Recently I chatted with Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions. You can catch the podcast here where we talk about how to get more enzymes into your body and how to look younger longer. It’s a rippa chat.
I thought I’d share some of her ingenious household tips. I’ve been collecting them for a while…the kind of stuff our grandmothers talked about.
You might also like to check out my previous post of cooking tips. And this one.
1. To remove insects from organic or homegrown Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, artichokes, etc., soak thirty minutes in water to which 2 tablespoons of salt and vinegar have been added. Rinse well.
2. Use wooden cutting boards – they harbour less pathogenic bacteria than plastic.
3. Do not add garlic to sauteing onions or other vegetables, because it has a tendency to burn. Add garlic after you have added your liquid—stock, wine, stir-fry sauce, tomatoes, etc.
4. Use duck or bacon lard for frying potatoes.
5. Don’t use a pressure cooker. Just don’t. It cooks too fast and denatures food.
6. Use only unrefined salt, preferably Celtic sea salt.
7. Always skim foam off stock, sauces, soups, legumes and stews. Many impurities rise to the top with the foam. Add spices and seasoning to stock, sauces, soups, legumes and stews after skimming.
8. Grated lemon and orange rind should always be organic. If not, wash the skins well with soap, rinse and dry before grating.
9. If you’re to grow one herb, make it thyme. Nothing beats fresh thyme for flavor.
10. To dry lettuce, watercress, spinach or parsley, wash well, shake dry and place in a pillow case (in the case of lettuce) or small cloth bag (in the case of watercress or parsley.) Tie up and place in your washing machine. Run on the last spin cycle to remove water by centrifugal force.
11. To peel tomatoes and other thin-skinned fruits: bring a pan of filtered water to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, dip tomatoes in, one at a time, for about 5 seconds each. The skin should peel off easily. To seed tomatoes, cut in half at the equator, hold tomato half in the palm of your hand and gently squeeze out seeds.
12. To get offal into your diet (which you should), ask your butcher for ‘organ blend’. Organ blend can be used in any spicy mince dishes. Just use 1/3 organ blend and the rest mince.
13. To peel large amounts of garlic, place whole bulbs in the oven and bake at 150 C until the individual cloves open. Remove from oven and pick out individual cloves.
14. Always dry meat well before browning or it will stew rather than brown. Throw out browning fat when all pieces have browned and add more fat to pan, if necessary, to saute vegetables.
15. Always put meat juices back into sauces and stews—they are rich in important amino acids.
16. When beating egg whites and cream, best results will be obtained by using a wire whisk rather than an electric beater. Beat egg whites in a very clean stainless steel or glass bowl with a pinch of salt.
17. Dishwasher powder is extremely poisonous and should be used with great care. Use half the recommended amount and only for one cycle of the dishwasher. Do not fill the second cycle receptacle with dish powder, but let it be a rinse cycle so that your dishes are rinsed twice. If you are caring for a cancer patient or anyone who is very sick, wash their dishes by hand in a mild liquid soap and rinse well.
Find these helpful? Feel free to add your own below…or share your feedback on some of these…do they work?
