Alcohol-Free 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon

 You may not know that I stopped drinking regularly. This is because of the risk of getting Alzheimer's Disease because I have a bad Alzheimer's gene. My goal is to have only a few alcoholic drinks per year. According to the research, alcohol really increases the risk of Alzheimer's. 

I have a basement full of fermenting wine, about 200 gallons. I decided that I want to de-alcoholize it and drink it myself. I could not bear with pouring it down the drain. 

I built a vacuum-distillation apparatus. It can strip off the alcohol from two bottles of wine in about 2 hours and thirty minutes. I have been saving the brandy even though I can't drink it. I can describe the vacuum-distillation apparatus later. 

Today, I de-alcoholized the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon. The machine can attain about 70 torr or 50MPa. Under those conditions alcohol boils at about 28C and water at about 40C. I trap the alcohol in an ice-trap. 

One can watch the process by watching the boiling temperature. It begins about 28C and goes up to 40C  as the alcohol boils off. At the end, I add back a cup of water. I don't can if I concentrate the wine a little, but not too much or the acidity is affected. 

I make some additive additions at the end. 

Dealcoholized Wine Recipe

1500 g de-alcoholized Cab Sauvignon

0.05 g sulfite preservative (0.03 would have been ok too)

1.4 g sucralose (to dampen the bitterness)

2 shakes (⅓ ml?) of Tabasco sauce (to mimic to "burning" sensation of alcohol)

1 ml artificial grape flavor (LorAnn Grape SS Flavor)

Why do I add the artificial grape flavor? Because most of the natural grape flavor boils off with the brandy, or actually with the methanol fraction that gets thrown away. The deacoholized wine is strangely odor-free and a bit of grape candy flavor really helps. 

 

Peppers Pickled in Pomace

I read an online article about pickling peppers in wine pomace. Pomace is the pressed wine skins & pulp left over after pressing the grapes. 

It was the author's old family recipe, and it even said "A thick layer of disgusting mold will form on top, but don’t worry about that." Pretty rustic. 

I thought, I can clean up that recipe -- find a way to make it in jars instead of in a bucket in the garage.

The recipe is clever because it does two things at once: first, the pomace and water ferment into wine vinegar, and second, the peppers get pickled in the vinegar. 

It also gives you something to do with all that pomace besides fertilize the garden. 

Pickled Peppers in Homemade Wine/Vinegar Recipe

1.5 quarts grape wine pomace
1.5 quart red or green peppers, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
water
85 g sugar

The procedure is easy. Mix the sugar with the wine pomace. Layer the pomace and the peppers into quart jars. I place the bottles in a secondary container to catch overflow, if any. 

Put the jar lid on loosely. Periodically (daily at first) open the jar and press down the contents to displace air bubbles forming inside.

The liquid will extract flavor from the grapes and pomace, and make a wine. After time, this wine may convert to vinegar. 

It might not too. Recall, we did not add any vinegar yeast, and the pomace carried in a large amount of wine yeast. 

If not the peppers will be preserved in wine -- still not so bad. 

Let this go at least a week. When it stops bubbling, I am going to put them in a refrigerator. If you don't have room in the fridge, it will probably keep a while on the counter with the jar sealed. 

When time comes to eat this, pick out the peppers to eat. The pomace isn't going to taste very good. 

October 16 Update -- The sugar and pomace have fermented into wine, and the peppers are now quite soft and wine infused. The wine is pretty harsh, so the peppers aren't really that pleasant to eat. 

October 22 Update -- What a difference a week makes! I strained off the "wine" liquid, and removed the pomace to the trash. I put the wine-infused peppers in their own bottle, and they have a pepper & wine flavor. Good on top of hummus & toast -- not too much tho because the their pretty intense. 

So next year, I think these would be better with a fleshier pepper like a poblano or even red bell pepper. I can't grow decent red bell pepper is my garden.

Wine pomace in a kimchi recipe! Now I need to try that. I'll put the pomace in a silk bag, and then in the cabbage blend. 

