Back to Basics Cooking

Food dehydration is not just for prunes and raisins any more. Thanks to advances in technology, dehydrating foods at home has become easier than ever, allowing you to lock in food's nutritional value while eliminating the water content that causes foods to grow bacteria and mold. Drying foods also gives you a source of raw, nutrient-rich food that is easily available and requires no additional preparation. The Complete Guide to Drying Foods at Home provides you with all the information necessary for drying fruits, vegetables, meats, herbs, grains, and even dairy products. This book will provide you with instructions on how to dry foods using a food dehydrator and will also offer you simpler alternatives for how to dehydrate foods using an oven, microwave, or even the sun. You will learn what equipment you need to get started and how to properly store your food to ensure optimal freshness. This book also provides you with recipes for any meal of the day. Drying your foods will not only provide you with timesaving options for ways to prepare your meals, it will also allow you to reduce the amount of food you throw out each month. We have spent hundreds of hours interviewing dozens of experts who will provide you with all the information you need to start dehydrating your foods. This book is filled with delicious recipes and practical tips to help you and your family enjoy the economic and health benefits that dehydrated foods offer.

With rising food costs, the resurgence of at-home gardening, and the potential storing your own food presents, it is no wonder that freezing, drying, and canning are becoming more popular. This book will show anyone interested in storing food how to do so, optimizing the amount of money you can save and minimizing your risk of damaging food or spreading foodborne illnesses. You will learn how to grow for harvest and how to subsequently handle that harvest with this book's crop-by-crop guide of everything that you might possibly want to store away. You will learn how freezing works and how to go about organizing your frozen goods. In addition to freezing, you will learn about canning and preserving and how each technically works and what problems you may encounter. All of the equipment you may need is laid out in easy to read charts and you will be shown the various final products you can expect. Experts in food preservation and storage have contributed to this book and we've included their advice to help you understand what you will be able to accomplish with your preserved foods. Learn how to create jellies and jams, pickle vegetables and fruits, dehydrate foods, juice your foods after storage, and even how to create a simple root cellar for long-term storage. No matter your situation, this guide will help you learn how to store vegetables and fruits and to understand how you can use them.

Since the earliest human civilizations in the west, milk has been gathered from domesticated animals such as the goat, sheep, and cow to create a wide variety of high protein and tasty foods including cheese, butter, and yogurt. With more than 3,000 kinds of cheese registered to the FDA and dozens of different recipes for butter and yogurt available, many people see great opportunities both to save money and to make a little profit in creating their own milk based products. The secret to making these products all lies in the recipes you have and the steps you take though. This book was written to provide every prospective cheese, butter, or yogurt maker the tools they need to prepare, create, and enjoy their favorite dairy products from the comfort of their home. You will learn everything you need to know about the various dairy products found in cheeses, butter, and yogurt to start creating your own at-home dairy goods. You will learn which ingredients are used for these assorted dairy products and what at-home equipment you will need to start benefiting from your own recipes. You will learn how to clean and care for your equipment, making sure everything remains sanitary and that your dairy products are always safe. You will learn the myriad of basic techniques necessary to understand the dairy product process, starting with raw milk and continuing until you make any number of soft, hard, or Italian cheeses. Dozens of top cheese makers and home dairy aficionados have been interviewed for this book and provided their experiences with dairy products. You will learn from them and this book the basics of creating queso blanco, fromage blanc, ricotta, feta, cheddar, gouda, Monterey jack, mozzarella, parmesan, and many other cheeses in addition to sour cream, yogurt, and butter. For anyone with a desire to start experimenting with dairy products at home, this book is the ideal starting point.

Wine has been a staple of tables around the world for more than 4,000 years and in that time has developed into one of the most widely recognized and highly cultivated beverages in nearly every civilization on earth. From the rice wines of Asia to the grape wines of Europe or honey wines of Africa, wine is enjoyed by billions. For that reason, many people seek out ways to make and enjoy their own wine from the comfort of their homes, growing their own grapes and experimenting with a wide array of ingredients to facilitate one of the world's oldest domestic processes. Yet, without the right instruction and resources, wine making can result in just another pile of sour grapes. This book walks every potential winemaker through every process necessary in creating and enjoying wine from the comfort of your own home. From the basics of distillation to the ingredients used, homemade wine can be on your table and wowing your guests in no time. You will learn all of the basics of home wine making, starting with the wide array of ingredients available to you, including grapes and berries. You will learn what all is required to start and operate a home winery and what you may be missing right now. The basic aspects of all red wines and white wines will be detailed for you, giving you every bit of information you need to fully understand how the body and bouquet of each wine is supposed to taste and feel. You will learn how the grapes are pressed and how long you must wait between the pressing, the addition of other ingredients, and the bottling of the wine. We have also included a 16 page color insert that features pictures from various and the wine making process. For this book, more than a hundred wine makers, winery owners, and home wine experts were interviewed to gain a general overview of how wine making is done, with details about the difference between each wine, the right mixture of ingredients, the better wine taste, and the testing and trying of new things in each bottle. You will learn how to measure and affect the sulfur dioxide levels in your wine and ultimately how to take control of every aspect of your wines, from taste to dryness to odor and color. Everything you could possibly want to know about wine making and much more is presented in this complete guide for anyone with an eye for the hobby.

According to the New York Times, a grassroots phenomenon has fueled the revival of craft beers in America over the past 30 years. You might have tried a great beer recently and want to know how to create something similar. With the various innovative methods outlined in this book, brewing like the pros is now easier than ever. The Complete Guide to Brewing Your Own Beer at Home will explain the important differences between equipment pieces and make your experienced streamlined so you can avoid common beginner mistakes. You will be able to start small and gradually learn to make more complex ales, lagers, and stouts over time, all while having a fun experience. This book will guide any prospective brewmaster through the process of making a unique brew - from inception to first pour. Making your own beer has many advantages, starting with the low cost and the control you have over the maturity, strength, types, and volume of your creation. All of the rules and guidelines for homebrewing have been laid out. Learn about hops, malts, and barley and why these three ingredients can make or break your beer. You will learn about each piece of equipment you will need, how different amounts of yeast will affect your beer, which grains and malts to use, and where you can buy your own depending on needs and location. By the end of your journey, you will have a tasty creation to call your own.

For more than 8,000 years humans have been preserving meat and fish through canning, curing, smoking, and freezing. This book will show any potential meat preserver how to go about the process of storing meat for long term use in a variety of methods, while constantly keeping an eye to the possibility of food borne illness and the loss of freshness. You will learn everything you need to know to start the process of setting aside and preserving your meat, fish, and game. Starting with a series of charts and basic details about different kinds of meat and fish, from venison to beef to salmon, you will learn which animal products store best with which methods, which methods must be avoided, and which diseases are the greatest risk when you store meat. With this information in hand, you will start learning how the freezing, canning, curing, and smoking processes work. You will be given detailed outlines of each process starting with what equipment you will need. Experts in meat preservation have been interviewed and their insights have been included here to provide a detailed and full overview of everything you can expect in the process. From these interviews, you will start the process of understand what you need to effectively preserve meat products. No matter what kind of animal you are preserving, this book will provide the details you need to effectively store the meat for later use.