Ginger ale -- REAL ginger ale

Ever since I tasted Reeds, I've had a thing for ginger ale.  If all you've ever had is Schweppes or Canada Dry, you're in for a treat.  Real ginger ale is sweet and sour and piquantly spicy all at the same time.  It's anything but the bland, pedestrian soda you sipped as a kid when you were sick (although the ginger in the real stuff may still be good for an upset stomach).

When we lived in Seattle, there was a coffee shop in Freemont that sold homemade ginger ale in unmarked brown glass bottles.  It was good stuff, but I don't know of an equivalent in Durham.  Besides, ever since I got into making wine, I've wanted to try making my own soft drinks.  As it turns out, making soda is far easier than making wine, and you get to enjoy the results a lot faster.

Yes, soda originally involved fermentation with yeast, back in the days before we made machines to force carbon dioxide into liquids under high pressure.  The process is essentially the same as making beer or wine, except the bottle is kept closed to capture the carbon dioxide generated by the yeast, and the fermentation is stopped early, before any significant amount of alcohol is produced.

There are a few tools and ingredients that you need, so I'll get those out of the way first.  Only two or three are truly unusual, so it's really not hard to get started!

• Wine yeast.  People generally recommend Red Star Premier Cuvee, as it ferments fast and clean.  I also tried Lalvin EC1118, but got less carbonation.  The little packets are about $1 each, so it's dead cheap if you have a homebrew store nearby.  If you do mail order, everybody charges $10 in shipping, although American Brewmaster in Raleigh was slightly cheaper.  It is possible to use regular baking yeast to make soda, but it adds some distinctive flavors that, while not terrible, are sort of distracting.  Having tried both, I'd highly recommend springing for the wine yeast.  Store it sealed in plastic in the freezer for up to a year.  Each packet holds enough to make several gallons.
• Food-grade citric acid.  Citric acid is what gives lemons and limes their zing, and what makes many soft drinks pleasantly tart.  You could use real lemon or lime juice, but I think you'd need a cup or two to get the same effect -- kind of a pain.  Many other recipes include cream of tartar (a.k.a. tartaric acid) instead, for "mouth feel", but I can't see that it contributes anything useful -- I think citric acid works much better.  You can get an 8 oz bag of citric acid from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company for $5 and it will last you a lifetime.  Besides, you need to order...
• High thread count cheese cloth.  The "cheese cloth" you find in the grocery store is too open to actually catch much of anything;  the real stuff has a much tighter weave.  Get the 90 thread count Butter Muslin from New England Cheesemaking at the same time you get the citric acid.  A couple layers of this will catch most of the ginger residue when you strain your soda.
• Coffee filters (optional).  Straining the ginger ale through coffee filters removes the fine particles that otherwise make the final product hazy instead of clear.  The cheese cloth is still necessary to first remove 99% of the big chunks that would otherwise clog your coffee filters in an instant.
  
• Four 1L bottles or two 2L bottles.  Get plastic seltzer bottles (1L) or soda bottles (2L), ones that are designed to hold carbonated liquids under pressure.  I prefer the 1L bottles because there's less soda left over to go flat.  (However, bottles will re-pressurize to some extent as they sit in the fridge.)  If you try to use regular spring water bottles, they'll leak or deform or pop.  Plastic is also safer than glass (e.g. beer bottles), because you can feel how much pressure there is by squeezing, instead of taking you best guess and praying nothing explodes.
• Two large pots.  Each should hold a gallon of liquid comfortably.
• A sieve or strainer.  It's much easier if you can suspend this above one of the pots.  The mesh doesn't matter;  you'll line it with coffee filters and/or cheese cloth.
• A funnel and ladle.  For filling the bottles -- trying to pour from the big pot doesn't work so well  :)
• A food processor.  A blender might work in a pinch.  If you have a juicer, I hear this is great for ginger, but I haven't tried it personally.
• An instand-read thermometer.  For measuring the water temperature.  If you don't have one, 100 F feels like warm (but not hot) bathwater.  It's better to be a little under than a little over, because overly hot water will kill the yeast.
• A digital kitchen scale.  You can get by without it, but it makes all your cooking so much easier.  Spend $25 and pick one up from Amazon.  Get one that does at least 5 lbs. in 1/8 oz increments or finer.  You won't regret it.