PZS2 Zinfandel/Syrah Pomegranate Wine: A Second or False Wine PZS2

The fermenting must from my 2022 Second Wine.

After I pressed my Zinfandel and Syrah, I put the pomace (or pressed grape skins) in the freeze mostly because I was out-of-energy to start another project. I came back two days later, and added the pomace to prepared sugar water. 

Wine prepared from once-pressed grapes is called a second wine or a false wine. Commercial vintners call their lower quality wines "second wine," but that is a different usage. False wine is less ambiguous. 

I am adding pomegranate powder to this to make it a little more interesting. I will probably ferment ten liters with pomegranate and ten without. I am always blend it later. I am also short of 20L glassware right now. 

Zinfandel/Syrah Pomegranate Wine

Pressings/pomace from 72 lb of Syrah and 108 lb of Zinfandel
20 L Water
10.8 pounds of sugar (sucrose)
3 t of year nutrient
2 t of wine tannin
After 4 days of fermentation, I added:
5.5 T 4007 Malolactic Blend from Wyeastlab

As the pomace melted the mixture was too cold to ferment, so it got a good cold soak for at least twelve hours. There was slow fermentation in the morning. No additional yeast we needed. the Zinfandel used Lalvan EC1118; the Syrah used Lalvan 4B. 

After pressing I added:

1 lb Pomegranate Juice Powder  (Microingredients of Montclair CA)

The idea of adding the pomegranate powder late is to have the fermentation going robustly before the power is added in case there is an off-label fermentation inhibitor.

October 22, 2022: pH = 3.1 TA =  0.8% as tartaric. 0.8% might be OK if I decided to finish it sweet, but probably I will add some potassium carbonate to finish it dry. 

2022 Syrah

The Syrah grapes were small and a bit dehydrated, and many of them did not break in the crusher, so we went old school and macerated the grapes with our feet. Here is my wife crushing grapes.  

I have never made a Syrah varietal, tho I made a Syrah blend in 2009. I just made a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot last year, so it seemed like a good time to try Syrah. 

Syrah Wine Recipe

72 lb        Syrah grapes (Lodi Gold from Delta Packing; Lodi CA)
2 g            yeast energizer    
4 g            pectic enzyme
1 pk        Lalvin 4b
After six days of fermentation add:
1 t        Chestnut wood tannin (Vintner's Best; LD Carlson) (t means teaspoon)

Ferment to near dryness, then press. 
After one week added:

3.5 T 4007 Malolactic Blend from Wyeastlab 

----------------------------------------------------

The density was 1.108 before formation. The refractive index gives 26.2 deg Brix. This is destined to make a 14.8 to 15% alcohol, which is a lot. 

The idea of the tannin add is to prevent grape proteins from pulling out all the grape tannins by putting in other tannin. Also the chestnut wood tannin is fairly desirable in terms of flavor complexity being similar to tannins extracted from charred wood. 

October 22, 2022:  pH = 3.4; 0.8% total acid as tartaric. This is a little high, so I will probably add some alkali to get about 0.6%. 

2022 Zinfandel

Zinfandel has been some of my favorite homemade wines. I did not make one last year, so I wanted to try another one. 

Grapes after crushing

These grapes seemed pretty good. I worked hard at pre-stemming the grapes. Other years I would crush the crapes and then manually remove the stems from the must. This year m wife and I manually removed stems on half, and then used milk-crate as a screen to do the other half. 

Recipe

 144 pound        Zinfandel grapes Valley Beauty/Delta Packing Loci California
6 g                     pectic enzyme    
5 g                    yeast energizer
2 packs            Lalvin EC1118

After one week add:

5.5 T 4007 Malolactic Blend from Wyeastlab

______________________________________________

The density was 1.102 which should make 13.2% alcohol. The refractive index gave 23.5 deg Brix which should make 12.3% alcohol. Not sure why the discrepancy. 

