Waffles

Since I posted about the Waffle Day, I might as well post about how to make waffles. Unlike most other dishes, you need a specialty item if you want to make them. It's really hard to kludge together a waffle iron, so I would not recommend trying. However, from personal experience, I would recommend getting a good waffle iron if you want to enjoy making waffles often. I have have found the cheaper models have timers that should be ignored, this will lead to a non-soggy waffle, fully cooked result.

If you are stuck with a cheap model that doesn't do quite a good job, or the timer doesn't work well. You are in luck, you can wait until the steam mostly stops coming out of the iron as the waffle cooks, this means the waffle is done. It may not be nice and crispy, but it definitely won't be soggy or uncooked.

 Thoroughly mix all the dry ingredients together.












In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. I try to melt the butter so that it is liquid but not hot. Once I have added the butter to the rest of the liquid ingredients, I constantly stir so that the butter doesn't separate. This will ensure that the butter is evenly distributed throughout the final batter.







Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just mixed, ignoring any lumps. You do not want to over blend in this stage, that only leads to a tougher waffle. You can use the batter right away or let it sit until ready to use. I usually let it sit for a few hours, covered in the refrigerator before using; just as I would for pancakes. This give the batter time to fully hydrate the flour.





Depending on your iron, ladle about a 1/2 cup of batter into the center. Too much and it will over flow the sides and make a mess, too little and you won't have a fully developed waffle. Experience is the greatest teacher here as every iron is different. Waffles can be kept warm in an oven set at 200 F until you are ready to serve them, or they can be enjoyed the instant they are done.





Waffles
About 6 waffles
Preheat a waffle iron. Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Thoroughly blend in another bowl:
3 eggs
1/4 cup to 1 cup (1/2 to 2 sticks) butter, melted
1 1/2 cups milk
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine with a few swift strokes of the whisk. If desired gently stir in any additions (eg Blueberries)
To cook, follow the waffle maker manufactures instructions.

Depending on if you made the recipe with the low amount of butter or high amount it will change the price from $2.14 to $4.28, this works out to $0.36 and upwards of $0.72 per individual waffle. Topping and extras like berries are not factored in.

Clean smelly rags and sponges

A sponge or rag that has gotten smelly is something no one ever wants to use and from a sanitary standpoint it is very frowned upon. Running it through the wash helps, but it takes a long time. So what do you do with one of your kitchens essential tools?

First we need to understand why it is smelly. From all of the cleaning you do, you're picking up microbes, bacteria and another forms of microscopic life. A sponge or rag is put away damp at best, which is an ideal habitat for these lifeforms to grow and reproduce. As a byproduct of living they produce funky smells among other things.

Now that we know what causes the smells, we can take steps to prevent this. The easiest way is to not let it sit in water and always wring it out when you are done. We can also use a sanitizing solution instead of water when cleaning up, this will both sanitize what your cleaning AND the sponge itself. This will save time and effort in the long run. However, you may need to sanitize the unsanitary and offensive smelling rag, this is where my efforts will be directed.

Take your smelly rag or sponge, in this case I have my most prized sponge, and dampen it. You don't want it too dry or you may damage the sponge, but you don't want it too wet either. Just soak it and then ring it out, this will be the right level of dampness.

Place the sponge in the microwave. The idea behind this is you will kill the micro organisms with steam generated inside the sponge itself. The microwaves them selves will kill their fair portion as well.









Set the microwave for 30 seconds. You don't want to over microwave it, but you also don't want to under nuke it.

Careful, the rag will be hot and steam should be coming out of it and the microwave. Handle with care!

Cool and rinse with cold water. When you ring it out, the water won't be clear, this is dirt, oil and dead micro organisms. Smell the sponge or rag, if it still smells, repeat the process once or twice more until it has no smell.








This is more effective and faster than running it through the wash. It only takes a few minutes and you will have a sanitized sponge to use right away as opposed to an hour in a washing machine. Besides why would you want to through a smelly rag in with your clothes? That's disgusting!

I am going to add the lean tag here because I covered some key points, the first was, by changing the process of cleaning up (by not letting it sit in water) we ended up with a much better result with only a little added effort. The second key point is cutting out the clothes washer as a cleaning step. It takes a long time and isn't nearly as effective as the microwave. Though ideally, you should never have to use the microwave step, if you always ring out the sponge and set it out to dry.

