transformed into wine). If you bring a ton (or more) of fruits they promise that you receive your own juice and wine. Else all is weighted and you get just random juice and wine. Not knowing which apple sorts, sprayed against insects and such.

 

A ton sounds much, but we are at 30 litres milk a week which equals to 1.5 tons milk a year. And I share the juice and wine with the rest of the family, parents, family of brother and 2 sisters, ....

Edited May 11, 2010 by chattius

[Bondbug 32]

It is good to read your posts. It is good to know people still live like this. We have differences of vocabulary, but with all the links and pics you include there is no problem. You make my rusty brain work and bring back old times and good memories. Lang may your lum reek. I.e. long life to you.

 

I have heard of the service tree but it is not native to Britain. My book calls it the "True service tree", and says it was used 'in ancient times' (!) to make an alcoholic drink ... fermented with grain, producing a cider-like beverage that is still made in continental Europe" So, as you say, good with apfelsaft. It also says the "Romans called this drink 'cerevisia' from which the name 'service' is derived" ... and possibly the Spanish word "cerveza" for beer, though I have no real evidence for this.

 

A similar tree (same leaf), common in England is the Rowan , with redberries rather than the small pear-like fruit on the service tree. That should link in well with your Walpurgisnacht as rowan is connected with witchcraft and on May Day a bunch of rowan leaves was hung outside houses to keep the witches away.. It is also called mountain ash. We make rowan jelly with the berries.

 

 

The medlar (mispeln) is little known in England though some still grow wild perhaps in the south-east. Popular in Shakespeare's day, it seems, imported from Caucasus. It says the fruit cannot be eaten till it is "bletted", which seems to mean over-ripe and starting to rot. But I don't suppose that applies if you are just taking the juice - or does it?

 

I don't really drink beer either. My stomach does not like it. I think it must be the hops, as I am OK with the more malted beers. But as both of us come from areas known for beer drinking I thought I would put that first on my drink list when I talk to you. We have an occasional bottle of Real Ale when we have a curry as wine is not suitable and the water in the village is not very pleasant.

 

 

Apple juice and cider - no problem, but not the fizzy cider as it blows me up! We have good cider here, being reasonably close to Brittany which is real cider country.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Bondbug

[Bondbug 32]

It occurred to me that my bottles of Real Ale (see link above) may well be establishing a record.

 

Most people buy bottles and they are soon drunk up.

 

My stock is a crate each of Brown Ale and Old Ale, which I brought home from Lewes (near Brighton if you don't know Sussex) not less than 11 years ago. I also have some home-made Mild.

 

As there is plenty of reasonably drinkable wine here at ridiculously low prices, we don't drink much beer, evcept with curries. The usual fizzy stuff we call Eurofizz (if we are being polite) and which I dislike as having little taste (Alka Selzer or bicarb are just as good) is undrinkable after about a year in the fridge. I find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the bottles of Real Ale are still excellent (so is the ale inside if you want to be pedantic) after all this time. .

 

I am not sure if the brewers would be pleased to learn this.

 

I know beer in Belgium is something special and is treated with the same respect as wine in France, but have any of you ever willingly and successfully kept bottled beer beyond a few weeks?

Edited May 13, 2010 by Bondbug

[jnecros 2]

This is a very interesting thread.

 

I am a budding hobbyist winemaker and am thinking about getting into home brewing as well, the equipment is not much different really so it would not be terribly expensive for me to cross over. However, my wife and I prefer wine to beer and all of its variants.

 

Interestingly I am a life-long vegan, meaning I do not eat animal products of any type, no dairy, and no meat, though my wife is not a vegan and I do all of the cooking. So, I make basic grilled meats for her, usually with garlic and black pepper rubs. She loves schnitzel, but I have not been able to match her grandmother's even though I use the same recipe..

