What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2016–)

[ElsieD]

So here we are, I'm assuming I cooked it long enough.  It is about half the original volume.  It is thick enough that when I put a blob on a plate and draw a line through it, it stays put.  I'll let it cool and put it in small 1/2 cup mason jars and freeze them.  It is so good that I am going to turn the bowl of applesauce on the right in the above picture into apple butter too.  I can't believe how good this is.  Now to clean the stove....and the back splash. ...and the floor....

Edited October 18, 2016 by ElsieD
added picture (log)

[Shelby]

21 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

So here we are, I'm assuming I cooked it long enough.  It is about half the original volume.  It is thick enough that when I put a blob on a plate and draw a line through it, it stays put.  I'll let it cool and put it in small 1/2 cup mason jars and freeze them.  It is so good that I am going to turn the bowl of applesauce on the right in the above picture into apple butter too.  I can't believe how good this is.  Now to clean the stove....and the back splash. ...and the floor....

 

Two thumbs up!!!!  Perfect!!!!  I promise, on toast....heavenly.

[FauxPas]

On 10/14/2016 at 8:02 AM, Shelby said:

Brother-in-law texted me yesterday and asked if I wanted more jalapeños.  

 

I must have had a moment of insanity.

 

I swear I said something back like "ok, but not near as many as the first time".

 

 

Apparently it's payback for all of the zucchini gifting I did.......

 

I guess I'll try my hand at jelly again.  I've done cowboy candy and I've pickled......and I've frozen.  Not wild about dragging up the dehydrator.  Drying these makes me sneeze like you wouldn't believe.  Any other ideas?

 

 

Sorry, I'm really behind on things eGullet as busy with other stuff. Have you made hot sauces? Are there many red peppers in that bag? You could make some red and green hot sauces for Xmas gifts. Or if they are mostly green, a type of salsa verde (got any green tomatoes to use in lieu of tomatillos?), or a Louisiana style jalapeno sauce? Or try something different, like adding apple or pear, to a basic green hot sauce? Not sure that this is any help at all. That's a lot of peppers. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@Shelby,

 

Do you like jalapeno poppers? You could make some and freeze for handy apps. 

[kayb]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

So here we are, I'm assuming I cooked it long enough.  It is about half the original volume.  It is thick enough that when I put a blob on a plate and draw a line through it, it stays put.  I'll let it cool and put it in small 1/2 cup mason jars and freeze them.  It is so good that I am going to turn the bowl of applesauce on the right in the above picture into apple butter too.  I can't believe how good this is.  Now to clean the stove....and the back splash. ...and the floor....

 

I recommend Dutch babies for breakfast tomorrow morning. That'll be the final proof of the pudding. But it looks pretty excellent to me!

 

[HungryChris]

First of the green tomato pickles.

HC

[Wayne]

 

@HungryChris

Mind sharing your recipe/method for your green tomato pickles?

 

 

[HungryChris]

57 minutes ago, Wayne said:

 

@HungryChris

Mind sharing your recipe/method for your green tomato pickles?

 

 

Wayne,

I have tried quite a few methods, but this is the one I have stuck with. These are refrigerator pickles, but green tomatoes hold up very well and I have a jar or two from last season that is still tasty, firm and crunchy.

In a quart jar, add a little less than 1 TBS of kosher salt, 1 TBS of dill weed, 3 or 4 cloves of peeled and crushed garlic, 3 bay leaves and crushed red pepper to taste (optional). Pack with cleaned, trimmed green tomatoes. Fill to just an inch below the top with white vinegar. Top off with good water and refrigerate for about 2 months.

HC

 

Edited October 20, 2016 by HungryChris (log)

[Wayne]

 

@HungryChris

Thanks! I will try that when I'm forced to bring in my green tomatoes. I'm still harvesting ripe ones.

Haven't had that killing frost yet.

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

These green tomato pickles look great!

 

I made a batch of fennel pickles from Babbo (I forgot to take a picture but I make it regularly. It's sliced fennel in white vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, garlic, and fennel seeds).

 

I also made this really nice red onion "marmalade" which is fabulous with steak.

 

 

I also just got a huge bunch of celery in my CSA and not being particularly fond of it, I am planning on pickling it like in recipes by Gordon Ramsay I saw online.

