Today is day twelve on the second batch of cider. This batch is just concentrate, water and yeast and so far it is still bubbling along. It is sitting at about 58 degrees as I want it to go slow.
The O.G. on this batch read out that if it goes completely dry, it should end up at 7% or just under that which is about right as far as I am concerned. I ordered an 8 ounce bottle of apple flavoring from the Spice Barn that I plan on adding in right before bottling. They say that 2 ounces of this will flavor a 5 gallon batch....we'll see.
More as we go.....oh, and I just received a new batch of Bac-T from Butcher Packer Supply so a batch of Salumi is on the way in the next few weeks.
Stay tuned.....
Salumi
Maturation at its best
Friday, December 13, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Apple Cider
I have been toying with the idea of making some hard cider for quite some time after tasting some on a trip to Oregon a few years back. During our visit this past September, I look high and low for some fresh pressed cider that did not contain preservatives but that seemingly is hard to find anymore.
We did find that Smileys just above Hood River is making their own hard cider and we sampled it and found it to be quite refreshing and good. Since I couldn't lay my hands on any raw product, I did what comes natural....punt.
We decided to use all natural juice from concentrate and make some with a good ale yeast and here she is:
It is really not too bad for a first run and we learned from this adventure. Another batch is currently in the fermentation carboy with a tweek here and a few tweeks there, we are going to get this the way "we" like it. On the first batch, I added a cup of honey. This boosted the "jet fuel" (sugar) ratio and made more of a apple/honey wine and I would guess the alcohol content to be about 10-12%. The reason I say I am guessing is that I did not take a beginning gravity reading so I don't know where it ended up. On the batch I just started, I am omitting the honey and the gravity reading says that it will end up at about 6-7% which is more in keeping with what is the norm. I will let you know how it turns out.
We did find that Smileys just above Hood River is making their own hard cider and we sampled it and found it to be quite refreshing and good. Since I couldn't lay my hands on any raw product, I did what comes natural....punt.
We decided to use all natural juice from concentrate and make some with a good ale yeast and here she is:
It is really not too bad for a first run and we learned from this adventure. Another batch is currently in the fermentation carboy with a tweek here and a few tweeks there, we are going to get this the way "we" like it. On the first batch, I added a cup of honey. This boosted the "jet fuel" (sugar) ratio and made more of a apple/honey wine and I would guess the alcohol content to be about 10-12%. The reason I say I am guessing is that I did not take a beginning gravity reading so I don't know where it ended up. On the batch I just started, I am omitting the honey and the gravity reading says that it will end up at about 6-7% which is more in keeping with what is the norm. I will let you know how it turns out.
Monday, December 2, 2013
A form of Head Cheese from Turkey
So check this out.....Turkey meat formed into a loaf just the same way as pork would be used to make "Head Cheese". We used the leftover turkey and made a stock from the bones and other parts. Added spices and some gelatin and there you go.
And by-the-way, it's some good stuff! We deep-fried one 14 pounder and cook another one in the oven so we had plenty of leftovers. One of our favorite dishes with the turkey is a broccoli casserole using the remaining turkey from Thanksgiving. This year we had enough to play around this this idea and it worked great.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)