Mead Making

In an unsurprising turn of events, I have made friends with some yeasty fellows. The story of how we met is a rather fun one! Once upon a time....

Ok ok. In all seriousness though. A couple months ago my lovely lady friend Gloria attempted to set up a friend date with myself and her friend Donna. It was going to be an afternoon Introduction to Mead Making class, and I was super excited. Unfortunately though, the mead class was moved and we had to cancel the date. Sad Panda. But! It was always meant to be! Another mead class was found and the date set! The Depanneur, a very neat kitchen space on College near Dufferin, was hosting a mead making night with Fran Freeman, an urban beekeeper here in Toronto. 

The date back on, Gloria, Donna, Donna's GF and myself, all met up at The Depanneur, along with the rest of mead making class, and had a round of introductions. It was a neat class, starting off with some history of mead and mead making. Like how there are records of bee keeping in ancient Egypt! And where there is honey and environmental yeasts, there is mead!

Most of our other friend date compatriots were interested in either urban beekeeping or home brewing mead. For me, it was all about the mead. We were given a simple recipe for a melomel mead. (Melomel being a fruit and spiced mead). It's for a cooked mead. Apparently you can not heat the mead and ferment using natural environmental yeasts but the results can vary dramatically. So a cooked mead-ing we will go.  

Melomel Mead

This recipe make 1 gallon or two X 1/2 gallon growlers. (Which you can buy for $5 from Toronto Brewing. Easy Peasy.)

1 pkg brewer's yeast
2/3 gallon (~11 cups) filtered or distilled water
2-4 lbs honey
2 tsp tartaric acid
2 1/2 tsp malic acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient (rehydrated)

Spice Packet:
1-2 tea bags
zest of a lemon
zest of an orange
grated ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cloves

  1. Clean and sanitize all equipment. I used a product called StarSan. Rinse, let air dry, done.
  2. In a large stock pot, bring water, and a cheese cloth packet containing spice packet ingredients, to a boil. 
  3. Add acid powders to 'must' (aka the boiling spice water, in this case). 
  4. Reduce heat and simmer for an ~40 minutes.
  5. Activate yeast in a clean bowl: Add 1/4 cup warm water (27'C) with 2-3 TBSP honey and yeast packet. Let sit until foamy.
  6. Add honey to the simmering pot and skim any foam from the must. Bring back to a boil and continue simmering for ~20 minutes. 
  7. Remove pot form heat. Place stock pot in a sink of ice water and cool quickly to 27'C. Remove spice packet. 
  8. When at the right temperature, pour (using a sanitized funnel and ladle) into 1 gal or two 1/2 gal growler(s). 
  9. Add yeast and rehydrated yeast nutrients (divid as necessary). 
  10. Swirl growler carefully to dissolve any yeast foam. 
  11. Bung (or plug) the growler with an airlock-plug. Put water in the airlock. This stops air from getting into the growler but allows the yeasties gases to escape. (And not explode your glass growler.)
  12. Let sit in a cool place for about two weeks. About 1/2 inch of sediment will gather on the bottom. After the bubbling has stopped, siphon mead, making sure to not disturb the sediment into another clean and sanitized growler. 
  13. Let sit for 3 months! Repeat racking until desired taste. Bottle! 

BAM. 

So essentially: Sterilize jars, boil water, activate yeast, add honey, add yeast nutrients, add yeast, swirl and stopper. Actually, super easy!

It's been almost a month now and the little bubbles have ceased. The inch layer of dead little yeasty friends on the bottom of the growler is the tell tale sign that it's time to siphon the mead to a new home for another 3-4 months. So I got day trippin' to Toronto Brewing with my lady Glo and bought some siphoning necessities: Tubing, pump, starsan, extra growler. 

The siphoning went pretty well! I wish I had got all my mead out but I had to leave about an inch behind so I didn't suck up any more sediment. Ah well. Practice I suppose!

Now to wait. 

Also. Spoiler. I tried some. And it knocked my socks off. 

So. Excited. 

Cheers!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Adventure to Calzone Land

Pizza is one of those dinners that I enjoy immensely, especially if it's homemade. Yeasty dough, fresh sautéed veg, more pizza sauce than strictly necessary and real cheese. I've made a lot of pizza in my life, but for the first time ever the dough made a fold and my first calzone was born.

