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chitoryu12 posted:Aging liquids to improve it is a very old technique. While Romans usually drank their wine very fresh (without sulfites or proper bottling to preserve it, wine will go bad pretty quickly), some expensive wines were aged for a very long time. The Opimian vintage of 121 BC was considered the absolute best in Rome and leftover wine continued to be drank for a very, very, very long time. Pliny the Elder had it over 200 years after it was made and described it as being undrinkable, basically syrup with an extremely concentrated flavor. There were jokes in comedies about 160-year-old vinegar being served at aristocratic banquets because of this trend. In Okinawa there's a form of rice liquor called Awamori that used to have varieties (called Kusu) aged in clay pots for up to (allegedly) 300 years in caves. Most of it was destroyed during the war but I gather some small amounts of 100-150 year kusu survived and have been occasionally opened. Apparently even 25 year kusu is fairly rare and expensive. There have been some attempts to "force age" it underwater but I haven't been able to find much in English about it over the years. https://www.good-okinawa.com/en/kaiteisyu/
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Jan 31, 2020 09:20
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angerbeet posted:
Pig eggs are much tastier though imho
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Feb 1, 2020 07:28
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pigs produce milk
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Beardcrumb posted:Pig eggs are much tastier though imho Pig wool is scratchy. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eierlegende_Wollmilchsau
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Feb 1, 2020 07:49
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Nthing the recco for Wartime Farm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo Anyone who says Alex Langlands was bad on Time Team gets a pitchfork up the butt.
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Feb 1, 2020 16:11
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Suspect Bucket posted:Nthing the recco for Wartime Farm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo This pro-tier click, thank you! If anyone's interested, episode 2 is where they really get into the business of food/cooking, but so far the whole thing's fascinating. Farm women running clandestine communications out of their garden sheds! Pig clubs! How to make black market petrol with bread! Now I wanna make a hay box stew. Well, there goes my day. Thankfully I have some tedious tasks to accomplish that make for good doing-something-while-watching-tv. (Plus John Simm is a really good narrator. I thought that voice was familiar when I watched the first episode, and then saw the credits and said "ooooohh") edit: episode 4 had me all "HELL YEAH" because my husband works at a grocery store and brings home milk that's coding out. Make cheese with that poo poo, don't throw it out edit 2: holy crap everyone in the industry needs to watch episode 5, starting around minute 54 JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 1, 2020 19:14
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There's a whole bunch of different shows too, mostly the same people (Victorian Pharmacy just has Ruth returning though, but she's the best). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_historic_farm_series My mom has the Victorian Farm companion book :p Oh, Victorian Bakers. You'll love that one. Suspect Bucket fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 04:22
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Suspect Bucket posted:Nthing the recco for Wartime Farm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo Holy cow this show owns bones. Best thing I've seen since Supersizers Go. Thanks!
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Feb 4, 2020 16:50
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Got myself a homebrew kit! Once I’ve got the basics down, I plan on doing some reconstructed recipes like a 16th century English beer.
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Feb 4, 2020 17:30
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Anyone have good sources on how they made applejack back in the day? It was apparently extremely popular in colonial America, and now there are very few distilleries making it--Laird's being presumably the best known and doing the most volume, and they're based here in VA. I have a homebrew kit I haven't used yet, and I'm thinking about making cider and freeze-distilling some of it if it comes out well. Most of what's on the market is adulterated with neutral grain spirits.
Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 17:55
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Halloween Jack posted:Anyone have good sources on how they made applejack back in the day? It was apparently extremely popular in colonial America, and now there are very few distilleries making it--Laird's being presumably the best known and doing the most volume, and they're based here in VA. I have a homebrew kit I haven't used yet, and I'm thinking about making cider and freeze-distilling some of it if it comes out well. Most of what's on the market is adulterated with neutral grain spirits. I would recommend against freeze distillation from what I've read about it. Along with not getting as high of an alcohol content as normal distillation, it concentrates the nasty stuff that distillation by boiling normally lets you throw out. This can also potentially include methanol, which will straight kill you.
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Feb 4, 2020 18:14
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Aw, gently caress. I just want to enjoy some American apple brandy that isn't 49% "not good enough to sell on its own" vodka and also won't make my optic nerves explode. Back to Calvados.
