Sweet Pickles

Sweet Pickles: Homemade Bread and Butter Pickles Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 dozen 3-inch cucumbers
• ½ cup pickling salt
• 3-¼ cups apple cider vinegar, divided
• 2-⅛ quarts water, divided
• 6 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole cloves
• 2 tablespoons pickling spices

Instructions

• Put 2 dozen 3-inch cucumbers, freshly picked, in a crock or a jar. A crock can be anything from an unchipped enamel crock to a big glass jar or suitable container.
• Cover with a brine of ½ cup pickling salt, ¼ cup vinegar, and 2 quarts water.
• Weight down the cucumbers (a plate with a canning jar full of water on top of it will do nicely), and cover the crock.
• The fermentation of the cucumbers will cause a white, scummy substance to form on top of the brine. Every day for 2 weeks, check on your cucumbers and just skim the scum off if it is present.
• After 2 weeks, drain, cut into chunks, and let them stand for 24 hours in cold water, and then rinse.
• Combine 3 cups vinegar with 6 cups of sugar and ½ cup (⅛ quart) water. Tie 2 tablespoons each whole cloves and mixed pickling spices in cheesecloth, add to vinegar solution, and bring to a boil. Pour over cucumbers and let stand for 24 hours. Drain, reheat vinegar solution, and repeat process 4 times (this is only a 5-minute task each day).
• Remove spices and pack pickles in sterile jars. Bring vinegar solution to a boil and pour over pickles. Seal and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Now you have tasty sweet pickles

Kitchen Garden 2020

2020 Kitchen Garden as of July 9, 2020.

It is 1:30 in the afternoon 92 degrees F and the garden is in full grow, Tomatoes in bloom for about a week. We have been picking Greens and strawberries for about a month and a dang gopher has wiped out half of the Spaghetti Squash plants ( see upper left) already! Another is working the salad greens just out of this picture, lower left. Been after them with bait and traps. Seems like an unending war with them. While I get a few of them, there is always more to contend with.

The second plantings of beans and peas are up just as the first are beginning to bloom. I am replanting the missing Spaghetti Squash as they produce long and the baby fruit are far better then Zucchini in stir fry. Hopefully  I will get the gopher before it gets all my plants.

The near lower right is Butternut Squash. I hope I got the gopher that was working that area a month ago.

Lots of Amish Paste tomatoes planted along with Anahiem and Chyanne Peppers, maybe a good year to make sauce  8-). These Paste tomatoes are like giant Roma in shape and are quite dry and meaty,  a big, fist sized, one is perfect for slicing in sandwich and won’t melt the bread with excess juice.

Generally I grow standard bred crop lines and save seed so most of my crops have been acclimated to my soil and climate. after over 20 years of selection they generally do better then Hybreds from the store stock and are far cheaper in the bulk produced. But they are a real pain in the neck to produce as many require additional space and time to mature.

 

Sweet Bread,

 

To proof yeast:

• Pour 1 cup of warm (110 degrees F) water into a bowl.
• Add 2 teaspoons of sugar; stir to dissolve.
• Sprinkle a packet of yeast (2 ½ teaspoons) on top.
• Let it sit for a few minutes, then stir until it dissolves.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm, draft-free place (inside your turned-off oven, for example).

Within 5 to 10 minutes the top of the mixture should have turned creamy and foamy, which means the yeast is working. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead; discard the mixture and try again with different yeast.

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ingredients:

6 cups General Purpose flour,  1 teaspoon salt ,  ½ cup white sugar; mix well and then add

1 cup warm milk or water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) plus yeast and sugar from above, 2 eggs, room temperature,  ⅓ cup margarine, melted

mix until incorporated into a ball, cover and let raise

knead and let rest twice more

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Cinnamon Rolls

stretch into 10 x 14″  and apply filling  leaving 3/4″ edges clean, then roll and divide into dish and let rise before baking

Filling

⅓ cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon

optionally chopped toasted nuts and/or raisins

mix well

bake at 350 for 30 minuets, 20 covered, then brown

Recipe yields 12 servings (9 x 12 deep dish)

Hardtack

 

Hard Tack, Survival Biscuits;

These are the minimum survival biscuits made of flour, salt and water, that can be stored dry for years. Use General Purpose Wheat Flour for the longest life.

