sparrowgrass
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Posts posted by sparrowgrass
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I work for University of Missouri Extension--my office spends a lot of time answering canning questions. According to USDA, if you want to use a pressure cooker for canning, it must be large enough to hold at least 4 standard quart jars. The reason: timing, not only temperature, is considered for canning recipes. If you use a smaller pressure cooker, it will not take enough time to heat the contents to the proper temperature. Just trying to keep you all safe!!
University of Georgia's canning website--everything you need to know to can safely!!
If you want to can--go for the big canners. They hold 7 quart jars, and if you want to make stock, you have enough room to make a decent batch. Mine holds 16 quarts of water, so you have 8 or 9 quarts of space for stock, when you fill it half full. There are double decker canners that will hold 14 quart jars--don't know the capacity of those.
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Bring your green beans, peas and snap peas to me. We can sit on the porch in the rockers and chat while we do them. If I have to do them alone, I listen to the radio. I used to can dozens of quarts of green beans each summer and freeze lots of sweet corn. I just got into that Zen zone we were talking about in another thread.
I don't tail the green beans, anyhow, and have never noticed any problem. Unless they are string beans, then I break them several times to remove the strings and tail. It is easier just to plant the stringless ones and pick them before they get old.
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At least once or twice a summer, I take the enameled grates outside, put them in a black plastic bag, spray them down with oven cleaner, and leave them in the sun for a few hours. I also use the oven cleaner on the porcelain top when it is horrible, but generally scrubbing with salt and a green nylon scrubby gets most of the stuff off.
I do wipe up almost every time after cooking. My mama says I am a little persnickety.
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ChrisTaylor, I believe your submission of your housemate gets the grand prize--an in-the-egg scrambler and two weeks in Philadelphia.
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I was going to say foam, but I was afraid someone would think I was a hick from Missouri. (Wait, I am a hick from Missouri.
)I once saw a picture of something with yellow foam on it, with a couple of long pieces of chive artfully arranged in the foam. My dogs have made things that look like that!
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If your goat milk producer is allowing a buck (aka billy goat) near the milking goats, he or she is doing it wrong. Bucks do stink, but a good producer keeps the them well away from the milking does, who do not need his presence at all.
The doe is dried off (milking is tapered off until she is no longer producing), then she has a magic moment with the buck, which might include a golden shower, then they are separated. After her kid is born (a five month pregnancy), then milking begins again.
As far the the topic, I will never eat tapioca again. Or turnips. Or beets.
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I reuse my oil a couple times, til it smells funny. One thing that makes it easier to filter is to do it while it is still hot. Don't be stupid and burn your fingers off
-- let it cool a while, but hot oil goes thru the filter much faster. I use a coffee filter, usually, set in a big colander over a bowl. -
Here is what I found at the thrift store before Christmas. The picture does not show the third pan, which is just a bit smaller than the larger one, and also has 2 handles.
They are cast iron, but not as heavy as some. There is not a mark on them to indicate maker or place of origin.
I thought they were a good deal, marked at $3 for the set--I gave them $10, because all the money goes to support one of my favorite causes--low-cost spay/neuter services.
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Yes, I use detergent along with the vinegar.
I was just majorly unclear, wasn't I? Just don't let me give you directions to anywhere--you will end up in Algeria.
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Yes, you must start the dishwasher, at some point!!
Just putting the vinegar in won't help the dishes much. -
I just found out that my blood sugar is too high, so I tried to make Christmas things that I don't really like all that well.
I don't eat jelly, so the first order of business was to defrost the cherries I picked last spring--made 2 batches of plain cherry and one batch using a container of vanilla sugar. Then, a couple batches of canned lemon curd, and lemon orange curd. (U GA recipe, USDA approved. Except I used real lemon juice, NOT Real-lemon.)
A friend gave me a jar of roasted garlic/white wine/balsamic vinegar jelly, which is just great as a pan sauce for chops or chicken, so I made a couple batches of that. (Food network recipe--makes a very stiff jelly--I think I will try using only one pack of pectin next time.)
Then, 2 double batches of Aunt Rosie's peanut brittle--the thick, foamy kind. I love this, but I managed not to even taste it!! Yay for me!!
Finally--I made possum poop. Put a pound of whole almonds in a heavy pan, and cover with cinnamon sugar. Heat and stir until the sugar melts and glazes the almonds. If you have ever seen evidence that a possum has been eating persimmons, you know what these almonds look like.
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I read a tip on another board--put a small container upright in the dishwasher, and fill it full of white vinegar. I have very hard water and this has solved my waterspot problem--which got really bad this summer, apparently when the formula changed.
Vinegar is much cheaper than the commercial dishwasher cleaning products--I used to run a gallon thru once a month or so. Start the dishwasher, let it begin to fill and then pour the vinegar in.
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What Pam said.
