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Make Chili Tepin Hot Sauce

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I grow lots of tepin chili peppers. They give me a huge bounty! I dehydrate them, cook with them, and make hot sauce. There’s always plenty left to dry and grind up into a powder. Tepin’s are my favorite… and quite interesting too. Here are a few things I learned about them.

Chili Tepin pepper plants I started over the winter of 2012. These were near the end of the 2013 season.

Tepin peppers are the only native pepper in the US. They’re native to the US and Northern Mexico. Tepin’s are one of the hottest chile peppers, often compared to Bhut Jolokia (ghost peppers) and Habenero’s Tepin rank around 100,000-250,000 units on the Scoville scale Tepin’s are called the “mother of all peppers,” because it is thought to be the oldest form of the Capsicum annum species. Also known as birds-eye, or bird chile’s The Tepin took the place of Jalapeño as the state, native pepper in Texas.

I also notice that while it feels more natural to call them tepin chili’s, they are more often referred to as “Chili Tepin’s.” Go figure. Other terms are Chiltepin, flea peppers and mosquito peppers. Tepin is apparently an Aztec term… which means “flea.” Chili Tepin’s can easily be confused with Pequin chiles. Pequin’s are oblong with a longer-lasting burn… but milder. Tepin peppers hit you with an intense burn (I can smell it on the nose) but it’s a very short-lived burn. Tepin peppers should be used sparingly… which brings me to my post. I ground them all up and made a hot sauce 🙂

Chili Tepin pepper hot sauce… with the seeds, and no artificial colors.

Process

  • 5 tbs. minced garlic (I grow a lot of garlic and so I have it pre-minced in a jar in the fridge to use when I need it. You could use 5-6 whole cloves too)
  • 1 cup of tepin chili’s. When I made this batch (I used half-dried, and half fresh picked. They were coming in in waves.)
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar (I used Bragg’s vinegar with the mother)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tbs. sweet (or hot) Hungarian paprika
  • 1 teaspoon of sea salt (I had some smoked sea-salt, so I used that)
  • 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (I used this to thicken it to the consistency of Sriracha sauce)

Add everything into a food processor or blender (except the xanthan gum), and whip it for a few minutes. Now, I should note… I left all my seeds in the sauce, but next time, I plan to strain them out. At this point, you could use a sieve and strain out the seeds if you don’t want them. Whatever you do, do it, and put it back in the food processor.

Mix the xanthan gum into 2.5 tablespoons of water. Mix it real good and make sure there are no clumps.

Now, add the xanthan mixture to the hot sauce in the food processor and mix for another minute or less. Don’t overwork the xanthan gum as it will start to thin out again.

When done, pour into a bowl and let it sit for an hour or two to allow any air in the mixture to escape. Once done, bottle and enjoy. As for storing your hot sauce, most would say to refrigerate it, but I keep mine in the spice cabinet or pantry. I figure, it will be used soon enough anyway. I’ve also destroyed a few bottles of Tabasco sauce by putting it in the fridge. Since then, I’ve always kept it in the pantry too.

If you make some, drop me a line and let me know how yours turns out.

Making sausage at home

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Sausage… they say everyone loves it until they see how it’s made. When I saw how it was made commercially, I cringed. There’s a lot going on in commercial sausage-making and in the end, it’s jacked with a lot of things we can’t pronounce. Things that are probably worse than the original meat and fat content. But when I make it at home, it’s something of a small miracle. I realize not everyone is making sausage at home… but those of us who have the inclination to do things our own way. We can be creative about the things we add to our sausage and in the end, we know exactly what’s in it. That to me is the incentive to make it myself. Everything I eat is intentional. If I know it’s not good for me, I try not to put it in my body, or at worse, use it in moderation.

Spice mixes for various sausages.
Spice mixes for various sausages.