Hardtack
4 cups flour
2 cups water
4 tsp salt

Hardtack Recipes
Traditional Hardtack Recipe

4.5 cups White Flour
3 Tbsp Salt (Optional)

1.5 cups of water

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°F
Add dry ingredients to your bowl.
The amount of water you need can vary a bit. I add a ½ cup at a time and work it in.
Knead dough, The end consistency you are going for is just pliable enough to be smooth and worked with a rolling pin.
Roll out till approx 1/4 inch thick
Cut into square biscuit shapes
Dock or poke holes in the dough.
Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 mins
Allow to cool completely

Modern Hardtack Recipe

3 cups White Flour
1.5 cups Sweet Sorghum Flour
9 Rounded Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
½ Cup Refined Coconut Oil
3 Tbsp Iodized Salt

1.5 cups of water

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°F
Add dry ingredients to your bowl.
The amount of water you need can vary a bit. I add a ½ cup at a time and work it in.
Knead dough, The end consistency you are going for is just pliable enough to be smooth and worked with a rolling pin.
Roll out till approx 1/4 inch thick
Cut into square biscuit shapes
Dock or poke holes in the dough.
Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 mins
Allow to cool completely

Gluten-Free Hardtack Recipe

People who suffer from gluten intolerance have difficulties consuming wheat based product.
So when preparing for when SHTF you need to take that into account.
In this recipe we’ll be replacing the wheat product flour, by almond flour, which is a nut based product.
This recipe uses much less water then other hardtack recipes because almond flour has a higher amount of fat in it.

2 cups of almond flour
1/4 – 1/3 cup of water
1/2 – 1 teaspoon of salt (optional)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°F
Add dry ingredients to your bowl.
The amount of water you need can vary a bit. I add a ½ cup at a time and work it in.
Knead dough, The end consistency you are going for is just pliable enough to be smooth and worked with a rolling pin.
Roll out till approx 1/4 inch thick
Cut into square biscuit shapes
Dock or poke holes in the dough.
Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 mins
Allow to cool completely

These should be dry stored in a freezer for the longest life.

Sourdough

The easiest way to acquire a sourdough starter is to make your own by adding water to flour and wait for natural spores that are everywhere to ferment a water /flour mix. After a few weeks of evolution it will assume a balanced character for your kitchen.

Recipe & instructions to make starter .

Leavening starter, 1/2 cup flour +1/2 cup warm water and a small pinch of baking yeast might help kick things off.

mix well and let set 1 day, then second day add another batch of half cup flour and half cup water, mix well,, 3th day again.  it should be working well enough to use, remove 1cup to make leavening, you should remove a cup of starter every day or two and replace with new ingredients or put container under refrigeration to slow it’s action, After the mother reaches the character that you like freeze a bit to save it in case you forget to feed and nurture it. This bit will be helpful in quickly reestablishing your starter.

I pull off enough starter,(1 cup) every morning to make 2 waffles, after 2 weeks my starter developed good character, The first few days were pretty poor stuff. but after 2 weeks things got much better. Starter doubled it’s size in 3 hours, had good leavening and flavor.

The water encourages the enzymes in the wheat flour to break down the starch into sugars, the yeast breaks down the sugars into Carbon dioxide and alcohol, and bacteria breaks down the alcohol into acetic acid. At the start there are a bunch of wild yeasts and bacteria that don’t work right together and you will get foul odors and poor leavening.  Just keep cycling it and in time it will balance it’s self out. Like any living thing it needs food and water and a cozy 72-76 F environment to thrive.

add about 3/4 cup water and 7/8 cup flour as makeup for 1 cup starter removed

Bread making

Bread ingredients, per cup flour:

3/4 cup warm water (80F)
1/4 cup starter, mix with half cup of the warm water
1/4 teaspoon salt mix with 1/4 cup warm water
best bread making temperature 75-78 degrees F
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Ingredients for 2 loaves;

(6 cups for 2 – 4x 4 x 8inch or 2 – 7inch diameter loaves) nearly 4 pounds total

Sponge

#1 – mix cup of leavening (starter) with 2 cups warm water + 2 heaping tablespoon sugar  and then let it rest a bit, stir a few times to keep it mixed while yeast works, keep warm, 76F more or less)
#2 – mix in 5 cups General Purpose (GP) flour with water/leaven mix (to make sponge )
let set 1 – 4 hours to grow sponge ( double in size)
#3 – add 1 teaspoon salt to a cup of warm water
(salt improves the strength of the gluten as well as the bread flavor
but limits the speed of the yeast multiplication)
and mix salt water well with sponge

GP flour will make the bread soft, Bread Flour will make it tougher (more gluten)

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Bread Dough Ball

start working liquid sponge and adding flour (about 1 cup bread flour) to dry out dough ball,  until liquid sponge gets to be a strong dough ball to develop gluten, Let rest covered for at least an hour.

