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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.

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.

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.

In this article, you will find the instructions for making and preserving jams yourself. You will find a basic recipe for a simple jam recipe from grandma’s time. We’ll also tell you what you need to pay particular attention to when making jam so that everything works out. Have fun making the jam.

It exerts a great attraction on many people to make their own jam. You can’t usually save money – unless you use the fruit you have picked yourself from your own garden as a starting point – but preparing the popular spread yourself is definitely fun.

5 good reasons to cook for yourself

Making and preserving jam yourself is fun. In addition, homemade jam is healthy because the ingredients are known and freshly processed. It also allows you to create new flavors that may not be commercially available. In terms of taste, the homemade jam often offers a pleasant change from the dozens of products from the supermarket. And last but not least: a jar of homemade jam is a nice gift for family and friends.

Must-haves for making jam

Ordinary kitchen utensils found in any good kitchen are enough to make simple jams. A stove, a kitchen scale, a measuring cup, and a whisk, and you are well equipped for jam making. You will also need jars to fill the jam into. This is the list of essentials. You need:

  • A large saucepan and a wooden spoon
  • A clean jam jar
  • 125 g preserving sugar (2:1)
  • 250 g fruit and/or berries
  • label sticker

With regard to the ingredients, the gelling sugar is important in addition to the fruit. Although you can also make jam with normal sugar, this requires a little experience and is not promising with all types of fruit. In the worst case, the jam then remains liquid or becomes rock hard when it cools down. The beginner should therefore resort to gelling sugar. In addition to the sugar, this also contains pectin as a gelling agent. With it, you can usually get useful results right away. Preserving sugar is available in most supermarkets. It is important to pay attention to concentration. However, with a little experience, it is also possible to cook jam without sugar.

The basic recipe for making jam

Classic jam sugar is mixed 1 to 1 with fruit. That means 100g of fruit and 100g of preserving sugar make a jar of jam. This variant naturally leads to very sweet jams, especially if the fruit itself already contains a lot of fructose. For those who prefer less sugar, there are also jam sugars for mixing ratios of 1:2 or 1:3 in well-stocked shops. With the latter, however, it may be that the jam only sets poorly. Beginners should therefore use the 1:1 or 1:2 variants, depending on their taste.

Finally, you need fruit. Frozen or fresh strawberries are recommended for beginners. They are readily available and easy to work with. In addition, this jam gels excellently, you can hardly go wrong. But also blackberries, gooseberries, apples, apricots, rhubarb, and many other fruits and berries are suitable for making jam, marmalade, and jelly.

Book tip for jam fans

This strawberry jam is delicious. If you would also like to try three healthy jam recipes to cook yourself, you will find what you are looking for with us. and for jam fans, there are jam recipes from grandma’s time as a recipe booklet. Well then, have fun with your own jam creation!

This is how to jam production succeeds

In the beginning, you should clean the jam jar with washing-up liquid, rinse it, and finally fill it with boiling water to disinfect it. This is very important for the later shelf life of the jam. The lid should also be cleaned with hot water or, even better, boiled. Then drain everything into the sink.

First, you should remove the greens from the strawberries and wash them. Then cut in half. Then they are weighed. For our example, we choose 250 g of strawberries. This is enough for a small jar of jam.

The strawberries are then placed in a saucepan and slowly heated. They are lightly crushed with a wooden spoon or whisk. Now the jam sugar can be added. 250 g for the 1:1 variant or 125 g for the 1:2 variant. The sugar must now be mixed well. Once it has dissolved, the temperature can be increased and the mass brought to a boil. Stir occasionally during cooking.

Instructions for making a gel test

After the jam has boiled for three to five minutes and is slowly thickening, you should do a gelling test. To do this, put a teaspoon of the boiling jam on a plate and leave it to cool. If the consistency is jelly-like, the jam is ready and can be filled. Close the jars tightly and turn them upside down. It will take a while for the jam to cool down and set completely. Then you can attach beautiful label stickers and write on the glasses. It’s that easy to make and preserve your own jam.

Useful for making jams yourself

With beautiful jars, making jam is twice as much fun! And pretty labels also look great. These things are especially useful if the finished jam is to become a gift. A jam funnel is ideal for filling the jam into the jars. Thus, the jam is filled much better in the jars. There are beautiful stainless steel funnels that are rustproof and dishwasher safe.

Tips for making pudding yourself and recipes for a delicious vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding. Now make your tasty pudding yourself.

