Craving more spaghetti / homemade bread

[TEB]

Have sauce with onions peppers in sauce on low with ground burger and Italian sausages we can snack all day.

I always wanted to try make homemade bread. But have always talked myself out of it. Today my mother in law sister they are staying with us at moment. This fine lady is gonna help me hold my hand and teach me. On how to make homemade bread then I’m gonna slice it and cover it. In garlic butter to have with the spaghetti.

[SamKnause]

1. Have fun.

Best of luck.

I just took 2 packs of ground round out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw.

Chili spaghetti on the future menu:


Cook a pot of chili with or without beans.

Cook a pot of spaghetti.


Top spaghetti with chili, cheese (your choice: I prefer extra sharp cheddar), onions (optional), hot sauce (optional).

Garlic bread.

[TEB]

4. Sounds delicious

I’m gonna try this because I love chili you know Sam I may add sour cream as well with cheese

Hey Sam bet this would be good with rice like Spanish rice but thank you my friend for recipe

[SamKnause]

7. This is just my personal opinion but I think sour cream

and Spanish rice go better with a taco flavored meat.


I add a pack of taco seasoning in my white rice while it is cooking.

I brown ground chuck, onions, green peppers (optional), tomato sauce (fresh tomatoes during season),

taco seasoning.

Mix rice and meat mixture together.

Then I add gobs of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese and mix again.

Top with sour cream.

Top with fresh tomatoes (optional)

Top with shredded lettuce (optional)

[TEB]

8. Thanks Sam

And yes you were correct on taco meat and sour cream

[SamKnause]

9. Enjoy

[Ohiogal]

2. What time is dinner?

I can bring 3 hungry men and a hungry Lab, better make extra!

[TEB]

3. Come on over

[SWBTATTReg]

5. Have fun making the bread. It is fun, and if you mess up, so what? Just save some of the ...

yeast from batch to batch and that way, you'll have more yeast later (I suggest this since yeast is now hard to get, from what I'm reading, thank goodness I have some on the side already (yeast)).

And if the bread isn't good enough to eat (by your standards), the birds and other critters would like the leftovers too. Fortunately most of my bread has turned out pretty good, except for one time, the bread didn't rise as much (kind of like a flattened loaf of bread, if you can imagine, mashed flat like a pancake. I got a good laugh out of it).

[TEB]

6. Thank you friend

[eleny]

10. Please clarify something for me...

Do you just take some of the rising dough and set it aside and use it as the yeast for your next loaf? If I understood you, how much of the risen dough do you set aside? Thx!

[SWBTATTReg]

11. Sorry so late getting back to you on. Yes, and you can propagate / extend that when you're ready...

I usually set aside roughly 2 tablespoons or so, but you can set aside any amount, since you can propagate the amount you saved from before constantly until you get enough for the job you need, e.g., bread or pizza dough (enough for a large pizza, for example).

The biggest thing is to always remember to set aside 1-2 tablespoons automatically. That way, you get into a routine of having yeast always around.

Does this help? This is a pretty neat little trick that I picked up, I think from my grandmother. She didn't live close to town, so the yeast propagation method she relayed to me was a neat trick, you just have to get into the habit.

[TEB]

13. Yes my wife's aunt did so

[SWBTATTReg]

14. I even make wine so I always have yeast around, but w/ the wine yeast (it's mostly bread...

yeast I use, you can use other varieties of yeast for wines), you have to have quite a bit of the liquid wine mixture in your flour etc. (if you are making dough), you can do, and it's not too terribly bad, and if anything, it gives the dough/bread an unique flavor.

I do it sometimes for the heck of it, and just plain fun of something different. I didn't recommend this at first to you, but then I changed my mind. The wine does keep a heck of a lot longer than the yeast flour mixture (I always kept some old wine in the fridge too, corked variety, not metal capped, you want it to breath a little), and I always added to, if I had a piece of old fruit, I updated the ongoing wine mixture in the fridge.

[eleny]

15. There's a recent thread here in C&B about making yeast for bread from dried fruit

I want to try this because the resulting sourdough bread has a milder flavor.

The thread
https://www.democraticunderground.com/115790532

[SWBTATTReg]

17. Thanks! It's funny and wierd, because I was just wondering if I should use the rest of my sour...

cream in my next batch of bread (to use it up before it spoils)...your timing is perfect! (your sourdough bread info.). I do have dried fruit too, that I'll use up to, to propagate some more yeast, I was going to use the dried fruit for something, but can't remember for what recipe, so its time to use!