 

We plan to retire to Brittany around 2025 or so and we are looking forward to it. Excellent apples and honey in that region, I think the key to fantastic cooking is access to local ingredients, which is really a no-brainer. Getting local produce is very difficult in the United States, I moved to Georgia no to long ago, will be here for two years of my doctorate studies, but it is ridiculous that I can not buy Georgia peaches, even at farmers markets..they export them for the most part, though I hear small, rural areas have roadside stands and plan to search around for them. The grocery here has tomatoes from Israel, oranges from Brazil, Kiwi from Peru...I can not wrap my head around this.

[chattius 2,522]

Local products

We have market days were local farmers offer their products. Our house is more than 200 years old and its cellar is deep in earth and rammed clay. Always cool and no light. So if we harvest late potatoes in septembre they are fresh till we can harvest early potatoes the other year. We can use our own apples normally till around february for eating and till may for cakes or cooking.

 

Schnitzel

If I read the menu of a local restaurant there are probably 20 or more different types of Schnitzel:

Wiener Schnitzel, Zigeuner Schnitzel, Cordon Bleu, Jägerschnitzel, Schnitzel Holstein, Pariser Schnitzel, the (ugly) Berliner Schnitzel, Brandenburger Schnitzel, ... It's not even easy for a german to find out which Schnitzel another person likes My favourite would be Cordon Bleu.

 

Vegan

Vegan, at least being consequent. One of my cousines is married into a dairy, which makes Handkäse (sour cream cheese). She invited us to watch the production and our 7 year old listened carefully (she is the only of our daughters who is at least a bit intrested in cooking). Weeks later she watched her teacher eating cheese. The teacher said that she would be a vegeterian and not eating animals and would be against gen-manipulated food too.

 

My daughter saw her eating the cheese and suddenly said loud that the teacher would be a liar (she is always very direct, no way diplomatic ,well being 7). The teacher asked why, and my daughter said that the rennet needed to produce the kind of cheese she was eating would be made from the stomachs of young calfs. And that the demand for rennet would be so big that most of the calf's were slaughtered just for the rennet and most of the flesh being used for dog food.

The alternative would be gen-manipulated rennet. Either way you look at it, the teacher was either a liar or very inconsequent. Being send to the school decans room the decan started to laugh, he grew up on a farm and knew about the rennet. Only thing he said was that she should be more diplomatic the next time, and that there would be a diffrence between lying and not knowing. And that even teachers would not know everything.

[jnecros 2]

I love the Socratic honesty of children. That was a very amusing story. I think that many vegetarians eat cheese without knowing about the possesses involved in the making, which is kind of funny really, especially if they are the critical type of vegetarians (those who think they are better than meat-eaters). It seems like most vegans are critical of anyone non-vegan. I am not in this category, I was raised as a vegan and have stuck with it.

 

Yeah schnitzel seems complex. My wife's grandparents are from the Munich region, not sure where exactly but they are from the suburbs. They now live in San Francisco and swear nobody in the United States but them can make a proper Wiener schnitzel

 

Homegrown produce, you sound lucky indeed. Someday I will get around to doing that myself. I ultimately see myself growing wine grapes and having several types of fruit trees in addition to basic vegetables.

 

Not sure where I stand on genetically modified foods, I have read compelling reports from both sides, but it seems like we will not be able to feed everyone on the planet (not that we are doing that now) without them.

 

Potato pancakes with applesauce, which I make for myself without eggs of course so they are more like grilled grated potatoes. This is another German dish I think and it goes great with Eiswein, one of my favorite wines.

[Bondbug 32]

Hi jnecros. Soyez bienvenu. Plenty of good markets in Brittany when you get here.

 

Seasonal recipe (good for vegans as well!) ... elderflower syrup.

 

Elderberry trees are white with blossom here.

This syrup is used like a fruit squash - thinned with water, nice cool summer drink, and good for the sinuses!

 

For about 2 ltrs/3.5pints/2USquarts

 

30 elderflower heads

2ltrs water

1.5kg/ 3lb5oz/ 7.5UScups of sugar

juice 2 lemons

50g citric acid crystals (we get them here from the local chemist/pharmacy)

 

Pick flowers when dry. If wet lay out on a towel to dry for a few hours;

Put flowers into a large bowl (we use an old fashioned jam pan but a large clay bowl would be better)

Bring water and sugar to boil, stirring to dissolve the suger.