Who hasn’t bought and eaten a ready-made pudding in a cup or a powder mixture to mix? But what ingredients are actually in these finished puddings? Better to make it yourself! This is the only way we know the ingredients 100% and can cook the pudding according to our preferences. Whether vanilla, chocolate, nut or strawberry, or raspberry – every type of pudding is possible.

The pudding ingredients basic recipe

For a good pudding, we need a few basic ingredients: milk, cornstarch, sugar, and egg should not be missing in any pudding. For the individual pudding design, we then add vanilla, chocolate, raspberries, or, depending on your preference, strawberries to the pudding. The imagination knows no limits. Do you like to make your own desserts? Here you will find tips and recipes for making ice cream yourself.

Recipe for a vanilla pudding

  • 300ml milk
  • 200ml cream
  • 1 vanilla bean (a packet of vanilla sugar)
  • 60g sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40g cornstarch

Preparation for vanilla pudding

First, put 200ml of milk together with the cream in a saucepan and slowly heat it up on the stovetop.
Either add the packet of vanilla sugar or slit a vanilla pod lengthwise with a sharp knife and add the pulp and pod to the saucepan with the milk mixture. Then gently boil the milk mixture. Slowly stir in the remaining ingredients such as milk, sugar, the two egg yolks, and the cornflour. No lumps should form. Remove the vanilla bean from the boiling milk mixture and reduce the heat.

Then slowly stir the mixture of sugar, egg, and cornstarch into the hot milk and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When the mixture thickens, remove the pudding from the heat and divide it evenly into small bowls. Incidentally, low-fat types of cow’s milk, constant stirring or stretching a cling film over the pudding help to prevent the skin on the pudding. The delicious pudding is placed in the fridge for an hour to cool down. Enjoy the meal! It tastes particularly delicious with hot raspberries or a delicious chocolate sauce. Did you like the recipe? Also, try our semolina porridge with cinnamon and sugar.

Variant for chocolate pudding

  • 50g dark chocolate
  • 300ml milk
  • 200ml cream
  • 50g sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40g cornstarch

Preparation for chocolate pudding

Do you love the taste of chocolate? You can not only make chocolate yourself, but also chocolate pudding. Roughly chop the dark chocolate and slowly heat in a saucepan with 200ml milk and cream. While the mixture slowly begins to boil, use a whisk to mix the remaining milk with the cocoa powder, starch, and egg yolks in a bowl. Again, make sure there are no lumps left. Then slowly stir the mixture of sugar, egg, and cornstarch into the hot, boiling milk and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. When the mixture thickens, remove the pudding from the heat and divide it evenly into small bowls.

Easy preparation of applesauce and lots of tips for cooking the apples. We give you recipes and ideas with which you can easily make applesauce yourself with or without sugar.

Cook applesauce yourself

In autumn the trees bear many apples and the kilo of apples is also sold cheaply at the weekly markets. But what do you do with all the apples? Is there a better idea than making applesauce out of it and refining it according to your own taste? What would grandma’s potato pancakes be without the delicious mousse on cold days? Whether the classic recipe or a variant without sugar. Autumn just tastes better with the golden, warm happiness. We’ll show you how.

Quick instructions for applesauce

Separate the apples from the so-called core and cut them into small pieces. If desired with peeled apples. The smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook. Boil all the apple pieces in hot water until the apples are cooked through. Then puree the apple pieces with a food processor or a blender and then season with cinnamon and sugar. Try it as rice pudding with cinnamon, sugar, and apple sauce.

The basic applesauce recipe

Peel all apples and cut them into small pieces. Cut the apples into eighths and remove the core from each apple. Then put the apple pieces in a saucepan and heat up vigorously. Pour about 0.2 liters of apple juice per kilo of apples. Then cover and simmer until all the apples are completely soft. Puree all the apples with a masher or with a hand blender. Thin with a little apple juice as you like and season with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. The applesauce tastes particularly good with pancakes with applesauce.

Useful information and special tips

Apples can also be cooked whole. After cooking, you can simply pass these whole apples through a sieve using a food mill. Depending on the apple variety, the applesauce can turn yellow to rust-red. This is due to the different fruit acids of the apple varieties and the color of the skin. The Boskoop apple is often used because it decays evenly and has a natural yellow color. The Berlepsch is suitable for apple allergy sufferers. Applesauce also tastes good as an accompaniment to sauerbraten and Christmas goose as well as in muesli and fresh grain porridge. A classic is also Kaiserschmarrn with cinnamon and sugar.

