Deryn

What is your experience base, Shel? Have you ever made any kind or style of 'preserves' before? What do you already know/not know? And what do you like/not like? What are you averse to using (i.e. sugar, commercial pectins)? Do you have easy access to 'greening' green apples - in your backyard or from an apple grower so you can make your own pectin? Do you want to make something that will keep on the counter or in the cupboard for long periods? Or are you looking for just a jar or two for the fridge - which you will eat up within weeks? Or maybe you want a freezer jam so you can keep it for longer periods but not on the counter? Are you figuring you can make 'gifts' for people (who may or not want to consume them quickly)? All these 'preferences' and your background in this area influence what we might suggest as 'literature'. If you don't tell us more then either suggestions for 'literature' are meaningless or not really helpful since they can be all over the map and leave you no further ahead unless all you want is a research project that could stretch far past fresh fruit season this year. We are already down a full page here and I still don't have any idea (as usual) what it is you really want. Is what you want to have people tell you what their experience base is so you understand what level of expertise might inspire someone to get/use what book (and if so, how does that help you if you are a novice)? If you have never made preserves, jams, jellies before, you really should start with learning a bit about basics before jumping into exotic techniques or flavour combinations. If you have made loads of conserves, preserves, jams, jellies, etc. before then let us know in your initial question so we don't have to guess or make suggestions that you can scoff at, please.

Just about everyone starts with Ball's. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ball-complete-book-of-home-preserving-judi-kingry/1100154062?ean=9780778801313 is the expanded version of the original.

Acidic food can cause micro holes to develop in the can allowing liquid (probably sticky in this case) to leak out? Just guessing.

Thanks, Tri2Cook. You expressed what I meant better than I could. And yes, I knew Shel was not intending to just make soup - but to make an ingredient as a stand in for soup. However, since we have absolutely no idea what the end product is intended to be, we have no idea at all how thick he requires the infusion to be. I have made many casseroles where I use condensed soups without adding any water - to add pre-thickened flavoured 'body' to the final dish when more or no extra liquid was needed. I have also used condensed soups with milk or water added (in other words, reconstituted when added) as the flavoured liquids in a dish. He asked for ideas for 'infusing' mushroom flavour (using unspecified kinds of dried mushrooms in milk or cream) and didn't want to hear that water might even be a possibility, even for one soaking (which leads one to imagine that since water is thinner than milk which is thinner than cream - and knowing too that Shel's inclination is most often to use the thinnest milk product he can find - information learned from many other threads he has started) that he does not require the infusion to be thick at all, but not quite water thin either. So my addled ancient female brain said ... so he wants something more the consistency of the soup he mentioned but reconstituted - at least to start (and may then either boil that down or add a thickener or not - who knows). Infusion usually also implies to me that whatever the solid infusing flavour agent in it will be removed from the final infusion - strained out - simply leaving flavour without solids. But, his preferred soup includes solids. Stupid me tried to figure out then whether he wanted to infuse and leave the dried mushrooms in the final dish, or infuse and remove the first dried mushrooms and then add back some more dried or fresh mushrooms or ? Yep, I went way too far in trying to second guess the intended purpose in order to maybe provide another way the final product (which I did not know) might be achieved. Heck, maybe if he had actually had the preferred soup he might have strained the solids out of it and just used the base as a (thick or thin?) flavouring agent - so ... oh dear, Deryn - engage brain again ... (still trying to 'help' for who knows what reason) ... now I don't know what to do except to go back to suggesting that he might be able to use another 'creamed wild mushroom soup recipe' as a basis for proceeding with his final dish, whatever that was. Apparently that was absolutely the wrong way to proceed - but one cannot know unless one suggests it and gets told one is utterly wrong for even going to the trouble to try to help in that direction. Additionally, as others have said or intimated, the thinner the liquid the infusion is going into, usually the stronger the flavour that will be acquired. I agree though there was absolutely no statement made by Shel about how 'strong' a flavour he wanted from the resulting infusion - and he didn't want to use water. But, presuming he wants SOME flavour in his infusion, the suggestions began to come that the mushrooms be cut up (or even powdered) - and I made the added suggestion that IF the mushrooms were shitakis, that the stems should be removed - sorry ... extraneous, unwanted info (forget I said that). Boy, I get myself into a mess when I try to guess at what someone I don't know, who has a totally different experience base to rely on, who may even speak another language and certainly has a different thought process and writing style actually MEANS when he asks a question seemingly as simple as how do I infuse dried mushroom flavour into milk or cream - but complicates it with partial information about the ultimate purpose for that infusion. I still have absolutely no idea of the final purpose of the concoction he is trying to make. Sorry - typical old lady circular thinking there - but since I am not what I would call a novice cook (and therefore may have several ways to approach a culinary problem), strangely enough I need either more or less information in order to try to help him come up with the best way to approach this specific problem. Had a simple - how do I infuse dried mushroom flavour into milk or cream? - question been the only thing in the initial post, I would have simply answered - yes, just heat the 'dairy' and steep any dried mushroom in milk or cream. My logic would then have led me to say ... see what you get and then come back with your next question so we can assist with that one. I should have realized this was a culinary game and that it would take a week or month and 4 or 5 threads before we got to know what the end product was going to be. I am slow but I am trainable - starting to get the jist now. So, for me, the whole thing was complicated by the limited information in the statement about 'why' he wanted to do that. And, as I said, either more or less information would have helped. I tried to think further than was required so I apologize. The above however was MY thought process and that is why I called the initial post too cryptic (for me). I just don't have a simple mind. Sorry. All I was doing was trying to help though ... despite my obviously incorrect 'conclusions' based on what I read was the problem to be addressed.