Remove from heat.

Add citric acid and lemon juice.

Immediately pour over elder flowers. (They go a murky sort of colour)

Cover, and leave 5 days in a cool place.

 

Then:

Strain roughly through a collander, and discard the flowers

Strain thoroughly through muslin or cheesecloth.

Bottle.

 

Use 'old-fashioned' 'pop' or 'beer' bottles, those with the wired flip-top stoppers.

 

Store in fridge - but better, if you can, in a cellar or 'cave'. Ours is still good after 2 or 3 years.

 

For drinking dilute as for orange squash

 

We make double quantity which gives over 5 litres, so I think the 2litres of the title are perhaps an underestimate.

 

When these trees fruit we make an excellent elderberry syrup which is good for the throat and brilliant as a warming hot drink.

Edited May 29, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

I wonder how 'Sauer Broi' (hessian slang for saure Brühe) translates into english. Sauer = sour, Brühe = broth.

 

At a house butchering all the meat and sausages are cooked in a big (copper) cauldron. Sometimes sausages get damage and add to the broth. To make a Sauér Broi, vinegar is added, Mett (minced meat), onions, spice and pieces of sour dough bread. Then the cauldron is covered and the broth eaten the next day. The kids are send to neighbours and friends with jugs full of the broth and small sausages. In our village we do a list which house does a butchering which week, so whole village has fresh sausages and broth for weeks.

 

We had very stormy and rainy weather at weekend, so no flies around and we could do a house butchering at my sister. Just wondered if other countries have something similiar and how it is named.

[Bondbug 32]

Sounds brilliant, but I am not quite sure what is meant by a "house butchering". Is this the traditional custom of slaughtering an animal "at home" I.e. on the farm?. If so I think it is been more or less stopped by the laws, and is only practiced in the more remote rural areas.

 

But to my mind it is an excellent tradition. Stuff the miserable joy-killers in Brussels. Even the local butchers here are no longer allowed to slaughter on their premises despite having perfectly clean and well equipped space for this purpose. So many small businesses have closed because of rules that are only relevant for larger concerns.

 

"Sour dough" is also more or less lost here. In English it is "leaven". So sour dough bread is "leavened bread", but I don't think you will find the term used these days.

 

LATER ... (I got summoned to the table to eat).

 

I think Gogo, the Canadians, and Americans will be interested in your speaking of "sour dough". It will take them back over 100 years in their history when "Sour-dough" was the name given to prospectors and early explorers/travellers, especially in Alska and the N-W territories of Canada, who always carried a stock in a jug or jar.

 

Note to Gogo : there is a recipe in my copy of your Canadian "Chatelaine Cookbook".

 

As for Sauer Broi I don't think there is an English/American equivalent. It seems to be a "stew" which covers so many dishes which use the hundreds of local ingredients available in different areas of different countries. But it is the tradition which is interesting. It is good to see this sense of 'community' still active. I wonder if the city dweller has any such tradition?

Edited June 2, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

In germany:

If you do the butchering at your house ,you are not allowed to sell the sausages/meat. For rabbits, hare, hens, ducks and geese you don't need an okay from an official person. At bigger animals an animal doctor or person with a license has to give an okay and probes of the flesh are taken. You need another license to kill animals(with a spine) for slaughtering.

I did the 'big hunting license' when I was 16. The reason was less hunting, but being allowed to own a gun. I herited some old hunting guns from my grandgrandfather. So I am allowed to own a gun and butcher, kill animals and take probes. The hunting license here takes nearly a year to finish all the tests: animals diseases, laws, rifle and ammunition knowledge, .... Took more spare time than the highschool, but I got good knowledge in biology, physics and other stuff.

So I am often called when people around will do a butchering. Many of the older people did it for years and are now blocked by laws. So I go there, look if the animals appears to be healthy, look if the animal is killed in a painfree way, take probes, fill a paper and do a stamp on it. Get some sausages for free and exchange some recipes.

