Still More on Pinto Beans

As I have noted before, my recipe for beans is very easy, has wide tolerances, and usually produces good results.  Variations are possible; fresh onion and garlic can be swapped out for their dehydrated counterparts, and there are substitutions for the bacon, too--turkey bacon works okay, although not great, and even veggie pseudo bacon will produce serviceable results.  The person who taught me how to do beans long ago used fat back.

I mentioned in the previous posts that I had some bad experiences with old beans cooked at normal pressure in a covered pot.  Al dente beans are not that good.  They also had a bitter aftertaste. Extra garlic and bacon help with impaired beans, even when pressure cooked.  However...

...In addition to old beans, I made a pot a couple of months ago with old bacon.  I had frozen it and lost track of it in the freezer; when I found it I decided to give it a try. I don't think it was bad, necessarily, but it had aged to the point that it smelled off.  It did not improve when boiled with everything else.  I ended up throwing most of that pot out, alas.

My most recent pot went fine.  A win after a flop is helpful.  One bad culinary experience can imprint a memory that lasts for years (or more).  After I tried to use an excess of barbecue sauce to make a cooked jackrabbit edible (it didn't work), I had a negative association with barbecue sauce for a long time.  Foodborne illness after a mall food court gyro made me leave that food item behind forever.  So I don't want to have a string of failures with beans, one of my favorite dishes.

This pot was the basic two onions, about five mostly big garlic cloves, and six ounces of bacon.  Pressure cooked for 12 minutes, and it took about 23 minutes for the pressure to drop after removing from the heat so I could eat them.  Total time from starting prep to being ready to serve was about an hour and fifteen minutes.  I was using cranberry beans this time.  I'll do some pintos soon.

Freeze Aftermath

As feared, last week there were a couple of very cold nights:  The first night, the temp dropped down to about 25.5 or so and stayed below 28 for 5 hours.  The second night was similar.  For comparison, I'm reposting the pictures from a week and a half ago, before the freeze:

I definitely had losses to my blueberries, but it's not all bad.  If there's no more killing-cold weather, I might get  a crop that's 30%-50% of normal (then again, maybe not: some of the blooms that look like they might be okay may not be).  South Georgia fared worse; for whatever reason some of the blueberry regions were colder than north Georgia--as low as 22.  The rabbiteye farmers had total losses in many cases (rabbiteyes are what I grow, as well).  Georgia won't lead the country in blueberry production this year...

Bread: Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat

My two most recent loaves of bread have been among my best and worst.  First, the best.  I made another 100% whole wheat loaf (plus added vital wheat gluten), and it turned out very well.

As you can see, the crumb is very dense, as is the norm for whole wheat, with no big bubbles.  But the loaf raised (rose?) well and I'm happy.  It's red whole wheat, so does have that strong tannin-tinged flavor, but it's nice.  I used 3 3/4 c whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup of vital wheat gluten, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup of sourdough starter, and about 2 1/4 cups of water.  I mixed it and let it rise for a little over 12 hours, then formed the loaf from the dough, let it rise another 20 minutes while the oven was heating up, and baked it at 30 min. @ 475 followed by 17 min. @ 450 with the Romertopf casserole dish open.

I followed a similar procedure the previous week with a rye loaf that didn't go as well.  I used 2 cups of rye flour, 1 3/4 cups of white (bread flour), 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup of sourdough starter and 2 cups of water.  This time it only rose for about 8 or 9 hours on the first leg, and the final result was this oval loaf.

I managed to get almost a week's worth of sandwiches out of it, but the crust (as you can see) broke away from the rest of the loaf, and the interior was a gummy mess. It slimed the bread knife every time I cut a slice. Not good.  I think the short initial rise was the source of the trouble.

The seam of flour in the middle is from where I folded it over when forming the dough for the second rise; I dusted the top and sides with dry flour to prevent sticking (or at least reduce it; there's always some sticking with rye).

When even the disasters are at least partly salvageable, that's not too bad.  Onward.

Things Are Blooming

The Bradfords around town have been in full bloom for a while at this point: they were opening up in late February.  My blueberries are blooming now and my aronia bush has been in bloom for a while, as well.

The aronia is interesting.  I got it because the juice is commercially available--meaning at some level it's palatable--and I was swayed by nursery descriptions of it being sweet.  There is a hint of sweetness, but a lot of astringency.  The only way I've managed to make it work is to put the berries in with cranberries for sauce; I have served a mix of cranberry and aronia berry sauce at Thanksgiving a couple of times.

As can be seen, the berries from last fall are still on the bush: I didn't even pick very many of them last fall, because I think I'm pretty much done with aronia.  The birds didn't even take them.  I tried one a couple of days ago and it's about the same: slight sweetness with a barrel full of astringency.  I have never successfully eaten one raw.  I always spit them out.

However, it does sucker a little and the flowers are nice and are also pleasantly fragrant.  So it's not a total loss.

The blueberries are in full bloom, and that's not necessarily a good thing.  Another cold night looms, which might wipe out the crop (again; this happened just a couple of years ago).

For now, spring is here.  Next week, it might leave for one or two fateful days.

Sauerkraut, More

After 28 days, I opened the crock.  It was about as before:  there was a slick of something on the top of the water, but it wasn't mold (or at least it didn't look like it).  Once I got the weights out, I ended up with a little over 1.5 gallons of kraut by volume.  It's a five liter crock, but once it wasn't packed down tightly, it expanded a bit.

The flavor was fine and in keeping with what I've made before.  I don't put any other seasonings in it in addition to salt, so it's plain stuff--but good nonetheless.  I tested the pH and it was between 3 and 3.5.

It was a resounding success. As noted previously, I have never had a batch of sauerkraut fail.  Another observation: a five liter crock makes a lot of kraut.   I couldn't deal with the amount of sauerkraut a three, five, or ten-gallon crock would produce, and even ten liters would be a challenge.  I lack the cool storage space that a basement might provide, so I need to put it in the refrigerator.

I may or may not make another batch; I opened it up about two weeks ago and have gone through a half gallon so far--but there's a lot more taking up refrigerator space.  By the time I finish it, the temps will be warm again.

The Frogs Are Talking...

...and they're saying it's an early spring.  In a normal year spring peepers are making noise by now:

Spring peepers

However, I have been hearing them intermittently for a couple of weeks.  Also, last weekend I heard American toads when I was out running in the woods:


American toad

Although the link (referencing NC) indicates they can call in Februrary, around here I don't recall ever hearing them before March-April.  Yesterday I heard upland chorus frogs, too; they call about the same time as the peepers but usually start a little later.

Upland chorus frog

By mid-April all will be silent.  We are pretty likely to have more frost here in north Georgia, but the warm weather that has predominated for the last few weeks is bringing fruit trees out of dormancy.  Sometimes this works out okay; sometimes it does not end well.

The Sauerkraut Tide

I noticed this the last (and first) time I made kraut in the fermenting crock, but didn't comment on it.  This time it has been a little more dramatic.

There's a definite ebb and flow of the water level (in addition to evaporation, which is slow and steady).  One morning I noticed the moat was almost dry, so added back up to the bottom of the notch.  The liquid level had overflowed a few hours later.  I then remembered what Holly mentions on her fermenting crock how-to page.  Pressure changes can pull water up.  I think it might also be related to changes inside the vessel itself.  At any rate, I haven't tried seeing if I can jiggle the lid and liberate the water, but I am now not as disturbed if I see a sudden water level change.

It has been almost three weeks; I'm going to try to let it go another week to 28 days.  The house is still cool (65-70).