SLB

Testify. I'm going to make this next week. Because I am going to be in a home where someone else bought the jamon iberico.

Here is the UMaine Webinar. I don't miss those heady early-pandemic days, but I do miss my Tuesdays with these ladies:

I took the multi-part preserving [webinar] course from University of Maine a few years ago, and the question I posted on the steam-canning day was: why would anyone water-bath anything, ever? The answer was: for things that need longer water-bath-times than can be accomplished in a steam-canner. I got it, immediately. Specifically, I heard a charge: go forth with steam, with everything that can be steamed.

Yellow-meat watermelon, oh God. It's been too, too long. I think not since I left Mississippi in 1997. ETA: I think I'm gonna cave and get this book. My inflation theory is, same ole' meat, tricked out sauces. The LGD alone seems like such a great ambassador of the rest . . . .

I saw this and immediately wanted to make it for the kids in my life. And also -- ahem -- for me.

@Okanagancook, I'm in for the Salad Dressing Thread!

JoNorvelleWalker, what is your opinion of the Copper Coeur, now that you've had it for awhile?

Shelby, I've been swinging through here looking for what's doing in your preserving kitchen. I find the reruns riveting!!! Last year I realized that, basically, I want to come out and help your Putting-Up like with Ronnie and The Hunter.

@Annie_H, I might need that full recipe.

I love my Hedley&Bennetts, with one caveat: pay attention to weight. Maybe it's not necessary with the cross-back, but if the thing is on your neck, and you plan to be in it all day . . . some of them are a lot heavier than others. I seem to be sensitive to weight on my neck, and I learned this the 80-plus-dollar way. People like Tilit a lot, but my beautiful red Tilit fell apart quickly. I'm sure it was defective, but have no idea whether that is a common problem there. I have two linen pinafores (one is rough linen), which I wear for the hot weather. I echo something someone said upthread -- the drape will slacken as you bend over, so take care if you're near fire or something like that. And, let's not kid ourselves. Linen is not a textile that ages well. My "dress" apron is AOS. It's shiny black tablecloth material, with hot-pink stitching. And my dirt apron (in my life it's not for food, it's for dirt work) is from HandyMaam. I love this apron. It's priced totally crazy, like a lot of, you know, American-Maker-Hipster. But I do love it: https://handymaamgoods.com/collections/workwear/products/the-drapron I think it would work well for barbecuing or frying or work where the fabric needs to be thick.

Nancy speaks for me. It took me probably fifteen years to admit that I actually do not like añejo tequila in anything. If fact, I only modestly like it neat, and would always privilege the reposado option for that kind of thing. With the recent rage of "artisanal" tequilas, maybe I'll revisit the añejo universe.

Any New Hampshire insights? I'm trying to get myself back to the Whites in the next year, and I like to bookend my Very-Good-By-Comparison Camp Food with Very Good Restaurant Food.

I wonder if it's lobster bisque that I'm remembering; does it have a teeny hint of green curry (as in, bringing NYC-basic Thai food to mind)??? I don't remember it being creamed though, which I think is what makes bisque, "bisque". In fairness, I may not be remembering exactly everything, because it was a vacation sandwiched between awful work-crush; so, you know, drinks . . . . But whatever it was, that's what I had en route to Acadia, and then broke camp way early to get some more of on the backside.

I love, love, love Portland. And once left Acadia something like two hours early in order to permit time to get me a bowl of the Eventide chowder before a flight out. Thank you for sharing this, I'm going to try to get there before next winter. I need all that food you posted.

I'm not sure if we've discussed the heirloom beans grown by Charley Baer. He carries a bunch of common beans, but specializes in New England heirlooms, e.g. Soldier; King of the Early; Marfax; Yellow-Eye. The brand is known to people who frequent farmer's markets in Maine, Massachusetts, and NH; but now have a functional mail-order system (you used to call and have a delightful conversation with a woman who had an old-timey Maine accent, I could've talked with her for days). Anyway, they're going to be profiled this Saturday on a New Hampshire PBS show called "Preserving New England", I thought folks here might be interested. https://nhpbs.org/schedule/summary.aspx?progId=WeekendswithYankee605&fbclid=IwAR0qbZVITiWkvfsz60d0sHKuiQj-15g9qXA3gDjd3OyMLXsjj8JHjuDpZOI

I am embarrassed to report that one can find the answer to this question by googling "freezing raw potatoes". I have nothing to say about why I didn't think about that option until @FauxPas's kind response. Did I mention, it was late? It's been raining for three days, maybe that's it. I don't know about me, y'all. But that is another thread . . . .

