Bread and Tallow

I was rendering tallow at the weekend. It brought back happy memories of those days we had pigs. Unfortunately this tallow was not from our own pigs ... Tim still needs some convincing! But before I show you how that went, let me tell you about the latest what's cookin' with the mamas...!

... Bread!

With our long-awaited new oven and new baking materials, the Upendo wa Mama group are now learning to bake! So far we have made some lovely loaves and yummy ginger biscuits. We are going to spend a fair bit of time over the next number of weeks learning and practicing. I hope they will learn well and be able to put these skills to good marketable use!

We did laugh at our cross-cultural confusions in the bread baking. When the first loaves came out of the oven, they looked wonderful to me. Nicely risen, good crust, good colour. But the mamas didn't seem quite so thrilled about them. I asked them what they thought. The general consensus was that next time, after the second rise in the bread tins, before we put the tins in the oven, we should take a large, sharp knife and nicely level off the dough at the top of the tin. I was horrified at such a suggestion! All that time beautifully rising and then you cut the top off! Why? The women pointed at the finished loaf, saying it had all overflowed the tin, it was like a mountain, all protruding up over the edges. It should be a nice square shape. And then I understood. The only bread they see here is the store-bought bread which comes completely square with no beautiful crust! This was just too different and clearly not quite right!

The first loaves (as you can see, they rose into the roof ... shelf now lowered!)

Kneading the dough

Sixty-five Ginger Biscuits

Packaging the biscuits

While we waited for the bread to bake, we read together about the Bread of Life in John 6:25-40. The woman shared quite a lot as they were reflecting on this. Jesus is not simply giving out bread, but He IS the bread! We don't want to be seeking the miracles and gifts, but seeking first Him. He, Himself, is the treasure.

Here is a quick one minute clip of the baking in action in our workshop!

Rendering Tallow

This week, as well as bread baking, we are making tallow soap. Trying to explain (rather physically) in Swahili to the man on Saturday who was slaughtering a pig, that I wanted the waxy-coated mass of leaf fat from beside the kidneys of the pig, was amusing. Then I got busy rendering the tallow. Yes, very cool.. and very little-house-on-the-prairie! It was actually rather more time-consuming and also smelly than I thought! The whole house stank ... and so, my girls told me, did I! As Amisadai said, I smelled much worse than a pig ... I smelled like dead pig. She was quite right.

Here is the process from start to finish ...

Fresh fat from the pig! 

Chopped finely and in the pot to melt

Getting there!

Strained and golden fat in the dish to set

The next morning

But the end result was these beautiful (odourless) bricks of pure white tallow. And the next end result on Wednesday, will be some lovely coconut soap!