Refine applesauce deliciously

Instead of sugar, you can also use honey to taste. Some recipes add raisins or vanilla. You can also cook cloves with it. We recommend two cloves per kilogram of apples. This can be added very nicely with a tea egg in the saucepan. With pears, the apple sauce becomes an apple and pear sauce. Other fruits such as apricots or quinces are also good for refining. Apple foam is a dessert variation with applesauce. Here cream is mixed with the mush. Or you can mix it with beaten egg white to create even more foam. Apple foam is lighter and fluffier than normal mousse. Another great idea is Christmas applesauce.

Sugar-free variants save calories

You can also cook applesauce without sugar. You only use apples, water, vanilla, cinnamon, and lemon. Particularly gentle and with far fewer calories and is also suitable for diabetics. If you want a little more sweetness, but still want to save calories and remain tooth-friendly and suitable for diabetics, you can use sugar alternatives such as birch sugar xylitol or erythritol. Coconut blossom sugar also has slightly fewer calories than table sugar and gives the applesauce a slight hint of caramel in taste. Maybe you are also interested in a jam without sugar.

Preserve in screw-top jars

To preserve it, you can either freeze it or fill it in screw-top jars. For the variant with glasses, fill the still hot mush into jam jars. Then turn the glasses upside down. Once the jars have cooled, return them to their normal position, as you would with jam. The shelf life is at least one year if you work cleanly according to the rules of kitchen hygiene. Did you like our tips on applesauce? You might also be interested in cooking plum jam and making plum jam yourself.

Rosemary tea not only tastes delicious, but also has a positive effect on your body and mind. In this article you can read how to prepare the healthy tea and how it works.

Nowadays, rosemary is mainly known as a spice. Rosemary is much more than a tasty kitchen herb that goes well with potatoes. Rosemary was already valued as a medicinal plant by the Greeks and Romans. Rightly so, as modern research shows. The healing properties of rosemary are versatile.

A popular way to benefit from the health benefits of rosemary is with rosemary tea. Here you can read how rosemary tea works and how to prepare the tea.

This is how rosemary tea works

Various essential oils are primarily responsible for the effect of rosemary tea. Furthermore, depending on the location, the following active ingredients are included:
Tannins such as rosmarinic acid
Diterpenes such as carnosic acid
flavonoids
glycolic acid
saponins
antioxidants
Rosemary has a variety of positive effects on our body, as various studies have shown:
Antioxidant: Researchers from Basel examined the antioxidant effect of rosemary in a comprehensive study in 2018. Antioxidants support your body in cell renewal, fight oxidative stress and free radicals.
Antibacterial: The same study also found that the active compounds in rosemary successfully eliminated various strains of bacteria, such as E. choli, in the laboratory.
Anti-cancerous: In the laboratory and in the first animal experiments, the active ingredients of rosemary were able to demonstrably inhibit the growth of tumor cells and thus reduce the size of tumors.
digestive: In addition, the ingredients have a positive effect on our digestion. Rosemary can relieve bloating and flatulence.
Stimulates blood circulation: Our circulation and blood flow can also benefit from rosemary.
Diuretic: Rosemary has also been shown to have a slightly diuretic effect. This can be used especially in the treatment of cystitis.
For the medicinal effects of rosemary, you can use rosemary oil as well as rosemary tea.

Rosemary tea for your memory

Not only the body can benefit from the healthy ingredients of rosemary. The effect of rosemary is also beneficial for our mind:
The carnosic acid it contains fights free radicals and toxins in the brain that are associated with the development of dementia. It contributes to the health of the human brain, as researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research found.
In further investigations, researchers were able to prove in experiments with humans that 1,8-cineole, the main component of the essential oil in rosemary, has a positive effect on cognitive performance simply by absorbing it through smell and nose.
A study from 2016 therefore dealt with the therapeutic potential of rosemary in Alzheimer’s disease. Since the causes of dementia are still not fully understood scientifically, further research is required. Results so far indicate that rosemary could be a valuable component in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
A study with students in 2018 not only found improved memory performance, but also a positive influence of rosemary on anxiety and depression. The quality of the subjects’ sleep could also be increased by rosemary.