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Feb 4, 2020 18:15
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Get Laird’s Bottled In Bond. It’s a 100% apple brandy without any neutral filler.
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Feb 4, 2020 18:25
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Suppose you took 750mL of 8% cider and freeze distilled it so as to get rid of 2/3 of the water, leaving you with 290mL of ~26% ABV applejack. Has the amount of methanol in that increased? The freezing process did not magically introduce new ethanol into the solution. I'd certainly drink a 750mL bottle of my homebrew cider, I've done so many times. I'd also drink that 290mL of homemade applejack. So just make the loving applejack, just don't drink too much of it. Homemade cider is too timeconsuming and good to chug down anyway. Consider also that ethanol competes for the same processing points in the liver, so you're drinking the antidote as you go along.
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Feb 4, 2020 18:31
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Applejack, or, the time Suspect Bucket was banned from a VFW in Tennessee.
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Feb 4, 2020 20:40
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Suspect Bucket posted:There's a whole bunch of different shows too, mostly the same people (Victorian Pharmacy just has Ruth returning though, but she's the best). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_historic_farm_series Just finished Wartime Farm. What a great watch, thanks again! I can't seem to find a version of Victorian Bakers on youtube that isn't blocked, so I'm going in for Victorian Pharmacy. (You're right, Ruth is the best, so I'm down for more Ruth.) Wiggles, I tried Supersizers Go, but found the dude completely obnoxious. Oh no, a poached egg! Better spit it across the floor of this lavish reproduction Roman villa! This spelt bread feels hard, I won't even try it, just chuck it like a discus! Like, why are you even doing a show about historic foodstuffs if that's your toddler-like attitude? Maybe it's coming down from watching 8 episodes of harsh British rationing, but I've always hated entertainment that wastes food (competitive eating is an abomination to me), and I just found it unfunny and annoying. Halloween Jack posted:Anyone have good sources on how they made applejack back in the day? It was apparently extremely popular in colonial America, and now there are very few distilleries making it--Laird's being presumably the best known and doing the most volume, and they're based here in VA. I have a homebrew kit I haven't used yet, and I'm thinking about making cider and freeze-distilling some of it if it comes out well. Most of what's on the market is adulterated with neutral grain spirits. Where in VA are you, Jack? (You can PM me if you don't want to say it here.) I live near Franklin County, the bootlegging capital of VA, and since restrictions have become more lax, there's a thriving --and legal --- boom in small craft distilleries around here. I might be able to hook you up. My husband and I also make gourmet apple butter as a side business, and can get #2 apples (the ones too ugly to sell to supermarkets) dirt cheap from a number of local farmers, if you press your own cider.
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Feb 5, 2020 00:22
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chitoryu12 posted:I would recommend against freeze distillation from what I've read about it. Along with not getting as high of an alcohol content as normal distillation, it concentrates the nasty stuff that distillation by boiling normally lets you throw out. This can also potentially include methanol, which will straight kill you. Yeah, freeze distillation is a bad plan, for the same reason you don't drink the heads or tails of regular distillation. Methanol will make you go blind and kill you, and fusel alcohols will just make your distillate taste like rear end. The reason it's a problem in a freeze distilled applejack and not in a cider is simply dilution. I usually just go with Cedar Ridge Apple Brandy, myself. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 5, 2020 |
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Feb 5, 2020 01:21
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 I'm either freezing piss or making applejack... ok it's applejack (this time), starting with 600mL of cider I opened the other day and didn't finish. As you can see it's already starting to freeze, a process which will presumably introduce additional methanol and rob me of my sight. I'll check in later. Update: After my first straining, down to under 300mL of liquid blindness:  Update 2: I froze it again and ended up with about 200mL of a lovely liquid that's probably still not especially strong but tastes wonderful. I poured it into this little maple syrup bottle to make it easier to dispense, then had about 4 shot glasses worth. 
Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Feb 5, 2020 |
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Feb 5, 2020 01:44
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Supersizers Go is great, you just have to focus on how good Sue is. Giles grows on you if you just accept he's playing the role of blithering nonce the finest it's ever been played. He also presents Back In Time For Dinner, and is considerably more tolerable in that. This show follows a family through the last 50 years of kitchens, dining, and British Society. The family in it is lovely. Looks like all of those have been scrubbed from YouTube as well x.x.
