365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
The Cart, The Horse
Day 223: Sometimes the relative positions of the proverbial Cart and Horse are not easily within our control. I bought an Instant Pot and my initial experiment involved making jasmine rice, a task apparently beyond the skills of the Aroma rice cooker for some reason, and I was so pleased with the results from the IP that I decided to move to a significantly higher level of Pot use: yogurt. I happened to have some Greek yogurt in the fridge to use as a starter, and after reviewing dozens of YouTube videos (most of which prided themselves on being "no-boil" methods requiring ultra-pasteurized milk), I elected to use a "boil" method similar to that in the instructions for my old yogurt-maker. The process was very simple: bring standard whole milk to 180 degrees on "sauté," cool it to 110, add the starter culture and let the Pot do the rest. Eight hours from the time I set the IP to "Yogurt," I had...yes, yogurt. It seemed a bit loose, and in any event, I wanted Greek-style yogurt, so I poured it into a jelly bag and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I had...yogurt cream cheese! Two hours probably would have been sufficient to leave it the consistency of Greek yogurt. Nine hours produced a bagful of the most delicious yogurt cheese imaginable (and salt-free!). This was the Cart, coming well before the Horse of bagels which I just harnessed and brought out of the oven stable. Little backwards there, but in the end, a very tasty lunch, and I can tell you this: I will never buy commercial cream cheese again.
Labels:
bagels,
baking,
cooking,
cream cheese,
Instant Pot,
yogurt
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