 

The laws read that you don't have to do electro-shocks before killing if another method approves to be better. But what is more pain free than a tame pig which oinks happiliy the moment the captive-bolt-pistol is applied.

 

Nowaday most people buy halves of a pig at a slaughtery house. So no licenses needed at all. But you can't do all type of sausages then: the halves have no blood, no brain...

[Bondbug 32]

Is that German law or Brussels law? I will need to check this out. I use to get sheep bits from the local butcher when he slaughtered ( two or three times a year) and a local farmer did a pig now and then and a friend in the village did excellent mutton once a year. But all three have stopped now.

 

I will come back, but just now we have to go and rehearse with the choir for Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem.

[Bondbug 32]

Elderflower - strained this year's supply yesterday, and bottled it this morning. Only 5 litres but it goes a long way.

 

Lit the wood oven for the next batch of bread, pizzas, etc. Going to be a pleasant productive day ... unless I get the fire wrong and the temperatures are not right at the required times which are difficult to predict and I get sworn at for incompetent oven management or the bread rises too fast or too slow or we get the timings wrong, or things get burnt that shouldn't, etc. etc. etc.... OR (I nearly forgot the most frequent problem) I get involved in writing posts for this forum and forget to keep an eye on the oven.

 

...NO... It IS going to be a nice pleasant productive day.

 

By the way, Chattius, I forgot to ask ... do you have your recipe for sour dough. Viv is using a potato based recipe at present.

 

One of the things about being in charge of a wood oven is that you get a lot of short breaks, 10 minutes here and there which are not long enough to start playing on line, but just long enough to write a bit more rubbish in here!

 

So here we are, oven going well, the brick shell is heating nicely, the parsley and marjoram for the pizzas are chopped, the pizzas will go in in about half an hour.

 

Chopping herbs is my job. In my student days I once had an evening job helping the chef in the kitchen of a small night club. Mainly washing up, but I also learned to chop parsley fine enough to satisfy a French chef (well, he put on a French accent). Something my wife can't find time to do properly and I take pleasure in doing it, not as a full-time job but when the need arises.

 

Herbs are so simple to grow, even if you have no garden, so we grow all our own and save quite a lot of money. Spices unfortunately are not so easy - those we have to buy ... and use economically. In GB it was not difficult to find a store which did Indian supplies where spices were a reasonable price. Here in France there is little choice but to pay very high prices.

 

Whoops ... gotta go pour a glass for the chef and check the oven.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,522]

The neighbour village has a history and traditions club. Every 2 weeks the baking house is heated and people come together at a workfree saturday to bake breads, cakes and other stuff. Normally you talk alot, exchange recipes, exchange plants you harvested in your garden, .....

Sour dough is not a speciality we do at our family. If we want to bake sour dough bread I have to ask a person of the club for some starter mass. In exchange they ask me to help with butchering.

 

If you click at Backhaus (baking house) on the top line of the link you see some pictures of some of the busy people belonging to the club heating the baking house.

 

If you click at Hauberg (top) and then Kornsaat/Ernte (left) you see some pictures how in old times the forest pieces were chopped down with roots remaining for coppicing. Rye and buckwheat was sew between the roots, using a special breed of small robust cows.

 

If you click at Kohlenmeiler (top), you see how charcoal was made in our area. The club does 4-5 theme-weekends each year: showing how to melt iron in a clay oven, how to forge a sword from this iron, basket-making, tanning, ...

 

No theatre or cinema around, but a quite busy and intresting club life.

 

Edit:

About spices: An old classmate decided to go merchant navy instead serving at army for the 18 month (now they shortened it to 9 month and even want to go down to 6). He worked as a ship cook for 6 years and then started his own restaurant. If I need spices I just ask him. He has some rooms and gives cooking seminars at weekends. We visit him 2 times a year for a weekend at black forest and 'park' our kids at our parents. We learn some new international recipes and he learns some of our barbaric traditional recipes. We normally leave him with a good supply of all sort of spices. Without him I would have to drive to Frankfurt I think for some of the spices/herbs.

Edited June 4, 2010 by chattius