Shel - You said, in your initial post, that your preferred cream of mushroom soup was not available so you decided to make your own. How were we supposed to interpret that? Now you say you are not interested in making soup or even an imitation of a cream of mushroom soup base I gather. Sigh. My posts were premised on you wanting to use a milk or cream infusion as the basis of a soup (or a condensed version of same). Too cryptic!

I got the impression that torolover perhaps was not making his own ramen broth - just from his phrasing - and wanted to imitate a home made broth by 'thickening' a powdered packet one. It kind of leaves us discussing in a vacuum when an initial post can be interpreted many ways and the original poster doesn't return to clarify/answer questions posed by contributors. I am sorry if I misinterpreted the question/circumstances when I answered early on - though I am certain the discussion and inputs here (all good in my opinion) may be very useful to someone, if not torolover. I hope someone hit the nail on the head for him. I know I have learned a few things too. Thank you all.

I did a very quick google and found this recipe for a 'creamy wild mushroom soup'. No recommendation (I haven't tried it) and it doesn't do the 'milk/cream infusion' thing you said you wanted to do (they merely soak in a broth and port mix), but it sounds like a good way to use dried mushrooms in a 'combo' (dried and fresh) mushroom soup. I have made similar soups - but I don't use recipes. I could not immediately find any recipe that uses an infusion of wild mushrooms in milk/cream and only wild mushrooms. http://homecooking.about.com/od/soups/r/blss15.htm You stated this step was but one of many in your 'recipe' - and didn't say if you intended to actually include the wild mushrooms in the end product (other than the infusion, one guesses) nor whether you intend to use fresh mushrooms as well. I think more information from you (since you indicated you had a particular use for the results of your experiment) would have helped, Shel. In addition, I also suggest that you take a few of the dried mushrooms you say you have already and try the infusion 'experiment'. It should only take an hour or so. I still will tell you that if you are using dried shitakes, you should remove the stems (though the above recipe does not explicitly say to do that), especially if you are not going to grind them up - they are tough when dried and will never hydrate well. When I dry shitakis, I remove the stems before drying for the above reason and in fact, I usually remove them even if the shitakis are fresh.

Dry your own mushrooms first so you can a) remove the stems (if they are shitakis or other tough stemmed varieties) and b) be sure they are clean. If you can't do that (dry your own), then I think it is wise to first soak your mushrooms in water and discard that first 'bath' before trying to steep in cream/milk. If you don't want to do that make sure you get really good quality (and as freshly dried as possible), preferably just porchini, mushrooms to work with. The water from some kinds of mushrooms I have found to be bitter and/or more earthy tasting than others and you may not find that as pleasant in a creamed soup as one might in a non-cream soup that you can doctor with sherry. FeChef's idea makes sense in that the smaller you chop up the pieces, the more surface area that can release flavour. I have used both whole and powdered dried mushrooms to make mushroom soup - and the powdered ones were definitely more flavourful.

Do you want the soup to gel? At what temperature? By 'thicker', what do you mean? Gelatin (to my knowledge) will not really 'thicken' at room or higher temperature. Agar will but I don't think you really want to gel your soup, do you? If you want to 'thicken' it, perhaps cornstarch or another similar starch might be your answer?

Thank you, Pipsqueak. Your chart makes perfect sense (for the drying cycles) even to this physics challenged mind - and it seems to be roughly in line with what I was told was happening. It doesn't however seem to correlate very well with Tony's actual readouts.

It is probably 11" x 11" but if it is not/not big enough, roll it out till it is big enough.