By the way, I looked at the recipe above (in your post), I've seen and used before, it is a good recipe, and it is easy to do/use. Kind of like the ongoing wine mix I keep in the fridge, you keep the yeast mix going literally forever, just keep adding to it over the years. I've had some in the fridge for over 10 years.

I have special lids for my yeast mix (stored in a mason jar for example) when I make, that allow the excess gases to escape (a little curly cue glass thing, with water, inserted into a hole on a typical lid for a bottle. You can get these (I don't about now) at a wine making supply house.

Be safe.

[eleny]

19. I found a stellar deal for the bottles used in the video

Walmart online, of all places. They should be here soon. I can always open the bottle every day or so to keep gases escaping safely.

I'm glad Major Nikon's thread is helpful. He posted a follow up, too.

[Major Nikon]

22. With traditional methods of feeding natural yeast with flour, there's various ways of doing it

With these methods there's several naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria you will culture. Yeasts that tend to lower ph and produce sour notes reproduce better in a culture with low hydration. Yeasts that do not lower ph culture better in higher hydration environments.

How and what you feed your culture with has the most to do with how the final product is going to taste. San Francisco style sourbread will typically keep the starter at around a 50% hydration level which is 50% water to flour ratio by weight. French style natural yeast breads will typically keep the starter at around 100% hydration level which is equal parts water and flour by weight.

You can bounce back and forth between the two. If you have a sour culture you can increase the hydration level and after a few days of feeding your bread will no longer taste sour.

[eleny]

16. Thanks

So all you need is the 2 tablespoons for a single new loaf? I usually only make one loaf at a time. So that would be a great way to save my stash of granular yeast from the grocery store.

[SWBTATTReg]

18. Yes, as long as you allow it to propogate long enough to duplicate itself...Yeast especially is

pretty forgiving and easy to use. If you need to, add more warm water, a little sugar, more flour and go again.

I made wine for probably 20+ years and so the tricks to propagate yeast from one batch of wine to the next year's wine batch (or whenever I had excess fruit in the Kitchen) becomes second hand in nature, because I didn't want to pay a fortune to buy the yeast, although my parents would have paid for everything I used when I made the homemade wine. Hah ha.

[eleny]

20. Oh, I get it now

Those spoons of dough are a starter that you need to feed. Except that you aren't exactly starting from scratch.

Your story brought back to mind when, many years ago, a friend and I visited one afternoon with her brother in law. Kenny made his own cherry wine and we tried some. He warned me to be very careful because his cherry wine had the reputation of sneaking up behind you later and clobbering you from behind. So we tread lightly!

Take care and you stay safe, too.

[SWBTATTReg]

21. Yes. I'm sorry I diddled and dawled in getting to that point, my writing skills need work.

Yes, homemade wine (and brandy, etc.) all have a kick to them. No wonder my parents loved my homemade wine. I'd get home one evening late, and they would be sitting in the LR, watching TV, w/ a goofy smile on their faces, w/ a almost empty bottle of my homemade wine sitting on the table between them.

What a memory and good laugh. Both of them are gone now but the fond memories are still there. And what a funny fact you mentioned about the cherry wine, that was what initially got me started in making wine, my neighbor and I shared a cherry tree between our properties, and he would make wine out of the cherries, and taught me his recipe (the yeast, the wine recipe). Neat!

Take care!

[Major Nikon]

23. You can also stretch your yeast by simply not using as much

The less yeast you use, the longer it will take for the dough to double or triple. So long as you are patient this is of no consequence and the longer it takes to rise the more flavor the dough will develop.

A packet of yeast usually has about 2 1/4 tsp of yeast. Using a whole packet will typically give you around 2 hours of fermentation time to double or triple. You can use 1/4 tsp of yeast and it will take overnight to double or triple. Once you get the timing down it works out better as the dough can be ready to form into a loaf and proof the first thing in the morning.

[eleny]

24. That's the only way I've been making breaad - no knead with 1/4 tsp

And if I'm in a hurry and want to make it the same day I use 1/2 tsp. I do like to give it a second rise on the counter and third in the bread pan. Great flavor.

[flying rabbit]

12. This thread is delicious