I would like to try pork broth too some time, my friend once told me that she asked a Chinese restaurant chef what his secret was to making wonderful dishes and he told her that he always kept a pot of pork stock going to use as a base to all his sauces. I had forgotten that until Kimber mentioned it in her comment. I suppose you would make it much the same way as beef broth.

The length of time could have definitely effected the flavor. I do know that some people really do their broth for a long time, but I truthfully don’t like the taste. I do my chicken broth for 24 hours, and my beef for 48 hours. I have found that my beef broth is a little more tricky to get consistent results. I need to stop being lazy and really come up with a more consistent recipe, but some people really like to brown their beef bones first for better flavor. Adding onions, celery and carrots will also help flavor wise. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the quote on the chocolate making process!

“The processing of the cacao seeds, better known as cocoa beans, is complex. The fruit harvest is cured or fermented in a pulpy state for three to nine days, during which the heat kills the seeds and turns them brown. The enzymes activated by fermentation impart the substances that will give the beans their characteristic chocolate flavor later during roasting. The beans are then dried in the sun and cleaned in special machines before they are roasted to bring out the chocolate flavor. They are then shelled in a crushing machine and ground into chocolate. During the grinding, the fat melts, producing a sticky liquid called chocolate liquor, which is used to make chocolate candy or is filtered to remove the fat and then cooled and ground to produce cocoa powder.”

That said, cocoa powder seems to set better with me than chocolate bars (although I still eat them), but I don’t understand why. Maybe it is the fat or the other ingredients. Most chocolate candy has soy in it, in some form. Maybe that is it. I don’t know.

By the way, on another subject, about a year ago, while making vinegar from homegrown apple juice, I ended up with what seems to me to be a kombucha mushroom! (!!!) I transferred it to different juice, lastly tomato juice, and just yesterday decided to try making kombuch with a couple of its babies. When I was cleaning up my vinegar-making laboratory (also known as “kitchen”) I found I had about a dozen of the mushrooms, but the jar with most of them had green and black mold on top. I went to dump that down the garbage disposal and the carbonation was quite impressive! LOL! So, I have a jar of “kombucha” working, now, and I am praying that it works.

That first batch of “kombucha” which showed up out of nowhere smelled like a luscious fizzy apple wine which I could not bring myself to drink, but I used it as vinegar. I think I have good bacterias around here. LOL!

Anyway, I am a very new convert to the Nourishing Traditions way of eating. I was a vegan for many years and I have many health problems. I have been following your blog for a little while now and enjoy it.

That is an interesting question! I have never heard of anyone soaking chocolate beans (they generally come already roasted), but you could get some raw ones and try! Anyone else ever heard about soaking chocolate beans?