Breaking
FoodNerdy Recipes Management System
Tag

application

Browsing
Food

Lemon Pepper: Application and How to Make it Yourself

Spices like lemon pepper give many dishes the right kick. In our instructions, we will show you which dishes are best refined with lemon pepper and how you can make it yourself at home.

Lemon pepper is a delicious spice mix that you can use to refine many dishes. You can buy this spice mixture ready-made in the supermarket. However, you should always make sure that only lemon zest and pepper are listed on the list of ingredients. Because many lemon peppers offered in the supermarket are actually more seasoned salts. The main ingredients are salt, sugar and sometimes also glutamate. The actual spice is only contained in small quantities.

Also make sure that it is definitely the right lemon pepper. Indonesian lemon pepper is a type of pepper related to Szechuan pepper and is a completely different spice.

Using Lemon Pepper: Application in the kitchen

The freshness of the lemon paired with the spiciness of the pepper goes particularly well with the following dishes:
Salads: If you love Mediterranean cuisine, you should definitely stir a pinch of lemon pepper into your next potato, tomato or carrot salad.
Grilled vegetables: Summer vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant taste particularly delicious if you marinate them with a little lemon pepper before grilling.
Fish dishes: A pinch of lemon pepper after cooking makes white fish really aromatic. Fish soup can also be tasted excellently with it.
Poultry: Chicken thighs marinated in lemon pepper taste great on the grill in the summer.
Your creativity knows no limits. If a dish is missing the icing on the cake, lemon pepper is usually the right choice. If you like baking Christmas cookies, you can even add a pinch of lemon pepper to your shortbread dough.

Make lemon pepper yourself – instructions

You can also easily make lemon pepper yourself:
Remove the outer zest of four unwaxed organic lemons with a lemon or parmesan grater. Peel off only the yellow layer on the outside. The white middle layer tastes bitter and gives the finished lemon salt an unpleasant taste.
Add exactly the same amount of coarsely ground black pepper (by volume) to the lemon zest. If you don’t have a pepper mill, you can coarsely grind the pepper by putting it in a freezer bag and crushing it with the rolling pin.
Dry your lemon salt for an hour in the oven or dehydrator at 50 °C (circulating air). You don’t have to preheat the oven for this.
If you want, you can also turn your lemon pepper into a seasoning salt. To do this, mix two teaspoons of coarse sea salt flakes into your finished spice mixture.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Celery Salt: Application and How to Make it Yourself

With celery salt, you can add flavor to savory foods without resorting to flavor enhancers or other unhealthy ingredients. We show you how to make celery salt yourself and how to use it.

Celery salt naturally adds a savory touch to your savory dishes. Celery is an integral part of many soup seasonings – you can therefore use homemade celery salt in a similar way to soup powder. The advantage: It is completely free of unwanted additives.

Celery Salt: The Ingredients

To make your own celery salt, you only need two ingredients:
1 stalk of celery with celery greens
100 grams of salt
Buy the celery as regionally and organically as possible. In this way you avoid chemical pesticides and long transport routes. You can also do without packaging waste if you buy your vegetables at the weekly market.

Normal table salt is suitable for celery salt. It does not have to come from the Himalayas, nor does it have to be sea salt. This is neither better nor healthier – on the contrary, microplastics have already been discovered in fleur de sel and in sea salt. However, make sure that your salt is free of anti-caking agents and other chemical additives.

Additionally you need
a dehydrator and
a good blender or coffee grinder.
If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can alternatively dry the celery in the oven at a low temperature. However, a dehydrator is much more energy efficient.

Celery Salt: The Preparation

The preparation of celery salt is very simple:
Wash the celery thoroughly.
Separate the celery greens from the bulb.
Cut the bulb into fine cubes.
Distribute the cubes evenly in the dehydrator or alternatively on a grid.
Allow the celery cubes and celery greens to dry in the dehydrator for about 12 to 14 hours. Depending on their size, the pieces need about four to five hours in the oven at 50 degrees.
Grind the dried celery leaves and dice into a fine powder.
Mix the powder with the salt and fill the finished celery salt into a screw-top jar.
Stored in the dark, celery salt can be kept for several months.
Tip: If you want to do without salt altogether, you can season your dishes with just the dried and chopped celery.