Now, on to the recipe!  Because you're trying to grow microorganisms in sugar water on your countertop, cleanliness is worth paying attention to, so that you grow the right microorganisms.  But since it's only out for a few days before it goes in the fridge, you don't have to be crazy about, and you certainly don't have to sterilize everything.  A nice wash with soapy water will be just fine.

(3 oz peeled ginger)

In the food processor, combine

1. 3 oz peeled ginger root, or to taste
2. 18 oz granulated sugar (2 1/2 c)

Run the food processor for several minutes, until you have a uniform, light golden paste.  Processing the ginger with the sugar ensures that it gets chopped much finer than it would by itself.  Three ounces of ginger makes a pleasantly zippy ginger ale.  If you like more of a kick, try 6 oz.  I like it that way, though most of my friends don't.  I've tried all the way up to 12 oz, but it just burns your mouth and is no fun to drink.  Also, some recipes recommend using brown sugar, but I find this muddies the taste.

In a large pot over medium heat, bring to 100 F

1. 4 L water

Use your soda bottles to easily measure out 4 L of water.  Remove from heat, scrape in the ginger paste, then add

1. 3/4 t citric acid
2. 1 T vanilla extract (optional)

This is a good time to taste the mix, and adjust anything that wants adjusting.  Don't put your germy spoon back in the pot!  Let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes to make sure all the flavor gets extracted.

Set the collander over the clean pot, and line it with overlapping coffee filters.  Place several layers of fine cheese cloth over the filters.  Strain the mixture into the clean pot.  Sprinkle over top

1. 1/4 t Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast

Let sit for at least 15 minutes, and up to an hour.  Stir well, and use the funnel when ladling ginger ale into bottles.  Leave a little air space at the top.  Squeeze bottle gently to bring liquid all the way to the top, and cap tightly.

Your soda will ferment (and therefore carbonate) over the next 2 - 3 days.  It will probably take at least 24 hours before you see any activity.  The first signs are bubbles collecting on the sides of the bottle near the top.  Then the air space will re-appear at the top, and the sides will straighten. Shortly after, the bottle will start to become rigid, like an unopened bottle of soda from the store.  To some extent, the longer the fermentation continues, the more carbonated the drink will become.  Of course, as the pressure increases, so does the chance of an explosion!  I wait 24 hours (no more, no less) after the bottles first becomes rigid, and then move them to the refrigerator.  The low temperature effectively halts the fermentation, although if the bottles warm up again, fermentation will resume.  The total time from preparation to refrigerator is about 48 to 72 hours.  (For the nervous among you, don't stop early either, or your soda won't have much in the way of fizz!)

If you used the coffee filters, your ginger ale should end up mostly clear, although there will always be some ginger + dead yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  If you skipped the coffee filters, it will be cloudier (but still delicious).  Try to pour gently, and you can leave most of the sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  Grab yourself a glass of ice, and enjoy!

According to my measurements, the ginger ale starts with enough sugar to generate 5% alcohol by volume, if it were fermented completely dry.  In practice, very little of the sugar is actually converted to alcohol.  Following the recipe above, there's so little alcohol I can't measure it when I transfer the bottles to the fridge.  I'd say it's less than a quarter of one percent.  There's probably more alcohol in a mouthful of beer or wine than in a whole bottle of my ginger ale, but still, use your best judgement.

The possible variations are almost endless.  All sorts of citrus flavorings would be welcome additions, and I've actually contemplated building a ginger ale on top of lemonade or limeade.  (You'd have to reduce the amount of added sugar, and probably eliminate the citric acid.)  One recipe I saw included spices like black pepper and cayenne.  And my mom suggested a vanilla ice cream - ginger ale float, which made me consider adding vanilla to the mix (though I'm not sure how, since I don't think the flavor extracts into water very efficiently).  Finally, you could double the sugar and start the fermentation with the bottles unsealed.  When you reached 5% alcohol, you could seal them up and end up with alcoholic ginger ale, which sounds fun.  (This would generate more sediment though;  I'm not sure how to deal with that.  You could do the primary fermentation in a separate vessel before bottling, but that's a good bit of extra work.)