I did a fair bit of canning at an LDS facility in North Carolina so I know how they do it - and yes, it is work that goes fast with a lot of people doing the various jobs - if one has a supply of enough goods ready to put into the cans. That is where I got the (48) can supply that I am now having to throw away - because I moved to Nova Scotia, have no sealer, and though I could buy a can sealer, I fear that where I am getting cans would be a real issue. The closest home storage center (and I am not sure they would sell to me - I am not LDS either) appears to be well over a 1000 miles from me in Toronto. I haven't yet seen any other place to buy them up here. Thanks for the info on which canner you got though. I will remember that if I ever find a can source - it does tempt me. I can retort 'can'. I can freeze-dry. I can dehydrate. I can can conventionally in jars using a pressure canner. I can store in mylar. Using #10s though to 'can' still eludes me (but, I am too old now to bother setting up trailers in my back yard to house them either).

1) In general, the foraging aspect. I don't expect to be able to forage the same ingredients you can/do down there, but, I may get ideas on what to forage around here/what to do with locally foraged ingredients - from how you use yours. 2) The fact that I 'know' you (although I have never met you - but I gather a number of board members who I trust have) to some degree through the boards. I like to get to know the 'mind of a chef' so the board has helped me do that with you at least a bit. Also, your energy is tangible - and that helps energize me. 3) The few recipes you have published here and the pictures you have taken and displayed here have given me some insight into what you are hoping to publish - so the 'preview' aspect has also been important. The pictures in particular seem to be food art and I like your 'style'. I am certain there will be recipes in the book that I may adjust to fit me or to suit ingredients I can get here locally. I don't take recipes literally - unless you tell me (or I already intuit) that substitutions would be unwise in a particular dish - but then I am not a novice cook either. I don't expect you to tell me what substitutions can be made - but I do hope I can figure out from what you write (and my personal knowledge, etc.), WHY an ingredient works. If I understand 'why' then I can figure out my own substitutions or recipe amendments.

Interesting. Took me a while to wade through the marketing bumpf on that site to get to what I wanted to know: And some answers are still missing. Does it work without a smartphone? Apparently the answer is yes. I am an early adopter for many things but phones are not one of those (I deliberately have a flip-phone with text/data turned off - because I cross the border often). I view the interaction with a smartphone as being not very important (I guess unless one is addicted to one's phone) and, as btbyrd pointed out, its range is likely to be very limited anyway. I am still not quite sure whether one can 'program' how/when you want to have temps adjust, etc. You can apparently adjust time and temp either on the induction unit or via smartphone but can you program stages (when to adjust a temperature, etc. later in the cooking) without having to just re-set the temp yourself in the moment? Does this 'system' hold a temperature better than a normal induction unit might do? I find my induction units are much better at that already than my regular electric stove. What is the bottom/lowest temperature it can hold consistently? This goes to Elsie's question about tempering. They talk about the highest temperature using the induction unit is 500 degrees F but the sensor really only works to 375 degrees. I can put a different thermometer in a pot and get a useful measurement higher than 375 I think. Seems useful maybe for deep-frying (in that supposedly it auto-adjusts when cool foods are added) but if you are adding foods to a deep-fryer, aren't you right there anyway to adjust your own rate of adding them? And could the 'system' adjust the temperature faster than you could manually (if you wanted to go that direction instead of just adding a bit more slowly)? I don't really see this as being a critical item for SV if one already has induction burners (I have 2 and use them quite frequently) and a circulator. In short, I guess I must be an old fogey and do not quite 'get' this device - especially at the prices they are talking about. My last induction unit cost $59 and I know they can be bought even cheaper than that. I don't see that one can really do much 'remotely' with this system - even if one loves their smartphones and is adept at using them. I would love to be enthralled but right now ... too many questions ... too much marketing and not enough useful information for me to catch fire on this one.

Mike - Good advice. I guess I had my 'prepper' hat on when I talked about considering a hand crank sealer. However if it is too much like work, perhaps this old lady ought to reconsider an electric one. Someone has now made this its own thread however - so please feel free to tell us more about your particular can sealer/can sealing escapades so we have a reason to be here.

We have at least one poster (yesterdays) who uses a different freeze-drier. I believe hers is a Freeze Dry Co. (formerly Northstar) model 2000 which was used previously as a florist's unit. (ps apologies if I posted this information twice - hit post and thought it registered but can't find it now).

Jim - Thanks. That should have occurred to me. Just re-read Tony's post description about where he placed the thermometer and it was not on a shelf (where yes I would expect it to be heated) and it was not up top (heat rises) and it was not on the window proper where heat could come massing out of most, if not all, shelves - he placed it below the bottom insulation it seems - so I am not sure where one might get a real idea of what is going on. The only place left (which may not be feasible unless one had a stick on thermometer) would be along the sides at the widest point. Oh well. HR didn't answer me when I pursued that line of questioning (about temperatures) other than with that general -50 to -5F statement. I guess they got tired of my questions (not sure I blame them!). I first saw the chart in the middle of the night and was excited. But, I think my brain was foggy at the time and I didn't notice the details very well. My bad. I am also terrible at physics - perhaps temperature and vacuums interact in ways I don't understand. Could well be.

