We always have a number of things fermenting at The Requa Inn, sometimes I even will try to get folks to come and be a part of the process, but for now it looks best to share a few of the ups and downs via the blog in the interest of sharing what we have learned.
1. "Yeast Sorbet"
I've been working different variations on this for a few years now, but it generally is like this:
2 pears
1 pint sugar
1 pint water
1 TBSP. bakers yeast
I bring the sugar and water to a boil together until the sugar has hydrated. While the water is heating, I core the pear. Then place the pear in the hot sugar mixture and puree it in a blender. Let that all come down to about 95 degrees. Add the yeast, place in a jar, cover with a clean cloth napkin and let sit at room temperature for a few days. After the first day it is good to taste each day as I have let it go so long that too much alcohol formed, masking the delicate pear flavor, overriding the sweetness, and inhibiting the freezing ability.
When I like the flavor, usually in the three to four day realm, I chill it, pass it through a fine-mesh conical strainer and freeze it in the ice cream machine.
It exhibits some excellent layering of flavor, starting with a pure yeast bitterness, followed by sweetness, then an effervescent bitterness with a hint of pear as it melts away.
2. "Culture Brined Meats"
Our sous chef was playing around at home with marinating chicken in buttermilk before frying it. Taking buttermilk chicken a step further as he realized that just mixing it in the batter did little to brighten the boring-ness of chicken.
We've started using our yoghurt, the salty run-off from sauerkraut, blue cheese, buttermilk and kefir in brine solutions for chicken, sturgeon, pork belly, and chickens again in that order. Pretty phenomenal results across the board. In India, the Middle East and some of the Mediterranean yoghurt has long been used to marinate goat. It not only mellows out the gaminess but the cultures really help to tenderize the meat somehow. I'm gonna hazard the guess that the acids break down some of the protein bonds?
3. "Beet Yoghurt Sauce"
Here we made a pink yoghurt with a nice after-note of red beet that tasted really good with the herring that Aaron Valley caught. I would have simply juiced beets and added that to the milk while making yoghurt but my juicer died on me the day before so I did something dumb to compensate. I chopped up the beet and boiled it with some of the milk before pureeing it, cooling it and adding that to the rest of the milk and culturing it. Caseins, or milk proteins don't like to be boiled very much, particularly long enough to soften a beet. This was particularly silly because the milk has already been boiled once to pasteurize it so in the end the batch came out with chalky little lumps. I had to pass it through a sieve to smooth it out. Still not the best it could have been. I thickened it in just the same way as Greek yoghurt, hanging in cheese cloth overnight and now am pickling carrot and horseradish in the pink whey from the yoghurt. Pink Relish?
4. "Fish Sauce"
I've been wanting to ferment fish in some way for a while now and people kept bringing it up here and there so I ordered some Smelt from Alaska and started researching how fish sauce is made. This is more for my own consumption than for the restaurant, but you never know, if it's good I'll start bottling it and slanging it on the street corner.
I took 15# smelt, gutted but whole and raw and divided them into six jars.
Each sixth had one-third the weight of the fish in salt so about
2.5# smelt or 40oz
13+oz salt
plus a layer of salt on the bottom of the jar and another covering over the salted fish on the top.
3 of the jars are just fish and salt, and after two days they are already full to the top salt line with natural brine from the fish. 2 of the jars I have added Koji starter or barley inoculated with aspergillus oryzae, a bacteria native to Japan that is used to ferment miso, sake and a traditional Japanese fermented fish product called Katsuobushi. Those jars, the barley is soaking up the juices from the fish so I may have to add water to make sure the fish are covered in brine soon. The final jar is fish, salt, and a layer of pepperwood leaves which Yurok tribal members, according to my understanding, layered in with their smoked salmon in order to longer preserve it. All herbs have antimicrobial properties that may help this batch fight off airborne molds and such that I don't want in the jar. So I have a few different batches going and I'll see which one comes out best. Thanks, Amber Talburt, for helping getting the fish sauce all bottled up nicely.
I'll let you know in 8-12 months how it comes out, that seems to be the most realistic timeframe from the research I've found!
