Homestead Recipes

In the homestead recipes category, you’ll find all my recipes for nourishing meals, sweet treats, fermenting, preserving, and homemade pantry staples.

Wholesome ingredients, 100% from scratch. No white flours, no refined sugar, no weird additives. Recipes that work on or off the grid.

  • 100% Whole Grain Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners
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    100% Whole Grain Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners

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    Whole Grain Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners If you’ve never made any whole grain fresh milled flour sourdough bread (or any bread at all) before, this recipe is exactly where you can start. With a simple mix of just four ingredients – fresh milled flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter, this is a basic, frugal, lean bread dough. It’s the kind of everyday bread you can feel good about making and eating day after day. You don’t…

  • Easy 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread (honey-sweetened, and works with fresh milled flour & ancient grains)
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    Easy 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread (honey-sweetened, and works with fresh milled flour & ancient grains)

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    The Art of Making Sweet Whole Grain Sourdough Treats that Actually Taste Good When you’re making a sweet whole grain sourdough loaf or other treat, you don’t want there to be overwhelming sourness or an assertive red wheat flavour. For best results, make sure that your starter has not overfermented (it’s even fine to use it slightly underripe), and avoid using red wheat. This recipe uses 25% pre-fermented flour and a minimal fermentation time, which gives the health benefits of…

  • How to Make Mozzarella Cheese at Home Without Citric Acid or Microwaves (Easy Vinegar Method)
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    How to Make Mozzarella Cheese at Home Without Citric Acid or Microwaves (Easy Vinegar Method)

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    The difference between fast mozzarella and traditional mozzarella In this recipe I’ll be talking about fast mozzarella, which is a simple way to make stretchy and delicious pizza cheese at home. Traditional mozzarella is even more delicious, but involves slowly culturing the cheese until it reaches the right acidity, and the timeframe for this can be a bit slow and tricky to work with. With fast mozzarella, the milk is acidified by adding some kind of acid (vinegar, in the…

  • How to Make a Sourdough Starter from Scratch with Fresh Milled Flour (100% Whole Grain)
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    How to Make a Sourdough Starter from Scratch with Fresh Milled Flour (100% Whole Grain)

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    Here is my tried and tested method for creating a sourdough starter from scratch which is perfect for sourdough beginners, and for anyone interested in whole grain fresh milled flour. You can use fresh milled flour from your own grain mill, or organic 100% whole grain flour of any kind. For the best chances of success, choose whole grain rye flour for making your first sourdough starter from scratch – if you don’t like rye bread, once your starter is…

  • The best way to make stir fry
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    The best way to make stir fry

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    Stir fry is one of those basic meals that is often overlooked. My way of making it is a bit different to most, and I don’t think I’ve posted a recipe for how I make stir fry anywhere, so I’ll share it here. My easy stir fry recipe Ingredients My formula is usually something like: 1 part onions or leeks 1 part carrots 2 parts turnip or cabbage 1 to 2 parts dark leafy greens A bit of garlic and…

  • How to make pasta without a pasta machine
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    How to make pasta without a pasta machine

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    Making pasta at home is easier and cheaper than you may think. In this post I’ll share my method and thoughts on homemade pasta, and how to make pasta without a pasta machine. Why make pasta at home? Dry pasta is pretty much empty calories, wrapped up in plastic. Homemade egg pasta is a really tasty way to eat eggs that even picky eaters enjoy, and because it’s so rich in nutrition from the eggs, sauces can be really simple…

  • How to cook with tallow, how to render it, how to store it (and why)
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    How to cook with tallow, how to render it, how to store it (and why)

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    Cook with tallow: Tallow as a reliable, local, stable cooking fat Many events in recent years have caused me reflect on the expectations of the industrial food system and modern lifestyles, and how rewarding it is to return to simpler ways. Olive oil is in short supply this year, and this offers another opportunity to create better alternatives for cooking that can be produced on a homestead or by local farmers. Most of the olive oil in supermarkets is adulterated…

  • Simple crustless cheesecake
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    Simple crustless cheesecake

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    Simple Baked Cheesecake Cheesecake is one of my favourite foods, but not something I used to make very often until I created this recipe. The recipe I’m sharing today is from A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen, and could not be simpler. It features the easiest cheese to make at home – a simple whole milk ricotta. Or you can use whatever soft cheese you have around the house, as long as it is drained well and is not too…

  • Homemade French Onion Soup
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    Homemade French Onion Soup

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    The secret to a great French onion soup is the quality of the bone broth – it should be lovingly made at home from beef bones which have been first roasted to create extra flavour before being slowly simmered for 24 hours or longer, or until the broth is so infused with flavour and minerals that it smells delicious on its own when hot, and sets like a jelly when cold. Allowing plenty of time for the onions to slowly…

  • How to Make Yoghurt Off The Grid
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    How to Make Yoghurt Off The Grid

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    How to make yoghurt Yoghurt with a taste similar to what we might find in a grocery shop was something I gave up on for a long time. I made only room temperature viili for years, thinking that a good Greek or Bulgarian style of yoghurt was beyond me. At some point I decided I preferred the taste of this style of yoghurt enough to find ways to make it work, and now I make yoghurts far tastier and healthier…

  • German one pot beef and vegetable stew
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    German one pot beef and vegetable stew

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    This hearty German one pot beef and vegetable stew, based on the German dish Pichelsteiner, is my favourite meal to make with beef osso bucco (sliced bone-in beef shin). The meat is first seared, and then slow cooked with the vegetables to tender perfection. The onions melt into the broth as the meat falls off the bone to form a sturdy broth that is full of deep flavour from simple, natural ingredients. A meal to savour and enjoy again and…

  • Simple Flapjacks
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    Simple Flapjacks

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    Flapjacks is a bit of a confusing name for this delicious slice. Some people use that word for pancakes, and other people know all about this delicious crunchy oaty buttery treat. This has been a favourite recipe for many years. At picnics it disappears very quickly, at my market stall I get complaints if I do not bring it along. When I want to make something really quick and simple for a treat, this is often what I turn to.…