Recent content by Chris Mellor

Dill? As in the green stuff on salmon? I would never have thought of it ( not that that says anything). What does to bring to the party? I’m intrigued.

A little update... the orange wine in question is still happily bubbling away nearly a month after it started. Quite pleased at that I haven’t opened the bucket, thinking it’s best to just leave it and learn a little patience.

I guess that Orange and Kumquat are related then... Its a slow ferment - and yup - I needed to pitch some more yeast in there. I'm thinking acid or too much sugar. Still need to take a sample and see where we are at.

Hi well. I started with it. 5 days juicing and then pitched it on Sunday. I have a nasty feeling I either put too much sugar in there or my fermenting bucket isn’t quite air tight. Fermentation is really rather slow. I’ve some information on it here: http://themellors.org/cooking/ there are...

Update on this one... I scrubbed, zested, peeled, pithed and squished the oranges... I added the enzyme and now it's doing it's job. Smells good and even looks like orange juice so hopefully I'm doing something right:). Whats left to do? Other than pitch the yeast - I've a sore left thumb...

I’d read that oranges have a lot of pectin and that’s why I wondered... I will throw some into the mix I think. but that will be tomorrow now. Bit too late to start juicing and zesting 20 oranges and 4 lemons. many thanks for the input.

Hi I’m wanting to make 10l orange wine from whole fruits. The recipe says to put in zest, peel fruit and remove pith, then mash in a bucket. Add boiling water and leave for 5 days (stirring occasionally). The recipe doesn’t call for pectinase to help with juice extraction but, I guess more...

Thank you all for your replies. I think I will go for leaving the pits in. Tuesday is market day and usually a good day to score cheap seasonal fruit. Let’s see what we can find

I live in a large urban area in the Netherlands... The worst we get is the occasional hedgehog, birds and slugs. Our opportunities for dealing out lead poisoning are limited but I catch the sentiment

A question... Should the stones be removed from cherries or not? I’ve seen a few different recipes for between 2kg to 3kg for a gallon. But some leave the stones in, others ask for their removal. Now, as much as I find pitting cherries as cathartic as the next person, that’s a lot of...

Part of me is horrified at this... Another part thinks about the scientific implications of alcohol and animals. And the last part (by far the larger) finds the whole idea wanting to make sure you film it when you do

And added benefit of mistakes is we learn for next time

Hmmmm.... It appears you can make wine out of anything but maybe sprouts? That could be a bridge too far. With that in mind... The small young ones are more tender and a bit sweeter. Or would you go all in and take the big boys?

Bernard Rutabaga - thats turnip right? Sounds good. Will have to have a go at that as well... At the moment I've batches of celery, strawberry, jasmin tea and clove and ginger on the go. Three have just been racked off and the clove & ginger - that will be a little longer before racking...

So - I received my copy of "130 "new" Winemaking Recipes" by CJJ Berry today... Lots of interesting projects to make but one did particularly stand out... Cabbage Wine Now - I really don't know what to think of this... Has any one tried it? What was your feeling/thought/opinion etc? Of...