I don’t consider myself a carnivore and I’ll enjoy a vegetarian dish just as much as a dish with meat. I believe a diet of mostly plants is good for you but I also believe a diet absent of animal protein is not good for you. Most of us have wondered once or twice how our elders have lived long lives eating bacon for breakfast, and adding lard in their pie crusts. Could half the reason be that at the same time, they weren’t stuffing their face with processed foods? When they woke, they didn’t have toaster treats, baked goods and other things made of aspartame, MSG and HFCS. They had good ole’ fashioned eggs and bacon… then they went outside and worked it off during the day. Like them, our family tries to eat a diverse diet and in moderation.

So where does sausage fit into all of this? Sausage is something that is questionably bad for you. However, I submit that a little of everything that is unprocessed is OK for you… in moderation. Having been made by our own hand and knowing the ingredients is even greater.

So to the point of this article, I’ve made sausages from rabbit, chicken, venison, and most recently pork. I’ve smoked it, froze it fresh, and I’m just completing a curing/drying chamber to get into the wonderful world of Charcuterie. In my quest of trying to make great sausage, I failed the first few times, because I lacked knowing the basics. My sausages turned out dry and crumbly, or tough and with weird textures. However, since understanding a few key things and changing my process to accommodate, I’ve never looked back. I wish these requisites for good sausage were more clear to me from the beginning.

  • Clean your tools and your area really good… we’re working with raw meat. It’s obvious, right?
  • Everything needs to be kept COLD. Your meat, your spices, your water, the grinder attachments, the tray you will be grinding in to. Everything. Cold!
  • Your meat and fat (previously cut into cubes) should be almost frozen. It’s just thawed enough for you to work with it, mix in your spices and grind it. But otherwise, as close to frozen as possible.
  • I’ve always added my spices to the frozen meat and then added whatever cold liquids I’m using to distribute the seasonings before I ground it. Some believe you should add the seasonings first, grind it, then mix in the liquids to form the pellicle just before stuffing. I have experimented both ways and cannot say I’ve found a difference yet.
  • The meat should come out of the grinder into a tray or bowl set in ice. I use aluminum trays that I pull out of my deep freeze. They stay cold enough for the short time it’s in the tray before I load it into my stuffer.
  • While I’m waiting for the pellicle, I fry up a bit of the farce before I stuff it into the casings. If it needs any adjustments to the flavor, now, of course, is the time to do it. This is known as the quenelle test.

Grinding sausage.
Grinding sausage.

The reason for keeping everything cold is so that the fat doesn’t separate from the meat when cooked. If it does, it makes the sausage seem tougher… and have an unpleasant texture. Over-handling the meat doesn’t help it either. Working with it warm, or working it too much will cause what’s called “smear” and it signifies a “broken forcemeat” among sausage geeks. Many will say to give it to the dogs. I haven’t done that yet, but my first batches of sausage were certainly worthy of the dogs. From then on, I took keeping the meat cold very seriously. It does make a difference. Another deficit of my set-up was that my grinder dueled as my stuffer. I’d grind the meat through once, then I’d remove the dies and replace with the stuffing attachments to stuff into the casings. Again, the problem here was over-working the meat. Because it had to go through the auger again as it was stuffed into the casings, I believe it caused a broken forcemeat. I splurged for a separate stuffer, one where you would load the meat into the canister, and crank it down, effectively squirting the meat into the casings. You can see it in the pictures below. This also made a huge difference. Having the right tools for the job certainly helps, but also knowing a little of the science behind it will let you make a perfect sausage.

A quick note on casings. I prefer natural casings over any others. Casings are sold in hanks. A hank will stuff 100-125 lbs of sausage and they are pretty cheap, but not all butchers will sell them to you. I got in good with my local butcher and pick them up anytime I need them. While it may seem a little awkward handing slimy casings, once you have meat in it, there really is nothing better. They are easier to work with over the collagen casings or others that you have to soak before using. Natural casings are also more sheer, but strong enough to stand up to accidental over-stuffing, to a degree.

