Homemade Ham (GAPS, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar free, preservative free)

 

 

Ingredients:

6 lbs. or so of Pork loin (excess fat removed)

3/4  gallon water

3/4 - 1 cup Himalayan sea salt

1 cup raw honey 

1 tbsp. dried sage

1 tbsp. dried thyme

8 whole peppercorns
1 cup  fresh celery juice (optional)

1 l prepared water kefir (also optional, but does help to prepare pork properly) - or more water + 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice

 

Preparation:

Place the water, salt, sage, thyme and peppercorns into a saucepan. Heat and  stir until salt is dissolved. Let it cool until just barely warm, then add 1 cup of raw honey. Stir until dissolved.
Let it cool all the way to room temperature, then add 1 bottle of homemade water kefir - this is less for flavor and more for the acid base to properly prepare pork, even though the flavor does contribute.  I love using homemade water kefir root beer in this!

Add the fresh celery juice  too. Stir to combine.

Note that celery juice does contain some natural nitrates, so if you are trying to avoid them, omit the celery juice. I am adding it for flavor, more than anything else.

I cut the loin into about 3 -4 pieces - they brine and smoke more evenly that way.

Place each piece in a gallon zip lock bag, divide brine amongst it.

 

 

I like to place my bags in a little box or basket, so they are pushed together a little more. The brine rises and  covers all the meat. That way you don't have to turn the meat.  If you don’t do it this way, turn the meat once a day, so all the sides get brined evenly.

 

Place in the fridge and let it brine for 3-4 days.

Remove meat from brine and rinse well. Pat it really dry.

 

{A double batch, just before smoking.}

I hickory smoke it for 3.5-4 hrs. at 200 F until the internal temp is 150F.

 

 

{All done! Now just cooling down before slicing and freezing!}

Let it cool and slice/shave it thinly (with a deli slicer!)

 

{Yum!}

 

Store in the refrigerator. Unlike the commercial ham, this will not keep nearly as long, even when refrigerated, since we have no preservatives. Treat it like you would any other cooked meat.
I find that slicing one of the pieces and keeping it in the fridge, while freezing the others and then taking them out one by one as we slice and eat it, works well!

Pin It

Water Kefir - My Basic Recipe

First Ferment

4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or filtered water)
1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar
10 organic raisins or so

1.5 tbsp. hydrated water Kefir Grains

In a mason or fido jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.

Add the kefir grains and raisins.

Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 48 hours.


Note: Don't let the grains ferment for longer than 48 hrs (first ferment.) It won't kill them if you do, but experience has shown that they will stop growing and multiplying.

*{I started out using jars with an airlock lid as my means of making the initial ferment for water kefir, but for the last year or so, I much preferred fermenting in a large fido jar. Fidos off-gas by themselves, so no need for burping or fear of explosions, and we get very fizzy second ferments just that bit faster!}*

There is a great debate going on about aerobic and anaerobic fermentation and which one is better and there are many myths surrounding all the different methods of fermentation. I suggest you try it yourself and find out what works for you.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, your kefir is ready. Currently that is 24 hours for me, but my kitchen is usually pretty warm during the summer, even in an air conditioned house. It can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.

Remove the raisins and strain out the water kefir grains.

Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch. (Personally, I always rinse them. It keeps the "yeastiness" down a bit. However, other people recommend not rinsing them. Find out for yourself which way you prefer!)

From here, you can either drink the kefir as is, or you go on to a second ferment, which will allow you to add flavorings.

At this point, your flavor options are pretty much endless. You can add (fresh or dried) fruits, juices, syrups, flavor extracts, herbal teas and anything else you can think of!

One of our basic flavorings but also a favorite, is to make grape soda.

I add about half a cup of organic grape juice to the strained water kefir and decant into flip-top bottles. Then I let them sit out on the counter for another day at room temperature, before refrigerating. The result is a delightful and very fizzy grape soda!

All manner of juices work, even though we’ve found that anything citrusy can make little stringy inclusions (they taste fine, but some people aren't font of the "look") and that anything that also contains apples always tastes more like cidery fermented than anything else.

But do your own experimenting and see what you can come up with!

Or you could go on to make:

Probiotic Cola Soda

Probiotic Root Beer

Probiotic Ginger Ale

Pin It

Healthy Soda Series: Probiotic, Homemade Root Beer

And so we have arrived at Root Beer in my series of probiotic sodas.

As I have mentioned before, I’m not the biggest fan of Root Beer - being European and all ... and that cough syrup thing!

However, I have found out that I just don’t like store bought Root Beer. The home made kind is a whole different ball game!

It’s real. It has depth and body. It has character! The flavors are round and compliment each other - not like cough syrup at all! Even to me!