How to crack an egg

If you're like me, then you probably thought you knew how to crack an egg. If you are like me, you probably learned to crack the egg on the side of the bowl or frying pan, or any edge that is nearby. I've seen my mom crack eggs since I was a kid, it's easy, right? The answer is yes, your just making it harder on your self.

The reason this is the wrong way to crack an egg is that you end up needing to crack the eggs into a small bowl before you add the egg to the recipe. This is all right until you realize that the reason you crack it into the small bowl in the first place is so that you can remove any egg shell pieces that may have accidentally fallen in along with the egg itself. This means the sole problem with cracking an egg on the edge of something is that it can inject tiny egg shell fragments into the your eggs.

Another problem, is that taking the egg out of the shell and into a bowl so that you can remove the shell fragments, only to transfer it again to another bowl is a waste of time and resources. Your creating dirty dishes, wasting time, and not adding any value to what your cooking. In the Lean Manufacturing System (something that is going to come up again in future posts), these are big no-nos.

The easier way to crack an egg is to crack it against a flat surface, along the widest point of the egg. You don't need to hit it hard, in the past I have let gravity do the work for me by dropping it from less than 3 cm above the surface (I mention only to emphasis how little effort you actually need). This will cause the egg to crack cleanly around its circumference and allow you to open the egg effortlessly and without any shell fragments from entering the egg.

Don't, crack on the edge of something

Do, crack on a flat surface

Now, I know I said that using that extra step of putting the egg into a bowl was a waste of time. Well, I lied, kind of. Depending on what you are doing with the egg, it can be an unnecessary extra step or it can save your dish. I would only recommend using the bowl in one circumstance. That being, if you are unsure of the quality of the eggs you are using. If you're in doubt and think they are either low grade or nearing there expiration dates, you can crack them into the bowl and inspect them before adding to your recipe.

Waffle Day

On an unrelated note, or maybe semi-related at any rate. Today I successfully pulled off the second Waffle Day at work. I brought in both of my waffle irons (twice as many irons as the first Waffle Day) along with a double batch of waffle batter from the The Joy of Cooking.

I had collected three other coworkers and we had agreed on a date to have the Waffle Day. I agreed to bring the irons and the batter as long as each of them brought a topping of some sort to put on the waffles. In theory this should have worked, but only one coworkers actually brought a topping (Aunt Jemima's). However, I brought some Strawberry/Raspberry Jam. Partially with the foresight that someone would forget, and partially because its really good jam!

I think the Waffle Day is starting to catch on and we will likely see more of them in the future.

Chicken Korma

A request was made of me to make a Chicken Korma. After some searching on the Internet to find out what that was and what it entailed, I found this recipe. It called for two ingredients that I didn't have but that I could easily make, they were 1/4 of tomatoe sauce and 1 cup of chicken broth.

I really enjoyed making the Korma, though there are a few things I would do differently next time. Firstly my wok is not in the best shape, and doesn't sit flush with the stove top (repeated abuse over the years).  So instead I would use a large pot with an appropriately sized lid. Second, I would use whole bay leaves as opposed to the crumbled ones I have, they didn't break down and were annoying when encountered while eating it. The flavour was good but the downsides detracted from my enjoyment of the meal. Lastly, I would grind the coriander in a pepper mill and find a better way of pasting the ginger and garlic together. A mortar and pestle, while doing the job admirably well, was time consuming and the coriander didn't grind down as fine as I would have enjoyed.


While not necessary, I layed everything out next to the wok, so that as I needed an ingredient it was ready to go. In timing dependent cooking this is a very good idea and a habit I am trying to get into. This will increase the prep time, but will greatly simplify the cooking time. Everything is close to the point of use and is organized in such a manner that as I use the item, the next item I am going to use is right there.

All in all, as far as curried dishes go, I really enjoyed this one. The flavours weren`t too strong, nor too mild. The consistency was on par with what I have come to expect from curried dishes. I haven`t seen to many recipes call for cream and yogurt as opposed to coconut milk, so I was kind of wary at first as to how the dish would turn out.

Cashews - 30 g
Ginger - 16 g
Garlic - 10 g
Onion - 157 g
Spices - 8 g (The spice must flow)
Tomatoe Sauce - 74 g
Chicken Broth - 166 g
Chicken - 545 g

I gathered all of the ingredients into one location prior to making the dish. The idea is I will be using ingredients from left to right and closest to furthest from me. The cashews were placed into the boiling water just before this picture was taken. This allows me to concentrate on the actual cooking instead of constantly referring to a recipe to find out what to do next. That is not to say I didn't have a recipe on hand to guide me through the steps, just that it isn't as critical that it be there. This is in addition to reviewing the recipe so I know what to expect and when to expect it. There is nothing worse than following a recipe and discovering a surprise you didn't see on the first read through.







