Honey Fermented Garlic

What is the difference between fermented garlic and honey fermented garlic? The difference is mostly sweetness, but fermented garlic uses a saltwater brine, whereas honey garlic uses the liquid from the garlic cloves combined with the live enzymes and microbes in the honey to ferment. Both are very useful to support the immune system, but honey garlic has the additional benefit of raw honey. Most children like the sweetness, so it may be easier to get garlic into the children.

How long does it take to ferment? Fermentation will be well on its way in about a week, but most prefer to ferment for about a month. Even in this thick honey the garlic did float, so make sure to turn it over every day to make sure the garlic stays coated while it ferments. Check the lid before, it may come loose from the gassings.

Where do I source local, raw honey? You want to get your honey from a local farmer. One, because they’re the best. Two, local honey can help with allergies. When you buy your honey, ask the following questions to see how aligned your beekeeper is with your priorities of healthy honey:

• Where are your bees located?

• How do you process your honey?

• Is it cold pressed or raw?

Their answers will give you an idea how close they are to pesticide areas and will give you an idea if your beekeeper is trying to avoid pesticide areas. The process they describe should include harvesting their honey, putting it in a cold spinner, and spinning the honey while filtering out pieces of beeswax and bee parts with a mesh filter. The honey then goes into buckets and is divided into the containers that you purchase. You want to find honey that is processed with no heat, and only the basic filtering. Most people who do this process will do only small batches, which is ideal.

Ingredients for Honey Fermented Garlic:

• Garlic, peeled

• Raw Honey

Directions for Honey Fermented Garlic:

Peel enough garlic to fit in your jar, you want both the honey and the garlic to be raw. Do not crush garlic. The bacteria and wild yeast in the raw honey and the juice in the garlic is what is used for the fermentation.

Add enough raw honey to the jar to cover the garlic cloves.

Place a lid on the jar and find a cool place for it to rest. The mixture can bubble up, so I recommend keeping a plate underneath. Turn over every day or so. Eat anytime, but it takes a month to be finished. 

A few notes:

• Garlic cloves can turn blue or green while fermenting. Not to worry, this is related to the sulfur content in the garlic.

• Honey Fermented Garlic can be stored for long periods of time in a cool dark place.

• The longer you ferment, the milder the flavor. 

To eat, you eat with the honey. Keep them together. Because it has medicinal properties. Enjoy!!

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Honey Fermented Garlic

Author: Amy Mihaly, Be Well Clinic

Fermented Garlic is very useful to support the immune system, and honey fermented garlic has the additional benefit of raw honey. Most children like the sweetness, so it may be easier to get garlic into the children.

Ingredients

• Garlic, peeled
• Raw Honey

Instructions

1. Peel enough garlic to fit in your jar, you want both the honey and the garlic to be raw. Do not crush garlic. The bacteria and wild yeast in the raw honey and the juice in the garlic is what is used for the fermentation.
2. Add enough raw honey to the jar to cover the garlic cloves.
3. Place a lid on the jar and find a cool place for it to rest. The mixture can bubble up, so I recommend keeping a plate underneath. Turn over every day or so. Eat anytime, but it takes a month to be finished.
4. To eat, you eat with the honey. Keep them together. Because it has medicinal properties. Enjoy!!

Preparing and Cooking Sweetbreads

GAPS LEGAL stage 4 and up

I am on a quest to get more organ meats into my diet. Organ meats have been lost to our culture but they are so important to having a healthy body, healthy pregnancy and healthy children. There has been a stigma for literally hundreds of years in western cultures that organ meats are eaten only by those who can’t afford the pricier cuts of meat or are “forced” to eat the entirety of their animals and therefore should generally be avoided. In countries where that stigma doesn’t exist, organ meats are prized for their nutritional value and are the most desired cuts of meat. Because organ meats are so dense nutritionally, I encourage you to join me in finding recipes to regularly bring organ meats to your family’s table as well

I’ve done lots of liver recipes so far and now I’m branching out to other organ meats. Try liver in liver pate, liver meatballs, bacon wrapped liver, jalapeno liver poppers, and simple liver shots.

Sweetbread is the thymus gland of an animal, traditionally a young calf. They do not have a strong flavor like other organ meats, making them a great “gateway” organ meat. The thymus gland is involved in the immune regulation systems. It’s primarily connected to lymph tissue and it plays in a role in adaptive immunity, which is immunity where the body learns, grows, and retains information from alien (outside of the body) microbes. 

There were quite a few butchers who sold sweetbread online. Some of those were organically raised but I was happy to find sweetbreads from a person I trust at Fields of Athenry Farm.  

This recipe is based on Nourishing Traditions.

Ingredients for Preparation:

• 1 lb Sweetbread

• Filtered Water

• 6 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1 tsp Salt

Directions for Preparing Sweetbreads:

Rinse your sweetbread with filtered water.

Add to a large bowl and cover with filtered water. Add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar.

Allow to sit for 2 hours, changing the water once or twice and adding new vinegar.
Rinse after 2 hours. Put in a sauce pan and cover with filtered water. Add 1 tsp salt.