Make rosemary tea yourself

So there are numerous reasons to drink rosemary tea. The preparation of the healthy tea is very simple:
For 1 cup (250 milliliters) you will need about 1 teaspoon of crushed rosemary leaves or a fresh sprig of rosemary.
Pour boiling water over the plant parts and let the tea steep for eight to ten minutes.
Then remove the boiled plant parts.
Rosemary tea also goes well with dried lemon or orange peel. Make sure the citrus fruits are organic to avoid pesticides.
Important: The daily dose of rosemary leaves should be between four and six grams maximum.

Blackberry leaf tea is a tried and tested home remedy for diarrhea. The leaves also contain valuable antioxidants. You can read here how the tea works and how you can make it yourself.

The real blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) belongs to the rose family and has long been used as a medicinal plant. The leaves of the climbing shrub are used for medicinal purposes. Blackberries originally came from the Mediterranean region, but are now widespread throughout Europe and large parts of the northern hemisphere.

In this article you will find out how blackberry leaf tea works and what ailments you can use it for. We have also summarized for you what you should pay attention to if you want to collect blackberry leaves yourself and use them to prepare tea.

This is how blackberry leaf tea works

Blackberry leaves are a valuable source of antioxidants. These substances support the body in cell renewal while fighting free radicals and reducing oxidative stress. These properties can also prevent cancer in the human body.
Due to the tannins it contains, blackberry leaves have an astringent effect. Therefore, blackberry leaf tea is used to treat acute diarrhea.
The leaves also have strong antimicrobial properties. They fight various bacterial strains, such as Helicobacter pylori, according to another study from the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
Blackberry leaves have also traditionally been used to treat diabetes. Animal experiments with rats suffering from diabetes were able to demonstrate a blood sugar-lowering effect.
Blackberry leaf tea can also be used as a gargle to treat sore spots in the mouth and throat.
The following ingredients are mainly responsible for the medicinal effects of blackberry leaves:
Tannins, including tannins
flavonoids

There are no known side effects for blackberry leaf tea.

Prepare and use blackberry leaf tea
Blackberry leaf tea can help you with acute diarrhea and inflammation in the mouth and throat.

If your symptoms don’t improve after two days, you should still see a doctor. If you have other symptoms such as a high fever or blood in your stool, you should go to the doctor right away instead of resorting to home remedies.

For inflammation in the mouth and throat, you can drink blackberry leaf tea or gargle lukewarm.

How to prepare blackberry leaf tea:
Pour 250 milliliters of boiling water over 2 teaspoons of dried blackberry leaves.
Let the tea steep for five to ten minutes.
Then remove the plant parts.

You can get the dried leaves for blackberry leaf tea in any pharmacy. If you have planted blackberries in your own garden or a blackberry bush near you, you can easily collect and dry the leaves yourself.

You should pay attention to this if you want to make blackberry leaf tea yourself:
The bramble must under no circumstances be treated or left by the road if you want to benefit from its healthy ingredients.
Collect the leaves in spring when they are freshly sprouted. According to the Pharmacognosy Review, the young leaves have the highest active ingredient content.
Pick the fresh leaves and place them in a cotton bag. But be careful not to take too many from one branch.
Spread the picked leaves out on some newspaper in a dark place (attic, closet) to dry. It is important that the leaves do not get direct sunlight so that the active ingredients are preserved and no bitter substances are produced.
If you can easily crumble the blackberry leaves with your fingers, they’re dry. Then you can chop them up and store them in a jar in a dark place. The blackberry leaves can be kept for about a year in this way.
Blackberry leaves are also great for tea blends. The taste goes particularly well with fruity teas such as rosehip tea or apple tea.

Yeast from beer is an easy secret recipe for when you don’t have yeast at home. Be it for pizza, yeast braid or cake – we’ll show you how you can make yeast from beer yourself.

Yeast consists of microscopic organisms that make dough rise. Yeast is also an essential ingredient in beer – here it ensures that beer ferments. You can take advantage of this if you don’t have any yeast in the house and still want to bake something.

Note: Even though yeast consists of small organisms, yeast is vegan: they are unicellular fungi.

You only need three ingredients to make yeast from beer

The following ingredients replace about one cube of yeast. This amount is therefore suitable for about 500 to 1000 grams of flour.