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Feb 5, 2020 03:45
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Pham Nuwen posted:Update 2: I like apples, so I do have to wonder if this is worth the hassle.
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Feb 5, 2020 09:26
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If you want to see how apple brandy was made in a still back in the olden times Townsends inevitably has a video on it. Interestingly they discard the very start and very end of the distillation - these parts contain the majority of the methanol and other stuff you don't get rid of when you freeze distill cider. https://youtu.be/tlwF34TkT3o
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Feb 5, 2020 14:32
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One day I will try distilling. I'm already eyeing my BF's old pressure cooker. I'm sure I can convince him to part with it for ethanol experiments.
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Feb 5, 2020 15:17
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MikeCrotch posted:If you want to see how apple brandy was made in a still back in the olden times Townsends inevitably has a video on it. When you distill, there's a few parts that it's divided into:  A fermented beverage has a lot more than just ethanol that boils out and condenses in your pot still/alembic. The very lightest fractions that evaporate first and end up in your bottle first are the foreshots, which contain methanol and other outright undrinkable compounds. Even if no methanol is added during distillation through other ingredients (like using the woody cores of ears of corn or adding toxic adulterants), the higher concentration in the small volume means this stuff will just be awful and you throw it out. Next are the heads, which contain things like acetone. They may not poison you, but they'll taste nasty and possibly contribute to a hellish hangover. Then there's the hearts, which is the good stuff. Then the tails at the end, which are heavier compounds that give an oily texture and bad taste to the distillate. Dunder is what's left in the still when you're done. The foreshots are always thrown out because they're unsalvageable. The heads and tails can be thrown out or you can try to redistill them to get more ethanol and positive congeners out. The problem with freeze distillation is you can't do any of that separation. You're just concentrating everything, both good and bad. Depending on the raw materials you use, this can either be relatively pleasant or absolute rear end to drink. Suspect Bucket posted:One day I will try distilling. I'm already eyeing my BF's old pressure cooker. I'm sure I can convince him to part with it for ethanol experiments. The most basic still setup is really easy. Except for copper tubing, you can probably find everything you need at Walmart. It won't be pretty and you won't be making awesome stuff, but it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2dcJ_cl34E
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Feb 5, 2020 15:46
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Turn off your monitor. You won't need it any more. Currently posting via screenreader. I didn't distill it far, so it was more like a port than a brandy. It was pleasant and I felt the apple flavor was enhanced by the process. If you make cider, give it a shot just so you can say you've tried it. If you don't make cider, well, just go buy some calvados. Anyway, I'd consider making applejack regularly if I had trees and a press and was making 30 gallons of cider a year (some day, I hope), instead of 5 gallons from juice I bought at somebody's else's orchard. At the scales I currently produce, I prefer to keep it as-is for sipping. Of course, if I was producing that much cider, I might just buy a still!
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Feb 5, 2020 16:18
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Where in VA are you, Jack? (You can PM me if you don't want to say it here.) I live near Franklin County, the bootlegging capital of VA, and since restrictions have become more lax, there's a thriving --and legal --- boom in small craft distilleries around here. I might be able to hook you up.
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Feb 5, 2020 16:21
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What're you using for yeast
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Feb 5, 2020 17:16
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I thought I'd link some more of the Historical Farm videos since y'all really liked the Wartime Farm. Ruth Goodman's in all of them, I'm a huge fan of hers. All of her books are very good as well. Tudor Monastery Farm (I really love this one but sadly all the videos on YT are poo poo) Tales of the Green Valley Edwardian Farm There's also Wartime Kitchen and Garden which I thought was a really interesting watch.
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Feb 5, 2020 22:07
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I'd like to thank you for filling up all my free time for the next few weeks.
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Feb 5, 2020 22:10
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Secrets of the Castle is worth a watch on YouTube. There's 4 episodes I think and one of them features medieval food that castle builders would have eaten during construction. Its also just cool af to see a bunch of people building a legit castle with no modern tools.