The adventure starts with the dough. When I worked for a test kitchen, my favourite recipe tester created an easy and quick pizza dough recipe. 

Pizza Dough

(Sourced from the Blue Flame Kitchen)

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) warm water (104ºF/40ºC) 
1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar
1 pkg (8 g) active dry yeast 
3 tbsp (40 mL) olive oil 
3 cups (750 mL) flour 
1 tsp (5 mL) salt 
Cornmeal 
Olive oil

How to knead. In triple speed.

How to knead. In triple speed.

Combine warm water and sugar, stirring to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Drizzle in 3 tbsp (40 mL) oil.
Place flour and salt in a food processor fitted with a dough blade; process to combine. With machine running, pour yeast mixture through feed tube of food processor. Process just until dough comes together and forms a ball, about 1 minute.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 1 – 2 minutes. Shape dough into a ball. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl; turn dough to coat with oil. Cover with a plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm draft-free place for 30 minutes. (Aside: I usually pre-heat my oven before I start the dough. That way the top of the stove is warm by the time the dough needs to rise.)

Preheat oven to 425ºF (220ºC). Grease a rimmed baking sheet or pizza pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. On a lightly floured surface, flatten dough and roll out to fit prepared pan. Pat dough into prepared pan and press dough up around edges to form a rim. Brush dough with oil and prick all over with a fork.

Bake, uncovered, for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown. May be frozen. Makes 1 crust.

While the dough definitely makes the homemade calzone mouth wateringly amazing, the filling is just as important. I have two picture sets above. One of Veggie Pepperoni (my first calzone) and the other of Spinach, Goat Cheese and Chili Pulled Beef (respectively, my second).

Veggie Pepperoni Calzone Filling

1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
6 - 8 large white mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp coarsely ground pepper
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1 cm rounds, halved
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and halved
200g deli pepperoni
Old Cheddar, grated
Pizza sauce

  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onions. Sauté till translucent. About 10 minutes. 
  2. Add sliced mushrooms. Add pepper. Cook until mushrooms start to reduce in size.
  3. Add zucchini. Stir together. Cook till zucchini is starting to turn translucent and mushrooms start to brown. Remove pan from heat.
  4. Spread pizza sauce on one side of prepared pizza dough. 
  5. Layer pepperoni, mushroom and zucchini mixture, artichokes and cheese on top of sauce.
  6. Fold over non-pizza saucey side on top of toppings, rolling the dough edges together slightly. Cut slits in the top. Bake according to dough instructions. 

Spinach, Goat Cheese and Chili Pulled Beef Calzone Filling

1 TBSP olive oil 
1/2 red onion, cut into rings, halved and broken up
1 bunch spinach, washed and dried
1 lb chili pulled beef (recipe below)
130g goat cheese, crumbled
Pizza Sauce

  1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onions. Sauté till they start becoming limp. About 10 minutes.
  2. Add spinach. Stir. Let leaves cook until limp. Remove pan from heat. 
  3. Spread pizza sauce on one side of prepared pizza dough. 
  4. Layer spinach mixture, pulled beef and goat cheese on top of sauce.
  5. Fold over non-pizza saucey side on top of toppings, rolling the dough edges together slightly. Cut slits in the top. Bake according to dough instructions. 

Chili Pulled Beef

Pre-heat oven to 325F. 
In a oven-safe pot or dutch oven, heat 1 TBSP oil. Sear 1 lb chuck beef roast on all sides. Add 4 TBSP of chili powder (two to each side of roast) and 4 tsp cumin (two to each side of roast) to roast. Fry in oil till meat is golden.  Add one can of beer (I did an IPA) to the dutch oven, pouring it over the meat. Bake, with lid on, for 2 hours, flipping over meat every 30 minutes, or until liquid is reduced to about a 1/4 cup (eyeball it!).
To pull beef apart, take two forks and pull meat apart by criss-crossing the fork tines and then pulling them away from each other. 

Now that I have adventured into the land of the Calzone a may only infrequently return to pizza-ville.

Hope you can recreate!

-Andrea 

The Half-Assed Hobbyist