Most people don’t think about making condiments, like mayonnaise, at home instead of buying them in the grocery store.  But if you can buy it in a grocery store, you can make it at home – and most likely, it will taste better, and be healthier for you.

Try my husband, John’s, homemade mayonnaise.  It is actually fun to make.  It’s something you can teach small children to make, and it is tangy, creamy and delicious.

John’s Homemade Mayo

Place the following ingredients in a glass in this order:

2 egg yolks
Juice of ½ lemon
2 teaspoon white vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
And last add 1 cup of vegetable oil
Let the ingredients sit in the glass for 1 minute
Place a stick blender in the glass
Pulse blender at bottom of glass
As it begins emulsifying, lift stick blender slowly

The mixture will quite suddenly become mayonnaise
It’s almost magical!!
And it makes about one cup

Add to salads and sandwiches.  You will not want to go back to store bought mayo!

Buttermilk Biscuits like Grandma Used to Make

In this age of frozen meals and processed foods, it’s rare to get the quality cuisine of days gone by. But buttermilk biscuits like your Grandma used to make are not as much trouble as you might think. 

Last week, we learned how to make homemade butter.  One of the by-products of the homemade butter is non-cultured buttermilk.  This is ideal for making scrumptious biscuits – the kind you might remember from your childhood.  Try this easy recipe:

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
(Plus more to dust the board)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup non-cultured buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl
Cut butter into chunks
Add butter to flour to make mixture like coarse meal
Add buttermilk and mix til thoroughly combined
Add more milk if needed for desired consistency
Turn out on floured board
Pat dough gently out to ½ inch thick
Fold dough 5 times
Press dough out to 1 inch thick
Use round cutter to cut biscuits
Place on cookie sheet (1 inch apart for crusty biscuits
                                Touching for soft biscuits)

Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown on top

Serve hot with homemade butter

 

Sit back, enjoy, and think of fond memories of Grandma!

You don’t have to own a cow and dig your great-grandma’s butter churn out of the attic to make homemade butter.  With the right ingredients, found in most local communities, you can have melt-in-your-mouth, savory, creamy butter – just like the kind served in fancy restaurants.

Start by buying raw milk from a local dairy.  You can locate the nearest dairy on the internet.  Be sure to check state laws concerning the purchase of raw milk for human consumption.  Let the raw milk sit in your refrigerator for three days.  The cream will separate and rise to the top.

Skim the cream off the top or poke a hole in the container and drain the skim milk from the bottom.  After the cream and milk are separated, let the cream sit out until it reaches a temperature of 58 degrees.  This is very important.  Use a digital thermometer to check the temperature. 

Pour the cream into a stand mixer and mix using the whisk attachment.  Beware of splashing.  Mix on high for several minutes.  You will observe the cream change to whipped cream and then to heavy whipped cream.  Quite suddenly, butter will begin to separate from the liquid.  At that moment stop the mixer, and switch to the kneading attachment, because butter is hard to mix with a whisk.  Mix for a few more minutes until the mixture looks like watery butter.  There will still be a lot of liquid.

Stop mixing.  Place a colander in a bowl.  Pour the mixture into the colander.  The butter will remain in the colander, and the liquid that drains into the bowl will be non-cultured buttermilk.  Place the buttermilk in a pitcher and save for use in other foods. 

Take the butter out of the colander and place it in the bowl.  Now it is time to “wash” the butter.  Fill a pitcher with ice water.  Pour some of the ice water in the bowl and knead the butter.  The water will get cloudy.  Pour the cloudy water out and repeat the process until the water comes out clear and not cloudy.

At this point, you can add salt, honey, garlic, sage or any other herb depending on your taste.  Knead the butter and honey or herbs until thoroughly mixed together.  Pack the butter in a mold or small bowl and serve.  Enjoy on homemade biscuits made from the non-cultured buttermilk that you separated from the butter earlier.  There is nothing like homemade butter!