I looked it up in Pambianchi's new book, and both methods gave higher alcohol content of about 13. Maybe the new book's tables are better than his old book.  I decided not to add more sugar. I hope I don't regret that. 

The fermentation started quickly. 

_____________________________________________

October 22, 2022: pH = 3.3; TA = 0.7% as tartaric. This is probably fine.  I have no plan to adjust. 

French Colombard

I have never made a French Colombard, but there is always the first time. My impression is the juice is pretty flavorful, so the wine should be as well. 

Recipe

 72 pounds    grapes
2 g                yeast energizer
2 g                pectic enzyme
1 pack            Lalvin QA23

The density of the juice was 1.096 which should make 12% alcohol. The refractive index gave 21.5 degrees Brix, which should make 12.6% alcohol. This seems good to me. 

The fermentation started quickly. 

October 22, 2022: pH is low at 2.9. The total acid or TA is 0.87% tartaric acid. Between the low pH and the high TA; it probably smart to bring this down. 

2021 Merlot Raspberry Wine

My 2016 and 2017 raspberry wines were so good that I wanted to make more. While I liked small glasses of raspberry wine by itself, it was too intense to drink more than a little. Though I liked to drink it at Christmas. Mostly though I drank it blended with red grape wine. 

I prefer red raspberries are superior to blackberries for wine-making and general eating because the flavor is better. (I am withholding judgment on black raspberries for now.)

Last year (2020), I made a second/false wine of my zinfandel. I liked that, and I blended with some mediocre fruit wine to improve it. 

This year I want to make a second from the must of my main red wine, merlot, this year. And then add some fruitiness with raspberries. 

2021 Merlot Raspberry Recipe

20.3 L water 
6 kg (=13.2 lb) sugar dissolved in the above water
Pressed must from about 90 lb of merlot grapes (with a 20% cabernet sauvingnon grapes)
10 lb of frozen red raspberries (various brands)
2 tsp yeast energizer
2 tsp pectic enzyme

------------------------------------------------------------

Yeast is primarily Lalvin EC1118 which was on the Merlot pomace.

Initial reading was 23.5 degree Brix which corresponds to 26% sugar and 12.3% alcohol.  I am looking for 13-13.5% alcohol, so I added 426g of additional sugar. 

The mixture has started foaming after 25 minutes as if the yeast is working, so I did not add any more yeast.  

April 2022: So far the malolactic fermentation has not completed. The pH is 2.7 and the titratable acid (as tartaric) is 12.7 -- somewhat higher than the 8 that I'd like.

September 2022: I transferred this wine to jugs and a smaller demijohn to make room for the 2022 vintages. The wine seemed pretty harsh but without a compensating depth of flavor. 

 Perhaps aeration will help it, but if not I might try coagulating some of the tannin with an additive -- perhaps egg whites. Maybe it just needs to age? Honestly it seemed better sneaking tastes with my wine thief, then drinking it from a glass. The other idea is to buy a bunch of cheap Australian Merlot and dilute the harshness away. 

November 2022: After some tasting tests, I took 2 gallons (7.6 L) and added 3 L of Yellow Tail Australian red wine (Merlot and Cab. Sauv.). I also added 1% dextrose to take the edge off the harshness. (I tested all the way up to 5%, but settled on 1% which killed the harshness and didn't get too sweet. 

The plan is to blend the rest with the 2021 Muscato. 

The label image was painted with
acrylics on paper then imported
 into ProCreate where the backgrounds
 and black outline were added.

2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Wine

Although I still have Cabernet Sauvignon leftover from 2019, I wanted to make a third wine this year. I couldn't find any Sirah, and didn't manage to get up to Oregon Wisconsin to pick wine grapes during the season. I really wanted the white grapes from them, and they are ripened early this year. All of which is to say that, I made this small batch because they had it at my grape dealer which was Jennaro Brothers in Milwaukee this year. 

