Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (162 page)

Genuine ginger beer begins with a "bug" made by feeding 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 2 teaspoons white sugar to a culture for seven days. White sugar is used for the small quantity needed to make the "bug," but Rapadura is used for the larger quantity that goes into the beer.

Place 1½ cups water, 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 2 teaspoons white sugar in a jar. Cover, shake well and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. Feed the culture with 2 teaspoons each of sugar and ground ginger every day for 7 days, leaving culture at room temperature. On the seventh day, it should produce bubbles. If not, throw away and start again.

Dissolve Rapadura in 10 cups boiling water. Place in a very large bowl or stainless steel pan. Add lemon juice and 20 more cups water. Carefully pour off the liquid from the "bug" and add to the bowl, reserving the sediment. Mix well, cover the bowl tightly and leave for about 7 days. Transfer to eight quart-sized bottles with wire-held corks or stoppers. Let stand 14 days at room temperature before drinking.

To make a new "bug," throw half of the ginger-sugar sediment away and reserve the rest. Add 1½ cups water and feed with 2 teaspoons each sugar and ginger for 7 days, as before.

This supply [of enzymes], like the energy supply in your new battery, has to last a lifetime. The faster you use up your enzyme supply, the shorter your life. A great deal of our enzyme energy is wasted haphazardly throughout life. The habit of cooking our food and eating it processed with chemicals and the use of alcohol, drugs, and junk food all draw out tremendous quantities of enzymes from our limited supply. Frequent colds and fevers and exposure to extremes of temperature also deplete the supply. A body in such a weakened, enzyme-deficient state is a prime target for cancer, obesity, heart disease or other degenerative problems. A lifetime of such abuse often ends in the tragedy of death at middle age. Stephen Blauer
Introduction to Enzyme Nutrition

Throughout the British Isles, grains were traditionally fermented into various sorts of ales and lagers—either by the housewife or in alehouses that existed in almost every town. These beers were an excellent source of nutrients including B vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Small beer, which contained only a small amount of alcohol, but large amounts of lactic acid and beneficial enzymes, was traditionally consumed in the morning, accompanying a heavy breakfast of fish or cold meat, bacon and eggs. Strong beers, with their high content of alcohol, were recognized as providing "comfort for the poor." The poet John Taylor recorded a total of nine different ales served at the same meal, during a visit to Manchester in 1618. Eight of them were herbal ales, flavored with hyssop, wormwood, rosemary, betony and scurvygrass.
Merrie Olde England

SMALL BEER

Makes 3 quarts

1 cup whole barley or rye

½ cup sourdough bread culture (
Sourdough Starter
or See
Sources
)

1 cup freshly ground whole wheat, kamut, spelt or rye flour

filtered water

1 cup dried hops (available in the herb department of health food stores)

Sprout barley or rye berries according to directions (
Grains
). After 2 days, rinse sprouts well, drain and spread on a stainless steel baking sheet. Bake at 150 degrees for at least 12 hours until complete dehydrated. Raise heat to 400 degrees and roast the berries for about 15 minutes until they turn dark brown, shaking them occasionally to avoid burning. Grind the berries coarsely in a grain grinder.

While the rye or barley is sprouting, "refresh" the sourdough culture by adding ½ cup flour and ½ cup warm filtered water. Cover with a cloth and leave for 12-24 hours in a warm place. Repeat the process by adding an additional ½ cup flour and ½ cup warm water and leaving in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

Soak hops in warm water for ½ hour. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl with 1 cup sourdough culture, the ground rye or barley and 3 quarts water. (Reserve remaining sourdough culture in the refrigerator for future batches.) Stir well, cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature for 3-4 days, removing cover occasionally to stir vigorously.

When the small beer has developed a sour taste, remove the hops with a slotted spoon and pour carefully through a strainer, leaving most of the sediment in the bowl. Transfer the strained liquid to three quart-sized bottles with wire-held corks or stoppers. Keep in a cool place for at least one week and up to four weeks. It may be stored another month or so in the refrigerator. The final product should be sour and may be slightly bubbly.

Prince:
Belike then my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness.

William Shakespeare Henry IV Part II

One theory proposed that the common occurrence of being exposed to aluminum could cause Alzheimer's dementia. . .. In recent years. . .the aluminum hypothesis has been gaining respect. For example, studies have discovered a direct association between the level of aluminium in municipal drinking water and the risk of Alzheimer's dementia.

We also know that serum aluminum concentrations increase with age. Aluminum may accumulate slowly over our lifetimes, or we may absorb it more easily as we age. Moreover, there is evidence that people with probable Alzheimer's disease have serum aluminum levels that are often significantly higher than those people with other types of dementia, as well as healthy people of similar ages.

