What’s the next kitchen item you plan to buy (2025)?

[badjak]

What type of milk are you using Barriehie ?

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I’ve ordered a couple of these.

I’m thinking they’ll be useful for two reasons. One I often cook a joint of meat for sandwiches and the joint goes in and out of the fridge and onto a chopping board usually more than once as the gannets look for something to graze on, this leads to and abundance of dirty chopping boards left out because they always get a new board and then there’s too many to fit in the dishwasher.
The plan is it stays on the board and the joint gets cut on it.

The other use will be for festivities like Birthdays, Christmas or Easter when the fridge is full of leftovers of precariously balanced clingfilmed plates waiting to tumble and ultimately too much goes to waste because they will just pick the dish with the meat on. This way they’ll grab the platter and the whole lot will be in front of them. Including the pots of houmous or dips, or quarter pack of paté or leftover olives etc that invariably get lost at the back of the fridge during the party season.

View attachment 137390

View attachment 137391

badjak Thought I’d give an update on the trays.
They worked brilliantly. Like all animals they only needed to locate a potential food source once before mastering checking it out and helping themselves
Having different food items on there including the left over ham, turkey and Sausagemeat stuffing meant it was all gone by the 28th. No waste, fabulous!

It faired well in the fridge, no warping or change in shape but it was balanced on top of soup pots and other containers so it’s possible the all round air flow made a difference compared with if it was sat directly on a fridge shelf

Washing it however I made a mistake, I used very hot water and a scrubbing brush and like all wooden chopping boards it didn’t like it and bowed. I turned it over and did the same to the other side to even the score but it remained bowed for about two days after which luckily it’s straightened itself out. Next time I’ll take more care.

Overall a happy purchase. I have a lot of blue cheese, grapes, trout caviar, beetroot and a smoked salmon tsar fillet that need using up so I’ll reload the platter and happily watch them chow though that

 

[Barriehie]

What type of milk are you using Barriehie ?

Pasteurized whole milk. I can get "fresh from the cow" milk but it's prohibitively expensive. Last I checked it was $9/gallon.

 

[Barriehie]

So you are doing a 12-hour ferment?
When I did yogurt in the Instant Pot, it was an 8-hour ferment.

I got up this morning and went straight to the yogurt maker. The display was flashing so the cycle had ended and the inner jar was still warm. The yogurt in there is way thicker than anything the IP ever did. Step 2 is a cool down for 3 hours in the fridge before straining. I get it, the contraction of cooling will squeeze out more whey prior to straining.

 

[msmofet]

Do you use whole milk? I would do cold start in my IP with UP half & half and UP heavy cream so I could skip the sterilize/boil step.

I would sometimes strain for 12 - 24 hours. It would be nice and thick. Can add back whey if too thick.

 

[Barriehie]

Do you use whole milk? I would do cold start in my IP with UP half & half and UP heavy cream so I could skip the sterilize/boil step.

I would sometimes strain for 12 - 24 hours. It would be nice and thick. Can add back whey if too thick.

View attachment 139390

View attachment 139391

That looks great! I can guess that by using half and half and heavy cream the fat content is high enough to yield such a thickness.

Milk is around 10% fat and the combined average of H&H and HC is around 23% fat.

I'll know how the milk finishes out later today.

 

[badjak]

That looks great! I can guess that by using half and half and heavy cream the fat content is high enough to yield such a thickness.

Milk is around 10% fat and the combined average of H&H and HC is around 23% fat.

I'll know how the milk finishes out later today.

I think our milk is about 5% fat

 

[Barriehie]

I think our milk is about 5% fat

I just checked two different brands and they're both 10%. Per the US FDA I found this:

 

[msmofet]

That looks great! I can guess that by using half and half and heavy cream the fat content is high enough to yield such a thickness.

Milk is around 10% fat and the combined average of H&H and HC is around 23% fat.

I'll know how the milk finishes out later today.

Thank you. That’s after a long straining time.

 

[Barriehie]

Thank you. That’s after a long straining time.

Mine just finished the cool-down phase. It's much thicker than what the IP produced. The hole will fill up but very slowly.

Now to filter...