Kneading will develop the gluten and mix the leavening to make smaller bubbles in the finished bread. So the knead and fold is important to develop the wanted internal structure in the bread. you are softening and stretching the gluten strands so that the leavening CO2 can inflate the bobbles that create the desired bread crumb texture

#4 –  knead 30 minuets/ rest 30 minuets while adding bread flour to dry dough ball, use sparingly or the added flour will make the bread tough
let rest half an hour then knead and add flour again, up to 6 times
# 5 – let rest,  hour or more,  then divide and shape and let rest half hour
finish kneading and shaping and then let rest for proofing 1-4 hours
or overnight in refrigerator before baking

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for baking in dutch oven or cast iron pot.
pre heat the cooking container to 450F before putting the dough loaf in it
start baking at 450F covered for 25 minuets then bake at 400F for 20 minuets
then remove lid and bake to desired browning.
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Sweet bread;

mix well  and add to  the sponge from above (about 4 pounds)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup melted butter
1+  cup sugar
4 large eggs

work in soft flour , about 3 cups plus until dough just starts to lose it’s stickiness, don’t over do it.

Cover and let rise 1 hour, knead and then let rise, repeat

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Cinnamon rolls; take half of the sweet roll dough to fill 9.5×14 baking dish, flatten into about 12×20 sheet

fill with, 1 cup dark sugar, 1 cup toasted ground nuts, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 table spoon ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon water, heat and mix well, spread on dough sheet and roll into log.

slice log into 15 equal parts and fill dish, let rise until dish is filled.

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preheat oven 400F cook covered 25 minutes, 15 minutes uncovered to brown

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Icing; 1cup fine ground sugar, (confectioners sugar) 1/2cup butter, cap of liquid flavor,

add heavy cream to get the right consistency while heating and whisking, (maybe too much icing)

pour over warm/hot rolls and let icing dry out a bit before covering.

this is enough for 2 pans of rolls, cut in half for one

Amond Cookies

Amond cookies, These are made with California Amonds. There is no “L” in Amonds because we knock the “L” out of them to get them out of the almond trees. These are addictive, so beware. You can’t eat one!

My inability to get to the local cookie shop, 40 miles away, has forced me to attempt to make my own. A grower friend gave me a gallon bag of California Almonds ., I decided to create my own. The 2 cups of  chopped/ground roasted Amonds help to make these cookies the Amonds-est!
dry ingredients: mix in a bowl,  set aside
2 cups – all purpose flour
2 cup – Almond flour,

Grind or fine chop 2 cups of Almonds ( I blanch& skin , dry, and fine grind, 2 heaping cups= 2cups blanched)

1 tsp – baking soda

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp – salt

break 4 large eggs into a bowl  set aside
note: Important get the egg liquid amount right !  3 large eggs are not quite enough.

In your large mixing bowl add:
16 Tbs – butter, ( 2 sticks ) 1/2 lb soft or room temperature
1 cup – granulated sugar
1 cup – packed brown sugar
mix butter and sugar to a heavy cream texture, takes about 5 minutes

mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, add eggs and mix well

slowly add flour ( dry ingredients mix )

Refrigerate over night to age and get the dough stiff to handle as well as slow down sag during cooking

I make logs and cut into 1inch thick pucks to place onto treated cooky sheet.

The dough should be moderately stiff and a bit oily to the feel.
Onto your prepared cooking sheet, make into 1-1/4 inch size balls.
do not flatten as they will sag to about 5/8″ thick
Cook in a 350F preheated oven, for about 15 minutes to blond, you can smell them cooking, 18min. to golden brown !

They will finish a bit over 3 inches in diameter at 5/8 inch thick. Somewhat smooth surface with small cracks. Allow to cool a bit before transferring from cooking sheet as they will be a bit tender while hot. This should yield over 3 dozen cookies…pg

Note: they get even better with a day or two of ageing, if you can resist the temptation. My lady complains about my cookies when ever I make them. Generally while eating one.  😉  …pg

Mother’s Pie Crust

Recipe for oil pie crust mom makes; This results in a very good pie crust that is a toasted  flaky thick crust that can be cut and will hold together for serving. I think that this pie crust is the best half of a pie! Rolled 1/8″ thick will yield 1/4″ cooked crusts!

