Weekend Experiments
This past weekend was the weekend of experiments. Some of which I have pictures for others I don’t.
First off is Bread in the Sun Oven. Or more correctly buns. My issue with making buns in the Sun Oven is space. The tray I’m using doesn’t give very large buns. So I had the thought to get the enamel pots that came with the sun oven and line those with parchment paper. That would give me some vertical space and maybe I can get some decent buns out of them.
It sort of worked but I learned that the bottom pot didn’t get hot enough to cook the dough completely so I put the lid back on it and put it out again in the sun oven. After another hour the buns were cooked. Actually just over an hour because I was sidetracked with supper. So those buns ended up a little darker.
The bread I made after lunch on Sunday. In the future if I want to do this I think I will take out the ingredients before going to church so they can come up to temperature. That will also allow the water / sugar mixture to cool enough that the yeast will proof instead of cook. That will let me get the bread into the oven earlier in the day so if I have to switch the pots around again that I will have time to do so.
The nice thing about cooking the buns in the pot (besides giving me bigger buns) is the lid on the pot traps most of the moisture so I don’t have the massive steam build up on the sun oven glass which then means the oven itself gets hotter.
Next experiment which is still in progress is Pineapple Vinegar. Pineapple is suppose to be good for hayfever so I’m trying to eat more of it along with Kifer. I like Pineapple so it isn’t a hardship at all however, since I have previously tried making Apple Cider Vinegar I wondered if there was a variant for Pineapple.
There is. So I have taken the Pineapple rinds and I have them in a jar of sugar water. We will see what it looks like in two weeks. Do I get vinegar or do I get a mess?
Another experiment was getting a small seedless watermelon and running that through the dehydrator. That started Monday morning and Wednesday morning I took the thicker pieces out. Sometimes it can be hard to cut watermelon consistently. Next time I think I will quarter it and then run it through the electric slicer to get a more consistent thickness. When I pulled the final pieces off of the dehydrator this morning they were still flexible indicating a bit of water content. By the time I gave the pieces that didn’t fit the canning jar to some co-workers it had stiffened up. Ends up being a very sweet candy. Quite nice. I will probably do that again and store some more of it. About 1 small watermelon = 1 quart jar when dehydrated. I will probably save the eating of the watermelon until after hayfever season is done as apparently I should be staying away from dried fruit and melons. I know I can pickle watermelon rinds but that is an experiment for another day.
Finally there is tomato planting. Mom was kind enough to start 3 varieties of tomatoes for me but this year she started them in the biodegradable paper bags with the plastic liners. So the tomatoes have more room and aren’t as root bound. I had intended to plant these on the Monday of the May long weekend but it was a wash out at my house so I had to wait until Tuesday to start planting. I managed to get 7 into their buckets before I ran out of soil.