Feb. 22nd, 2018 03:47 pm
About food : hashtag rambling
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oakfarmI thought I had a deadline for the course yesterday, but it turned out to be next Wednesday. Today I decided to take one day off from the course and now I’m writing here instead. Down in the centre of the my town there are walking roads over the river that flows through the town. And that’s feels safe since it has been cold, between -10 and - 20 C (10 to -4 F), the last weeks. Being this cold means I’m craving hot food, something I didn’t thought about when I made kimbab. The recipe I followed was, rice, cucumber, daikon, carrots and cheese in nori. It just happens to be so that I have a cookbook named Grönt (meaning Green) there some recipes are from two Korean sisters that have (had?) a restrung in Stockholm. So that’s why I made Korean sushi, because I’m sure we can call it Korean sushi without anyone complaining. Now I can also share that I think my new neighbor is Korean. Their name looks Korean to me, but it might be so bad that the only reason I think that is because the name isn’t obvious Chinese or Japanese.
Another thing I have made is Worcestershire sauce. Vinegar, anchovies, sugar, soy sauce, spices and tamarind concentrate. They say worcestershire sauce should ferment. First I thought: “there’s a lot of acetic acid and salt in this, microbes can’t ferment that”. Then I realized that microbes are life and "life find a way", some microbe will colonize the sauce. The cool thing to see is if bubbles will start forming in the sauce. That should be a proof of fermentation. The definition of fermentation is metabolic process that doesn’t use oxygen as reaction agent, or wait, maybe it was oxygen as oxidation agent. Or maybe the word “agent” shouldn’t be there at all. It was some years since I was at the university.
Anyway since fermenting food is to work with microbes, I could pretend I’m good at that. I have taken one course of microbiology. At least I could be an irritating know-it-all person. Bloggers writes that home fermentations is about being “clean not sterile”. Thereupon I could add, of course, if you want to work under sterile conditions you have to have filters that sterilise the air. You need UV-lights. Bleach. Pressure cooker. And if you want to sterilise the spices you use, you need to soak them in bleach and alcohol for quite some time. I have done micropropagation of plants, where the work area needs to be sterile. I know it’s not something you do in an ordinary kitchen.
Or on one blog written by diy-scientist they suggested isolating microbes from for example yogurt and beer. Then you could use the microbes for fermentation of food. Sounds doable. But the question they asked is that companies can have patent on microbes. If you isolate patented microbes and use them for fermentation - of for example Worcestershire sauce - are you breaking the law?
Another thing I have made is Worcestershire sauce. Vinegar, anchovies, sugar, soy sauce, spices and tamarind concentrate. They say worcestershire sauce should ferment. First I thought: “there’s a lot of acetic acid and salt in this, microbes can’t ferment that”. Then I realized that microbes are life and "life find a way", some microbe will colonize the sauce. The cool thing to see is if bubbles will start forming in the sauce. That should be a proof of fermentation. The definition of fermentation is metabolic process that doesn’t use oxygen as reaction agent, or wait, maybe it was oxygen as oxidation agent. Or maybe the word “agent” shouldn’t be there at all. It was some years since I was at the university.
Anyway since fermenting food is to work with microbes, I could pretend I’m good at that. I have taken one course of microbiology. At least I could be an irritating know-it-all person. Bloggers writes that home fermentations is about being “clean not sterile”. Thereupon I could add, of course, if you want to work under sterile conditions you have to have filters that sterilise the air. You need UV-lights. Bleach. Pressure cooker. And if you want to sterilise the spices you use, you need to soak them in bleach and alcohol for quite some time. I have done micropropagation of plants, where the work area needs to be sterile. I know it’s not something you do in an ordinary kitchen.
Or on one blog written by diy-scientist they suggested isolating microbes from for example yogurt and beer. Then you could use the microbes for fermentation of food. Sounds doable. But the question they asked is that companies can have patent on microbes. If you isolate patented microbes and use them for fermentation - of for example Worcestershire sauce - are you breaking the law?
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