S Tonin

I've been using cloth hankies myself for about 20 years (I still have the original linen napkins I thrifted for the purpose--they've seen better days but they still do the job).  My Dad used cotton hankies pretty much his entire life, much to my Mom's chagrin (she absolutely hated washing them and would gag whenever she touched one).  My cousin is an RN and she gives me the side-eye when I use a hankie, but whatever, I'm less of a threat to public health than the little kids that chew on shopping cart handles or go rummaging in their diapers before touching everything.  I use tissues in public when I'm sick, anyway; hankies are generally only for my constantly drippy nose.

So this might be kind of weird, but I've gotten used to the funk of my homemade stuff (bananas, cheese, and dog paws; it's not for the weak-hearted) and commercial miso doesn't taste right to me.  The texture of the commercial stuff is better (most of mine have ended up coarse "farmhouse" misos), but my homemade stuff has gotten smoother and denser over time.

Have any of you guys tried dehydrating and powdering your homemade miso?  I don't know if that would alter the funk, but it might drive off some of the more delicate volatiles (like the banana ester scent I mentioned).  Once I mixed together a few small batches of subpar misos (I went through a phase where every bean/ pulse/ legume in my pantry was fair game, my hall closet looked like a recycling center was trying to be a Japanese farmhouse) and dehydrated them at a low(ish) temperature, then broke the sheets apart and ground it up with the coffee grinder.  Even though it's dehydrated, it keeps aging and getting more complex and works really well as a dry spice/ vegan bouillon powder (but not so much as miso soup powder like you get in a sachet, go figure).

I have to buy my carrots because I just can't grow them (not for lack of trying), and sometimes I get ones that taste like motor oil or gasoline.  I try to get Canadian when I can, because I've never had a bad one from a bag that came from Canada.  I suspect it's heat and water related; US and Israeli carrots generally don't taste as good, and I'm guessing it has to do with heat stress and maybe the irrigation water used on them.  (No idea about Mexican or South American carrots because our local grocers only carry US, Canada, and Israel-grown ones.)

The algorithm just recommended this to me, too, and I ran right over here to post it.  As ever, I am a day late and a dollar (or a few million) short.

I'm no engineer, but my first thought is some kind of lever, kind of like those machines to reload shotgun shells, or like a can crusher.    

I didn't grow up in a culture that did any kind of rice porridge; maybe, at a push, I could count milky rice pudding, but that's a dessert and not a meal.  Anyway, I have no traditions surrounding it or expectations of flavor/ texture, so I've made it pretty much your way (rice and flavorful liquid in instant pot, with or without additional mush ingredients).  I usually get soupy rice more than a smooth, creamy texture because my rice is old and dry and actually the wrong kind, probably.  

I may try making a thinner version of the rice paste for kimchi made from glutinous rice flour and adding it into the wet rice after it's been cooked but not cooled, so it gets a kind-of-textured, kind-of-silky thing going.  

I've had mixed results with using the immersion blender when pumpkin was involved (I was going for a vegan pumpkin rice pudding dessert for one, and wanted to get a kind of half-assed risotto situation happening with the other); everything was edible, but it's not a technique I'll be repeating.  I just prefer everything chunky when I cook the two of them together.

Here's a list of Maangchi's porridge recipes.  

Here's a recipe from Just One Cookbook for one-dish herb congee.

I've learned a lot of basics of Korean and Japanese cooking from both of them.

I've used printed pdf patterns before, but never for a large garment like a dress; I think one was a cover for my stand mixer, a few for sewn hats and diaper covers/ soakers, that kind of thing (no more than like a dozen pieces of paper).  I like them, though the lining up and taping is kind of a pain.  

The heavier paper has pros and cons: the printer paper doesn't tear if you sneeze on it like the tissue patterns, but it's not as flexible when pinning it to fabric.  I've only used them with quilter's cotton or thicker fabrics; I suspect for a lighter weight material you'd have to use pattern weights and/or trace with tailor's chalk rather than pinning.