How to use celery salt

You can use celery salt in many ways in the kitchen – here are some inspirations:
The fine seasoning goes well with potato dishes such as potato gratin, potato soup or fried potatoes.
Tomato sauce or homemade tomato sauce also get a special flavor from celery salt.
Whether it’s fried eggs, scrambled eggs or a vegan alternative – dishes with eggs harmonize well with the seasoning salt.
Celery salt is also suitable for refining salad dressings, sauces and dips.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Basil Oil: Application, Effect and How to Make it

Basil oil is extracted from basil leaves and flowers. What is little known: it has been used in areas other than the kitchen for thousands of years and has many healing effects.

The application of basil oil

Basil originally comes from India. Basil oil is widely used in Ayurvedic cuisine and medicine. It tastes good in dishes such as tomato and mozzarella salad. But you can also use it as a remedy.

Add 2-3 drops of basil oil to your tea. You can increase the effect if you also add a spoonful of honey. This should help with bronchial diseases, colds or digestive problems, for example.
You can also inhale with it, which is supposed to relieve irritable bowel syndrome and help against mental tension and nervousness. Put a few drops of oil in hot water and inhale the steam, for example under a towel.
Basil oil has anti-inflammatory and detoxifying effects in various areas, which various studies show.
Caution: Do not apply the oil directly to the skin. This can cause skin irritation. You can mix it with a mild olive oil or sunflower oil, for example. Basil oil should not be used during pregnancy as a study has shown that it can promote labor.

Basil oil is also often found in the following products:
in fragrance lamps
in cosmetic products
in perfumes (due to its spicy scent)
in massage oils
as compress applications
bath additive. A warm bath with basil oil is recommended for menstrual pain, for example.

Other effects of basil oil

Basil oil is said to have the following effects:
antispasmodic
calming
balancing and strengthening for the nerves, i.e. a natural nerve tonic
pain relieving
increases blood circulation
antibacterial and expectorant, which is why it is used for acne, colds and coughs
stimulates gastric juice production and thus promotes digestion
detoxifying
strengthens the formation of anti-stress hormones, which is said to have an antidepressant and memory-promoting effect
acute against headaches, for example you can mix it with oil or cream on your temples
stimulates the formation of female hormones and is said to help with hormonal imbalances and irregular menstruation
Only a few studies can be found on the effects, which is why the statements can only be made relatively. If you have symptoms, you should not rely solely on the effects of basil oil.

How to make basil oil

You can also make the basil oil yourself. It is then not the essential oil, but an oil enriched with basil. You can also use the homemade oil internally and externally, or use it to serve in salads.

For production you need:
1 clean bottle or a large jar
2 handfuls of chopped basil leaves and stalks
cold-pressed olive oil or sunflower oil
How to make basil oil yourself:
Put the basil in the bottle or jar.
Cover the basil completely with the oil. This is important, otherwise it can become moldy.
Swirl the oil once a day for four weeks.
After four weeks you can filter it and keep it in a dark bottle for about a week.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Prickly Pear Seed Oil: Application, Effect and Disadvantages

Prickly pear seed oil is said to ensure beautiful skin and even lower blood sugar. But what about the promises? And what about the environmental balance of the oil?

Prickly pear seed oil is obtained from the seeds of the cactus species Opuntia ficus-indica. The plant originally comes from Mexico. It is very popular in South American cuisine: the so-called “nopales”, the cactus leaves, are traditionally served by Mexicans with various dishes such as vegetable pans and tacos. The cactus fruit itself is also edible – in English it is known as “prickly pear”. Their juice is considered a “superfood” in Mexico

There are two ways of extracting the oil from the prickly pear seeds: maceration (softening) or cold pressing. With cold-pressed prickly pear seed oil, the ingredients remain in large quantities.

Prickly pear seed oil and its ingredients

Prickly pear seed oil is rich in various healthy nutrients. It consists of 88 percent fatty acids such as omega-6 and omega-9.

