[Modernist Cuisine at Home] Cheese Grits! (p.338)

[Anonymous Modernist 14040]

I am planning to make the Cheese Grits this weekend. Recipe seems easy enough. Except I am going to be cooking for about a dozen people and expect them to eat about 1.5 servings each (a few will eat two or three servings, some only one or less than one). There will be other food, but I cook for this crowd regularly and have come to expect this ratio for the main dish. Thus, I want to cook up about 20 servings.

Scaling the recipe up is not a problem. However, I am wondering how much I can scale up my pressure cooker. I have an old style pressure canner that does not vent unless it goes above 20PSI. I am experienced using it and have used it for quite a few other pressure cooked recipes (in jars) without issue. Thus, I am not concerned about using it here other than to answer the question of how much I can put in.

When I can foods, I can do two full rows - one on top of the other (with a seperator) with about 8 pints per layer. Here the recipe calls for pint jars, which means I would want to put in 10 jars. Normally I would split this in to two layers of 5 each, filling up the bottom layer to an inch up the jars.

Does anyone see an issue with doing this much in the pressure canner or doing a double stack? Or should I simply stick to as many jars as I can fit on one layer and just do two batches? I mean, I do have two pressure canners and one pressure cooker (non-gauged), but my wife would kill me for putting all of them on the stove at once!

Thanks.

[Anonymous Modernist 16072]

hi thank u.vacuum bags pls visit this site.

[Anonymous Modernist 5246]

jhoanmathus,

Just did 167 g of Anson Mills, Anetbellum Coarse grits with 668 g of 2% milk in a vacuum bag. Added the grits, milk and vacuumed, chamber vacuum, until the milk started flowing towards the sealing bar. I then followed the rest of the directions per the recipe and they came out just perfect.

Upon opening of the bag the smell of the corn was amazing. They looked a little loose and had many clumps, but after adding them to a saucepan and heating on low, I was able to breakup the clumps and it thickened up very nice. I may employ a potato masher to help with the clumps next time, but other than that and a little salt, it was too easy.

RED