So, my survey late last night found that all internet affirmations that latkes can be happily frozen are talking about already-cooked latkes which are then frozen. Is there some reason nobody freezes their latkes raw but pattied-up?? Does something bad happen to potatoes in the freezer???

Yep, that is the Ikea countertop; and I agree that it's actually a decent product although I would never drop the actual sink into one, which is what the folks who built this kitchen did on the parallel line of this galley. The rotting particle-board is the cupboards. I think it was made to require renovation every decade or so. Which is against my religion . . . but the truth is, my lower cabinets floors are going to straight-up fail any day now.

Years ago, I purchased some rare-earth magnet knife strip thingies. In my mind, it was @rotuts who emphasized the need for the strength of "rare-earth" magnets. Well. I finally had a friend put 'em up. Heavy-use to the left (mostly); less-use to the right. Just in time for the whole new kitchen I need. In fact, the walnut was bone-dry, I oiled everything good before the drilling. Sigh. But. It's exciting, anyway. Amidst the dilapidation, and Ikea particle-board decay, and mess. [And, no. I certainly do not need three serrated knives. Two of 'em were supposed to be gifts. The rest of that is another board, or at least another thread . . . .]

Maybe you could mince or blend them after rehydration into the dressing? I don't think the slices will come back nice for eating otherwise raw.

@TdeV, I actually have both of those books, I agree that they're pretty good. But mostly I came away from them more comfortable adapting my own regular food (which tends toward high-calorie anyway). Everything turned out fine! Even that sticky messy mass of rice!! It was actually delicious, and the six-year old scarfed it down like a champion. Boiled sausage is not the most delicious thing ever, but I fixed it with salt and red pepper flakes, and the truth is that the texture was quite nice in the soup. The slaw concept worked out really well, it added a fresh note which was great by day 3. And no one died or even felt sick! The half-dehydrated half slow-thaw frozen seemed to work out fine, even though we just did not have the fuel for the 10 minute boil that I was trying to push. And, finally. It was too much food. I'm not sure why I was so terrified that it wouldn't be enough food. It was, like, twice as much food. I kept thinking, you children are not eating enough . . . . @palo, I was in FL for a day and an excellent seafood meal. And to pick up other goodies: in fact, the first camp-night's dinner was actually ribs from Jenkins, I called ahead and ordered three slabs and a bunch of non-mayo-type sides. The main thing we were doing, after pre-gaming on ribs and ribs-sides at Stephen C. Foster State Park, was several days of canoe camping in Okefenokee (GA). Thanks for the support, guys. I was freaking out, when the dehydration theory went south due to weather, I was quite anxious that I was gonna kill people, either through food poisoning or else through homicidal rage from having to portage three coolers full of food that was supposed to been dehydrated.