Omega-6 (linoleic acid): This unsaturated fatty acid is the main component of prickly pear seed oil. It is essential for your body’s immune response.
Omega-9 (oleic acid): Oleic acid is said to have a positive effect on brain function and the cardiovascular system. Some studies suggest that the acid may help prevent breast cancer. It is not only contained in prickly pear seed oil, but also in olive oil, for example.
Prickly pear seed oil is also rich in tocopherols, which belong to the vitamin E group. Tocopherols are antioxidants and protect the body’s cells from free radicals

Prickly Pear Seed Oil: Effect on your health and beauty

Prickly pear seed oil is famous for having a positive effect on the human body, both internally and externally.

Topical use: Take two drops of the oil and either apply it to your skin without any additives or mix it with your daily skin cream for extra dry skin. Despite its rich fatty acid content, prickly pear seed oil is non-comedogenic—so it won’t clog pores. The oil is suitable for daily use.
Internal use: You can also use the prickly pear seed oil for culinary purposes and mix a few drops into your salad dressing, for example. The oil has a light fruity note. However, you should not heat it: it can lose its valuable ingredients.
Researchers have already been able to demonstrate some of the health-promoting effects that prickly pear oil is said to have – including, for example, its antioxidant effect. Other effects, on the other hand, have not yet been sufficiently proven:

Sun protection and anti-aging:
Anti-inflammatory: the so-called
Prevents cancer: As part of a study, scientists treated induced tumor cells from nude mice with prickly pear extract. They found that the tumor cells died more often as a result. The exact reason for this and whether prickly pear seed oil has the same effect on people has not yet been clearly established.

Prickly pear seed oil: What you should look out for when buying

If you want to buy prickly pear seed oil, you should always make sure that it is the cold-pressed version. Since the oil has to be made from a large quantity of fruit, it is particularly valuable and expensive. So if you come across a surprisingly cheap offer, it may be a chemically extracted product. This not only lacks important ingredients, it can even contain harmful substances. So make sure that it is not contaminated with so-called “hexane”. An organic seal is also important – this way you can also ensure the ecological quality of the oil.

But you should also keep an eye on the environmental balance of prickly pear seed oil: The biggest problem is the long transport routes. Globally, Mexico grows the most prickly pears. The second largest producer, on the other hand, is Italy (Sicily). It is therefore possible to buy prickly pear seed oil from the EU.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Corn Flour: Nutrients, Application and DIY Recipe

The gluten-free flour can bind not only sauces and dumplings.

Corn Flour – gluten-free flour made from the kernel of corn

Maize flour is obtained from corn in various ways: In this country, the corn grain is usually dried and then ground. In other processes, the dried corn is first roasted before being dried and ground. Maize flour from Mexico is very special: there the corn kernels are first fermented before they are dried and ground. You can find out why this makes the flour healthier below.

Depending on the production method, cornmeal differs in colour, taste and nutrients. In most cases it is characteristically yellow in color, but sometimes it is relatively light to almost white. It usually tastes slightly sweet, sometimes with a nutty note – and the typical corn taste is usually still in the flour.

By the way, cornmeal, cornmeal and polenta are not the same thing: cornmeal is coarser than cornmeal. Polenta, on the other hand, is a porridge made from cornmeal. In a separate article we will show you how to cook polenta and use it to make polenta thalers.

Corn starch also differs from corn flour: For corn starch, the starch is washed out of the grain using a special process. You can read exactly how this works and how you can use cornstarch in our article on cornstarch.

Cornmeal: nutrients and health

If you have celiac disease or a wheat allergy, corn flour is an interesting alternative to wheat or spelled flour: corn flour is completely gluten-free. When baking, however, you cannot simply replace wheat flour with corn flour: the latter lacks the binding properties of gluten. More on that later.

Compared to other whole grain flours, corn flour has a relatively low protein content of around seven to nine percent. Instead, cornmeal contains a lot of carbohydrates – mainly in the form of starch. In addition, there are around five percent dietary fiber in corn flour. The exact nutritional values ​​depend heavily on the manufacturing process.

Nutritional values ​​of corn flour per 100 grams:
Energy: 344 kcal
Fat: 0.8g
Carbohydrates: 74 g
Protein: 7.7 g
Fiber: 4.8 g
With over seven percent protein, corn flour cannot compete with wholemeal spelled flour, but it can still serve as a source of vegetable protein.

