Category: basic principles

  • Substitutions

    A note on some basic substitutions you can make to accommodate differences in what is available in stores. SUET Some stores in the US are now selling “beef tallow”. Beef tallow is rendered out suet. It also tends to be painfully expensive. Amazon.com is now selling Atora suet, which is cheaper than the tallow, but…

  • Fresh custard recipe

    It’s funny how you can get a mental block about something. In my case, it was custard. I always saw custard being made from Bird’s powder, and even when I moved to the USA I carried on buying it, albeit at a stupid price. Then, recently, I decided to check out how to make custard…

  • Clotted Cream

    Scones without clotted cream just aren’t the full shilling. That’s a fact. Unless you are in the British Commonwealth, however, getting your hands on clotted cream is somewhat of a challenge. Finding clotted cream at a reasonable price is even more so. HOW TO MAKE CLOTTED CREAM Just before you go to bed one night,…

  • Making breakfast

    One of my weekend pleasures used to be having a sausage sandwich (bangers with brown sauce or ketchup) for brunch. One of the downsides of moving to another country is the lack of the stuff you are used to. Brown sauce, if it is available, tends to be ridiculously expensive. Bangers are eye wateringly expensive.…

  • Tahini

    I was mulling over my laughably cheap hummus recipe with peanut butter substituting for tahini. The biggest single cost for making home made hummus is most likely the tahini, hence substituting peanut butter. But what if you could make tahini at home, at a laughably cheap price? Is that possible? And how difficult is it…

  • Mustard

    I find American mustard very frustrating. Even the stuff called “hot mustard” has barely any perceptible heat. As usual, I have turned to my culinary patron saint, Alton Brown, for the base recipe and adapted it to allow me to dial in the right level of sinus scorching! 1/4 cup dry mustard powder 2 teaspoons…

  • Hummus

    “Hummus is delicious, but have you seen how much it costs? Even on sale it’s kinda pricy!” How many times have you had that kind of conversation, or versions thereof? Let’s look at a different way to sate your hummus addiction! Let’s start with Alton Brown’s recipe. I have made this many times and it…

  • How have you used your downtime?

    Winter is a bad time for canners who like to create, but it’s a great time of year for consuming the results! Pies made with fillings made from summer fruit in December? Yes, please! But now we are heading into growing seasons, it’s time to do housekeeping. If you have a pressure canner, contact your…

  • Chili and beer

    Everyone has their favourite chili recipe. And why wouldn’t you? A meltingly tender stew of mixed meats, and/or veggies, and/or beans, it can be a gourmet feast, a magnet for leftovers, or an acknowledgement that there is too much month left at the end of your pay! How can you incorporate a nice beer into…

  • Pomona’s Pectin

    I thought it would be a good idea to break out the information about Pomona’s Pectin into a separate article. Q: Where can I buy Pomona’s? A: You can buy it online in bulk, which is what I would recommend. Q: What makes it different from the regular stuff? A: You can double, triple, quadruple,…