Calling All DIY-ers!

(Sophie) #1

We all know that Keto requires a certain amount of cooking. Taking that a step beyond, what do you do to make your Keto journey more special in the kitchen? What is that extra mile? Make your own sausage, yogurt, grow your own veggies?

I was raised in the garden during the summer harvesting/canning veggies for the winter months. I’ve always loved working with food and I love to cook. For the last few years, I have been purchasing chuck roasts to grind my own hamburger. I like all the extra fat and a coarse grind on the beef. It’s just tastier! I’ve also been making my own yogurt for a number of years. It’s a hellova lot better than anything you can find in the stores, especially if you can get a good quality of full fat milk. Occasionally, I make sour cream and cream cheese too. I do have a cheese cave for cheeses that have to be aged longer, but it’s difficult to get raw milk here (which I really want to use) so that is a project on the back burner for awhile. Oh, I also grow tomatoes, squash and cucumbers in the summer which I can/freeze for later use! And today I got my Cream Maker in the mail and made my first batch of Double Cream! OMG! It’s awesome and I can see using this on a regular basis. It’s funny because I took my first taste and the first words that came to me was “tastes like :lollipop:”! :grin:

#2

I don’t know where “here” is, but have you contacted a local Weston A. Price chapter to locate raw milk? We’ve been getting raw milk now for a year and love it. Through my “farmer” I also have access to pastured raised butter, like Kerrygold, but cheaper in bulk, and pastured chickens, from which I make the BEST bone broth. That’s been my thing…bone broth. Great for fasting and cooking!

I’ve tried to make clabbord milk out of my raw but wasn’t successful. I haven’t attempted anything beyond that, like cheese or yogurt. Perhaps in retirement!

We have backyard chickens too that are free range and we only use non-soy, non-gmo feed to supplement. 5 are laying and 6 that are about to lay any day. In fact, the young ones didn’t go into their chicken house last night and we think they might be laying somewhere in the bamboo and protecting their eggs. It’s going to be a search for us this evening to see if we can find eggs…kinda like Easter!

#3

What’s a Cream Maker? I’d like to make Double Cream, which is the same as Heavy Whipping Cream, correct?

(KCKO, KCFO) #4

Grow some of our own vegetables, I grow the herbs that will grow in our climate zone. I like doing my own herbal blends.
I make cheese from yogurt, I do my own pickles & sourkraut, make my own vinaigrettes, I do compound butters. Until going LCHF I made sour dough starters and breads as well. Not doing those currently nor in the near future for that matter.

I’m a foodie who loves to play with food stuff. Grew up around a great aunt with 5 acres of gardens, pigs,& chickens, I am no longer a fan of canning, she burned me out on it. But occasionally I will get an itch to do something and will do something like spiced peaches or apple butter. She did teach me a lot about foraging for foods as well. How to kill and butcher chickens and game animals, how to season and hang hams & bacon. I don’t do that these days either.

One of the things I have really enjoyed with this WOE, is adapting recipes to fit the guidelines of eating LCHF.

#5

One more thing that is a new staple for me. Homemade mayo with avocado oil, instead of olive oil, which is what most recipes call for. Super simple and SO much better (healthier) than store bought.
1 whole egg, room temperature
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 T - 1.5 T lemon juice
pinch salt - I use pink salt
Put in food processor and pulse a few times. Then turn processor on run and SLOWLY add
1 Cup avocado oil

(Sophie) #6

Double Cream is not like Whipping Cream…it’s heavier. Here is the thread that got me started… Make Double Cream

And “here” is Chattanooga, Tn. They have tight regs on raw milk although they do sell “pets milk” which is unregulated so that’s a crap shoot. I’m wary. Thanks for the lead and I’ll check it out. And thank you for the Mayo recipe. This cream maker can do mayo too so I’ll give that a shot since I just bought some Avo oil! :+1:

#7

OMG! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now I know what to do with all my Unsalted Butter! Use it with my raw milk to make Double Cream! On to the eBay search…

(jilliangordona) #8

I didn’t know an organization like Weston A Price existed… this is exciting!