So, much like the Cola, we will make the root beer syrup first and then we will add the syrup to the second ferment of the water kefir.

And this one does actually get to be as dark a color as the original version. But even so, it does not contain any gluten, as we are not using caramel color!

My starting point was a fabulous recipe by Hank Shaw and I adapted it to suit water kefir fermentation, and our taste buds!

Root Beer Syrup

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 3 ounces dried sassafras roots
• 1/2 ounce dried burdock root
• 2 tsp of orange zest (optional) 
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 1 whole star anise
• 2 inches of a vanilla bean
• 3 Allspice berries (whole)
• 1 whole clove
• 1/4 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
• 2 drops wintergreen extract (do NOT replace with mint - it’s a different flavor altogether!)
• 5 cups organic evaporated cane sugar 

Preparation:

Put the sassafras and burdock roots, vanilla bean, coriander seeds, star anise, orange zest and clove in a heavy-bottomed 2 quart saucepan. Add  the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, place a lid on your saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the molasses, stir, and return to a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the wintergreen extract, replace the lid and let the mixture cool to room temperature and sit for about 5 hours or overnight.

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth, place over a bowl or pot and pour the steeped infusion into it to strain. Do not press on the contents, but let the roots rest in the strainer for about 30 minutes so everything can drip out. 

Return the sassafras infusion to a pot and add the sugar to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil one more time, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup into mason jars, put on lids and let it cool to room temperature.

Refrigerate the syrup.

It will keep for a year in the refrigerator.

Second Ferment - Combining the water kefir and the syrup

4 cups of water kefir (finished the first ferment, grains strained out)
1/4 cup of root beer syrup (you can adjust the amount of syrup to your liking)

Mix the above ingredients, decant into flip top bottles and leave them on your kitchen counter at room temperature for 24 - 48 hrs.  If you have a warm kitchen and the carbonation is really building up, 18-24 hrs. may be enough.
Refrigerate you bottles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can also use this syrup with carbonated water to make root beer, or if you have a really fizzy first ferment of the water kefir, forgo the second fermentation and drink it as is!
Personally, I like to get the second ferment in, as it does seem to add to rounding out all the flavors!

Pin It

Probiotic Soda: Ginger Ale

In the series of healthy, probiotic sodas, here is a really simple but-oh-so yummy one: Ginger Ale!

 

Water Kefir - First Ferment

4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or bottled water)

1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar

10 organic raisins or so

1 organic lemon wedge (1/4 of a small lemon)

1.5 tbsp. water Kefir Grains

In a mason jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.

Add the kefir grains, lemon wedge and raisins.

Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 36 hours.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, you’re kefir is ready.

Remove the raisins and lemon wedge, strain out the water kefir grains.

Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch.

Combining The Two - Second Ferment

4 cups of water kefir (grains strained out)

1/2 small organic lemon (you can reuse the one you had in the first ferment too)

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped/grated or finely sliced

1.5  tbsp. organic evaporated cane sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla emulsion/extract

 

Combine all the above in a large jar, squeeze 1/4 of the lemon for juice, then add the lemon back in,  screw down the lid tight (it needs to be a tight lid as this will build quite some carbonation) and let it steep for 12 -18 hrs. You probably need to burp the liquid several times a day to release some of the carbonation build-up.

Strain the solids out and decant the ginger ale into flip top bottles. Refrigerate the ginger ale.

 

 

This recipe is very adjustable to your own tastes.

Use more ginger, use more vanilla, less of anything, use real vanilla, use extract, add something else - the possibilities are endless.

For example, my daughter’s favorite way is to add 2 tbsp. of fresh pineapple juice per bottle when I decant it. The gingery pineapple soda is delightful!

There will likely be a little sediment at the bottom of the bottles - that’s from the ginger and lemon. Don’t worry about that, it’s perfectly normal and you can drink it just fine!

 

Next up in the series of healthy “sodas” - probiotic, natural, gluten-free root beer!

Pin It

Healthy Sodas? Is that even possible? YES!

I have told you about our relatively new found love for water kefir before, but I have been experimenting since.

The kids and I are perfectly fine with juice based water kefirs, but my husband continues to be a bonified soda drinker, all be it with the soda fountain. He has given up the caffeine soda a couple of years ago, but his favorite drink continues to be coca cola, dr. pepper and root beer.

I have been on a mission to at the very least reduce his chemically based soda intake, so I have been experimenting with making a healthier form of “soft drink” to at least tempt him to try other things!

Since the base of the water kefir is relatively neutral, it really does lend itself to a variety of options. The Cola one is the most work intensive, but it is also the one that can be played with and adjusted to your personal preferences.

The initial ingredients I started to experiment with, were from a variety of websites and suggestions. Many of them included essential oils, but that didn’t work well in a water kefir application. So, I went with this recipe from the New York Times and adjusted it some!

