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Thanksgiving

© Kimberly Moore.

Thanksgiving is a great time of year to share with your kids the joys of holiday preparations. This year, why not expand their education into the kitchen for a bit of food preparation kitchen chemistry. Here are a few ideas.

Instead of the usual pumpkin pie, or to go with it, why not bake some gingerbread together? Look up a recipe that contains bicarbonate of soda along with molasses and watch it fizz. Your young budding scientist will be fascinated.

Yeast breads are great for kitchen experiments too. Keep an eye out for regular dried active yeast instead of the quick kind so your young ones can watch the action in a measuring jug or bowl as warm water and sugar allow the yeast bacteria to grow and bubble while fermenting. Explain how this is what makes the bread rise, and have fun making fresh bread or rolls to go on the side of that turkey.

For bread and rolls, you of course need butter. Put that spread or margarine away, and forget store bought butter. Make your own. You need 2 cups of full or double cream. Allow it to sit out overnight so it will seperate properly. Don't worry if it sours a bit, it is supposed to. Now, take a glass jar or a shaker and pour the cream into it. You will need to shake vigorously for about 10 minutes, so be prepared to pass the jar back and forth as the arms get tired. When you feel it starting to thump a bit in the jar, you know that you have churned it. Alternatively, if you have a food processor, pour the cream in and whiz for about 5 minutes. Now the butter will have solid and liquid bits still. The solid is called curd at this point and the liquid is whey.

Take a bowl and a sieve, and empty the curds and whey into the sieve. Use a rubber spatula, and stir the curds to allow the whey to be completely removed. At this point if you wish, you can add a pinch of salt. Take your thoroughly drained curd and shape into pats, or squares, wrap in greaseproof paper, and place in the refrigerator. Congratulations, you have made butter. It will be lighter than store butter as they add color. If you wish the butter to be soft enough to spread on your lovely homemade bread, remove from the refrigerator a few hours before serving. If there is any whey you missed, it may at this point sweat to the top, don't worry about it.

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