One problem: corn kernels (like other grains) contain phytic acid, which locks in certain nutrients and makes them inaccessible to humans. If you ferment the corn kernels before grinding, phytic acid is broken down. The traditional Mexican method for this is called “nixtamalization”. It makes the cornmeal from Mexico particularly healthy.

Cornmeal in the kitchen: tips and recipes

Corn flour is particularly popular in Mexican cuisine: Tortillas and nachos are well-known products made from corn flour in this country. In some South American countries, corn cakes are made from corn flour.

You can also thicken soups and sauces with cornmeal and use it as an ingredient in dumplings.

Corn flour does not contain gluten and is an alternative to wheat flour. However, you cannot bake pure corn bread without gluten. Instead, you can combine corn flour with other gluten-containing flours and thus enhance the look and taste of your home-baked bread: You can easily replace about ten percent of the flour with corn flour. This way you can bake delicious cornbread.

You can also make pudding from cornmeal. This is significantly finer than polenta, but not quite as homogeneous as cornstarch pudding.

Make and buy cornmeal yourself

If you have a strong grain mill, you can make corn flour yourself: To do this, you must first dry the corn kernels and then grind them as finely as possible. However, it is said that some grain mills are clogged by the corn and then no longer work properly. The easier option is therefore to buy ready-made corn flour.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Tartaric Acid (E 334): Application and Characteristics of The Additive

Tartaric acid (E 334) is found in many foods. In this article we will show you what tartaric acid is used for and whether it is dangerous.

Tartaric acid is approved as a food additive under the abbreviation E 334 and occurs naturally mainly in grapes.

The properties of tartaric acid are:
sour taste
preservative effect.
Tartaric acid is made from cream of tartar. This occurs when wine or grape juice is stored for a long time. To obtain tartaric acid, cream of tartar is converted into calcium tartrate, the calcium salt of tartaric acid. By adding sulfuric acid, it becomes tartaric acid. Gypsum is produced as a by-product.

Tartaric acid (E 334) in food

chocolate
Marmalade, Jam, Jellies
canned goods, e.g. B. of fruit and vegetables
fresh and dry pasta (e.g. bread)
biscuits and rusks
honey
oil and fats
butter
milk and cream
buttermilk
mineral water and spring water
Coffee
Sugar.
You can also often find tartaric acid in the form of cream of tartar in baking soda.

Other possible uses of tartaric acid (E 334)

In the production of silk, tartaric acid ensures that the fabric is tactile, shiny and more durable.
Tartaric acid is also used to delay building materials such as gypsum or cement from setting, i.e. hardening. This extends and simplifies their use.
In combination with metals, E 334 is used, among other things, to remove rust and to treat the surface of aluminium.
In cosmetics, tartaric acid has a skin-smoothing and firming effect. The additive is also sometimes found in fruit acid peelings.

How dangerous is tartaric acid (E 334)?

Tartaric acid is considered harmless to human health. In its raw form, according to the safety data sheet, it is corrosive and can cause serious eye damage. While such contact is unlikely for non-chemists, if it does occur, gently flush your eyes with water.

If you want to buy tartaric acid as a pure substance, you will usually find it in pharmacies and drugstores.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Gum Arabic: Characteristics, Application and Sustainability

Gum arabic is an additive from Africa that is often found in confectionery and wine. The sap of the acacia tree is considered harmless to health.

What is gum arabic?

Gum arabic is a food additive authorized under number E414. It is the resinous plant sap from the acacia trees that are widespread in Africa. Gum arabic is used in the food industry as a thickener, stabilizer and bulking agent.

The additive is obtained in a similar way to maple syrup. The bark of the acacia tree is scored in a V-shape and the escaping sap is collected in a bucket. The sap is then dried and pulverized so that it is sold as a white powder.

Before gum arabic became popular in the food industry, it was used primarily to make paint and ink. The Egyptians used it to mummify the dead.

In which foods is gum arabic found?

Since gum arabic only has a low thickening effect compared to other thickening agents, it is mostly used as a stabilizer. Gum arabic stabilizes food by preventing crystal formation. This is particularly appreciated in confectionery, such as gummy bears, where no sugar crystals should form. Frozen products with gum arabic also form fewer ice crystals, which have an adverse effect on the product texture.