#9

Here is a link to find a local chapter if interested.
https://www.westonaprice.org/get-involved/find-local-chapter/

(jilliangordona) #10

I just went online and did this!

#11

Cool! :slight_smile:

Hopefully you can find one in your area and see what they have to offer.

(Kathleen Lupole) #12

I am interested in your cheese cave. What is it like? Did you build it yourself? I have a root cellar but have thought about the addition of a cheese cave more than a few times.

#13

I love cooking, too! I also grow my veggies. I make ricotta, queso fresco and yogurt cheese at home, plus homemade mayo, mascarpone, canned tomatoes.

I also forage a lot of my veggies and seafood from the wild.

I bought a cheese-making kit awhile ago but still haven’t tried it. What kinds of cheese have you made?

#14

Can I move into your cheese cave? What do you charge for rent? :yum::laughing:

(KCKO, KCFO) #15

Do you have room for two in the cheese cave? Oh forgot hubby will want to come along, so room for 3?:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

(jketoscribe) #16

I do a lot of stuff from scratch and ferments at home. We make dairy kefir, kombucha, sour pickles, sauerkraut, beet kvass, and I make coconut milk yogurt and cream cheese. I make ricotta and paneer and also some non- dairy “cheeses”. I make my own mayo, low carb granola, cold brewed tea and coffee, tons of bone broth. Sometimes some almond based crackers. We cook from scratch and eat lots of veggies. I’ve always had a black thumb but ended up with pots of basil, chives, and mint that -so far- are still alive, when I realized the plants that keep on giving were cheaper than a few sprigs of each.

(Cheryl Hall) #17

IMG_0289.JPG4032×3024 2.22 MB
@janknitz

Wow that is impressive – I want to move in too!!!

I’ve been trying bone broth but I am having a hard time getting that gelatin consistency. I shop for meat from our local farmer. All of his livestock is free range and grass fed - no yucky hormones etc. I scored all this today and I got some oxtail to add to my broth. I’m starting a batch again tomorrow. Any pointers???

#18

Do you roast your beef bones for 45 to 55 minutes before you stew them?
I use a pressure cooker (13Ltr) and cook 3 kilo of beef bones (some of them Marrow bones) at a time for 6 hours and then leave them overnight and then do a further 8 hours pressure cooking the next day getting all available nutrients from the bones.
Don’t forget to add cider vinegar and stand for an hour before you heat it up.
Happy brewing! :smiley:

(Sophie) #19

@katlupe
@gatita
@Fiorella
@collaroygal

So far my cheese list is not that extensive…I’ve done Quark, Mozzarella, and a couple of Butterkases that turned out ok. It’s amazing that amount of milk that is used in the making of cheese, and it’s not been easy here to find good quality milk in larger quantities needed to really make anything special unfortunately, but I haven’t given up. I did finally get a press so that helps things a lot. Now on to the Cave questions…

It didn’t really dawn on me some conclusions that might be drawn when I mentioned My Cheese Cave…and I don’t want to mislead anyone! We are so used to it now that I don’t even think about it…

:joy: :grin: :laughing: So, you see, for the cost of moving into my cheese cave you can purchase one for yourselves! LOL You just need the right fridge that you can trick out the thermostat to raise the temp and BAM you got yourself a Cheese Cave! Technical but True. And this is not a pic of my cave btw, as ours is currently chilling hubbys Coke Zeros and the occasional bottle of wine. Dual purpose. This is a DIY thread after all! :laughing:

(Cheryl Hall) #20

Yes I roast my bones and also use the Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. I don’t have a pressure cooker – I use a large roaster. My last batch cooked for 48 hours. It was very tasty but it never got that gelatin consistency I’m looking for. I had many different bones from my farmer including ones with marrow. This time I’m going to use a variety of bones and some oxtail. I read a recipe blog somewhere where the author highly recommended adding oxtail to get that gelatin. His bones are very clean and I really didn’t get any scum that I had to skim off like many people talk about. I’ve read a lot of recipies but I thought there are probably some Bone Broth Experts on here!

Thanks for your advice Lee!!! I’m going to give it another go! I love having a good quality broth on hand when I’m fasting if I start feeling a little weak.

Cheers!