Oh, a quick note about clean-up. Don’t wash aluminum parts in your dishwasher. After years of washing my grinder parts by hand, just after I made the batch of sausage you see below, I decided to put the parts in the dishwasher only to my demise.

Build a backyard chicken coop

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See the full gallery with many more pictures on BackyardChickens.com

I thought about chickens for almost three years before finally jumping in. Mainly, I wanted to make sure I properly integrated them in to our lifestyle. Having several friends who assured me they were easy and fun surely helped speed up the process, but still, it was important to me to choose and build the right coop and assess all the other issues that might arise with chickens. There is feeding and watering, protection from predators, free-range, or coop? Should I build a chicken tractor? How do I set them up when I go on vacation? I tried to think of all I could so that there would be less surprises. So far, so good. It seems I’m always making a change or addition to the coop, but I started off with a “Cabin-style” coop. I made it out of all recycled materials and either scrounged or bartered for them. Here, I document the process. I don’t go through detailed instructions on how to build a coop, but I show how I address the basic concerns. BackyardChickens.com has a gallery of small, medium and large coops and many people have provided their plans. I found inspiration there, and then set off to build a coop of my own.

Location and foundation

I wanted to tuck the coop in to a place where they would be least disturbed. I actually settled for an area on the hill near my bee hives, behind my shed. Since it was on a hill, I needed to dig a platform on the hill to make a level spot. Drainage was of course a concern that I’ll touch on in a bit.

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After settling on the location, I started to dig… and of course, there were plenty of roots and rocks to remove.
Dug all by hand, and on the cheap. See more detailed pics at: http://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6620089/morgan-cabin-coop-in-indiana/
Dug all by hand, and on the cheap.

Next, I used cement blocks to make the foundation. I created a makeshift footer using the blocks that I’ll try to illustrate in the following pictures. The first row of blocks were leveled and stood up on their side to create sort of an underground wall to prevent coons or other animals from digging under the coop. Below these blocks, I laid down regular chicken wire to prevent any of these digging animals from coming up under the center of the run.

Blocks sitting on chicken wire to keep animals from digging in to the run.
Blocks sitting on chicken wire to keep animals from digging in to the run.
Once leveled, I used fill direct back around the footer walls.
Once leveled, I used fill dirt and packed it back around the footer walls.

I back-filled around the block walls on both the inside and outside walls to hold them in place. Ultimately, I will fill the inside with sand, so it wasn’t so important to stabilize these blocks any more than just enough to keep them standing up. Once filled, I laid blocks down flat on top and this became the foundation that I built the structure on.

Can barely see the work involved at this point.
Can barely see the work involved at this point.

Next, I set blocks laying down around the perimeter to make the foundation that the structure will be built on. I is important to make sure things are level so that the structure sits comfortably on top.

A pause for the snow!
Foundation is set. There's Heidi, my beloved retriever that passed away before the chickens arrived.
Foundation is set. There’s Heidi, my beloved retriever that passed away before the chickens arrived.

Again, ultimately, sand will fill the inside of the run. Before I got the drain tile ran around the outside perimeter, rain totally filled up the center proving that drainage would need to be addressed.

Framing it up

I put the word out to friends that I was looking for lumber and picked it up where ever it was available. I tore down a swing set and pressure washed it all. After I had a significant scrap pile, I began making the plans for the framing. Turns out, I got a lot of 4×4’s to use instead of the 2×4’s that were originally planned for. The coup is pretty stout as a result. Here’s some of the wood that looks almost new after it was pressure washed and I got all the nails and bolts out.

Free lumber, just had to pick it up and pressure wash it.
Free lumber, just had to pick it up and pressure wash it.
Framing started. Skids just placed to add weight and make a place to stand.
Framing started. Skids just placed to add weight to settle the foundation and make a place to stand.