Sounds quite spicy and more medicinal, doesn’t it?

I expected it to be somewhere between a Christmas cookie and a Root beer on the flavor scale. And I don’t really like Root beer all that much, even though the rest of my family loves it. Having been raised in Europe, Root beer tastes like cough syrup to me, conjuring images of being sick as a child. Not exactly that enjoyable, even though after all these years, I am starting to warm to it a little more!

But I know it’s a big thing in the USA! You even float ice cream in it and call it a treat! *shudders*

But I digress! Well, not entirely - I will also show you how to make natural, good-for-you water kefir that tastes like Root beer!  And this one does actually taste like the real thing!

Anyway, back to the Cola syrup!

Amazingly, some way, somehow, once the syrup is done, and fermented for that second time with the water kefir - it definitely reminds me of the flavor of ... Cola! 

Does it taste like Coca Cola/Pepsi?  Definitely not! It’s different!  It’s better! It’s homemade, with wholesome ingredients and no artificial anything added.

Since we are not using any kind of food coloring or caramel color, this syrup is a lot lighter in color than we are used to.

 

 

Cola Syrup

Grated zest of 2 medium organic oranges

Grated zest of 1 large organic lime

Grated zest of 1 large organic lemon

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg,  freshly grated

1 section of a star anise pod, crushed

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

1 one-and-a-half-inch piece vanilla bean, split

1/4 teaspoon organic citric acid (personally I prefer 1/2 tsp)

1 cup organic evaporated cane sugar

1/2 cup organic brown sugar

2 cups of water + 2 tbsp..

1. In a heavy pot over medium heat, bring 2 cups water to a simmer with the zests, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, lavender, ginger, vanilla and citric acid. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

2. In a non-stick pan, bring 1 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar and 2 tbsp. water to a boil. Slowly caramelize the sugar, JUST until it turns a DARK brown. When it starts to smell ever so slightly burnt, but isn’t actually really burnt just yet, you’re there! Take it off the heat immediately and slowly and very carefully add it to the hot syrup, a little at the time, stirring constantly.

If you are not comfortable with handling all this boiling hot stuff, you can caramelize the sugar ahead of time, pour it onto a lightly greased sheet and let it cool. It will be like hard candy once it’s cooled and you can break it into pieces and add them to the boiling mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugar chards.

Then add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve.

 

Alternatively, you can forgo the whole caramelizing step all together and just add the sugars right to the water and spices. It will taste slightly different as the caramelization and the “almost burnt” sugar add a flavor note, but if you’re going for quick and easy, this is the way!

 

3. Line a sieve or colander with a double thickness of cheesecloth and place over a bowl. Pour the contents of the pot through the sieve. Carefully gather up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist the top to close. Use a spoon to press the bundle against the sieve, squeezing out all the flavorful syrup.

4. Stir the syrup and let cool. Transfer to containers with a lid and keep refrigerated.

 

 

 

Water Kefir - First Ferment

4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or bottled water)

1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar

10 organic raisins or so

1 organic lemon wedge (1/4 of a small lemon)

1.5 tbsp. water Kefir Grains

 

In a mason jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.

Add the kefir grains, lemon wedge and raisins.

Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 36 hours.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, you’re kefir is ready.

Remove the raisins and lemon wedge, strain out the water kefir grains.

Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch.

 

Combining The Two - Second Ferment

4 cups of water kefir (grains strained out)

1 cup of Cola Syrup

 

Combine the two and bottle in swing top bottles. Leave the bottles to ferment at room temperature for at least 24 hrs., burping them once or twice. Once you have achieved the desired level of fizziness, refrigerate the bottles.

 

And there you have it! A healthy probiotic drink, very reminiscent of Cola! And it has nothing artificial or chemical in it! And no gluten!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Incidentally, if you don’t really care about the food color (gluten) and artificial flavor aspects and just want to make probiotic cola - this flavor concentrate makes a pretty mean cola soda that tastes a lot like store brand Cola!

 

To make it with the flavor concentrate, do the first ferment as described above.

For the second ferment, you will need:

 

4 cups strained water kefir

1 tsp cola extract (for a gluten free cola extract, try Lorann’s Cola Flavor Concentrate and use 1/4 tsp)

2 tbsp. organic evaporated cane sugar (More if you like it sweeter - the second ferment will feed on the sugar and some of the sweetness will go away, but you need at least 2 tbsp. to feed the ferment!)

 

Mix everything together in a jar/jug and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Pour into flip-top bottles and let ferment at room temperature for at least 24 hrs., burping them about once a day. Once you have achieved the desired level of fizziness, refrigerate the bottles.

 

Next up in the series of healthy “sodas” - Ginger Ale!

Pin It