I added some oil into the preheated wok along with some crumpled bay leaves. As I mentioned above, use whole bay leaves! This allows you to remove them when the meal is done. Into the oil went the onions, stirring every so often.








After the onions have softened and changed colour, I added the ginger/garlic paste and spices. I know, this picture is really unappetizing, but trust me it gets better!












Next I added the chicken, cooking and stirring for roughly 5 minutes.

I mixed in the tomatoe sauce and chicken broth at this point, covered the wok and let it simmer for 15 minutes. I made sure to stir every so often.

The cashew, cream and yogurt mixture was added last and again allowed to simmer for another 15 minutes. Before taking the Korma off of the heat, I added the cornstarch mixture and allowed it to thicken. I ended up using four times as much cornstarch as the recipe called for until the Korma came to a consistency that I was happy with.

Served on a bed of brown rice. This was a really tasty meal and I will definitely do this again in the future.











Chicken Korma
1 Liter
Heat in a medium sized pot for 30 seconds over medium heat:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 whole bay leaves
Stir in:
1 large minced Onion
Cook until the onion is soft. In a separate container, combine and set aside:
1/4 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup of cashews
Make a paste in a food processor or blender:
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 of peeled ginger
Add the paste to the onions. Also add:
1 teaspoon Coriander 
1 teaspoon Garam masala 
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Turmeric
1 teaspoon Chili powder
1 1/2 cubed Chicken breasts
Cook for 5 minutes. Add:
1/4 cup tomatoe sauce
1 cup chicken broth
Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. In another container, blend together:
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 plain yogurt
Cashew and water mixture
Stir the mixture into the wok, continue simmering for another 15 minutes. Mix and add:
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
Cook for another minute or until the sauce thickens. Serve on a bead of rice.

The resulting dish measured in as 1 liter by 989 grams, which works out to enough to feed 3-4 people. The total cost of the ingredients was $5.32, this means that it is $1.33 per serving. The price did not include the cost of the rice.

Chicken Broth

There are a lot of recipes that call for a broth, or rather I can think of one or two off the top of my head and I'm trying to make it sound like this is an ingredient that is in high demand. Either way, a broth is really easy to make, but it always tends to produce a lot, more than what you can use in a single or even multiple recipes. Unless your feeding large groups of people that is.

The solution to that is to freeze the excess and thaw what you need for when you need it. However, freezing it as a whole block makes it hard to use in the future. Try thawing a brick and getting exactly what you want without thawing too much and you'll see what I mean. So to fix this, I freeze the broth in ice cup trays. Each cube is roughly two tablespoons or 30 mL, which is a convenient serving size. More importantly, all you need to do is pull out the number of cubes you need and leave the rest undisturbed in the freezer.

I honestly tried to find chicken parts or a stewing chicken which would have made this cheaper and easier, but the store was out of almost all chicken related meats. Alas this means that I got a roasting chicken, which, quite frankly would have been much better as a roasted chicken.












Anyway, I carved up the bird into its constituent parts and dropped them into the pot with water to cover. Then set it to simmer for 30 minutes.

While the chicken was simmering, I was chopping up some vegetables to toss in with the chicken. The nutrients and flavours get leeched off into the broth. The original recipe said to finely chop the vegetables in a food processor or blender. I could say that I like large chunks of vegetables but the truth of the matter is that I over looked that part and just chopped them up...

After the chicken has been cooking for 30 minutes, I tossed in the vegetables and continued simmering for another 40 minutes.

Once everything was done simmering, I strained the chicken and vegetables from the broth. I kept the chicken for eating and chucked the vegetables. I found the vegetables had grown bland and that the chicken was a bit dry, which is kind of ironic because it was cooked in water... Let the broth sit until cooled to room temperature.







Chill the broth in either the fridge or the freezer. I chose the freezer as I don't have any space in my fridge right now. The reason for this is that the fat will have floated to the top and will solidify when chilled. This makes it really easy to scoop the fat off.








Once the fat is skimmed off, I placed the broth into my ice cube trays and started freezing them. After two hours they were frozen enough to remove without any problems. If the broth was chilled more before being placed into the trays, you might be able to cut that time in half. Each cube is roughly 30 mL or 2 tablespoons. A half cup of broth is four cubes, and a cup of broth is eight, etc.











