Accomplishments: Shiitake, candle
Jan. 6th, 2019 05:04 pmToday I cooked with fresh shiitake mushrooms for the first time (and I've only used dried ones once before, I think.) I roasted them with sweet potatoes, olive oil, red wine, salt, black pepper, and thyme, then blended it all fairly smooth. Pretty nice! The mushroom is mostly a background flavor, where it belongs. :-P
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This weekend I also took the fatty bits from some goat loin chop that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elusiveat cooked, chopped them up fine, and boiled them with water. Once it was cool, I took off the fat layer, reheated it, and strained out the chunks. Then I prepped a wick (taken from a candle dismantled for other purposes) and the metal wick tether from a used up tealight, poured in the tallow, and let it set. I made a candle!
(The stored energy of the tallow is offset by the energy that went into rendering the fat, but this was an experiment, and if we had been making stock with the leftovers, that energy would have been "free". We have some beef tallow from a while back that we acquired that way.)
The candle sputters a bit, so I guess I didn't separate out the water as well as I could have. I might set it on the stove next time I bake something to remelt it. Maybe I can get some of the water to separate out at the bottom.
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This weekend I also took the fatty bits from some goat loin chop that
elusiveat cooked, chopped them up fine, and boiled them with water. Once it was cool, I took off the fat layer, reheated it, and strained out the chunks. Then I prepped a wick (taken from a candle dismantled for other purposes) and the metal wick tether from a used up tealight, poured in the tallow, and let it set. I made a candle!(The stored energy of the tallow is offset by the energy that went into rendering the fat, but this was an experiment, and if we had been making stock with the leftovers, that energy would have been "free". We have some beef tallow from a while back that we acquired that way.)
The candle sputters a bit, so I guess I didn't separate out the water as well as I could have. I might set it on the stove next time I bake something to remelt it. Maybe I can get some of the water to separate out at the bottom.