[Shelby]

Beautiful marmalade, FrogPrincess.

 

In the never ending quest to use up jalapeños I made some jalapeño mustard yesterday and canned it.  I would definitely do this again.....and I might today.  This stuff is good.  It's sweet like a honey mustard but with the hot peppers it balances wonderfully.  Definitely has a kick to it.  I was thinking that my husband wouldn't like it--he balks at sweet with savory--but he LOVED it on turkey sandwiches last night.

 

[ElsieD]

6 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Beautiful marmalade, FrogPrincess.

 

In the never ending quest to use up jalapeños I made some jalapeño mustard yesterday and canned it.  I would definitely do this again.....and I might today.  This stuff is good.  It's sweet like a honey mustard but with the hot peppers it balances wonderfully.  Definitely has a kick to it.  I was thinking that my husband wouldn't like it--he balks at sweet with savory--but he LOVED it on turkey sandwiches last night.

 

 

Can this be made as, say, a single jar of mustard?  My husband would like this.

[Shelby]

4 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Can this be made as, say, a single jar of mustard?  My husband would like this.

Oh I'm sure you could.  I used this recipe.   Looks easy to halve or even quarter.  It says that you will get 10 half pints out of this.  So, I expected to get 5 pints.  I only got 4 with enough left to smear on a couple sandwiches. 

[HungryChris]

Pickled beets and onions

HC

[ninagluck]

the result, when you reduce 10 kilos of tomatoes to perfect strattu!

[Smithy]

@ninagluck: strattu?  It looks like sheets of beef, but I'm guessing it's sheets of dried tomato paste.  Is that true?  Do tell more, please: seasonings, how you dried it, and so on.

[ninagluck]

@Smithy, look here: http://honest-food.net/2009/09/14/essence-of-tomato-strattu-estratto-conserva/

[kayb]

@ninagluck, thanks for that link. I'll be trying that next year.

 

[shain]

Dried chillies about to be ground into flakes. They are tiny and fierce.

 

There are already new chilies to pick of the plants...

[Smithy]

@shain, how thoroughly dried are those chilis? I've had chilis dried until just slightly rubbery, and others so crisp that they shattered when I rolled them between my fingers.  Do they have to be brittle in order to process them as you're doing?

[FrogPrincesse]

Here are the fennel pickles I made the other day and the celery pickles I made this morning. I used the same brine (recipe from Babbo) but for the celery, I used mustard seeds instead of fennel seeds and skipped the garlic. I boiled the celery a few seconds too long so it started turning brown.

 

 

[shain]

3 hours ago, Smithy said:

@shain, how thoroughly dried are those chilis? I've had chilis dried until just slightly rubbery, and others so crisp that they shattered when I rolled them between my fingers.  Do they have to be brittle in order to process them as you're doing?

 

It's hard to describe, not exactly rubbery, but not crisp, you can bend them, but you can also break them apart (but better not do so with bear hands). They were fridge dried for a month or so. My weak food processor does a decent job grinding them, and I don't bother removing the seeds.

Edited October 23, 2016 by shain (log)

[naguere]

My saurkraut has been blipping away now for 6 week.

taking a good part, putting it in a container and then in the refrigerator i will use it as a salad, keeping it's probiotic thing viable.

 

The rest of the Kraut jar is in my garage keeping cool and ready.

 

Also:

Having just finished a large jar of pickled red cabbage an idea came to me.

 

Hard boiling four eggs cooling them and shelling them i popped them in to the deep red vinegar mixture, it has herbs in it and i added a very strong dried chilli.

 

Minimum time to completion 2 days but longer if you want more fun:

 

 

[Shelby]

Finally got the second batch of jalapeños used up.  I never have problems cutting up hot peppers, but these ...phew.  My left hand still burns this morning.  More pickled, more cowboy candy and more mustard.  I reduced the sugar in this batch of mustard and left most of the seeds in.  OH it's good.  I can't wait for kielbasa and kraut.

 

 

This isn't complaining because I'm super grateful for all of this yummy stuff....but I need a break from jalapeños for a while lol.

[Wayne]

 

 

@Shelby

Double like on this one. You can never have too many hot peppers.