As the broth was frozen and removed from the tray I placed it into an airtight bag and sucked as much air out as possible. When ever I need the broth for something, I can thaw as many cubes as I need and use them without worrying about making more or going to the store and buying some.







 The end result was 2.16 liters of chicken broth. Oh and some cooked chicken which we're slowly eating.

And now for the recipe as it is actually written in the Joy of Cooking


Chicken Broth
About 12 cups
Combine in a stockpot over medium heat:
One 3 1/2 to 4 pound chicken, cut into parts
Cold water to cover
Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 30 minutes, skimming often. Pulse in a food processor until finely chopped:
1 medium unpeeled onion, cut into eighths
1 carrot, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 celery rib, cut into 2-inch pieces
Add vegetables to the pot. Simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked, about 40 minutes longer. Remove the chicken and reserve. Strain and let cool uncovered, then refrigerate covered. Remove the fat when ready to use.

I had originally pegged the cost of the broth at just under $0.20 per cube. The bulk of the cost came from the chicken, which was still usable afterwards, so I removed it from the equation and came up with $0.03 per cube.

Roasted Tomatoe Sauce

This is a basic tomatoe sauce that I have grown quite fond of in Lasagnas. The only drawback is that it takes a long time to actually make the sauce. This means that if I have limited time, I can't make a Lasagna. Which is why I am making it beforehand. I can start thawing the sauce the day before or morning of and I will have sauce that is ready to go.

Before I began, I weighed all the vegetable ingredients and recorded it. This was to create a baseline of how much I start out with, compared with what I will get out. The number I got allows me to know the total weight of the ingredients that I will need to use to make a given volume of sauce for future reference. I prefer using weights to saying "use a medium onion", its more accurate and leads to repeatable results.

Tomatoe - 4408 grams (9 lbs 11 oz)
Onion - 271 grams (9.6 oz)
Red Pepper - 167 grams (5.8 oz)
Garlic - 50 grams (1.7 oz)

This is equivalent to 12 large tomatoes, 1 Onion, 1 Red Pepper and 1 bulb of Garlic. I ended up with a sauce that I had to thicken, so I would recommend reducing the weight of the tomatoes by choosing medium sized tomatoes instead.

This was the first time I used Beefsteak tomatoes and I ended up with way more sauce than I was expecting. So much in fact that I would actually double the weight of the Onion, Red Pepper and Garlic or half the Tomatoes. I must mention that this is the first time I have weighed the ingredients when I make this sauce. So I didn't see the excessive volume coming until the final measurement.

The first step is to wash off waxes, pesticides and anything else that may have made its way onto the tomatoes.











In the name of science I measure you! Depending on how thorough you want to be you can either use 12 medium sized tomatoes (I used large ones to make this recipe, much to my dismay). A single medium Red Pepper, a single medium Red Onion and a single bulb of Garlic (note: I mean bulb not clove).













Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange with the insides facing up onto a pair of flat sheets. I tried this once in a cake pan and it still turned out. The moral of this story is, the heat is coming from a broiler which is heat coming from one direction only; up. So use whatever is convenient. Brush the insides of the tomatoes with Olive Oil and then sprinkle with Kosher Salt.

If I had to guess at how much Olive Oil I used, I might say 30 mL (1/8 cup or 2 tbls). Kosher salt has big flakes, which make it ideal to stick to a surface when used for seasoning. In this case it does double duty and helps pull moisture out of the tomatoe. I also enjoy the taste of Kosher salt compared to regular table salt.








 Place the rack in your oven as high as it goes, you want the tomatoes to be directly under the broiler. The goal is to char the surfaces.










I turned the broiler on Hi (some oven models only have one setting for the broiler, others, like mine have two settings. Still others have the ability to set a temperature) and left the oven door slightly ajar (some oven models allow you to properly broil with the door closed, mine requires it to be open). I left the tomatoes alone for half of an hour, at which point I checked to make sure they were cooking evenly and rearranged as was nessecary (either by turning the trays by 180 degrees or by moving tomatoes. I put it back into the oven for another 15 minutes to let them finish cooking.


Using a pair of tongs, flip the tomatoes over. Then repeat the brushing of oil and sprinkling of salt. You will notice a brownish liquid in the pans, don't spill this or remove it. There is a lot of flavour stored in this and it will increase as the cooking goes on.

Just like with the other side, check after a half hour, turning trays or moving tomatoes to make the tomatoes char more evenly. Then put back in for another 15 minutes to cook the rest of the way. I was distracted by something shiny and the tomatoes in this photograph charred a bit too much, but not so much that it would ruin the sauce.