What you need:
100 ml beer: Here you can use a beer of your choice, preferably naturally cloudy.
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp sugar
Recommended kitchen utensils:
1 small bowl
1 fork or 1 small whisk for mixing
1 kitchen scale or 1 measuring cup
1 jar or other container that you can seal

Make yeast from beer yourself: It’s that easy

Pour 100 milliliters of beer into a small bowl.
Slowly pour in the flour and sugar while whisking constantly. This will prevent lumps from forming.
If there are small lumps, try to crush them with a small fork and stir to break them up.
Pour the whole thing into a screw-top jar and seal it tightly. If you don’t have a screw-top jar handy, you can use another container like a food storage box or a bowl covered with a plate.
Set the beer-flour-sugar mixture aside and let it sit for several hours, preferably overnight.
Note: Use 100 milliliters less liquid for the recipe you want to use the yeast for.

Tip: You can use the rest of the beer to prepare a dish with beer batter, or you can mix up a tincture for your skin or hair – because brewer’s yeast is also good for this thanks to its healthy effects. Or you simply enjoy the rest on the balcony or by the window.

Yeast from beer or “normal” yeast?

Yeast that you can buy at the grocery store is a type of pressed yeast, and there are about ten billion yeast cells in a gram. In beer, yeast converts sugar contained in the beer ingredient malt into alcohol and carbonic acid. Yeast also contributes to the flavor of beer.

It doesn’t matter whether you use “normal” yeast from the supermarket or make yeast from beer yourself, there is no difference in taste. But the difference between the two types is the driving force: that of brewer’s yeast is somewhat weaker. So your dough will need a little more time to rise. Optionally, you can prepare a pre-dough that you let rise several times over several hours or freeze.

If you don’t yet know what you can do with the homemade beer yeast: how about a yeast braid with raisins or a plum cake? If you don’t like plums, you can also prepare a simple yeast dough and top it with fruit of your choice. If you want it hearty, we also have a recipe for pizza dough for you.

Another way to make your own yeast is to use dates or other unsulphured dried fruit to make yeast water. However, this alternative must rest for up to a week. Yeast substitutes such as baking powder are also suitable for some recipes. Making your own yeast from beer is easy and also quickly ready for use, which is a clear advantage for us over other variants.

Hop tea is not beer, but rather a tried and tested remedy. Hops have a calming effect and have a positive effect on our sleep.

Hops belong to the hemp family. Long before the plant was used to brew beer, it was valued as a medicinal plant.

Hops are now cultivated throughout Europe and in parts of Asia and America. The plant sprouts anew every year and climbs up to twelve meters. Hops are dioecious. This means there are male and female flowers. For hop tea you only use the female flowers.

This is how hop tea works

The most important active ingredients in hop tea include:
Bitter substances: humulone and lupulone
flavonoids
tannins
essential oils
The bitter substances in particular are said to have a calming and sleep-inducing effect. In the meantime, the effect of hops and its ingredients has also been extensively scientifically investigated:
The positive effect of hops on the human psyche was proven in a pilot study. Test persons who consumed dried hop extract daily for four weeks reported reduced anxiety, depression and a lower stress level compared to the placebo group.
In an animal experiment with quail, it was shown that hops regulate the day-night rhythm and improve sleep at night. The birds should have a comparable sleeping rhythm as we humans. However, it is unclear to what extent the data can be transferred to humans.
In addition to the calming effect, hops also have antibacterial and antioxidant effects, according to a 2019 study. The authors of the study conclude that hops extract could help against acne. Because of the same properties, hops are also often used in folk medicine for digestive problems and other complaints such as loss of appetite. However, research is still needed here.

Hop tea and other hop products

The main uses of hop tea include:
nervous restlessness
sleep disorders
anxiety states

In addition to hop tea, there are other ways in which you can benefit from the effects of the medicinal plant:
In the pharmacy you can get capsules or tinctures made from hops. Hop essential oil is used in aromatherapy.
Hops are also suitable for a soothing bath for mind and body. To do this, boil a liter of water, pour it over 20 grams of hop blossoms and mix it into your bath water.
Another option for better sleep is a scented pillow filled with hop blossoms. You can just put that next to your pillow.

How to prepare hop tea

For the soothing tea you use the female flowers of the hops. You can recognize them by growing cone-shaped, spike-like bud sites, while male flowers hang more loosely. You can easily prepare hop tea yourself:
Pour 250 milliliters of boiling water over 2-3 teaspoons of dried female hop flowers.
Let the tea steep for five to ten minutes.
Then remove the plant parts.
You can have three cups a day. To help you sleep better, you should drink the tea about half an hour before you go to bed.

To increase the calming effects of hops, you can combine them with valerian or St. John’s wort. Lavender and chamomile are also good.