The refractive index showed 23.4 degrees Brix which would make 12.1% alcohol. I added 233 g for a projected 13.5%

2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Recipe

Grapes                    36 lb

Yeast energizer        1 g

Pectic enzyme        1 g    

Sugar                        233 g

Lalvin EC1118        1 packet

This fermented quickly so on the fourth day I pressed it and transferred it to a glass demijohn. This made about 10 liters. 

April 2, 2022 Update

The Malolactic fermentation has finished. The titratable acid is high at 15.6g/L as tartaric. Last year's titratable acid was also high. The measured pH is 2.9.

2021 Merlot

These merlot grapes were fairly firm when I got them. (The grapes were from Delta Packing Co in Lodi CA. Smiling Baby brand.) I used a home-made milk-crate type destemmer, and then crushed them in my crusher. The crusher did not so a great job. While the grapes were generally cracked, the majority of the grape stayed in the skin. I ran most of the must through my old crusher to do a better job. The measured sugar content went up after the second crushing from 12.7 to 13.1 degrees Brix. 

2021 Merlot Recipe

Merlot grapes        144 lb

pectic enzyme            4 g

yeast energizer            5 g

sugar                        741 g

Lalvin EC 1118             2 packets

The Brix refractive index was 13.1 degrees, and corresponded to 13.1% alcohol. I added some sugar to get to 13.4%. 

Fermentation started slowly. I added a second packet of yeast on the second morning. Of the three batches I started last Friday, this one is fermenting the slowest. At 6 days it is still significantly sweet. 

 

2021 Muscato Wine

The muscato juice had a share content of 23% (Brix of 21 degrees) for a projected alcohol content of 11%.  I thought about this a while, and decided not to add sugar. The thought is that Muscato is usually made at lower alcohol content, even as low as 7%. (I can always fortify it later, if I want to.) 

2021 Muscato Wine

Grapes                            108 lb

Yeast Energizer              3 g

Pectic enzyme                3 g

Lalvin QA23 yeast        1 packet

I pressed the grapes immediately. The grapes were very juicy and they extruded themselves through gaps in the press. 

I kept the grapes in the press overnight, and drained two liters that way. In the morning I cranked-down on the press and got more wine out. In the morning, the drained grapes were firmer, and I could press them in the normal way. 

Fermentation started immediately, and the juice was fairly dry after four days. I transferred it to a glass demijohn at that time..  

Spring 2022

I put this outside for about a week for cold aging to help the insolubles to fall out of solution. 

Update: 8/27/2022

I backsweetened about half of this batch with 1.0% dextrose. This made the tartness milder, but still there. At 1.5 or higher, the flavor seemed less complex -- it is hard to describe, but I didn't like it as well. 

The rest of the batch may be used for blending with my reds. 

The wine has an OK flavor, but is not very complex. 

Calculators for Wine Making

Here is a link to several calculators for wine making. 

https://techniquesinhomewinemaking.com/index.php/winemaking-tools/?fbclid=IwAR2RCslZUAw8Brb7P66Z4wwYGZ-6tPffohx-GQNT01_v3c79jPwNhT7Vm6M 

In Vino Falsus: 2020 Zinfandel Second Wine and the 2017 Sweet Merlot

My 2017 Merlot was finish two ways, most was finished dry and its great, but some was finished sweet. That's because my DW tasted the fermenting wine while it was sweet and liked it. I took ten liters out and finished it sweet by adding sorbet. Guess what? When the wine was done, she didn't like it anymore. I don't blame her, because this slightly sweet red was too robust to be a desert wine. 

I was unable to restart the fermentation, so I made little wine from frozen white grape & concord grape juice, and while it was vigorously fermenting, I added it to the 2017 Sweet Merlot, but it didn't restart. 

Last year with my 2019 Merlot, I added 2-3 quarts of rapidly fermenting must to the Sweet Merlot. No success. 

A problem with working so hard to recover problem wines is that each time you blend it, there is now more of it. I started with 10L of Sweet Merlot, and now have 15L of blended sweet wine that no one wants. 

