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
@Marie The snapper’s thyroid is in the head, so it should still be there even if the fish is gutted. Enjoy that delish red snapper broth!
Awesome video, thanks! I have a question about my fish. Living in STL, we have little “fresh” fish; none really. I found head-on dressed snapper at a local ethnic grocer. My concern is that since the fish has been gutted, has it’s thyroid been removed, therefore am I not getting the expected thyroid benefit as I am hoping for?
Great post.
The last time I made chicken stock, it turned out a deep, rich brown. When I made it last week, it was a very light golden. I think the inconsistencies are what makes food beautiful!
Yes!
Great video and post! It’s true that inconsistency happens and doesn’t mean that the results or the process are bad. Thanks for the reminder!
I love this website. I came to it thru the Real Food Summit and it really feels like such an answer to prayer. I was very much going down the raw food path but it felt that little by little my body was getting weaker. I am not knocking raw food vegan. It maybe has it’s place for a time for some people. It does seem like some people really thrive on it. I already feel like I am getting stronger bit by bit and after only two weeks. I have a ton of bone broth in my freezer already, although none of it gelled but I will just keep working at it. And I have been manufacturing kefir like crazy from raw goat milk and raw cow milk. I just love it. So thankful I have access to grassfed raw. And the soaked pancakes from Nourishing Traditions cookbook turned out beautifully. The best I have ever made and no digestive issues. My men inhaled them. I have my sourdough starter going. It will be ready to make bread tomorrow. I am so excited. Thank YOU for providing this website. I can tell you love your job.
Welcome Laurie 🙂 Glad you are finding the info here helpful to you on your wellness journey.
One thing that might be useful for acclimating to the world of Real Food is to connect with a local community, such as a local chapter of Weston A. Price Foundation. These are the people who know where the good stuff is.
Ciao, Pavil
Time and money is highly valued in our culture and cooking traditionally often (not always) requires one if not both. You are right in that inconsistency can be discouraging because the cost can be steep ie. raw milk, pastured beef, the investment of time waiting on cultured projects, etc. Your post is a good reminder that even if the results are inconsistent, it doesn’t mean it is ruined or unusable, which is helpful information for someone just beginning to dabble in traditional cooking methods.
I would also add, our perseverance can be bolstered by the reminder of the importance to hold our health as most value, viewing time and money as the investment–sometimes easier said than done.
Smiling here! It’s so true that things don’t always come out the same! Thanks for giving us the thumbs up that this is OK and even a good thing! We really need to stop doubting . I know I do it all the time. I’m relatively new at this traditional eating and way of life and sometimes my things do turn out differently! I have such a ways to go yet but hey , I have started my journey and feel fabulous doing it! Thanks to YOU! 🙂
Sarah,
I love your web site and videos! They are what I was wanting for a long time, a place that taught the principles of Weston Price’s findings. Please keep up the good work. I wanted to let you know that some of your ads are inconsistent with your philosophy. Right on this very page, above your ad to get people to sign up for your newsletter, appears an ad for Rice Krispies. On one of your videos, there was an ad for Miracle Whip. Maybe you are already working on eliminating these ads from the corporate food giants who are inconsistent with your Nourishing Traditions philosophy, but just in case you didn’t know, now you know, and I hope you get rid of them.
Those ads are based on YOUR browsing history.
I do my best to block and opt out of offensive ads. Unfortunately, particularly on the videos, the screening software is not very good. I don’t really know what to do about it, but it is very expensive to run this blog as it has high traffic (which is what we all want … to reach as many people as possible with this message!) and I have to spend hundreds each month for the absolute best blog hosting company else the site would be crashing all the time (this doesn’t even include tech support). The revenue from the ads is necessary unfortunately, but please know I do my best to block those ridiculous ads for processed foods. Food manufacturers are sneaky .. they purposely categorize their ads wrong as they know they will get blocked from sites like mine so what happens is I have to block them by individual URL when the categories are wrong. Please email me any URLs that are offensive to you, and I will block them specifically.
!! LOL