While the tomatoes were roasting, I was preheating a heavy iron skillet (mine is cast iron, so it doesn't get much heavier) on high heat. I sliced up a Red Pepper and gave it a thin coating of Olive oil, then I proceeded to sear them in the skillet. I then repeated the same for the Red Onion and then again for the bulb of Garlic. I recommend constantly moving the slices around so that they won't burn. However if you have to go off and do something else or like me get distracted by shiny things, as long as you can hear a sizzle coming from the pan, your food is safe. The sizzle is water being drawn out and boiled away, this limits the temperature to 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) which won't allow it to burn. However when the sizzle stops it will burn. I let each vegetable sizzle while I sliced the next one to go into the pan. I periodically flipped the slices with a pair of tongs.

Toss everything into a blender, if its too much to fit into the jar then put only what will fit into it. I pureed all of the vegetables into a sauce. I also made sure to add the liquid that was pooling in the trays to the blender. Once the sauce is blended, I poured the sauce back into the trays and let it sit for a few minutes before using a flat edged wooden spatula to scrape up whatever residue were left behind on the trays. If the sauce is thick enough you can either use it or store it.

However, if the sauce is too watery, you can reduce it on the stove by setting it to a simmer and slowly reducing it down to the consistency you want.

Total initial ingredients - 4896 grams (10 lbs 12 oz)
Sauce (Prereduction) - 2562 grams (5 lbs 10 oz)
Sauce (Postreduction) - 2188 grams (4 lbs 13 oz)
2 Liters final product

 Here is the sauce in the Joy of Cooking recipe format.

Roasted Tomatoe Sauce
1 liter


Cut in half:
12 medium tomatoes
Brush the inside with:
2 tablespoons olive oil
Spinkle with: 
Salt
Place the tomatoes under the broiler. Turn with tongs as the skin chars, repeating the brushing with oil and sprinkling with salt. When charred all over, remove and let cool.
In a heavy skillet sear:
1 medium red pepper (sliced into strips)
1 medium red onion (sliced into eights)
1 bulb of garlic
Add the tomatoes and then puree in a food processor or blender.


The total cost is $15.55, which works out to $0.97 per serving.

What this Blog is about

I did some thinking about what I wanted out of the Blog. Did I want to show off food? Or maybe I could teach how to make some meals?

What I have decided on is a little of everything, I want this Blog to be a kitchen Blog. I want to cover the various foods I make, the proper care and use of kitchen tools, to look at various foods and ingredients and the ways they can be prepared. I want to go in depth into how I organize my kitchen and plan meals. To show shortcuts and simplify preparation. I will find fun food facts and Old Wives tales and run experiments to see if its fact or fiction (kind of the MythBusters of the kitchen).

In addition to all of this, I want to reach out to people. I will take requests and suggestions and try them out in my kitchen a document for all to see. But beware, if you make a suggestion, there is a high chance I will give the final product to you (assuming all of the combined ingredients weren't too expensive). However I will steal away a single serving for myself, after all I do want to at least try the stuff I make.

Ginger Ale

When I was a kid, I really enjoyed soda, if I was given some I would drink it enthusiastically, when I was old enough to make money, I would spend most of my paycheck on it (among other things). It wasn't until my late teens, that I started realizing that I enjoyed the colas, but I was growing dissatisfied with them. After drinking them, the sheer volume of sugar made me feel ill for awhile, the acidic nature made my teeth feel like they had been stripped of the top layer of enamel and depending on which soda I drank, I was awake all night.

When I started College however, I gave up soda entirely. I felt healthier, I slept better without the excess caffeine and I had more money to buy frivolous things like text books... But I still enjoyed the taste of soda, I just didn't like the effects it had on me.

Fast forward a few years, and I learned how to make food for myself. I started making various meals and desserts and making more and more things from scratch. It wasn't long before I came across a few recipes for various sodas. I tried making Cream Soda, which is arguably one of my more favorite sodas, but the technique I used to carbonate it left it tasting slightly alcoholic. I also tried Root Beer, but that had mixed results and the flavours masked the alcohol. Then I got the idea to make Ginger Ale. I love the taste of Ginger, I love it in cookies, as a spice and well everything really.

Unlike the other sodas I had made, the Ginger Ale had a strong flavour to it, but in a good way. It definitely tasted different than the store bought variety. At first I found it was an acquired taste, but I acquired the taste by about the second or third sip and I've had a love affair with it ever since. The best part is, it is one of the easiest things I've made and has one of the highest payouts.

