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The Frugal Gourmet: how to use, re-use, recycle and recondition your ktchen staples...
So this is coming out of people asking questions such as: How do I turn my hardened cache of honey into a silky smooth delight once again? (Put it in a bain-marie - hot water bath - and it will return to its primal state) or....My vinegar is cloudy, should I throw it away? (no, just filter and keep the mother of vinegar and you will never need buy another bottle!).
Do you have a kitchen dilemma? have you invented a nifty solution to a kitchen problem that was plaguing you? This thread is for you! Are you the keeper of some incredible "old wife's" remedy or down to earth bit of folklore which you have experienced works like a charm? This thread is for you! My name is not Heloïse, just Elle*, but I want to compile the all-time wise femme/butch kitchen almanach! So, to start: did you know that a profusely bleeding cut (happens a lot in a kitchen) can be treated by plunging the offended finger in a quantity of ground black pepper? It is instant, the bleeding stops and the pepper and the blood combine into a scab: efficient and safe, not to say probably tasty, but I digress..! It is used in restaurant kitchens in Europe and really really works, although I have freaked out chefs in American kitchens with that! Your frugal gourmet queen, Elle* |
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Elle* |
Tis the season
Great thread!!!
When stuffing poultry...use a cheesecloth bag that has been greased to put the stuffing into and place it into the bird...you won't lose any stuffing that way and the bird still gets the juice and stuffing interaction!!! Nice and clean!!! |
A friend at work told me that if you put honey on a small cut, it seals the cut and promotes healing and can even help reduce the scaring.
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Thank you for my 'learn something new everyday' moment! |
Not having had nearly enough coffee to be able to brain properly yet, the only one I can think of right now is if your brown sugar has hardened, put a slice of bread (I hear an apple slice works too) in with it and by the next day it will be as good as new.
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Elle* |
I love vanilla sugar!
A friend gave me homemade vanilla for the holidays... really cheap vodka and some vanilla beans--no corn syrup! Y'all might already know this one, but if you buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, you can use it twice--save the bones, skin, and liquid, put them in a pot with 2 to 4 cups of water, and boil them thoroughly (most rotisserie chickens around here don't seem like they're done all the way to the bone when you buy them, so they do need boiled). Let it cool for a while, then strain the broth into a clean peanut butter jar or a bowl. Refrigerate for several hours, skim off the hardened fat, and voila! Fat free chicken broth! If you like, you can throw in onions, carrots, celery and spices while you're cooking it, but I've found that most of the seasoned chickens don't need it. Elle, I'm curious; what do you add to the mother of vinegar to make more? |
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The word vinegar comes from the French words "vin aigre" which mean soured wine. Elle* |
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Propolis does amazing things. This is in honey. |
what about apple cider vinegar? I mean this shit is amazing for humans and animals. Also I spend huge amounts of money on electric and humane mouse and rat traps for years. Little did i know that the big bottle of peppermint i use for everything also keeps them away. I put a few oz in a bottle of warm water, spray it around my house and barn and they hate that shit. It works great.
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I make sachets against moths (I knit and spin and weave so my house is full of wool) with lavender blossoms, cloves, mint, lemon peel and cedar chips and leave them among the yarn and in my sweaters drawers. You can also use eucalyptus (I used to live in Northern California and had a large eucalyptus tree in my yard).
None of my herbs winter well, they stay on my deck, right now under 30 inches of snow, and in the spring I have to replant most of them. Most often my mint, tarragon, various thymes, rosemary and lavender will survive, sometimes sage too. Nothing kills mint! I have dried all my herbs at the end of fall, and I use them through the winter in cooking, vinegars, teas, and sachets. Elle* |
Old wife remedies, huh?
Let's see.....if you put a few squirts of lemon juice in a bottle of water, drinking it will help decrease bloating associated with salt intake. Also, injesting a little bit of local, unprocessed honey from your region daily will help reduce allergies. And cider vinegar will bring down the glycemic index of potatoes and potato dishes if added to it, which can be helpful for those eating low carb meals and/or diabetics. |
I have two bags of regular sugar, unopened, that are solid as a rock. Is there any way I can soften them?
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Elle* |
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Elle* |
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Elle* |
That remedy is good for those with days to wait... one method for immediate use is break a chunk of it off (using an ordinary dinner knife, nothing fancy or too sharp in case it goes sideways against my hand) then place it in a large freezer ziploc bag. Zip it, but don't leave too much air in it. Then take a hammer and lightly break it up. Don't pulverize it. If you leave too much air it's like hammering a balloon and can have disastrous results, or may be funny depending on your sense of humor :)
Then just keep it zipped until it's used up. Might be too cave-man/womanish for some but works for me! Quote:
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Remove excess fat from stews and soups by dropping in a few ice cubes. The fat will cling to the ice cubes, which you can then remove with a slotted spoon.