Now, I am taking the pressed grapes from my 2020 Zinfandel, and making a second wine -- also called a false wine. (And not the same as what the French in Bordeaux call a second wine.) A second wine is made from sugar water and the already-fermented pressed grapes from a regular batch of wine. The pressed grapes flavor the water, and while no expects it to be as good as the first wine, and can be good enough. In fact, I recall the weaker, lighter second wine as being better than some of my grandfather & father's first wines. (Which says something about how robust and oaky those wines were.)

In this case, I am going to use my problematic 2017 Sweet Merlot to buttress the flavor. If this works, I'll have 30L of good wine instead of 15L of undrinkable wine. 

2020 Zinfandel Second (False) Wine and Blend with 2017 Sweet Merlot

16 L             Water

Pressed grapes from 110 pounds of fermented Zinfandel grapes 

15 L             2017 Sweet Merlot (modified as described above)

10 lb            Sugar

4t (17g)        Yeast energizer

4t (15g)        Pectic enzyme         

This fermented pretty well for a month, but did not go to dryness. I decided it was too acidic, and corrected it with calcium carbonate (and some Acid-X). Then I restarted the fermentation with Champagne yeast. 

After another month one container was good, and the other container was still sweet. I blended the two containers, and am hoping for the best. 

Sept 2021 Update: This worked better than I could have hoped. The wine eventually did ferment to dryness. 

The new wine blend is plenty good, and nothing to be embarrassed about. 

 

Yeast Strains

We know that yeast selection is important to avoid a wine-making disaster. 

Yes, it is possible to use a  wild strain to make a good wine. But what about the opposite, when you have already made a bad wine what can you do beside whine, nothing. You should have used a better yeast. 

Here is a good wine yeast selection chart.  Don't forget my old Lalvin post.

Formerly there was also Red Star Yeast, which was purchased by Lasaffre, and whose wine products are now sold by the Fermentis (fermetis.com) division. Red Star in the USA is a joint venture of Lasaffre and ADM. It seems to be 100% commercial and not for hobbies. 

2020 Symphony Wine

I called down to my grape vendor, Caputo's, for Muscato grapes, but when I got there they were sold out. I purchased Symphony grapes because that was the only white grape in stock. (Aside from Chardonnay, which am not interested in.) 

While I had never heard of Symphony, I learned it was developed in 1948 at UC-Davis by a famous viticulture professor, Harold Olmo, a cross between Muscat of Alexandra and Grenache Gris. Muscat of Alexandra is different from Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains, which is the usual Muscat. Both Muscats are among the most ancient grape varieties. Muscat of Alexandra was originally grown in Alexandra, Egypt. 

I paid for the grapes, and got them in the car, and finally tasted them. They had a good grapey flavor, and tasted sweet at the time. Later I learned I still need to add some sugar. The juice was 1.098 g/ml and 22.8 Brix which should make 12% alcohol. I targeted 13% alcohol and added about 1 pound of sugar. The juice was fermenting nicely the next morning.

I had a hard time pressing them because the soft grapes kept extruding themselves out of the grape presser, and it took a long time to get the juice to drip out. I expect I got 17 L from the two cases. 

2020 Symphony Wine Recipe

72 lb Symphony grapes (DePalma)

2 teaspoons yeast energizer

2 teaspoons pectic enzyme

17 ounces of sugar

1 packet Lalvin 71B

Update: 8/27/2022

I backsweetened this wine with 2.5% dextrose. This made the tartness milder and a little smoother. I tested a variety of sweetener levels, and 2.5% was the best. 

2020 Zinfandel Wine

This year I drove down to Caputo's in Carol Spring, Illinois for grapes. This is 95 minute drive for me. It was a clean professional operation with pretty good prices.  Being a professional, Covid-19 compliant operation, I could not taste the grapes before buying them. 

The Zinfandel grapes had a good strong flavor, and were sweet but not exceptionally sweet. The refractive index measured 25.2 degrees Brix, which gives 13.2% alcohol, and the density was 1.108 which predicts 13.4% alcohol. Target is 13.5% alcohol, so I added one pound of sugar, which is estimated to be 2.3% of the total sugar in the batch. 