I found the recipe here and have been slowly determining the exact ratios of ingredients that I like best. I personally like to up the amount of Ginger I use, but that is personal preference and some might not like it as strong as I do. However, I'm going to post the measurements that I use, as I just gave the original recipe (I don't want to reword someones work!).

I don't have a fruit juicer, but thats ok, because we can work around that. I cut a lemon in half and used a fork to remove the insides (juice, pulp and seeds). If your making lemon juice, you'll want to strain the pulp and seeds from the juice. However, we are going to cut a step out and just collect everything, pulp, seeds and juice. The reason for this is that the pulp contains plenty of flavour and I have some minour difficulties getting the seeds out. Besides, when we're ready to serve the final drink, we will be using a fine meshed strainer.

Shred one small Ginger Root, I've been working by eye until now, but I am going to start being more scientific and actually measure the weight of what I use. So, one day I'll update this with a more accurate measurement, but for now, I'll just say a little bigger than my thumb (even worse than not being scientific...sorry)

The shredded Ginger Root and Lemon pulp/juice/seeds are mixed together in the bowl. Meanwhile I added the yeast and sugar to the bottle via a funnel. I like to add the yeast first so that the sugar acts as a temporary barrier between the acid of the lemon juice and the yeast. I poured the Lemon/Ginger mixture into the 2L bottle, then I rinsed out the bowl that had the mixture in it with filtered water. I then used that water and rinsed out the funnel. Or rather I poured it down the funnel into the bottle, thus making sure those last few drops made their way into the bottle. You can waste a lot of things in life, but don`t waste flavour in the kitchen. Anyway, I filled the bottle the rest of the way with filtered water. When I took this picture, I learned a few days later that when a recipe says to leave a little head space, it means it. Since then, I find that 1 cm of space is enough which is about to the bottom of the cap.

 Cap the bottle tightly and wait a couple of days for the fermentation to take place.

 As you can see, as it ferments, the carbon dioxide builds up causing the bottle to bulge and making an air pocket at the top of the bottle. At this point I`m going to emphasis how important it is that this takes place in a plastic bottle. If it was glass, the bottle would have shattered before it got to this point!







Once it has fully fermented, place the bottle in a refrigerator until thoroughly chilled, this will make the yeast settle out and stop doing their thing (which is alcohol and carbon dioxide production). That and warm soda isn't particularly good!

By now you may have noticed all the floaty bits, and if your like me, you don't like floaty things in your drink, so I'm going to filter it out as I pour a drink using this handy fine mesh strainer doohickey™









Now I have mentioned that the yeast produces alcohol, so yes this is an alcoholic beverage. However, it was not given enough fermenting time to produce an appreciable amount of alcohol. I don't have the equipment to measure the alcoholic content, nor do I have the experience to judge these matters. Though I do know that the alcoholic content is quite low. So there is no risk of getting drunk, or even a buzz.

Since this is my first food related post, I am setting the precedent that recipes will be setup as they are in the Joy of Cooking, which has been my bible of cooking. It taught me most of what I know, so I can`t sing its praises loud enough!

Ginger Ale
2 Liters

Mix thoroughly in a bowl:
The juice of one lemon (or 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice)
1 small shredded Ginger Root
Using a funnel add to a 2L plastic bottle:
1/4 tsp yeast
1 cup Sugar
Add to the bottle:
Lemon/Ginger mixture
If you don't have filtered water, then let tap water sit uncovered for at least a half hour to let any chemical additives evaporate off. Rinse the bowl that had the Lemon/Ginger mixture with the water and add to the bottle, this will get every last drop of flavour into the bottle. Fill the bottle almost to the top with filtered water leaving about 1 cm of clearance.
Tightly put the cap on:
2 L plastic bottle
Shake the bottle to thoroughly mix the contents, then let the bottle sit in a room temperature location for:
Two days
The Ginger Ale is done when the bottle is firm and offers resistance to being squeezed, similar to a bottle of Soda Pop that was shaken excessively. If left for to long the bottle may explode.
Place the sealed bottle:
Into the refrigerator until chilled
This will slow and eventually effectively stop the yeast from growing. This stops the alcohol and carbon dioxide production.
Use a fine meshed strainer to serve.

The entire bottle of pop costs $2.13, this does not include the bottle used for fermentation. If you assume a 250 mL (1 cup) serving size, it works out to $0.27 per glass of soda.