Drain tile

Once I started the framing, we got a few good rains that washed water right in to the run. It was a small pond. So, I decided to start the drainage plan before I got too far along. I grabbed the spade and pretty much shaped out a good trough to lay the pipe around.

Trough shaped out and angled to allow the water to run one way.
Trough shaped out and angled to allow the water to run one way.
Pipe laid and will be filled with gravel.
Pipe laid and will be filled with gravel. Notice the sloped wall against the coop to keep water out. The Indiana clay soil is also helpful in this case.

Keep in mind that until you actually fill it with gravel and complete the drain tile, it’s not really good at catching the water and diverting it into the pipe. By back-filling, you create resistance… and of course, water seeks the path of least resistance. The perforated drain pipe becomes the only place the water can go. I got it filled and during the first rain, it proved it was working. Water was coming out both ends of the tile and routed around the coop and down the hill.

Next was to keep framing. As such, I needed to plan for windows, but still needed to get them. I traded some wine and honey with a local farmer for three windows, and the tin for the roof. Big score. Another good friend came over with the plywood for the roof. It was being tossed at a job site that he was working at and it was just enough for my 10×12 roof. Again, very helpful to put the word out to all your friends to let them know what you’re doing. There was more than one occasion where someone showed up with some materials to donate.

Roof is on and the tin was the really good and thick kind!
Roof is on and the tin was the really good and thick kind! 

 Notice the floor of the coop at left. That was made from wood of my neighbors old deck. He had replaced the deck or something and had some really long 1×6 he was going to burn. I scraped it up in time and put almost all of it to use by the end.

One of the three windows to rough in. All had to be refurbished.
One of the three windows to rough in. All had to be refurbished.

Once I had the windows, I could finish out the roughing and complete the framing. The siding was cut up plywood that actually came from Fernald 🙂 A friend of mine had it lying around, and it wasn’t much good for anything beyond a chicken coop.

Outside window roughed in.
Outside window roughed in.

 The wood that is painted red above (also from the decking wood that I got from the neighbor.) Looks good as new now, huh?

Additional rails for more support if dogs or coyotes jump on the sides.
Additional rails for more support if dogs or coyotes jump on the sides.

I also doubled up the rails around the run knowing that I have plenty of dogs and coyotes around that will eventually try to get at them. All of this 2×4 material was donated by another buddy who had piles of 2×4’s that were no longer then 3 and 4 feet. The wood had a lot of nails that had to be pulled. He said the wood was left over from a large foundation job where the 2×4’s were nailed together to hold the cement forms. Again, everything cleaned up nicely.

Nesting boxes roughed in.
Nesting boxes roughed in.

I added nesting boxes on two sides of the coop for a total of seven boxes. Four boxes on the long side and 3 boxes on the short. Many of the cabin coops I found online only had one set. I figured it was easy enough to add boxes on two side, so why not?

Adding siding.
Adding wood siding… all scrap wood. Note different wood and colors. All will be covered in tar paper.

Adding the barn-siding

Got the coop painted and the hardware mesh up. I chose 3/8″ mesh so that possums and raccoons could not reach through and get at the chickens. Kind of funny that traditional “chicken wire” (the pentagon shaped wire) is not really that great for chickens. It can certainly keep the chickens in, but it can’t keep greedy hands out. Coons are known for reaching through that wire, grabbing a chicken and pretty much eating a hole in to it right through the wire. So, I opted for the smaller, stronger 3/8″ wire mesh.

Tar-papered and ready for bard siding.
Tar-papered and ready for barn siding.
Continued siding progress.
Continued siding progress.

Notice the door to the run is nothing more than a frame of 2×4’s that will also use the 3/8″ hardware mesh. So a door to the run, and a door to the coop for easy cleaning are essential to the “cabin-style” coop.