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8-9 inch shallow one crust , or the top of a 10 inch:

1 cup + 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt;

1/3 cup salad oil (corn oil) ;

2 to 3 Tbs cold water.

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10 inch deep dish:

2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp. salt, 2 tsp sugar;

2/3 cup corn oil;

4 to 6 tbs COLD water as needed

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measure flour,sugar and salt into bowl and mix; Add oil, mix with fork until particles are size of small peas or rice. Sprinkle in water 1 Tbs at a time, until flour is moistened, and beginning to show some stickiness, work with fork to form into a ball.    Wrap and chill dough in refrigerator 30 minutes,    Place flattened round between two pieces of wax paper. Roll dough 2+ inches larger than pan for deep dish. about 1/8 inch thick, and place in dish, then add filling and cover .

Bake pie at 450F,   20 minutes /until light golden brown,  reduce to 275F to cook pie filling, about an hour and a half for the deep dish.

For best results, Do not rework scraps! sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon, lay out on cooky sheet to bake! a very tasty treat while you let the finished pie cool.

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Apple pie filler for 10″ deep dish: thin slice 6 cups apples, add 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup sugar  (may omit this sugar) , 1 heaping tablespoon chopped ginger and cook down to semi cooked, then add 3 heaping tablespoons flour (as thickener) . ……………………………………. note:   heaping = almost 2 level

Mix well and let cool a bit before adding to shell. Then cover with thin rolled topper and slice in vents.  I slice in  1/8ths to facilitate serving slicing.

let cool,  cuts well and stays intact, filling firm – crust nicely toasted, 1/8 piece very substantial piece of pie, a breakfast meal even.

November 22, 2019 –  final upgrade to this post……. emmm….. maybe..pg

PG’s Oatmeal Cookies

PG’s Oatmeal cookies, Two of these is a serving of oatmeal!  actually a meal, Bet You can’t eat one!

My inability to get to the local cookie shop, 40 miles away, has forced me to attempt to make my own. A good Oatmeal Cooky is a must in my cooky jar.  Most recipes are regular cookies with oatmeal added and maybe raisins as well.  So after many disappointing results from published recipes, I decided to create my own recipe for Oatmeal cookies. The aim, to make the cookies with lots and lots of oatmeal. So I grind 2-cups of oatmeal to flour to reduce the need for as much wheat flour and added lots more oatmeal, then more eggs to glue it all together! The 3 spice is just enough to add a tiny bit of flavor to the bland oatmeal mix.
dry ingredients: mix in a bowl,  set aside
1-1/2 cups – all purpose flour
2 cups – Oat flour
1 tsp – baking powder
1 tsp – baking soda
1 tsp – salt
2 tsp – 3 spice mix (I use equal amounts of ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon)

Grind or fine chop 1-1/2 cups of toasted nuts, set aside (I used walnuts, pecans might be better)  or 1-1/2 cups raisins are good or none at all.   Works for me  😎
5 cups – old fashion oatmeal,  set aside ( you might prefer 4 cups for more spice flavor)
break 4 extra large eggs into a bowl,  set aside
note: Important get the egg liquid amount right ! 

In your large mixing bowl add:
16 Tbs – butter, ( 2 sticks ) or 1/2lb. soft or room temperature
1 cup – granulated sugar
1 cup – packed brown sugar
mix butter and sugar to a heavy cream texture, takes about 5 minutes. The mixing of butter and sugar is very important for good cookies, take your time and do it right!
add eggs and mix well  followed by the chopped nuts or raisins or make them plain!

slowly add flour ( dry ingredients mix )  then incorporate the oatmeal, I incorporate the oatmeal by hand as that chore is too much for the mixer to do well

The dough should be moderately stiff and a bit sticky. Let the dough age at least 30 minuets so the oats can moisten and dry the dough.  I get the best outcome by leaving the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
Onto your prepared cooking sheet, make 3 tablespoon size drops (golf ball size)
Do not Flatten! they will sag enough as they cook, if you flatten them they will be thin and tough
Cook in a 350F preheated oven, for about 13 – 15 minutes, or just barely browned.  They will finish about 3 inches in diameter at 3/4 inch thick. Somewhat smooth surface with small cracks. Allow to cool a bit before transferring from cooking sheet as they will be a bit tender while hot. This should yield over 3 dozen cookies…pg

See if you can eat just one! …pg

Triple Peanut Cookies

Triple the peanuts of PB cookies, these are addictive, so beware. You can’t eat one!