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Feb 5, 2020 22:19
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Oh yes! Secrets of the Castle is really good as well, I loved the bits where Ruth was showing how the builder's quarters would have been set up, with the floor rushes and hearth and everything. Very interesting.
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Feb 5, 2020 23:16
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Historical Cooking: Ruth Goodman Fanclub Edit: watching Wartime Farm at EWR while slightly buzzed on an airport ipad. Watching familiar shows in a liminal space is tripppppyy Suspect Bucket fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Feb 7, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 21:27
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I don't know who Dillberts Guide is but this description of distilling is easy concise and pretty good. https://www.diffordsguide.com/en-au/encyclopedia/198/bws/distillation-the-science-of-distillation
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Feb 7, 2020 04:55
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There's a goon that owns a distillery. Here's his thread.
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Feb 7, 2020 05:13
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I've made applejack via freeze concentrating ("jacking") twice - once with storebought cider & once with homemade. The storebought was lovely, i froze it once overnight in the mountains in Colorado in -12 or so weather. It concentrated down into a very port-like liqueur, probably in the high 10s or low 20s ABV but since I only froze it once a lot of the alcohol was captured in the ice. The second batch was homebrew, and I did it the right way and let it freeze and thaw for about a week in weather that hovered around the freezing point. That let the ice concentrate to nice big lenses I could pull out. That poo poo was undrinkable. As in, i tried two sips and my lizard brain overruled my thinking parts and I spat out the second sip without meaning to. I don't know if it was fusels or methanol or just piss-poor cider, but I've never tried it since.
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Feb 8, 2020 00:28
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Notahippie posted:I've made applejack via freeze concentrating ("jacking") twice - once with storebought cider & once with homemade. The storebought was lovely, i froze it once overnight in the mountains in Colorado in -12 or so weather. It concentrated down into a very port-like liqueur, probably in the high 10s or low 20s ABV but since I only froze it once a lot of the alcohol was captured in the ice. The second batch was homebrew, and I did it the right way and let it freeze and thaw for about a week in weather that hovered around the freezing point. That let the ice concentrate to nice big lenses I could pull out. Like I said, the inability to filter out the bad stuff like with traditional distillation means you're a slave to your raw ingredients. Anything bad is going to get concentrated and you can't get it out. Your store-bought cider was likely very "pure" compared to amateur homebrew. On the other hand, you did get to experience what applejack was probably like in colonial times!
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Feb 8, 2020 03:33
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I'm not sure if this is old enough to pass muster ITT, but I just found a cook book from St. John's, 1930. The interface is a little poo poo, but it is all there. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/cns/id/65982/show/65821/rec/3
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Feb 9, 2020 03:48
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I appreciate it, the recipes seem sensible.
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Feb 9, 2020 04:37
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There's, no joke, "a nice recipe for beets"
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Feb 9, 2020 15:13
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Nebakenezzer posted:I'm not sure if this is old enough to pass muster ITT, but I just found a cook book from St. John's, 1930. The interface is a little poo poo, but it is all there. My stance on age is "You were not old enough to experience it." I would even include 1970s and 1980s recipes, especially anything that didn't survive the coming decades.
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Feb 9, 2020 20:14
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 I keep irrationally cracking up at BEETS ... A NICE WAY TO COOK BEETS Like, screw you BEETS guy, here's the NICE way to cook beets! (Also that BEETS is just: "Cook beets. Slice 'em.") I do wanna try those potato puffs, though, that sounds good. And I'd probably like the nice way to cook beets, I love beets but never really thought about mashing them like other root veggies. edit: I missed this the first time around but now I'm lol at "serve as a vegetable". As opposed to...? JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Feb 10, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 22:13
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I got a copy of A Shilling Cookery for the People, a middle class English cookbook from 1860. It's arranged into numbered "lessons" that generally follow on from one another, like the section on soups has you start with making a simple vegetable and meat broth and then provides a way to enhance it with more vegetables and herbs. Then a few pages later you'll see a recipe for a clear vegetable soup include "three pints of Broth No. 1" as an ingredient. It's not the easiest thing to follow. It gets worse when a recipe at the beginning of the book suddenly references No. 463!
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Feb 10, 2020 22:52
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