Refurbishing the windows

The windows are just as you would suspect… rickety and wobbly. I needed these to be tight so I could control the ventilation in the coop. I also needed them to stand up to the elements that I know are going to be pounding on them. There were three windows and a total of 21 panes in all that needed to be re-glazed. Window refurbishing happened on rain or snow days in between the framing.

Working the wondows.
Working the windows.

 I chiseled out the old glazing, removed the panes of glass and cleaned and scraped those separately. I stripped, scraped and sanded the windows and prepared them for painting.

The door window, before.

 The green window above has no less than 7 layers (all different colors) of paint that I counted. The window was painted over and over with no sanding or preparation. I used a stripper that made pretty quick work of getting the layers off, and also made it easy to see the different colored layers. The glazing on this window was also once treated with caulk. It was a total wreck.

Door window, after.

But then, a total transformation. All three window panes needed a serious amount of work, but in the end, you can see that all of them look like they belong together and the barn red color just pops. Some of the windows needed some girth planed off them to fit freely in my rough-ins. In the end, I had three very custom windows all painted red and treated the same.

Decided to practice some stained glass work on the window facing the run. Figured if I mess up, it’s a chicken coop, right? This is one of the panes glazed in.

 Just to add a little color when the sunlight comes through (and I broke a few panes of glass when I was cleaning them) I decided to brush up on some stained-glass work. I made a few panes that used mostly scrap stained glass I had laying around. It allowed me to brush up… and also use some glass that otherwise may have been tossed. The following series shows some of the panes I created.

Another one of the panes.
Yet another pane. This one was made because I cracked the corner of the pane while I had it out 🙂
All the panes put in and installed in the coop.

 At night, the light inside the coop shines through and it looks really good. The picture does it no liberty.

Window installed on the coop.

 Notice the top of the nesting box. The was the same style tin roofing that is on top, but there were some red pieces for the picking. I took these and pounded out the ridges to flatten them out as best I could. These were then screwed on to the top of the tar-papered lid and fitted with screened door hinges. So, it’s springloaded and wants to shit when you open it. I also use a basic hook and loop to keep coons from getting in.

Sand is in the run.

 I got the chickens in the coop and it only took them a day for them to get used to it. The sand in the run offers so many benefits. People buy and feed grit to the chickens. While I haven’t read extensively about it yet, they need some grit in them to help grind and digest their food. Having sand in the run offers a number of conveniences… as food falls in the sand, it also gets in to the chickens in lieu of the grit. Also, as the poop, it acts as a litter box. My original intention over the summer was to periodically sift the sand using a simple frame with 3/8″ hardware mesh under it. Scoop the sand from the run and add to the box, sift out the manure as any other larger matter and throw it in the compost. The fertilizer I pulled out of the coop this year is unbelievable.

I have many more pics, including the hens being introduced to the  coop as smaller adolescents, listed in the full gallery on BackyardChickens.com. 

The birds enjoy a bunch of plums on a warm summer day.
The hardware in the front of the coop.

I spent some time tweaking things after the coop was up and the chickens were in. The feeder and watering system were also made out of reclaimed materials. I use the deep litter method in managing the coop inside. Sometimes, I just rotate all the manure on top in to the straw on the floor and I can go 3-4 months without pulling anything out. When I do, I compost it in my compost pile. Before the winter hit, I layered a lot of the sand straw and manure on my garden. It will be turned into the soil when I prep the garden to be tilled.

Chickens in the sand run, peckin’ out dough. This was a cold winter day, but if the sun is out, so are the chickens.
The coop mostly finished. I was doing basic refinements over the summer.

 I also had a scrap piece of gutter that I used in back of the coop. Today, this gutter runs in to a rain barrel set up that stayed full most of the season. While a complete after-thought, the rain barrel worked out well. I ran it to some soaker hoses that went around the grape rows lower down the hill. Takes 2 days for the water to soak out of the barrel.

The coop, the vines and the bees on a cold, but beautiful December day. The scenic reward at the end of the season.

