I love to receive emails from readers who are excited to have succeeded in some aspects of Traditional Cooking. Perhaps they made a homemade batch of kefir for the first time or they are so proud that their kids raved about the soaked waffles.
While I love to read these emails, it is impossible for me to respond to them all for the simple reason that I spend a significant amount of time each day making delicious, traditional creations for my own family.
Time is finite and hungry kids won’t wait!
Frequently, the email success stories have an element of doubt at the end that goes something like this:
“I made a batch of beet kvass for the very first time, but there are some little white bubbles on top. Is everything ok? Â Can I still drink it or should I throw it out?”
This is where some folks struggle with adjusting to Traditional Cooking methods as the results are inconsistent and the inherent lack of uniformity bothers them a great deal.
Sometimes the kombucha batch is sweet and sometimes quite sour. Â Sometimes the liquid whey is cloudy and other times completely clear.
Little foamy bubbles on top of one of the mason jars of mango chutney and none on the others. Raw kefir that is thick and creamy one week and thin and liquidy the next.
If you are someone who is concerned by the frequently inconsistent results of Traditional Cooking, know that this is just a step in your journey back to what your Great Grandma experienced when she was slaving away in the kitchen day after day in the early 1900s.
The difference now is that you have a dishwasher and you can accomplish in an hour or two what it took her all day long to produce! Â Hurray for modern appliances! Â From her perspective, you are indeed living in cooking heaven.
Consistent Results are a Feature of Processed Foods
Inconsistent results are exactly why food manufacturers prefer denatured, devitalized foods jam-packed with all manner of chemicals and artificial flavors and colors – to achieve consistency for the consumer.
Food Marketing 101: A consumer that gets the same thing over and over again and is not surprised by different tastes and textures each time the desired product is purchased and consumed is more likely to be a repeat customer.
Once, when I ate at McDonald’s in Tokyo while traveling there years ago, I was amazed by how the burger and fries looked, tasted, and smelled exactly the same as here in America.
That’s the way it is with processed food my friends: Â dead, denatured, and usually chemicalized food yields extremely stable, consistent results!
Since you don’t want dead, denatured, and devitalized, learn to embrace and even enjoy the unique and variable results you will inevitably achieve on your Traditional Cooking adventure!
In this short video below, I demonstrate the inconsistency I experience with my cooking on an almost daily basis. Â Those of you who have been reading a while know that I make fish stock almost every week. Despite doing the exact same thing each time I make my pot of gold, as I like to call it, I get inconsistency in the amount of gelatin, flavor, and even the color of the broth!
So check out my weird batch of fish stock and take heart in knowing that inconsistency is fine and is, in fact, exactly what you are shooting for!
Inconsistent = REAL and IDEAL
Hello,
Just wondering if you also purchase your red snapper from the Asian market? Do you have another source? Also do you leave the heads on too, as suggested in the tooth decay book?