Commercial eggs are washed, which removes a protective coating from the eggs, which allows the egg to dehydrate enough to make them easy to peel. Your eggs are probably really fresh, and probably haven't been washed.
Wash your duck eggs, in warmish water with a spot of dishsoap, rinse well and dry. Put them either in a cardboard egg carton or a loosely covered container, in the fridge. Give them at least 2 weeks in the fridge--three is better.
I have my own chickens, and 3 weeks is better than two.
Also, when I have stubborn eggs, slipping a spoon under the shell makes for slightly more attractive eggs, but you still lose a little eggwhite.
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Chris, if you don't want to pasture one, you can keep it in a good sized pen--actually, you should keep two, because they are social animals, and one will get lonesome. (One for you, one for me.
)Notice the muddy mess that those hogs made--sometimes that is ok, if you are trying to clear some ground, but most people do not want their pastures made into mudholes. A pen, and a ring in the hog's nose, will keep that from happening.
Old timers would clear stumps by poking holes around the stump with a crowbar and filling the holes with corn--the hogs would root out every grain, until the stump was loose enough to pull out with a team or tractor.
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I approach this from a little different direction. I spend countless hours in the garden, and I raise my own chickens, for eggs and meat. Yep--I can buy canned tomatoes, or chicken leg quarters for thirty nine cents a pound, but. . . .
Mine taste better, and more importantly, I know where they have been, and I know that there aren't any pesticides or antibiotics involved.
(I also bake my own bread, roll out my own pasta, and, when the Boy Scouts came around for food bank donations last week, I had to really scrape out the pantry to find a couple cans of evaporated milk and beans.)
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I never cover my butt--I mean, my pork butt.
The only thing that occurs to me is that he may be buying pork loin instead of butt.
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My sister buys the packages from Angel Food. I think they have too much processed food, Maison--chicken nuggets, breaded fish, some 'entrees' in 2 pound boxes. They have different packages, and you can indeed buy 'instant food'--prepared dinners.
I don't do math
, so I can't compare prices, but they claim their $41 box will feed a family of 4 for a week. -
I went on an 'eat healthy' kick about 2 years ago and bought 27 different kinds of whole grains, most of which are still untouched. Quinoa, black rice, red rice, whole wheat flour, rye flour. I may set up a fancy buffet for the chickens one of these days.
I also have a can of spinach (gack), and a can of potatoes that someone left here after not making something.
A month or so ago I dumped 7 jars of home canned green beans from 2005--they were some weird variety that didn't taste good fresh--I don't know why I thought canning them would improve them.
I'll take your garbanzos--the guys at work like my Cowboy Caviar--one can each of garbanzos, black beans (or black eyed peas), corn, and hominy, and one big jar of salsa. Add some chopped fresh tomatoes and onions if you want to get fancy. Serve with chips or as a salad.
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The combination of woodsmoke and bacon. Smells best at dawn on a frosty morning.
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Absolutely only a pressure canner. USDA recommendations for canning, freezing and drying food can be found at the USDA Food Preservation Site.
Canning soup is possible and not difficult, but you do need to follow the rules. Your local Extension office will have someone available to help you if you have questions, or you can PM me--I guess I am eGullet's local Extension connection.
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Blether, if you have never had critters in your kitchen, you are lucky!! The bug eggs come in with the food--moths and beetles in the great outdoors, (where food comes from
), lay their eggs in the chilis or grains or whatever.I routinely put all spices and grain products in the freezer for a couple days--that kills the eggs so they don't hatch.
Preventing an infestation is way easier than getting rid of one.
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Grain beetles and moths will colonize dried peppers and chili powder. Put them in the freezer for at least 48 hours, and then store in airtight glass or heavy plastic containers. Not plastic bags--those bugs will eat right thru plastic. Chili powder that moves is not one of my favorite things.
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My sister, the Morel Queen of Southern Illinois, takes me hunting every spring. I like morels, but I love, love, love oyster mushrooms. They are much easier to find, and I like the texture and flavor better.
They are also a bit easier to clean--I find way too many little critters inside all those crinkles and wrinkles of the morels. Just one tiny snail, missed in the cleaning process, can turn you off of morels for a long time. Think of an eggshell bit in your scrambled eggs--very similar, except it is a SNAIL! (insert small gagging icon here)
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Pepper lover here, cooked or raw. For stuffed peppers, I want them melting-soft--not half cooked.
The first time I met my Southern Illinois ex-in-laws, their house smelled great--they were canning 'mangoes'.
I grow my own, and freeze them whole all the time, and mine don't turn into mushy messes. I use them for stuffed peppers, or I chop them and add to whatever I am cooking. I especially like them in pasta sauce, on pizza, or sauteed for sandwiches.
What Are the Special Treats in Your Office?
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Chris, google 'Amish Friendship Cake'. I have had the recipe before, but it is quite involved--more like keeping a pet than baking a cake.