Back to Basics with Power Tools

Soapbox of the month post . . .

Had an interesting conversation with Tim Whittaker this past Saturday. He was watching a program, where they were taking various ingredients, and then asking the audience what it made. What were the ingredients?

Water, high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oil, polysorbate 60, sodium caseinate, sorbitan monostearate, xanthan and guar gums.

Before you guess, here are some hints...hydrogentated coconut and palm kernel give the product a 'creamy' taste, polysorbate 60 (a chemical precursor to anti-freeze) and sodium casainate keep the oil and water mixed, sorbitan monosteatate is a synthetic wax sometimes used in hemorrhoid cream that prevents the magical product from liquifying in the refrigerator, xanthan and guar gums are used as thickeners and to prevent ice crystals from forming in the product.

Know what it is yet? If you guessed 'Cool Whip', you win. Yes, I know there wasn't any diary product on the list - that's because Cool Whip is a NON-dairy creamer.

Considering some whipping cream and a little sugar in a mixer for 3 minutes makes a product that is far superior in taste (do I have to explain that one), cost (1/2 the price of the whipped 'air'), and health (high fructose corn syrup has been proven the fastest way to become obese) - I had to ask myself what other things do we do that would make my great grandmothers go "What are you thinking?"

So looking back over my past posts on making butter, soap, and canning, I realize I need a new category called 'Basics', where I explore various experiments in 19th century ways of doing things with the help of a KitchenAid mixer or other power tools.

Pickling Cucumbers

I know this looks a little disturbing, but I pickled some cucumbers. It just turns out that I didn't have enough regular vinegar, and too much balsamic vinegar - so the cucumbers are a bit brownish. We'll see how they turn out.

Soap Making

Sorry for the horrible picture, I'll try to find another one - but you get the idea.

After a suggestion from Tom Blake at work, I went ahead and made a couple of bars of homemade soap. Instructions can be found here, but the basic idea is take some fat (olive oil and Crisco), add some lye mixed with water(careful with that step), and then beat the heck out of it until it starts to thicken. Pour in molds and wait for it to do its thing.

I did go ahead and 'superfat' the soap with jojoba oil. Basically, once the soap thickens you can add a little special fat at the end to give the soap some other characteristics. In this case, the soap is really good to wash your face now.

And with most of these things, you can add and experiment until your heart's content - and there are tons of recipes on the internet for special types of soap (e.g. oatmeal, shaving, laundry, etc.)