Gum arabic is also often found in alcoholic beverages. In the beer, it stabilizes the foam so that it lasts for a particularly long time. Wine stabilized with gum arabic has better mouthfeel. In addition, it prevents cream of tartar from precipitating.

Is gum arabic sustainable?

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considers gum arabic to be harmless to health. There is no legal limit and gum arabic is also permitted in organic foods. The additive can only lead to allergy symptoms in some sensitive people.

Since gum arabic is obtained exclusively from the resin of African acacia trees, it has been transported a long way before it ends up in our supermarket. In addition, the working conditions on African plantations are often not good. Nevertheless, it is a renewable raw material that can be produced in an environmentally friendly manner and is completely harmless to health. So you don’t have to give gum arabic a wide berth in the supermarket. But keep in mind that it is always the better choice ecologically to use regional food.

Keep Reading
By
Lifestyle

Shellac: Application and Production of The Coating Agent

The natural substance shellac offers many possible uses. You’ve probably come into contact with it before without even knowing it. Here you can find out what shellac can be used for and how it is made.

Shellac is a natural, resinous, amber-colored compound that can be used for a variety of purposes. Its properties are:
naturally
tough consistency when warm
very hard when dried and cold
good adhesion
shiny coating
not soluble in gasoline and turpentine oil
soluble in alcohol, organic acids and aqueous alkalis

Application of shellac

Due to its properties, shellac is primarily used as a coating agent, but is also used as an adhesive or binding agent. It is approved as a food additive as E 904. The range of application areas is large.

Food: As a protective layer, it keeps fruit and vegetables fresh for longer (often in combination with beeswax). You can find shellac as a coating on sweets such as chocolate, chewing gum, coffee beans and nuts.
Drugs: Coating of tablets
Cosmetics: shine effect in hairspray and nail polish, binding agent in mascara, emulsifier in creams
Paints and varnishes: binders, colorants, base for primers and printing inks
Surface treatment: polishing of wood (restoration and maintenance of furniture), fixing drawings such as pencil, charcoal or chalk drawings.
Adhesives: jewelry processing (e.g. for gluing stones), cigarette paper, as upholstery glue for instruments, for example the saxophone

Production of shellac

Shellac is formed when certain species of scale insects metabolize plant sap:
The (varnish) scale insect lives on the shoots, leaves and bark of various trees and feeds on plant sap. When the female lice lay eggs, they turn the sap into a resinous mass. This mass is a precursor of shellac. Gradually, this secretion completely surrounds the female lice like a kind of cocoon. When hardened, it acts as a protective layer for the eggs during the early stages of development. The mother lice die in the cocoon, the young lice burrow through the resin layer after about six months.
To obtain shellac, the resin is removed from the leaves and tree. The mass is washed and melted in several passes and formed into a thin layer. Once the material has dried, it breaks up and the characteristic flake shellac is formed. The secretion of around 300,000 lacquer scale insects is required for one kilogram of shellac.
Depending on the country of origin and tree species, shellac comes in different colors. For example, there is yellow lemon shellac or red ruby ​​shellac. Lacquer scale insects are primarily native to South Asia.

Shellac: harmful to health?

Shellac is an animal product. Due to the diverse areas of application, the industry requires large quantities of the substance. During production, numerous living lice are processed, which are still hidden in residues of the resin on leaves and pieces of bark. Therefore, shellac is not vegan and not vegetarian.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Hazelnut Oil: Effect and Application

Hazelnut oil can be found in cosmetics and in the kitchen. Here you can find out what the oil with the pleasant nut aroma can do and what you can use it for.

Hazelnut oil is a vegetable oil that is produced when you press the kernels of the hazelnut bush – i.e. the hazelnuts. Hazelnut bushes are native to Asia Minor and Europe, including Germany. Not only the hazelnuts themselves, but also the hazelnut oil is healthy due to its ingredients. The nutty, spicy taste and smell is characteristic.