I noticed that the free run juice from the crusher was less sweet than the juice after stirring the must. I expect the sweetest juice was trapped inside the grapes. My new crusher may not crush the grapes as completely as my old crusher. On the other hand, it is about twice as fast. 

2020 Zinfandel Wine Recipe

180 lb Zinfandel (DePalma)

7 g    pectic enzyme

5 teaspoons yeast energizer

1 pound of sugar

1 packet Lalvin RC212

1 packet of Red Star Premier Rouge, because fermentation was not noticeable at 18 hours

After another night the fermentation was vigorous. 

2020 Petite Pearl Wine

Marshall Vineyard in Oregon Wisconsin. Its in between Madison and my home base of Janesville Wisconsin. 

I found grapes at a local vineyard called Marshall Vineyard, which is in Oregon, Wisconsin. Sadly, they were sold out of white grapes. 

I am skeptical of northern-grown red grapes, but after a little reading online, I decided to try Petite Pearl grapes. It is another U of Minnesota variety. 

I ventured out in to the vineyard, and after a lot of walking, I found some vines that had not already been harvested, and hauled out 3 five gallon pails of grapes which weighed 56 pounds. They charged me $84 which seems steep, but on the other hand, they were rapidly selling out. 

I suppose there is some romance in picking local grapes and making wine from them -- maybe I have to pay extra for that. 

Petite Pearl grape vine

2020 Petite Pearl Wine Recipe

56 pounds Petite Pearl Grapes

4 pounds sugar

3 g pectic enzyme  

2 teaspoons yeast nutrient

Lalvin EC-1118 yeast, 1 packet

The juice had a sugar content of 19.4% which provides an alcohol content of 10%. I am shooting for 13% alcohol, and so  I added 3.5 pounds of sugar. I dissolved the sugar in juice that I heated on the stove. When I blended it all together, the measured sugar content was still low. This suggest to me that the spiked juice just sank to the bottom. The next day the must was vigorously fermenting, and I remeasured the sugar content at 24%, which should produce 12.6% alcohol. That is okay, and since there had already been a night of fermenting, the actual alcohol content will be a little higher than that, perhaps 13% as targeted.

Sept 2021 Update

I made the wine as above in glass demijohns, and have not added any flavors. 

It has a nice violet color with no haze. It tastes like a rose' more than a red wine. It has lemon note, strawberry, melon, a plant-y scent that I am calling hay, some tree fragrance that I need to pin-down, but perhaps hawthorn. It doesn't have currant, raspberry or blueberry fragrance or flavors one expects from California red grapes. Happily, there are no off-odors or flavors. 

I like it pretty well. I think I'd like it more if the color were lighter. If this were a pretty pink or orange, I'd like that. 

Maybe I will flavor some with my home grown Columbine flowers. 

Interesting Recipes

This is a mushroom Wellington, which means that it is a mushroom filling in a puff pastry shell.

Another idea is pumpkin humus.

2019 Merlot

I decided to make a Merlot last year because I still have a stock of Zinfandel. This years grapes were sweet and juicy -- maybe not as grapey. I had a bottle of cherry juice concentrate, and I added it here for some added complexity. I added after two days of fermentation, because I have experienced slow fermentation with it -- though it doesn't say it is inhibited. 

2019 Merlot 

144 lb Lodi Gold Merlot Grapes (Lodi Gold Brand from Delta Packing in Lodi CA

8 ounces of tart cherry juice concentrate (added after fermentation was vigorous)

5.5 g pectic enzyme

14 g yeast energizer

1.5 packets of Lalvin Baugouin RC212

This made about 42L after racking for 10.5 L/case, which means these were juicy grapes. 

2019 Cabernet Sauvignon

I found a new source of grapes at Tropic Banana in Milwaukee's Third Ward. It is a full line produce wholesaler that also does a business in wine grapes. I bought four 36 pound crates of Cabernet Sauvignon there. Unlike my old source in Detroit, I had to order these in advance -- sight unseen. Maybe the price is a little better.

