REMEDIES AND RECIPES

     ELDERFLOWER WINE
  To one gallon of warm water ( about body temp.) add one quart of elderberry flowers. Remove the flowers from the stems, you will have a few stems no matter what, but as few as possible.   Add the zest of two lemons. I have used that dried or candied lemon peel if I couldn't lay my hands on two actual lemons. You will have to guess as to how much to use. Save the juice of the lemons, you need it later. If you didn't have lemons you're stuck with using the bottled stuff. You can also substitute limes. Cover and let sit for 24-36 hours. Strain everything out and put the resulting fluid in you fermentor. Add the juice of the lemons, 2 1/2 pounds of sugar  and champagne yeast. I usually make this in five gallon batches. If it turns out as good as it usually does you will wish you had 100 gallons. Just multiply every thing by how ever many gallons you are making. Good Luck.

                        Basic wine recipe
      Fruit. After removing stems, dirt, bugs, etc. mash the fruit.
     Water. Add warm water equal to the amount of mashed fruit.
     Cover and let this mash set 24 to 48 hours,then strain out fruit.
      For each gallon of juice after straining, add 4 pounds of sugar.
      Don't have any sugar? Substitute a equal amount of honey, now call it mead instead of wine!
      I have used maple syrup also. You could use corn syrup also.
     Yeast, I have made many gallons of wine and mead without adding any yeast. The best fruits for this are fruits that have that white blush on them which is yeast. This is experimental wine making, you might get vinegar instead. If you want more control use wine yeast, add one packet for about five gallons.
 You need to somehow seal the vessel your wine is fermenting in. This is what a air lock does, it lets CO2 produced by the yeast out and keeps O2 from entering. Very Important! I used a piece of tubing with one end in a jar of water and the other sealed to my fermenter with wax for years before getting real air locks. I now use slightly better equipment than in years gone by. I have a couple big glass carboys that are nice if you can get them and air locks are nice too. Other than that keep your wine where it is comfortably warm and your wine should start fermenting in a few days. It can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months for it to finish fermenting. When it quiets making bubbles and there is a layer of sediment at the bottom siphon into to bottles. CAREFUL I now have a tester and my last batch of elder flower wine tested at 24% , that would be 48 proof!

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                                       Maple syrup cured bacon
  Per slab of bacon you need

  *     one pound of salt
  *     one pint of maple syrup or you can use honey
  *    enough cure ( sodium nitrite ) for the amount of bacon by weight (  see note below )
  Mix the salt and cure together and rub thoroughly into the bacon covering every nick and cranny. Really rub it on there! After it is rubbed on gently pour on the syrup covering all parts of the bacon. Now wrap the bacon in coated freezer paper and store at 38F. for three days.
   The bacon is then removed from the cooler and washed in slightly warm water, remove all surface salt and syrup. Let bacon dry at room temp for about a hour and then put in preheated smokehouse at about 135F.
Smoke with damper wide open for about an hour then close damper to about 1/4 . Maintain temp and smoke until you have internal temp on bacon of at least 128F. Reduce smokehouse temp to 120F.  and continue to smoke until desired color is reached. Let cool before slicing.  I use maple wood for smoking bacon. See my post on home page for more info.

    A note about meat cure.  I see I have several readers from other countries so I don't know if this product is available.  The product I am referring to is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite  at a concentration of 6.25% and is colored pink. It is used at the rate of 4 ounces per 100 pounds of meat. I buy mine here...............
    www.butcher-packer.com but there are many other places to buy it. It is also called prague powder # 1.



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 Here is a remedy/ recipe for cough syrup that we use.

 I have listed the ingredients by parts and by the measurement I use. ( by weight )                                          about a pint of honey,amount may vary
3 parts black cherry inner bark                     1 ounce
3 parts mullein leaf                                       1 ounce
1 1/2 parts yarrow                                       1/2 ounce
1 1/2 parts red clover blossoms                    1/2 ounce
1 1/2 parts echinacea root                            1/2 ounce
1 1/2 parts chick weed                                 1/2 ounce
1 part lobelia                                                1/3 ounce
1 part fresh ginger root                                 1/3ounce
  for flavoring
1tsp.whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 ounce horehound
   Combine all ingredients except cherry bark and honey in a crock pot with 1 1/2 quarts of water. Simmer on low overnight.Strain off i morning and cool the liquid. ( you should have around a pint)  Grind cherry bark and soak in cool liquid over night.Warm slightly ( do not boil as it will cause cherry bark to lose its cough suppressing property ). Strain and add a equal amount of honey. Bottle.

Latin names of herbs used
 black cherry...........................Prunus serotina
 mullein....................................Verbascum thapsus
 red clover...............................Trifolium pratense
 echinacea................................Echinacea angustifolia
 chickweed..............................Stellaria media
lobelia......................................Lobelia inflata


 Please assume all of the usual stuff such as that this is not medical advice of any sort and that this recipe is provided for entertainment purposes onl

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A very good pork breakfast sausage recipe. NOT CURED_ MUST BE FROZEN
for 10 pounds of pork, use leaner pieces. Grind the meat through a 3/16 grinder plate and mix in all the spices.

5 tbsp. salt
1tbsp. ground pepper
2tbsp. rubbed sage
1tsp. ground ginger
1tsp.nutmeg
1tbsp. thyme
  this is a tasty sausage but if you want you can add 1tbsp. ground hot red pepper.
  If you want to stuff this in a casing, add 1 pint of water, or leave it as patty sausage which is what we do.
 A good source of meat cuing supplies can be found at  www.butcher-packer.com  they will send a paper catalog if requested.

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 Homemade Laundry Soap....you have to buy the ingredients but it came out much cheaper for us and seems to work fine.
  1/3 bar FelsNaptha soap-3oz.
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax
bucket that will hold 2 gallons

Grate soap bar into pan and add 6 cups of water. Heat until soap melts. Add washing soda and borax, stir until dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups of hot water in bucket, add soap,soda,borax mixture. Add an additional 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let set 24 hours to gel. Use 1/2 cup per load.

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For all of you that love Nuttella but just cannot get past the price in the store. This recipe uses the wild hazelnuts or black walnuts that we gathered this past year, and is soooo much better than the store kind. Now lets get cracking!

You will need:
1 cup of toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup powered sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons oil

To toast the nuts place on cookie sheet and put in 250 degree oven and toast for 10-15 minutes, they will brown somewhat. Cool. Place hazelnuts into food processor and blend until they turn into a butter (about 3-4 minutes). Add remaining ingredients and continue to blend until smooth and creamy. If you are using black walnuts you will need more oil to get that creamy texture. Store in the refrigerator, will keep for a month or two (if it makes it that long)
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