I would make a base estimate for out of the area sales (without even distribution via major bookstores in the beginning - as long as you make mail order possible) to include many people you 'know' here on the boards who don't live in the south, their friends and relatives, etc. I would guess in terms of the numbers that publishers hope for that may not sound like much (though I would bet it is more than 5 of us), but, what if we all went to our bookstores (independents and major chains), praised it (I am sure it will be worthy of that praise) and asked them to stock it? I may never make a recipe from your book, gfron (though I might - who knows) - but I will READ it and treasure it (will you autograph mine, please? ) and get ideas from it and love the pictures, etc. I have a LOT of cookbooks that are like that for me.

I cook intuitively but I am a better cook than a baker for precisely the reasons others have expressed above - I am impatient with using standardized recipes and recipes are much more often required for baking. But, then I don't much care to or need to replicate results exactly even twice in a row. Makes me a terrible teacher (unless I follow a recipe when cooking or baking). I have some intuition borne of much experience though and I know a lot of general baking principles (rules for substitutions and the 'chemistry', etc.) so I do know what ingredients and basic proportions to expect in a baking recipe and I can, as Anna spoke of, 'estimate'. And there are grey/crossover areas where I am more likely to succeed than not if I don't use a pre-tested written recipe - mostly in the area of breads, muffins, etc. All that said though, when I bake, I do have to consult a recipe much more than I ever would when cooking - or I cannot guarantee the result (especially twice in a row). I also think however that many 'recipes' don't include everything one needs to know to produce an excellent result - one does need 'experience' to supplement. For instance, batter consistency may not be described in the recipe and an experienced baker can tell if that is wrong - not so much with a novice. Basic (pre)knowledge of 'technique' also is often needed - how and when to 'fold' for example. And while using weights helps to increase accuracy, ambient temperature and humidity and other kitchen variables can still affect the output as well. I could completely follow a recipe for meringues one day and then another and have two totally different results.

I am sorry I can't help you with where to buy what you want out there, chris - but, though you said you don't want to squeeze limes and make simple syrup every time you want a drink, what about doing it once, freezing the mixture into an ice cube tray and using one of those when you need some sour in your drink?

Elsie - I am sorry to hear you have had to toss so much, especially when I know it is cold outside there. I gather you don't have any outside space you could have used as a surrogate fridge - or a neighbour with a bit of room you could have bugged to house some for a few days. I second the notion that your Asian and hot sauces, worchestershire sauce (if you refrigerate that - I don't) and the like should be fine. And I agree with gfweb - the eggs, butter and cream (if unopened) would have survived ok outside of the fridge for a couple of days. I often keep eggs out for several days. I ran out of fridge space the other day - had 6 rotisserie chickens that would not fit - so I put them into a couple of cooler bags out on the deck with the ice cream that has been there a week or so. Unfortunately, though the deck is completely surrounded by a 3.5 foot fence, some small footed 'thief' apparently could not resist a trip to take one chicken (sans cardboard band, base and top plastic which were neatly 'tossed' in the snow - there was not any other sign that a chicken had been in it). I guess the thief isn't an ice cream fiend though. That bag wasn't touched. But, in winter, I usually leave stuff I cannot fit in my fridge in the back of my truck - it won't freeze but it is darned cold in the garage so it lasts a few days till I can find a better place to put it or I use it up.

Tony - By any chance have you repeated your temperature test at all? The more I look at your chart the more I am confused by what appears to be happening temperature wise. As I noted I was told that the temperature would cycle up and down for many hours between -50F and -5F and it was not till the drying was done that it would begin to rise to +50F. Secondly, I see your chart seems to be only for a 12 hour period - what food did you have in the drier on that run that it would dry that fast? When I spoke to my contact at HR a while back he said that I should not expect my runs to be less than about 20-24 hours (though I had success at 16 hours on my first run (from start of freeze cycle to removal of food).

I didn't know her but my condolences to her family and friends. If I were in the area, I would go to pay my respects.

Canola is passé. We Canadians now have a brand new oil to market to you Americans! http://threefarmers.ca/camelina-oil/ Has a 475 deg. smoke point. Still working on a marketing board for it but the Dragons liked it. Perhaps you want to stick that in your pan and try to smoke it. (note: I have absolutely NO affiliation with, or interest in, the company that produces or markets this product - but I was certain rotuts would want to know about it).

I think your trial cake looks lovely, and tasty, Franci - even though it may not have satisfied adult tastes. I cannot tell you that I ever really liked the (taste of the) cakes I made for my kids - but they did. They were always too sweet for me, especially the icing. I froze the remains if there were any and the kids had a piece here and there over time till they were gone.