Happily the grapes seem to be both juicy and sweet. Juicy grapes make more wine, and sweet grapes avoid the need to add sucrose sugar. 

My wine cellar is bottoming out as last year I made much less wine because I was moving to a new house. 

2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Recipe

144 lb Cabernet Sauvignon (Lodi Gold; Delta Packing; Lodi, CA)

5.5 g pectic enzyme

14 g yeast energizer

1 packet of Premier Rouge

I pitched the yeast on Sunday night, and noticed slow fermentation by Monday AM, medium by Monday PM, and fast fermentation by Tuesday, and that continued into Wednesday. 

The flavor of the juice was very sweet and grapey. The Brix was 24. and the juice's density was 1.106. This should make 13.8% alcohol, which is fine.

This batch made 39 L after racking. That is 9.75L/case of grapes.

Vegetarian Frittata for Six

I used to make frittata regularly when I was younger. Recently I don't eat so many eggs, but I made one this Easter. There are two kinds of recipes, ones that need to be flipped over, and ones that finish in the oven--fully cooking the egg without overcooking the bottom. With eight people coming, I thought I should try recipes for the non-flipping kind, even though I have less experience with those, and even though the buttery-brown egg crust is one of the best parts.

Easter Frittatas are often full of sausage, but I wanted it this one to be vegetarian. My favorite holiday frittata are cheesy and light, so I wanted to use cream or milk to soften the egg. I wanted flavorful cheese to compensate the missing meat. I wanted potato and mushroom to help cut the richness; some people use flour to cut the richness, but it changes the texture too much.

I started with a Martha Stewart online recipe, and I soon learned that she has at least six frittata recipes. I liked her use of heavy cream instead of milk; she used goat cheese instead of ricotta; and gruyere cheese instead of mozzarella. I found the gruyere inexplicable.

I found great recipes in the The Taste of Memories from Columbus Park, a book of Italian recipes from my home town in Kenosha by Catherine Murray. (I was surprised to see the book is up to $600 for a used copy on Amazon.) There are a few frittata recipes including a baked Frittata with vegetables. I also checked My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino, and that had a ricotta frittata with twice as much as I show below.

Here is the final recipe. I decided to use cauliflower with less potato to help the texture. I am using feta because I like the stronger flavor.


Ingredients

12 eggs
¼ c whipping cream
1 t salt
1 ¼ cup ricotta (drained if wet)

⅓ c spinach ( I used frozen.)
1-2 T shopped basil, fresh
4 oz feta cheese, chopped
4 oz Monterey Jack cheese, diced
1 med potato, boiled and mashed
1 c boiled crushed cauliflower
6 boiled and sliced mushrooms, yes boiled

¼ c olive oil or as needed (maybe I'll use butter next time)

¼ c grated Parmesan


Instructions

Heat oven to 375F. I used the convection setting.

Premix the items from the first group, eggs, cream, salt, and ricotta, and then beat lightly to break up the yokes and larger lumps of ricotta.

Prep the items in the second group so they are available to add quickly. It is ok vary the vegetables a bit, but take care to avoid vegetables that will produce water when cooking.

Use the oil to generously lubricate a large frying pan and heat the pan on medium heat.

Pour the egg mixture into the preheated pan. When a solid egg layer forms on the bottom and sides of the pan, about 60-90 seconds, pour the vegetable and cheese mixture in to the pan. Spread the dry materials evenly and submerge them in the egg mixture.

Cook on medium heat until the bottom is well set, but not so long that the sides or bottom brown. A lid on the pan is useful.

Sprinkle the grate parmesan cheese on top.

Place the pan in the oven until the top is just set, taking care not to over cook. I used convection heating in the oven. This took 25 minutes for me.

Martha suggested a table sauce based on Creme Fraiche. Mine was simple, garlic powder, parsley,  and vinegar.