My inability to get to the local cookie shop, 40 miles away, has forced me to attempt to make my own. Peanut Butter being my favorite type. After many disappointing results from published recipes, I decided to create my own. There are many kinds of peanut butter sold, depending on the additives used and the amount of peanut oil removed, so that is a contributing factor to flavor and consistency of the results. So beware, results may vary. The peanut flour and chopped/ground roasted peanuts help to minimize this problem and make these cookies the peanutty-est!
dry ingredients: mix in a bowl,  set aside
2-1/2 cups – all purpose flour
1 cup – peanut flour
1 tsp – baking powder
1 tsp – baking soda
1 tsp – salt
Grind or fine chop 1 – 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts,  set aside.
1 cup – crunchy peanut butter,  set aside
break 3 large eggs  ( 2/3 to 3/4 cup of egg liquid),  set aside
note: Important get the egg liquid amount right !  2 large eggs are not quite enough.

In your large mixing bowl add:
16 Tbs – butter, ( 2 sticks ) 1/2 lb soft or room temperature
1 cup – granulated sugar
1 cup – packed brown sugar
mix butter and sugar to a heavy cream texture, takes about 5 minutes
mix in peanut butter
mix in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, add eggs and mix well

and then incorporate the ground/chopped peanuts

slowly add flour ( dry ingredients mix )

The dough should be moderately stiff and oily to the feel.
Onto your prepared cooking sheet, make into 1-1/4 inch size balls.
Flatten to the thickness you want the finished cookies to be.
Cook in a 350F preheated oven, for about 12 – 13 minutes, or just barely browned edges. As they cook they get bigger in diameter but not much thicker. They will finish a bit over 3 inches in diameter at 1/2 inch thick. Somewhat smooth surface with small cracks. Allow to cool a bit before transferring from cooking sheet as they will be a bit tender while hot. This should yield over 3 dozen cookies…pg

Note: they get even better with a day or two of ageing, if you can resist the temptation. My lady complains about these cookies when ever I make them. Generally while eating one.  😉  …pg

Canned Spiced Beets

Plate of canned spiced beets

Canned spiced beets are a great way to preserve a beet crop for salad addition, vegetable dish or even desert.

After asking several people for their favorite recipe for canned beets, I put them together for this recipe that has turned out to be a tasty way to preserve part of my gardens production.  After a full season of growth and several fall frosts I harvested about 50 feet of single row of “torpedo” beets, “Fortex” from Johnny’s seeds.  A very sweet red beet when mature and good eating, thumb size young or fist size late harvest.

Beets to be cleaned

Pot of scrubbed beets for the first cooking

Taste test of Canned Spice Beets

Prepare beets by trimming off root tips and leaf head.  Scrub the beets very clean as we will be saving the juice to preserve all of the nutrients. As I picked beets enough to fill a 18 quart cook pot, this recipe is sized for this amount, 12 pounds of beets, 12 quarts yield.

12 pounds cleaned beets.

12 cups apple cider vinegar

the saved beet liquid

5 cups sugar

2 table spoons salt

10 table spoons spices

ground cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg            one third each or to suit your taste

Add 6 cups water and half the salt to the beets, in the pot .  Cover and cook 20 minuets and then allow to cool to working temperature.  remove beets from pot and save liquid. Scrape off skin, a small knife held 90 degrees to the beet surface works best. If the beets are cooked to just soft, the skins will slip off with thumb and finger pressure, Fun!

Add ingredients to liquid in pot and simmer/low boil for 30 minuets, stir occasionally while you skin and slice beets. Slice 1/4 inch or thinner,  smaller pieces will pack tighter in jars.  Suit your needs, be creative.  Pack jars to 1/2 inch of jar rim. 12 pounds should yield 12 quarts of packed jars.

After liqueur has settled pour over packed beets, leave at least 1/4 inch of head space in jars,  clean jar rims and add jar lids and rings. You should have extra liquor left over, a little more then a cup. I save the left over and add it to carrots canned with the same recipe  to improve their flavor.

After the water in the wet bath reaches 210F. Boil sealed jars of beets 20 minuets to complete cooking and canning. Age a week or more and enjoy!  pg

Update: this recipe works well for carrot’s as well.  pg

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a comment from Chiefio that I just had to appropriate!

E.M.Smith says:

7 February 2015 at 12:16 pm

@P.G:

Cloves are a known anesthetic. ( Just put a bag of ground cloves on a sore spot in your mouth and notice how it stops hurting ) so I’d guess it to be part of the fix. I try to make sure there are always cloves in the house for just that sort of need. ( Making a tooth ache go away at 3 AM until the dentist wakes up, for example…).