Further evidence that aluminum fosters the development of Alzheimer's dementia comes from a scientific (placebo-controlled) trial of desferrioxamine, a drug that removes aluminum from the body by binding with it. While regular administration of the drug failed to stop the disease from progressing, desferrioxamine did significantly reduce the rate of decline in the ability of a group of people with Alzheimer's dementia to care for themselves. Melvyn R. Werbach, MD
The Natural Activist
Citizens for Health

RICE MILK

Makes 2 quarts

½ cup brown rice

8 cups filtered water

1 teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup whey
Whey and Cream Cheese

¼ cup raw honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

This recipe comes from Egypt, but similar recipes can be found throughout the Middle and Far East. Fermented grain drinks were traditionally prescribed to nursing mothers.

Cook rice in water, covered, for several hours until rice becomes very mushy. Pass rice and liquid through a food mill. (See
A Word on Equipment
.) Place in a 2-quart jug with salt and whey. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for 2 or 3 days. Transfer to refrigerator. (A certain amount of separation is normal.)

To serve, blend with honey and cinnamon and enough water to achieve desired consistency.

Variation:

Use other grains, such as
oats, rye
or
barley.

Variation: Nursing Mothers Tonic

Use
½ cup quinoa
, soaked 12 hours in warm water, rinsed and drained.

The traditions that surround the life of Gautama Buddha include this one: that on the evening when he seated himself beneath the Bo tree and began the meditation that led to his enlightenment, he dined on rice milk offered to him by a peasant woman. His death occurred 45 years later, around 480 BC, when he ate some poisonous mushrooms that the smith Cunda served him by accident. In pain on his death bed, he commanded his companions to tell Cunda that of all the meals he had eaten in his lifetime, two brought him great blessings. One was the meal of rice milk that nourished him during his meditation under the Bo tree; the other was Cunda's meal that took him to Nirvana. SWF

Hominy Corn Drink: Shell corn, soak in lye until the skin can be removed. Beat the corn in the corn beater until it is the size of hominy. Sift the meal from the corn particles. Cook the corn particles until they are done, thicken this a little with meal. Drink this hot or wait until it sours and drink it cold. The drink may be kept for quite a while unless the weather is very hot. This was the customary drink to serve to friends who dropped by for a visit.
Cherokee Cooklore

ALMOND DRINK

Makes 2 quarts

2 cups skinless almonds

warm filtered water

2 teaspoons sea salt

¼ cup whey
Whey and Cream Cheese

¹
/
₈
cup raw honey or Rapadura (see
Guide to Natural Sweeteners
)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

filtered water

Soak almonds overnight in warm water. Pour off water and process in food processor to a smooth paste. In a 2-quart jug mix almond paste with other ingredients and enough water to fill the jug. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature for 2 days before transferring to refrigerator. Stir well before serving.

Variation: Pecan or Walnut Drink

Use
2 cups freshly shelled walnuts
or
pecans
instead of almonds

What a strange drink. . .a drink obtained by allowing an infusion of tea to ferment with the aid of a special inoculation and a little sugar. One finds this drink in many countries of Asia and Europe (China, Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Bulgaria, Poland and Germany) called by various names:
Tesschwamm, tea fungus, kombucha, wunderpilz, hongo, cajnij, teekvass
. This tea possesses antibiotic properties that are used in medicine in Russia. Claude Aubert
Les Aliments Fermentes Traditionnels

GINGER TEA

Makes 4 cups

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

4 cups filtered water

1 tablespoon raw honey

Place ginger in a teapot. Bring water to a boil and pour over ginger. Let stand several minutes and stir in honey. Strain into teacups or mugs

What's inside the cupboard is competing strongly with what's inside the medicine cabinet for managing various physical ailments. Now word from out of Denmark informs us that ginger has been found to be effective in relieving common symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis: pain, inflammation and stiffness.

Dr. Krishna C. Srivastava, of the Institute of Odense, gave arthritis patients a bit less than a tablespoon of ginger daily for three months, and patients reported "significant relief." Doctor Srivastava fed the patients either five grams of fresh ginger root or from one-half gram to a gram and one-half of ginger powder. Both forms worked equally well. Every one of the patients noted marked improvement: ability to get around better, less swelling and less start-of-the-day stiffness. James F. Scheer
Health Freedom News

CARRAGEEN TEA

Makes 4 cups

1 cup carrageen moss (Irish moss)

3 cups filtered water

juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon raw honey