1. "Yeast Sorbet"
I've been working different variations on this for a few years now, but it generally is like this:
2 pears
1 pint sugar
1 pint water
1 TBSP. bakers yeast
I bring the sugar and water to a boil together until the sugar has hydrated. While the water is heating, I core the pear. Then place the pear in the hot sugar mixture and puree it in a blender. Let that all come down to about 95 degrees. Add the yeast, place in a jar, cover with a clean cloth napkin and let sit at room temperature for a few days. After the first day it is good to taste each day as I have let it go so long that too much alcohol formed, masking the delicate pear flavor, overriding the sweetness, and inhibiting the freezing ability.
When I like the flavor, usually in the three to four day realm, I chill it, pass it through a fine-mesh conical strainer and freeze it in the ice cream machine.
It exhibits some excellent layering of flavor, starting with a pure yeast bitterness, followed by sweetness, then an effervescent bitterness with a hint of pear as it melts away.
2. "Culture Brined Meats"
Our sous chef was playing around at home with marinating chicken in buttermilk before frying it. Taking buttermilk chicken a step further as he realized that just mixing it in the batter did little to brighten the boring-ness of chicken.
We've started using our yoghurt, the salty run-off from sauerkraut, blue cheese, buttermilk and kefir in brine solutions for chicken, sturgeon, pork belly, and chickens again in that order. Pretty phenomenal results across the board. In India, the Middle East and some of the Mediterranean yoghurt has long been used to marinate goat. It not only mellows out the gaminess but the cultures really help to tenderize the meat somehow. I'm gonna hazard the guess that the acids break down some of the protein bonds?
3. "Beet Yoghurt Sauce"
Here we made a pink yoghurt with a nice after-note of red beet that tasted really good with the herring that Aaron Valley caught. I would have simply juiced beets and added that to the milk while making yoghurt but my juicer died on me the day before so I did something dumb to compensate. I chopped up the beet and boiled it with some of the milk before pureeing it, cooling it and adding that to the rest of the milk and culturing it. Caseins, or milk proteins don't like to be boiled very much, particularly long enough to soften a beet. This was particularly silly because the milk has already been boiled once to pasteurize it so in the end the batch came out with chalky little lumps. I had to pass it through a sieve to smooth it out. Still not the best it could have been. I thickened it in just the same way as Greek yoghurt, hanging in cheese cloth overnight and now am pickling carrot and horseradish in the pink whey from the yoghurt. Pink Relish?
4. "Fish Sauce"
I've been wanting to ferment fish in some way for a while now and people kept bringing it up here and there so I ordered some Smelt from Alaska and started researching how fish sauce is made. This is more for my own consumption than for the restaurant, but you never know, if it's good I'll start bottling it and slanging it on the street corner.
I took 15# smelt, gutted but whole and raw and divided them into six jars.
Each sixth had one-third the weight of the fish in salt so about
2.5# smelt or 40oz
13+oz salt
plus a layer of salt on the bottom of the jar and another covering over the salted fish on the top.
3 of the jars are just fish and salt, and after two days they are already full to the top salt line with natural brine from the fish. 2 of the jars I have added Koji starter or barley inoculated with aspergillus oryzae, a bacteria native to Japan that is used to ferment miso, sake and a traditional Japanese fermented fish product called Katsuobushi. Those jars, the barley is soaking up the juices from the fish so I may have to add water to make sure the fish are covered in brine soon. The final jar is fish, salt, and a layer of pepperwood leaves which Yurok tribal members, according to my understanding, layered in with their smoked salmon in order to longer preserve it. All herbs have antimicrobial properties that may help this batch fight off airborne molds and such that I don't want in the jar. So I have a few different batches going and I'll see which one comes out best. Thanks, Amber Talburt, for helping getting the fish sauce all bottled up nicely.
I'll let you know in 8-12 months how it comes out, that seems to be the most realistic timeframe from the research I've found!
Klamath fermentation is GOING OFF!
ReplyDeleteYeast sorbet blew my mind. My favorite item at the Beermaker's Dinner. Great job!
ReplyDelete