I started this recipe from several excellent sources on the web (Jerry Halstead, Mark Sexauer, Jeffrey Morgenthaler), and refined it with a couple of rounds of experimentation.  I hope you enjoy it!  And I'd love to hear of any great variations you come up with.

Turnips and Onions

I had turnips for the first time this winter, thanks to Papa Spuds.  They kept showing up on the list, and I figured, if this is what grows in the winter in NC, I should learn to cook it.  As far as I can tell, people generally treat them like potatoes and mash them.  But they're less starchy and much more watery (so they cook down), and they have a distinctive, slightly sharp flavor.  It reminds me a little of horseradish, for some reason -- I think this dish would be amazing with a nice steak for that reason.

They look a bit homely, but trust me, this is good stuff for a cold winter night.

In salted water to cover, boil

1. 1 1/2 lbs. turnips, peeled and cubed (about 3 medium)

until tender, about 15 minutes.  Drain and return to the warm burner to dry slightly, then mash with a hand masher and mix with

1. 1/4 c cream

Place mashed turnips in a greased casserole dish.

While the turnips boil, put a large stainless steel skillet over medium heat.  (Nonstick won't work because the onions don't caramelize as well or develop as much fond, and cast iron won't work because you can't see the difference between caramelized and burnt against the dark surface.  Stainless it is.)  Add

1. 1 T butter
2. 1 T olive oil
3. 2 medium yellow onions, sliced
4. 1 t sugar
5. salt to taste

Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are soft and browned, and a thick layer of brown fond has collected on the bottom of the pan.  If the fond begins to turn very dark and look or smell burnt, reduce the heat!  To the hot skillet, add

1. 1/4 c water
2. 1 T balsamic vinegar

With a wooden spoon, stir rapidly, scraping the bottom of the pan clean.  All the fond should dissolve and coat the onions.  (Bonus:  cleanup will be easy.)  Continue to cook over medium-low heat until the excess water evaporates and the onions are coated a rich brown sauce.  (If you take it too far and bits begin to stick to the bottom again, add more water and repeat the cycle.)  Layer the onions over the turnips in the casserole.

Bake in a moderate oven until heated through and bubbling, about 15 minutes.  350 F will work fine, but so will most other temperatures, and the time isn't too critical.  This is a good way to hold the turnips until the rest of the meal comes together.  Both the turnips and the onions really cook down a surprising amount, so this only makes 3-4 servings.  I'm sure it could easily be doubled, though.

Blueberry jam muffins

This is a Cook's Illustrated recipe that addresses the only real problem with blueberry muffins:  you taste mostly muffin, and only a little blueberry.  The trick is to boil down some of the berries into jam, and then stir them into the muffins just before baking.

In a small saucepan, boil and mash until reduced to a thick jam:

1. 1 c (5 oz) blueberries, fresh or frozen
2. 1 t sugar

In a mixing bowl, whisk to combine

1. 2 1/2 c (12 1/2 oz) flour
2. 2 1/2 t baking powder
3. 1 t salt
4. 1 c (5 oz) blueberries, fresh or frozen

If using frozen berries, rinse them under cold water and dry them before adding them to the flour mixture.  In a separate bowl, whisk together

1. 2 eggs
2. 1 1/8 c (8 oz) sugar
3. 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4. 1/4 c vegetable oil
5. 1 c buttermilk
6. 1 1/2 t vanilla
7. zest of one orange (optional)

Gently fold wet and dry ingredients together, just until moistened.  (Some spots of dry flour may remain.)  Spoon batter into 12 greased, standard size muffin cups (cups will be full).  Divide jam among cups, swirling into the batter with a chopstick.  Sprinkle sugar over tops of muffins.  Bake at 425 for about 17 minutes, just until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to rack to cool.

If using the orange zest, you can also make an orange glaze out of the orange juice and powdered sugar (approximately 1 cup) -- top the muffins with glaze before serving.  If not using the orange zest, you can incorporate lemon zest into the sugar used for topping the muffins.