The chickens are very hardy. The coop is tight with wood, tar paper and barn siding. I have a few vents in the top front and back of the coop for mild ventilation. During the bitterest cold days over the winter, I left the pop door open and provided no heat to the coop other than a bulb that stayed on until 10pm. The chickens slowed down laying to about 4-6 eggs a day. There are a lot of thoughts on heating a coop, and my decision was to keep the drafts down and the coop dry and reasonably clean. So far, all has been OK. Check back in the Spring and we’ll do a coop clean-out. I’ll provide an update on what worked and what didn’t.

I know I blazed through everything. If you have any questions or comments, just add them below. I’ll be happy to reply and tell you anything I know. In all, I think I had about $200 in the coop. That was for various hardware, screws, a few boards, window glazing, and some of the perks that I decided to add. For the first year, I am blown away with the amount of eggs, and fertilizer I got from the chickens. Without a doubt, well worth the investment. I give the eggs to family and still have some to sell at the market a dozen at a time. I sell eggs for $2 a dozen, and for each dozen sold, a dollar goes to each of my kids. This was just an easy way to fund some allowance for their banks and it gives me good reason to involve them when I can.

See the full gallery with many more pictures on BackyardChickens.com

Correcting oxidized wine

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I wrote this blog back in 2010 originally. For the record, I haven’t had to deal with oxidized wine since that time. Recently, I’ve been asked about correcting a wine that has oxidized. So, I dug it up and revised it a bit and here it is. Hope it helps.

If you are diligent in tending your wine, you may never experience oxidation. However, if you are like me and tend to experiment a lot, you might have more wine going than you can sometimes keep track of. While a balanced wine generally takes care of itself, sometimes I may check in on it a little later than I should. Meanwhile, perhaps the S02 levels may drop while I’m not looking. But let me be clear, I definitely won’t neglect my prize batches.

The reality of the situation is, I keep a cellar that is like a big test tube of experimentation. They say a good winemaker has a lifetime of experience. I believe that. My goal is to pack in more experience in less time to produce a better wine, sooner. So I experiment a lot and log everything.

I have experienced oxidation a time or two. The best way to describe oxidation is to cut up an apple and watch within seconds while it turns brown. Air is the enemy to wine. Air is also our enemy. Funny, we need it, but it too wears out our bodies and makes us grow old. There are several factors that can oxidize wine. Two most common are too much head space in the carboy, or too low of S02 levels in your wine. Be sure to mind these two things, and you may never experience oxidation.

Many people think when a wine has oxidized, you have to throw it out. Really, oxidation can be reduced, and in some cases eliminated by the use of powdered skim milk. It won’t win you any awards, but it can still become a good, drinkable wine again, reminiscent of the base you fermented. That is better than dumping it down a drain.  Try this before you dump it.

The procedure:

  1. Calculate the amount of wine to be treated, in liters, and for each liter of wine measure out 0.5 gm of powdered skim milk into five (5) mL of cold water. Stir into a solution making sure all the skim milk is dissolved. NOTE: It is important that you use powdered skim milk, not de-creamed whole milk or malted milk.
  2. Now bring the S02 level of the wine up to the required amount with respect to the pH.
  3. Stir the wine vigorously and while it’s swirling, add the skim milk solution by pouring a single stream like what would come out of a sink faucet to make it enter the wine well below the surface. There may be a bit of foaming, but it will dissipate. Continue to stir the wine to ensure all the skim milk is well-distributed. It is important that the skim milk solution enters well below the surface. If you pour it on the surface, little, or nothing, will happen. I think the air is already having an effect on it. I have done this and botched ‘the pour’ before and it did nothing for the wine. Once the skim milk is fully distributed, brown curds will develop in the wine but will ultimately settle out.
  4. Replace the airlock and allow the wine to settle for 2-3 days. Meanwhile, prepare a fining agent for fining the wine if you want to try to polish the wine again. I have skipped this with good success.
  5. After 2-3 days, rack the wine off the oxidase curds into a clean carboy and stir in the fining agent (if you do one.) Allow this to settle for about 10 days, then rack the wine off the lees. Add an airlock. Filter. and bottle.