As for questions of paper size, the pattern should say what to use.  I don't know if UK/ Euro/ Asian patterns would be any different (I think the standard for the rest of the world is A-4? so maybe it's just taken as given, like the metric system?)--I honestly don't know enough about how pdf files scale when you change the paper size, though.  If it doesn't state the paper size on the download page, ask the seller or chat/ email customer service, they could probably clarify.

I've only used free patterns, but I wouldn't hesitate to spend money on a pdf if it was something I really wanted and was too complex to figure out myself.  The cost of the paper is pretty minimal; I have no idea what it might be at your local library or copy shop or whatever, but the last time I got photocopies made (from a pdf) I paid US$0.20 per page.  The pattern should have the number of pages in the description, so you can guesstimate the cost to print before buying the pdf.  

Speaking of free patterns, you could use one to do a test run before buying a big pattern--something like a hat or a tea cozy or whatever, as long as it's big enough to span multiple pages.  Just google "[whatever thing you want to make] + free pattern pdf" and skip all the AI garbage and the pinterest links.  Or, if you just want to get the feel for using taped-together printer paper, tape together some printer paper and trace an existing pattern onto it (or draw out your own, whatever) and use that to play around with different fabrics.

Oh!  Almost forgot--not all pdf patterns have seam allowances.  They'll usually tell you if they do or don't, and what size the allowance is.  For me, it's a pain to have to do my own seam allowances and that might be a dealbreaker for me if I were going to spend real, actual money on a pattern.

Carla Burke wrote:Both processes are very different from lacto-fermenting (saur kraut, kimchi, etc, with a salt brine), but I've never even thought to lacto-ferment relish.

I've seen things called relishes on fermenting blogs, but none of them are sweet like a hot dog relish.  I remember one (might have been cranberry?) that used the NOMA method and fermented it in a vacuum sealer bag, which then puffed up and made it look like some postmodern-art barf pillow.  I've also seen fermented chow-chow, which actually looked really appetizing, but ever since hearing about bongkrekic acid poisoning, I'm leery of corn ferments.

I haven't tried fermenting any kind of relish; it seems like I have a higher failure rate when pieces are smaller, as slaws/ shredded veg without a cabbage component consistently fail for me.  Maybe it's because of more air bubbles or more surface area for the bad guys to take hold before the lactobacillus?  I'm kind of curious now, but don't have the appropriate vegetables on hand to try anything.

Christopher Weeks wrote:The most common relish I use is made by finely dicing kimchi -- it's a staple on dogs and makes appearances lots of other places like scrambled eggs, etc.

I literally just did this for the first time a few hours ago!  I mixed a kimchi slaw (with extra juice) into mashed avocado, then added cooked chicken because I was getting a real mayonnaise vibe from it and I thought chicken salad would be good.  Spoiler: it was awesome, but the flavor of my gluten-free bread didn't really play well with it.  Next time, it's going in a tortilla.  (sorry, that was just a really weird synchronicity/ coincidence, I had to say something.)

I use green tomatoes for canning relish and chutney.  I've done small batches for the fridge from odds and ends (mostly chutneys) with varying results.  I like using peppers up this way, especially the Hungarian wax types, which I don't otherwise care for.

 

Megan Palmer wrote:

Although I’ve not tried it, I expect that this sauce could be safely water bathed

I don't think it can be, at least not in a home kitchen.  Dairy isn't recommended for home canning at all, and neither is flour or other thickeners* (besides certain modified food starches).  It's not just Americans being too fussy about stuff--improperly canned food can kill.  Waterbath canning doesn't get up to a high enough temp to destroy C. botulinum spores, and I suspect the pH wouldn't be low enough to keep any surviving bacteria in check.

Obviously, people can do what they want, but to me it's just not worth it.  

*The reason dairy and thickeners are unsafe: convection currents inside the jar of food distribute the heat inside.  When a liquid is too thick, the heat doesn't move evenly through its mass; the starch (& fat, in the case of dairy) particles can act as an insulator for food bits that are less dense, creating uneven heat penetration, which is a risk.