The Book and My Kitchen

I was listening to a podcast of the Splendid Table recently (the show for people who love to eat, as they always remind me) and Lynne was interviewing Ken Albala.  He was talking about how there is wild yeast everywhere, in the air, on our fruit, etc., and how you don't really need to use commercially produced yeast to make bread.  You can just set some food out for the yeast and they will come to you.  Mr. Albala is the co-author, with Rosanna Nafziger, of The Lost Art of Real Cooking.  I had recently decided that all cookbooks and such things are going to be previewed via the public library before purchase so I placed a hold and got the book pretty quickly.

This book is amazing.  And I just want to be clear that no one is asking me to promote this book, or paying me or any such other nonsense.  The book just blew my socks off.  The basic premise of the book is that we have gotten very far away from cooking (and subsequently eating) the way our not-too-distant ancestors did.  The authors advocate and delineate the pleasures and benefits of preparing food without small appliances and from super scratch.  Like growing your own yeast.  Which I am currently doing.  Here is an early picture of my flour and water (and now yeast) slurry:

It has since gotten much bigger.  I started it last Wednesday (3/23) and I'm going to try baking some bread with it this weekend.  You know I'll update you eventually on the results.  I also roasted a whole chicken while my mom and sister were visiting and made stock from the bones and skin and some previously collected vegetable peelings.  I've made stock before, but this book advocates cooking the stock (below a simmer: apparently simmering or boiling stock is what makes it cloudy) at least overnight.  So I took a leap of faith and left the stove on with a pot of soon-to-be-stock on it overnight.  And the house didn't burn down.  Woo hoo!  Here's a picture of it before I went to bed for the night:

To be clear, this book is not for the faint of heart or those of you who are looking for a quick weeknight meal (or, realistically, those of you with small children, or maybe any children).  The yeast slurry (what is actually pretty much a sourdough starter) must be fed and watered every night.  Every night.  As a result, I think I have more than a gallon of the stuff.  And I need to find people to give it away to.  Would you like some?  I can bring it over, if you live within a 50 mile radius.  The chicken stock involved bones and skin and the sort of things that most people who still eat meat seem to try to avoid.  But I also feel really connected to the foods that I'm making.  I talk to my starter every night, and sometimes I hug the crock that it lives in.  Truly.  I know it sounds a little bit crazy, but it's true.

So if you have any interest in this very back to the basics approach to food, check out this book. It's definitely heavy on an omnivorous diet, there's a lot about meat and dairy (the glory of cultured butter, making your own yogurt and so on) but there are a few other gems, like making dill pickles the old way (no canning required), rumtopf and a few other surprises.  I loved it so much and talked about it so much, that my lovely girlfriend surprised me with it and a nylon whisk.  That girl really knows me.  And she likes the results, too.