Carbonation

Carbonation. We all know it happens. But do we talk about it much? Well, maybe beer geeks do.
I recently had someone on Google Plus circle me, found out I post about beer and food and quickly uncircle me. They were looking for more "Science" posts. But what happens in beer making IS science. The exchange of ions, the fermentation process. the transformation of proteins and sugars. Mmm...beer.
Ok, so I decided to take a little more "sciency...sciencey...science..ee...?" approach today. Lets talk about carbonation.
My beer is currently undergoing fermentation. The yeast that I put in the beer is changing sugars to alcohol. A byproduct of that is CO2. (Hey, can we find a scientific notation app for Blogger???)
Now note in the video that when we ferment, we allow that CO2 to escape.

Yes, I know, I know, "Why do you let it escape if you need the beer to carbonate anyway?"
I let the gas escape, because far too much CO2 would be produced and my whole bucket of beer would go...boom. It's what happens when you build up a lot of gas in a confined space. I don't want my beer to be evil, so, I set my CO2 free.
AFTER the fermentation has been done and I let the beer rest for awhile - it's hard work making alcohol after all, I then put the beer in bottles. In the bottles is a teeeny tiiiiny amount of yeast that was left in the bucket after fermentation. It's all I need. I add a measured amount of sugar to the bottles too.
Now what do you think happens when the yeast and the sugar come together in the same environment again? You've got it, they start cha-cha ing. Even as tired as that yeast is, it still has enough dance moves left to produce more CO2 even if it doesn't have enough to produce more alcohol. Just enough in fact, to carbonate those bottles nicely. Yes, the CO2 IS the carbonation that makes the bottle go HISS when you pop the cap off.
In the end, you have a lovely, bubbly bottle of ale or lager to enjoy at your leisure.

Meal in a Can

I recall quite vividly the last time that I was too tired to cook. Too tired to bake fish, to steam veg, to dust potatoes artfully with paprika and salt. Too tired to wait 3 hours for a roast. It was yesterday. I have learned, therefore, to be prudent when I do have the energy to do these things.

I buy whole fish on sale. I buy large cuts of meat for buy one get one prices. I use veggies and herbs from the garden. This year has been good to us, all the newly planted herbs survived, the mint, the sage, the marjoram, the thyme, the lemon balm, the parsley, the basil. We had a bumper crop of container snow peas!

The difference this year, is that I looked at the prices for ziploc baggies. Which for some reason have gone sky high! It galls me to use baggies anyway. All that plastic going to waste..and I started thinking, "Hey, plenty of freezer space. I have quart jars. What if I just froze a meal in a canning jar? A quart jar can usually contain enough food for one to two people. So this is what I did.

Tonight I cooked a whole salmon. Marinated it in apple cider vinegar, sprinkled it with salt and paprika, rubbed olive oil all over it, and stuffed it with sage and mint. That fish turned out really tasty! After we had dinner, I was still left with enough servings for six people. I put two servings of fish in a quart size canning jar with a wide mouth, then two handfuls of snow peas, and sliced potatoes on top of that.

The next time I stop work or school, weary unto death and think "I do NOT want to slice a potato tonight." I will remember that lovely fish meal and break out the can from the freezer. I'll dump the entire contents into a square baking dish, top with with some butter or instant sauce, bake it for 20 to 25 minutes at 350F and I won't have to worry whether my meal is going to cause me to die of cancer or give me high blood pressure from the amount of salt and preservatives that went into it.

I still have an entire crate of quart jars..and a whole shoulder of lamb.......