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The story goes that if you soak popcorn in water for ten or fifteen minutes, then drain well and pop, the popped corn will be much fluffier and with less kernels unpopped.
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When making mashed potatoes, I cook them in chicken broth or chicken stock. It gives them much more flavor. When I drain my potatoes, I save the broth, and put it in the fridge to make soup in a day or two. Consider your leftover turkey on day 3 becoming a beautiful soup, when you combine it with your leftover cooking broth, some celery and carrots (perhaps leftover from your crudite tray), and some egg noodles. The fact that you initially cooked potatoes in the broth also adds a little built-in thickener, so your soup won't be too watery.
Of course, another use for the leftover broth is to make a pot of potato soup, since you probably didn't use your entire bag of potatoes in the first place. WT |
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Inquiring minds and all! Elle* |
I have not tried it myself. I do not eat popcorn, in fact I do not eat corn period unless it is ground into meal and even then only rarely. :)
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tip from my misspent youth
Hydrogen peroxide will take blood stains out of cloth
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OMGoodness... I LOVE this thread! I am going to try that mashed potato idea... amoung others! I have little to share... but much to learn!
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Regarding honey ... I had to look up what a "bain-marie - hot water bath" is, but I have discovered that you can return honey to it's liquid state by
microwaving it for 15 seconds at a time, then stirring and repeating till it liquifies. Usually only takes three rounds of 15 seconds - you can do it in the original container if it's glass - no mess no fuss. I envy all you folks who have home grown herbs. my "green thumb" does not include this particular skill. Smooches, Keri |
I am my father's daughter, apparently, so
I want to remind everyone not to use homemade vinegar to can because You can not be sure of its acidity. |
Honey can also be brought back to life by dropping the bottle in hot water.. (I don't do microwaves so this has always been my method)
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My doctor has me on a low glycemic index diet so I eat a lot of rotisserie chicken (I swear I'm gonna grow pin feathers any day now...) mostly for work lunches. I save everything - bones, etc. - and stick it in the freezer. When I have a few I will use them to make chicken stock or soup. Hint - if there is any liquid in the container let it gel and collect that with the bones. Lots of flavour in that stuff.
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Broth and substitutes...
Even though I live in a NYC apartment with a small kitchen, and a small fridge, I always freeze chicken bones (since I live alone I usually only get chicken breast with bones in) and occasionally a ham or leg of lamb bone, or a whole duck or chicken carcass, as well as vegetable trimmings, to make broth. When it looks like there is enough, I make broth and after de-fattening it, freeze the broth in small plastic containers, so I can grab one whenever I need broth in a recipe. I never buy broth! I usually add carrots, celeri, garlic and leeks when I make the broth, as well as herbs, unless I have enough vegetable trimmings.
What are vegetable trimmings, might you ask? Well, mushroom stems and peelings, potato and carrot peelings, carrot tops (I buy the organic carrots with tops on whenever possible), the very dark green part of leeks, which are tough, the stems of artichokes, also any vegetable I know I won't use before it spoils (I go crazy at the farmer's market and forget I usually cook only for one), and of course the stems of fresh herbs or if I have too much parsley or basil at hand, I freeze them and use some in broths. There is for me something very satisfying in making broth and stashing it away in the freezer! When (so rarely) I don't have any broth on hand, I use tea in place of broth. Different teas will give different flavour to what I am preparing: if I need a smoky flavour I use Lapsang Souchong tea, if I want a floral note I use either a flower tea (lavender, chamomile) or a flavoured tea (apricot, rose, ginger/peach)....These really add a depth of flavour to any recipe! Elle* |
I never thought of using tea--that's a GREAT idea!
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Piggy backing on Femmenoir's post
A easy thing to do with the broth is to freeze it in ice cube trays then put the broth ice cubes in a big plastic freezer bag so all you have to do is pull out a few or many to have broth. It works with sauce, pesto, and other such liquid tastiness.
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I do that with bacon grease as well. Works out nicely.
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Elle* |
I make my own vanilla extract, it is very easy and you will make some of the finest vanilla you ever had. . . .
-Take a quantity of unflavored vodka (I use a 1/2 pint) you can do more or less -3 vanilla beans split down the middle (again more or less as needed) Put the vanilla beans in the 1/2 pint, put it in your pantry or some dark place and let it sit for about 2 months (shake it occasionally) until it turns a nice dark color and smells strongly of vanilla when you open and sniff. You can add more vodka as you use it and you will virtually never be without vanilla again. I keep an old regular vanilla bottle and fill it from the vanilla booze bottle for ease of handling. |
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