Effect of hazelnut oil

Hazelnut oil has a very high proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids, which makes it a valuable vegetable oil. As the dictionary of vegetable fats and oils shows, hazelnut oil also contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, a small proportion of saturated fatty acids and linoleic acid. Minerals and vitamins such as vitamin E, which is a good vitamin for the skin, are also included. Trace elements such as potassium, calcium or sulfur expand the active ingredients in hazelnut oil. Other ingredients include omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids.

Due to the high-quality ingredients, hazelnut oil has a number of positive effects and properties:
intensive care for skin and hair
fast absorbing
skin firming
anti-inflammatory
promotes wound healing

Application of hazelnut oil

The nutty taste can be used in a variety of ways as an edible oil in the kitchen:
in salad dressings, for example for radicchio or fruit salad
as baking oil
in desserts, for example in pudding or with crêpes
to cheese
The smoke point of hazelnut oil is around 150 degrees Celsius, you should definitely keep this in mind when baking.

In cosmetics, the oil is used to care for skin and hair:
against dry skin
to fight cellulite
against wrinkles
against pimples
as a massage oil
as a hair treatment or mask
as natural UV protection
Rub the affected areas thinly with oil repeatedly until the desired effect is achieved. Of course, you can also use hazelnut oil regularly as a preventive measure.

Note: Like all oils, you should also store hazelnut oil in a dark and cool place. It also does not have a long shelf life and should be used within three months of opening.

What is there to consider with hazelnut oil?

When buying, make sure that the hazelnuts are grown organically and that they are produced by cold pressing. In this way, the vitamins remain in the oil during production. You can buy hazelnut oil in health food stores, in well-stocked supermarkets and in some pharmacies.

Alternatives to hazelnut oil vary depending on the area of ​​application. In the kitchen, the strong nutty aroma is difficult to replace, but there are other spicy cooking oils such as walnut oil, pumpkin seed oil or linseed oil. In cosmetics, for example, you can use almond oil or jojoba oil.

Keep Reading
By
Food

Poppy Seed Oil: Application and Effect

Valuable, health-promoting substances are in the oil. Read here how poppy seed oil works and how to use it.

The cold-pressed oil made from various types of poppy seeds is called poppy seed oil. In addition to blue and gray poppy, opium poppy is mainly used for this. In addition to culinary purposes, poppy seed oil is also used for body care. Oil-based soaps and paints are also made from it.

In this article you will find out what is in the valuable poppy seed oil and how to use it.

Poppy seed oil: ingredients and effects

Since poppy seed oil is not particularly widespread in Europe, there are only few scientific studies on the special oil.

Some studies have looked at the composition of poppy seed oil and were able to identify the following triglycerides:
linoleic acid
oleic acid
palmitic acid
Linoleic acid belongs to the group of unsaturated fatty acids. It is essential for the body and cannot be produced by it itself. This means that you must get the omega-6 fatty acid through food. Linoleic acid supports your body in regeneration and cell stabilization and accelerates wound healing

In addition, the cold-pressed oil is rich in valuable minerals and vitamins. These include above all:
calcium
magnesium
potassium
B vitamins
Further studies have shown that poppy seeds and the poppy seed oil they contain are a natural source of valuable antioxidants. Antioxidants prevent oxidative stress, support your body in cell renewal and fight free radicals

Apply poppy seed oil

To benefit from the valuable ingredients of poppy seed oil, you can use it in a variety of ways in the kitchen:
Poppy seed oil convinces above all with its nutty and mild taste.
Both the taste and the health-promoting substances are lost in the heat. Therefore, it is best to use the oil cold or only add it at the end of the preparation.
The nutty taste goes particularly well with desserts. You can use it for cold creams or in your muesli, for example.
The special oil is also suitable for hearty dishes. You can use it to prepare dressings for salads, but the taste also goes well with tomatoes, carrots, asparagus or potato and pasta dishes.

You can also use poppy seed oil for body care:
Poppy seed oil is particularly popular for skin care. It is quickly absorbed and therefore does not leave an unpleasant greasy film on the skin.
Because of the antioxidants it contains, it is said to relieve skin irritation and redness.
You can also combine the oil with other oils like jojoba oil
The valuable oil also helps with dry hair.

Keep Reading
By