Inspired by stug's food writing, I am also going to talk about food.
Pre-refrigerator/supermarket food was always a mystery to me, given how what
you get from the supermarket goes bad after a week in the fridge.
Shockingly, historic foods are cheap, easy, delicious, reliable and stay
good without a fridge (generally because they are living ecosystems, unlike
supermarket sterile nutrient slurries). I am going to mention country wines,
bread starter and sauerkraut.
To make a country wine, chop up fresh fruit that has been rinsed as opposed
to thoroughly washed. Its yeasts live on its skin while the fruit is fresh.
Fill a big pot with such. If the fruit wasn't very sweet (lemons), add a cup
/ few cups of sugar or raisins to compensate. Fill it up with water. More
fruit is better than more water. There should not be much air at the top.
Cover the top tightly with some kind of plastic wrap. Even though it's
plastic I like this because you see it inflate dramatically over the next
3-5 days. A jar also works. Give it a shake or open it and give it a stir
morning and evening, resealing carefully. Mixing up the surface stops mould
from successfully invading. Once you notice the plastic wrap swelling
dramatically I stop mixing it since the yeast culture must be very dominant
at that point. Around days 5-7 strain the liquid into another pot, and then
pour it into glass or plastic screw-top bottles and stow them in your fridge
or another cool place they can relax long term. They will still be
fermenting so the lids will have to be loosened to degas them every day or
so for the first little while. Start drinking immediately upon bottling and
get to know the country wine as it matures. Lovely sparkling mildly
alcoholic country wine/lemonade/etc. This is why we have those artificially
carbonated fruit sodas / wine. The reason wine is not always fizzy and is
clear is that the yeast is generally killed and removed and the wine is
agitated to remove its natural carbonation before its final bottling. I
regard country wine/home-made lemonade as the real deal and the bizarre
artificially carbonated sugar drinks or clarified alcohols anathema. When
exposed to air the country wine will gradually become more acidic/turn into
vinegar. As long as the surface is small or regulary disturbed mould can't
invade. Nectarine or peach makes a nice champaigne. Lemons need a lot of
extra sugar/lots of raisins, but real lemonade is lovely. Grapes ferment a
bit slower in my experience, but are great.
Bread starter is just flour that has been kept wet and refed new flour so
its endemic yeast ecosystem is thriving, not dormant. Mix some flour and
water into a paste, then every day replenish one half of it with flour and
water in a different jar, and clean away the rest/first jar. After two weeks
there will be a very reliable yeast ecosystem and instead of discarding half
you can use it to raise doughs. It won't mind if you miss days. If there is
a thin liquid on the top pour it off before scooping your next-jar half. I
use wholemeal flour normally, but variety won't really hurt.