Parboil for 15 minutes. Remove from liquid. The liquid can be reused if you are doing more than one sweetbread.

Cool and then remove all loose skin, tissue, fat, and membranes. 

Put between unbleached parchment paper. Place a weighted plate or cookie sheet on top and keep in the fridge overnight.

Cooking Sweetbread:

Multiple different recipes that you can find in the nourishing traditions cookbook and other sources of how to cook your sweetbread once it's been prepared. The most popular way to eat sweetbreads is breaded. If you are able to tolerate breading, and want to use a traditional flour, I would recommend using einkorn flour, I get mine from Jovial.

The recipe I am preparing here today is a non-floured preparation. Modification on Sally Fallon’s sweetbread with pearl onions. I always have yellow onions on-hand, so that is what I use for this recipe. Pearl onions add a lot of flavor, so they would add a lot to this dish. Next time I remember to buy pearl onions, I will try the recipe with them. The taste is unique, although not too unlike other meats. Not as strong as liver or kidney meats. I enjoy these simply fried without the breading, and serve them alongside either a main dish a portion of scrambled eggs or over top of caramelized onions. The thymus glad is an immune organ, so eating this on top of caramelized onion will give a good boost to the immune system. The thymus gland regulates a lot of functions in the immune system, and as a general principle it is good to eat the organ of the organ that is struggling. It makes sense to consume the thymus gland which would give you the vitamins, minerals and other co-factors contained in that organ and needed for that organ as well as the photomorphogenic information and support contained in the DNA of the thymus cells. 

Ingredients for Cooking Sweetbreads:

• 1 pair of prepared sweetbreads

• ½ stick butter

• 1 lbs yellow onions, peeled, sliced and sauteed in butter

Slicing on the bias (which is diagonal to the grain). Fry the sweetbreads in butter on a stovetop and top with caramelized onions.

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Preparing and Cooking Sweetbreads

Author: Amy Mihaly, Be Well Clinic

Sweetbread is the thymus gland of an animal, traditionally a young calf. They do not have a strong flavor like other organ meats, making them a great “gateway” organ meat. The thymus gland is involved in the immune regulation systems. It’s primarily connected to lymph tissue and it plays in a role in adaptive immunity, which is immunity where the body learns, grows, and retains information from alien (outside of the body) microbes.

Ingredients

Ingredients for Preparation:

• 1 lb Sweetbreads
• Filtered Water
• 6 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Salt

Ingredients for Sweetbreads:

• 1 pair of prepared sweetbreads
• ½ stick butter
• 1 lbs yellow onions, peeled, sliced and sautéed in butter

Instructions

Preparation:

1. Rinse your sweetbread with filtered water.
2. Add to a large bowl and cover with filtered water. Add 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar.
3. Allow to sit for 2 hours, changing the water once or twice and adding new vinegar.
4. Rinse after 2 hours. Put in a sauce pan and cover with filtered water. Add 1 tsp salt.
5. Paraboil for 15 minutes. Remove from liquid. The liquid can be reused if you are doing more than one sweetbread.
6. Cool and then remove all loose skin, tissue, fat, and membranes.
7. Put between unbleached parchment paper. Place a weighted plate or cookie sheet on top and keep in the fridge overnight.

Cooking:

1. Slice your sweetbreads on the bias (which is diagonal to the grain). 
2. Then, fry the sweetbreads in butter on a stovetop and top with caramelized onions.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Bacon Wrapped Livers

I’m always searching for new ways and additional recipes to recommend for eating livers. Liver is an important superfood because the nutrients in liver are very important to our health. It’s recommended to consume liver on a regular basis. However, many people do not enjoy eating liver in the previous ways they have had it prepared.

This is a basic recipe but you can experiment in adding other things to your stuffing mixture like onions, cheese, cream cheese, carrots, etc.

Ingredients for Bacon Wrapped Liver:

• ½ lb. Bacon, 1 piece per liver bite

• ½ lb. Liver, I’m using chicken

Directions for Bacon Wrapped Liver

Pre-heat oven to 400. Rinse your livers and pat to dry. Slice livers into chunks, approximately two bite size. Cut bacon strips in half.

Fold bacon around livers. Place seam side down in a deep sided baking dish.

Cover with parchment paper and aluminum foil. Do not allow foil to touch your food.

Place in oven covered for 15 minutes.

Uncover and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

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Bacon Wrapped Livers

Author: Amy Mihaly, Be Well Clinic

Ingredients

• ½ lb. Bacon, 1 piece per liver bite
• ½ lb. Liver, I’m using chicken

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400. Rinse your livers and pat to dry. Slice livers into chunks, approximately two bite size. Cut bacon strips in half.
2. Fold bacon around livers. Place seam side down in a deep sided baking dish.
3. Cover with parchment paper and aluminum foil. Do not allow foil to touch your food.
4. Place in oven covered for 15 minutes.
5. Uncover and cook for 10 minutes.
6. Serve and enjoy!

Created using The Recipes Generator