Let’s just try to avoid oxidation in the first place. Check your wine when it’s time, and make sure your sulfite levels are in line with the pH. When fermentation is complete, or when you know the wine is mostly degassed, ditch the airlock and plug that baby with something. I still have yet to find a decent stopper that I like, but I’m planning to be in stainless VC tanks soon. Have little headspace, or flood your headspace with an inert gas. I recommend Argon over CO2. We’re trying to degas our wine already and C02 being soluble, it can get back into the wine. Argon is better in winemaking.

Dishwasher is not friendly to aluminum

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Well, after a vigorous night of sausage making, I tried to take a quick way out by throwing my grinder attachments and trays into the dishwasher. I have always washed them by hand up until now. The other night, I finished up the stuffing and smoking around 2am, and was ready to get some sleep. It didn’t register to me at the time that my grinder attachments were aluminum, and I’m well aware that putting aluminum in to the dishwasher would do this because I have done it before. It’s the detergents and chemicals in the soaps being blasted at the aluminum at high temperatures.

But the deed was done, I opened the dishwasher this morning to find all the aluminum had turned a dark “gunmetal gray,” almost black! Reading around, I found everything from using citric acids, to vinegar, and even cream of tartar. I tried the vinegar and it turns out it needs a harsher acid. Cream of Tartar was next, however, this only did the trick when boiling the parts in a mixture of the tartar and the water. Even still, when it came out, the darkness was gone, but so was my shiny “stainless steel” sheen that it had previously. Also, the finish still had traces of gray colors. Here’s where I took out the steel wool and gave it some elbow grease. This did help. It buffed out the variations but it still looked like a “brushed” stainless steel instead of original shine of the aluminum. This was still acceptable to me. I happen to prefer the brushed  look over the glossy look when it comes to my sink faucets and the like.

Recipe:

  • 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar to 1 quart of water

Process: Boil the parts in the water solution for at least 10 minutes. Take out and submerge in cool water just enough to be able to handle it. Take the steel wool and polish to your desired sheen. I also tried a magic eraser. It didn’t work, so don’t bother. I did go as far as putting the polished parts back in to boil and repeated the process thinking it might improve the finish. I little more sheen was achieved, but I’m pretty confident it was just from the second round of polishing with the steel wool. My advice would be to just boil the parts once, and then polish with the steel wool to the sheen you want. The more you do it, the deeper you are polishing and therefore reaching the original shine of the aluminum. There were also recommendations to try SOS pads. Since these are pretty much steel wool with soap in it, it’s worth a try, but I again would wonder about the detergents in the pads. It’s not a fun process, but it did make the finish much less dreaded. The outcome wasn’t ideal, but it was perfectly acceptable. See some of the before and after pics below, and good luck.

Aluminum turned black from dishwasher detergents.
Aluminum turned black from dishwasher detergents. Parts before and after.

 

The parts are put in to a cream of tartar and water solution.
The parts are put in to a cream of tartar and water solution.

 

See the difference between the ones in the tartar/water solution, and the one I'm holding above?
See the difference between the ones in the tartar/water solution, and the one I’m holding above?

 

After boiling in the cream of tartar and water solution, the parts begin to lighten up.
After boiling in the cream of tartar and water solution, the parts begin to lighten up.

 

Finished, cleaned parts.
Finished, cleaned parts.

 

Welcome to AllMorgan

AllMorgan started as a family blog to keep extended family and friends around the world apprised on what's going on at our Indiana homestead. It always been a cross between a family diary and photo … Read more

Did you know?

The queen bee doesn’t decide what happens in a colony. The workers do. They adjust her feeding to make her do what the majority says. The queen can’t feed herself.