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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] AHIPA: Exploring the Potential of a Sustainable Crop as a Food Source
  • Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:04:02 -0700

Marie McHarry wrote:

Fruit acids probably work
better, and it's really the normal procedure anyway to add some wine.


I don't know why fruit acid would work better unless it's more acidic,
but I don't think it is. Wine that is as acidic as vinegar --is very,
very cheap wine.

It takes two molecules of acetic acid to react with one calcium carbonate molecule, but only one of malic acid. In a weak vinegar solution the reaction rate will be very slow, because there's just a small probability that two vinegar molecules will arrive at the same time, with so many water molecules around. It's a question of whether the evaporation rate of vinegar exceeds the reaction rate. In the end, if I replenish the water so that I have the same amount I started with, and it tastes less sour after simmering than it originally did, with fruit acids I know I've released calcium (and magnesium); with vinegar I can't tell if it just evaporated. I guess it's nitpicking as long as there's cheap vinegar, but without that, I'd probably resort to green apples or tomatillos instead (the latter sounds great for pork stock, with cilantro).

It turns out that the acid of grapes, tartaric acid, forms a fairly insoluble compound with calcium, calcium tartrate. An Internet search confirms what the CRC handbook says. Searching on "calcium malate" produces a horde of ads for mineral supplements, since this is considered a "good" chelated form of calcium; a search on "calcium tartrate" results only in references to deposits that form on wine barrels. So wine as such won't work, unless it's not from grapes.

I bet you'll find that that sour fruit makes wine quite easily, with added sugar. Yeast thrive at pH 5.0, and the organisms that contaminate wine don't. But the only reason for going to the trouble to make that (other than to drink it, after correcting the acidity), let alone vinegar, would be because fruit acids often come with too much sugar to make a good stock. But that still leaves many possibilities, to be judged by their culinary value.


really enjoy the Chinese chicken broth recipe I have, but I haven't
experimented much with lamb. There's a recipe in an old English
cookbook for mutton broth, but it has turnip... Maybe I should be more
open-minded. Can broth be made from rabbit bones, and is it worthwhile,
I wonder.


You have a problem with turnips? Turnips are on your side. (My mother
is partial to parsnips, but I think they should be used only sparingly
in alternate years.)

I'm not sure why you question making broth from rabbit... just about
any animal parts can be made into broth.


I don't really crave turnips that much, but they're not bad mashed with potato.

I had just never heard of rabbit broth, since they don't have it in a cube! An Internet search reveals that "consomme de lapin" is considered fine food in France.

Bill
S. Oregon coast




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