haresfur

In a pinch, braised red cabbage can replace sauerkraut in a reuben

Maybe good to set out a few things that can go wrong with sauerkraut in general, not specific to packaged products. The first and obvious one is mould. In homemade kraut this tends to be white to green spots that float on the surface of the liquid, or attach themselves to bits that are at the surface. That is why it is so important to keep everything submerged with cabbage leaves, weights, mesh or whatever. Easier said than done when dealing with things like caraway seeds that float up. Some people say a brine with 2% by weight salt is ok to eat if you skim the mould off. Others are adamant that you chuck it if it is mouldy. The second is Kahm yeast. This is a wild yeast that forms filaments or a layer on top of the ferment. It is basically harmless and can be skimmed off. Best to skim then keep the sauerkraut in the fridge. I previously mentioned my sauerkraut turning to mush. I generally prefer my kraut crispy so don't pound it to draw out the brine the way some people do. I'd rather top up with salt solution if necessary. One thing to remember is that people have been making sauerkraut for a long time using much less sophisticated crocks, jars, etc. than we have these days. That doesn't mean their techniques are safe, but I believe it means they are quite safe they won't usually harm you. You can go down a whole rabbit hole of fermentation methods and variations. My tendency is to accept some risk but ymmv. Report back if you die

I have had homemade sauerkraut turn to mush in the fridge. Don't really know why that happened.

Host's note: this and the next response were split from Pans for Recreating Routleys Hand Pie AU. Maybe sacrilege, but Aldi frozen chicken, leek, and camembert pies aren't too bad. Good on you for trying to make your own.

There are a number of food-related bits in episodes 2 The Land, and episode 3 Home. Not too surprising since the land is mostly focused on agriculture. I learned what a rabbitoh is, aside from the name of the South Sidney National Rugby League team (it's a person who catches rabbits and sells the meat). Food is of course important to Home, as we all know. They did a good job weaving the Hills Hoist clothesline and box wine to get to the Australian drinking game, Goon of Fortune, and to talk about the often excessive drinking culture. For those not familiar, you attach the bag from a box wine (the goon bag) to the 4 sided rotating clothes line. Everyone stand around the Hills Hoist and you give it a spin. The person where the goon bag stops has to drink. I don't approve of drinking games but it is pretty amusing that someone came up with this.

Does it smell like Vegemite?

I have frozen braised red cabbage before. Usually have to because it always seems to make a lot and I don't have the fridge space. I use cider vinegar and usually put in bay leaves and maybe juniper berries.

It's relatively easy to get 100% humidity or very low humidity but harder to control in between. I don't know how wine fridges regulate humidity. For what it's worth, I looked into it once and the main people with containers for in between humidity were using them for cigars or greener smoking material.

I'll throw out my Pasta con Costco as a suggestion. I don't shop there right now but the principle is the same with smaller jars. You know those huge jars of stuff you buy at Costco but then have to figure out how to use? Marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, marinated feta, pickled veg? 4 bean salad? Why not? Cook up some pasta - fresh if you want fast, then toss in veg from the above jars and top with some grated Parmesan. Dead easy. You could portion out a mixture of Costco stuff into a container in advance so you just dump it in.

The time limit on frozen food is almost entirely a cya, in my opinion. Freezer burn can be a problem. Partner just made some very good gnocchi (fair bit of effort and fair bit of potato & flour glue all over the place) and the instructions for freezing said to freeze them separated flat on a tray and then bag them for storage in the freezer. So I'd look at trying that with potatoes and other stuff that could turn to mush. My parents used to make a turkey in mock hollandaise sauce and freeze it. The sauce is basically a Béchamel sauce with egg yolk added at the end. I'm pretty sure that for freezing they would put everything in but the egg and add it after thawing. Of course that means you would have to have the ability to separate, whisk, and temper in the egg, but at least you are most of the way there.

The first part of a 4 part series presented by Tony Armstrong is focused on food and well worth a watch (as are the other episodes). Tony Armstrong is sort of a golden boy of indigenous TV in Australia. He is charming and entertaining. He is a strong advocate for indigenous culture, which is important when talking about food history in Australia. So many of the people interviewed are aborigines, including restauranteurs. There is a lot of focus on bush tucker, but also on the arrival of other food traditions. The show includes a lot of archival footage. I learned quite a bit that I didn't know, like Granny Smith apples were developed here. The tie in to the early marketing by "Granny Smith" was really interesting. As was the segment on Greek immigrants via the US starting Milk Bars, bringing soda fountains and American food to the country. Of course there is plenty of discussion about meat pies, Chiko Rolls, and Vegemite. Don't know if anyone outside Australia can get to ABC iView. Maybe try a vpn.

My understanding is that diet change typically can change blood cholesterol by maybe 10 % so not usually enough. As my brother said, "We chose the wrong parents" They do have a drug which will inhibit the uptake of dietary cholesterol. Didn't get me to my target but I told my doc that I was happy to spend the money on it if it meant I can eat cheese with less guilt

I disagree because they don't say "produced" They say cellared and bottled. It sounds more like they own a warehouse and they don't say where it is located.

Finished off the Christmas Columbia Valley Pinot, which was really quite satisfactory, in spite of being abused by me in shipping and storage. It was "Cellared and Bottled" by a Sonoma winery. They don't say they produced the wine so I assume they bought someone else's wine and may or may not have cellared it in California or in Washington State, or who knows where? Seems dodgy to me.

Seems to me it is a superior system for a small place than having to deal with hoards who are outside or dominating the reservations because some tick-tocker "discovered" it.