Apple Cider Vinegar is also reputed to have beneficial effects on health, though I have no plausible reason (other than a rampant speculation that it might help get the acid / base balance back in line if you are at a basic fringe state).

Cinnamon tends to have a bit of ‘burn’ and most anesthetics burn when first applied, then shift to anesthesia, so perhaps it does a bit of that too? ( he does a search…) Yup.

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/cinnamon-spice.html

Health benefits of cinnamon

The active principles in the cinnamon spice are known to have anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-septic, local anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, rubefacient (warming and soothing), carminative and anti-flatulent properties.

Cinnamon spice has the highest anti-oxidant strength of all the food sources in nature. The total measured ORAC (Oxygen radical absorbance capacity) value for this novel spice is 2,67,536 trolex equivalents (TE), which is many hundred times more than in chokeberry, apples, etc.

The spice contains health benefiting essential oils such as eugenol, a phenylpropanoids class of chemical compound, which gives pleasant, sweet aromatic fragrance to it. Eugenol has got local anesthetic and antiseptic properties, hence; employed in the dental and gum treatment procedures.

Other important essential oils in cinnamon include ethyl cinnamate, linalool, cinnamaldehyde, beta-caryophyllene, and methyl chavicol.

Cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon-sticks has been found to have anti-clotting action, prevents platelet clogging inside the blood vessels, and thereby helps prevent stroke, peripheral arterial and coronary artery diseases.

So in addition to general health promoting properties like mineral content and such, there are a couple of essential oils with anesthetic and anti-inflammatory properties.

Nutmeg is known to have mild effects on the nerves ( in high doses is reputed to be a very mild hallucinogen)

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/nutmeg.html

Medicinal uses

Since ancient times, nutmeg and its oil were being used in Chinese and Indian traditional medicines for illnesses related to the nervous and digestive systems. The compounds in this spice such as myristicin and elemicin have been soothing as well as stimulant properties on brain.
Nutmeg oil contains eugenol, which has been used in dentistry for toothache relief.
The oil is also used as a local massage to reduce muscular pain and rheumatic pain of joints.
Freshly prepared decoction with honey has been used to relief of nausea, gastritis, and indigestion ailments.

So looks to me like a decoction of those three spices, long with the vinegar and all the minerals and such from the beets would be not only generally health supporting, but likely have some effect on joint discomfort.

And what do you mean by my “fixation”??? 😉

It’s not a fixation, just a fruitful area of exploration 8-0 …

I wonder if that’s why I like the occasional pickled beets and odd cucumber pickle…

@R. de Haan:

Yup, fish oil is a known way to get the Omega-3 oil up, so shift the 3 / 6 ratio rapidly in the ‘good’ way.

Nice link on Devil’s Claw. Answered a question or two for me (like what the active ingredient is thought to be and that it blocks some inflammation pathways).

@Kuhnkat:

Interesting too. Any “synopsis” of his proposed method?

FWIW, I was referred to a specialist for a root canal / patch on a lower molar that had (on the x-ray) the root pulp pushing a small abscess out of the root tip. Hurt a lot, and was clearly a big issue. But, at the time, I had no job and not much money. A couple of $K was not on the cards. This was a couple of years ago. Well, at home in a drawer I had some antibiotics… I decided to run an experiment.

Took a normal dose of the antibiotic ( don’t remember which one, but think it was doxycycline ) and did mouth rinses with peroxide. In a day the pain was going down. In a couple it was gone. End of the week, everything was fine.

Now, a couple of years later, it’s still fine. Odds are that I’ll go back to the dentist for a cleaning and check up when back in his area. It will be interesting when the question of “How did my root canal go?” comes up and he snaps an X-ray of it 😉

I’ve learned, from way too many cycles of it, that if I totally avoid sodas (coke, pepsi, etc.) I have no cavities. If I indulge in them, I end up at the dentist in about a year. Just don’t drink things with phosphoric acid in it and teeth are much more happy…

Now I drink iced tea, hot tea, coffee, beer, and a lot of water. Occasionally goat milk, but rarely (as it is $4 / quart…). Avoid all soda whenever possible. Been a couple of years now and nothing hurts…

I’m certain there is a large opportunity to stop / reverse / prevent tooth decay with diet alone and maybe with the occasional antibiotic treatment if things have gotten infected.

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thank you Mr Smith