So, I've been dehydrating all week in anticipation of a camping trip with my hiking crew. Although we're canoe-camping and bringing the Colemans instead of the backpacking stoves, we can take the weight of regular food (frozen or whatever); I'm using the opportunity to try out some backcountry meals. Plus, since there are FOURTEEN PEOPLE on this trip (spouses and ALL the children), I kinda signed up for more of a deal than I really paid attention to. My people. It has been a disaster. First, I spent days and days and days poring over various cookbooks in a perseverative fashion: what seems tasty? how many calories per gram? will the littlest among us eat anything that's been anywhere NEAR garlic? Will any kids eat dehydrated caldo verde, which looks like, you know, vomit. Honestly, I spent way too long on the gorps -- my favorite gorp at the moment is currently cashews; dried vanilla'd strawberries (done last spring); dried candied rhubarb (same); candied ginger bits (when backpacking I can get a touch nauseous); and dark chocloate m&ms. Do kids eat that??? Sigh. I finally settled on the actual meal last Sunday. And got to cooking, and dehydrating. I came up with chicken-stock-yummy chicken and rice for the kids (what kid isn't gonna eat that). But. But. In real life, I like shorter grained rice with chicken-n-rice, because it's soupy-er. Well. I messed up the rice, people. It was done, basically 8 minutes from done: and I got on a work call and FORGOT ABOUT IT. When I came back up for air, I had very chicken-y rice-mush. Which I dried to dry anyway: But -- it had gotten a little more humid or something, and took like 19 hours to actually dry. And I am not confident at all that it is going to rehydrate into anything that resembles actual rice. In fact -- not all of it really did dry, even at that 19 hour point. But on those 19 hours . . . . listen. Some of those hours, like ten of 'em, were needed for the caldo verde. I am now running out for boil-in-a-bag rice. So back to the giant cauldron of beany-potato-y-kale stew, sigh. I specifically grated the potatoes (a texture I do not enjoy in soup), for the superior dehydration/rehydration potential of the thin shreds. Well. I had pivot to freezing. Because as of last night, it's straight-up raining. Meaning, maybe it would take a hundred hours to functionally dehydrate? Sigh. Anyway. So, I am freezing the caldo verde (I had already dehydrated the sausage and have it separated out -- I did get the meat aspects cooked and defatted and dried last weekend. Like some kind of actual grown-up. Also, one of the kids is currently vegetarian, I love the boy and he needs what he needs). The plan is for the caldo verde is going to go from the freezer into the Yeti; but I am actually not sure it's going to be rock-solid frozen by the time I have to pack the Yeti to make the plane. It can go back into a freezer for another 24 hours or so after I land and before I head into the wilderness but . . . this is not how they tell you to do it. I did make a quite nice-tasting but basic tomato sauce to have over egg noodles one night. I used all the tomato paste that was in my refrigerator -- a move I'd kinda forgotten about, fried tomato paste. I made this in lieu of something which was requested from a prior trip, which I don't really remember but did involve dehydrated tomato slices and smoked trout and my homemade noodles and some kind of bean. BUT I COULD NOT FIND ANY NON-WHOLE SMOKE TROUT!! This is no doubt due to the fact that I had about 90 minutes to shop for it, and could not go to different places, and the one place I. hit only had whole smoked trouts. Which I can't cope with, fish garbage in the backcountry. Anyway. A marinara-type thing. Which one of the kids doesn't eat, she's just going to have noodles I think. Sigh. I've got a full day in an actual town -- Jacksonville -- to solve that problem before we hit the swamp. One thing which is actually totally dehydrated is a cole-slaw concept. The theory is, you half-rehydrate it, and it's still crunchy. Crunch is hard to come by int eh backcountry. We shall see. Sigh. I think everybody here reflexively addresses volume issues, seeing as how most of you are professionals/pro-adjacent, and therefore would not waste crucial non-working days struggling to imagine what 14 people's worth of four nights of dinner is going to weigh. . But beyond that -- people, start your drying early. And check the damn weather. If it's raining outside, triple the time. I do think this dehydrator is going to make for more fun backcountry eating. But, shoot. I'm still carrying a VERY LARGE DUFFLE BAG of whole food.

I consume a fair amount of content from the low-carb-o-sphere, so Paul Saladino's name jumped out at me from the Eat Your Books index. Dudes. A warning: whether or not you would benefit from the diet known at "carnivore", and whether or not you experience Saladino as a straightahead whackjob; I can tell you from trying to listen to his podcast that the man's palate should not be trusted.

I don't understqnd the cucumber thing either, and I am agog to report that I've found it to actually work. Could be a fluke, but I was losing it over the bitter CSA cucumbers. And then it vanished when I started trimming ends and rubbing. Anyway. The old timey thing I still do for nostalgia alone is scrape the surface of steaks with a dull knife. To remove, you know, dirt. [**I think the concern is that the butcher, or store, is selling you an item has fallen on the floor]. As I was taught: if you rinse it (like we do with chicken), you will rinse away the beef juices. Hence: scrape. I also clean my greens for a long time in heavily salted water, much longer than is actually required for today's market greens. One flank of the women's side of my ancestry meticulously removed the green leafy aspect from 100% of the veins of collard greens. Repeat: ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. No veins. None. Not in any single leaf of green. I do not do that anymore . . . .

Wow. I'm glad you're alright. And the apron is looking mostly alright, too.