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

[ElainaA]

@HungryChris  You inspire me. I haven't made pickled mushrooms in years. I think I need to. Now. 

[ChocoMom]

No pics today, but I pressure canned some chicken/veggie/rice soup yesterday.  It was an experiment, and worked wonderfully! 

My sister-in-law has to go on that cancer-treatment diet before she does the radio-active iodine treatment, and everything has to be cooked to its limit.  Pressure canning seems to do the job, so I was doing a test run in hopes of providing her with some home cooked (super-cooked) meals. 

Next up is beefy mac....since we got the beef back from the processor. =) Can't wait to carve out enough time for that project.

[ChocoMom]

Ended up changing plans.  Chopped up some beef in 1" chunks, added diced sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow potatoes, peas and salt...made some beef-veggie soup for my kids, and my SIL. Ran out of quart jars, so tried pints instead. Now they will have personal sized jars of ready-to-eat soup. =)  

I just love having this kitchen with all its counter space for prepping, mixing and canning!  Beefy mac will happen another day. 

[HungryChris]

Got up early this morning to start smoking a pork shoulder that I had dry rubbed 2 days ago. The forecast is for rain late in the day, so I wanted to give it 5 or 6 hours of smoke and wrap it in foil and finish it up in the oven. Pulled pork sandwiches tonight.

HC

[Okanagancook]

What temperature do you use, 225F?

how much does it weigh?

what wood are you using?

I am asking 'cause I have three roasts of about 4lbs in my freezer.

cheers

[scubadoo97]

That's a good plan of action

 

I have the same smoker.  Never expected it to last as long as it has 

 

[HungryChris]

4 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

What temperature do you use, 225F?

how much does it weigh?

what wood are you using?

I am asking 'cause I have three roasts of about 4lbs in my freezer.

cheers

This is a 9.13 lb pork shoulder. I normally use hickory, but discovered I only had cherry. I set it at 225F and will cook it for a total of 9 1/2 hours (internal temp of 205 F).

HC

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[Okanagancook]

7 hours ago, HungryChris said:

This is a 9.13 lb pork shoulder. I normally use hickory, but discovered I only had cherry. I set it at 225F and will cook it for a total of 9 1/2 hours (internal temp of 205 F).

HC

 

 

Nice.  I've done two like at your temperature but I think mine were on the Big Green Egg for the duration and I wrapped them in foil after 5 hours of smoking.  Cherry should be ok.  Sounds great....I'm on the same page.  Thanks for sharing your method.

[ChocoMom]

Finally conquered the beefy-mac and some chicken and veggies. Did 6 quarts of each in the pressure canner.  I found some chicken breasts on an excellent sale, bought two packs, and went from there. 

  My next plan is to do some canned veggies, and use those for sides later on.  I just love this pressure canning wizardry!!! 

[HungryChris]

Pig ear refrigerator pickles.

HC

Edited February 27, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, HungryChris said:

Pigs ear refrigerator pickles.

HC

Dang it, Chris.  Now I have to add this to my list along with the mushrooms.  I've never had pickled pig ears.....

[HungryChris]

6 hours ago, Shelby said:

Dang it, Chris.  Now I have to add this to my list along with the mushrooms.  I've never had pickled pig ears.....

@Shelby, You might like reading this thread.

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/74523-pig-ears/

I will add that this time I cooked them on high pressure for one hour with natural release in the IP.

HC

Edited February 27, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I tried the recipe for "Apple Chips" from Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots cookbook.  This is not a recipe for dried apples (that one is on the preceding page) but a sort of sugar-cured apple preserve that Vivian says gets its name because the apple slices stay crisp through the macerating and cooking process.  She also said this was her favorite of the fruit preserve recipes in the book.  She describes mixing them with a little Dijon mustard and sherry vinegar and putting them on pork chops, hams and roast chicken, or adding an acid like lemon juice, salt and olive oil to make a fruity salad dressing.  Sounds good, no?  Sadly, this was my first fail from this book.  Not sure exactly where I went wrong but even after cooking for WAY longer that suggested, many of my apple slices remained opaque and never cleared up like the picture in the book.  I did cut the recipe in half, using 2.5 lbs of apples and sugar instead of the 5 lbs in the recipe so maybe it's some sort of volume issue.

 

Here are the apple slices and a sliced lemon tossed with the sugar, cloves and star anise.  This after about 5-10 minutes and the apples have already started giving up their liquid.

 

Here's what they looked like after sitting overnight.  There's much more liquid although there's also a bunch of undissolved sugar in the bottom of the bowl.

 

Everything went into a pot and simmered.  Per the recipe, the apple slices should have started clearing after around 45 min and should have all cleared by the 60 min point.  Mine were all still solidly opaque but I didn't worry as every preserve recipe I've made needs longer cooking times than specified.  

 

But here is after 4 hours of cooking.  The syrup has darkened much more than the book photo and some of the apple slices have cleared but many are still quite opaque. My lemon slices are pretty much dissolved, while the lemons in the book photo appear intact.

I used 2 types of apple, so perhaps one has very different properties from the other.  I dunno.  Both fell into the "crisp eating apple" category, from my perspective.   

I tasted an apple slice and I wouldn't call them "crisp" but they certainly have more texture than you would expect from an apple cooked so long.  They were tooth-achingly sweet.  I think I'll keep a jar and try Vivian's suggestions.

 

The reason I looked at this recipe in the first place was because I wanted to try the Hot Apple Jelly Thumbprints which use a cheese-straw dough baked up like thumbprint cookies with the hot apple jelly filling.  She makes the hot apple jelly from the skins and peels of the apples used for the Apple Chips.  I rather liked the economy of that idea and the Hot Apple Jelly came out just fine so I can proceed with the thumbprints.  I think they will be nice with a glass of wine and I plan to proceed with that as well 

 

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 I was doing a bit of organizing of my pantry to see what might be in there and came across a can of rosebud beets.  I have no idea why I bought them but trust that I had good reason to do so.  However my memory being the way it is that reason is lost in the mists of time.   But what emerged from those same mists was the remembrance of a desperation move to make pickled beets for a Danish lunch.   So I drained the can, rinsed the beets, sliced them up into a canning jar and covered them with my usual pickling liquid (sugar, vinegar and whole cloves).   Pickled they will be much better than canned. 

[ChocoMom]

So the latest pressure-canning brainchild was Roast Beef au jus.  OMGOSH!!! I am just giddy over this one!   Spooned dry onion soup mix and beef bullion into the quart jar, thick sliced onions, sliced raw beef roast, and repeated that layering until I was one inch from the top. Pressure canned for 90 min. Opened while it was hot. UNBELIEVABLE.   

All of this was spurred on because I happened upon some very fresh, mini-French bread loaves at my local bakery and simply could not resist. I used the grass-fed beef from the last cow we had butchered. Amazing. 

[Shelby]

6 minutes ago, ChocoMom said:

So the latest pressure-canning brainchild was Roast Beef au jus.  OMGOSH!!! I am just giddy over this one!   Spooned dry onion soup mix and beef bullion into the quart jar, thick sliced onions, sliced raw beef roast, and repeated that layering until I was one inch from the top. Pressure canned for 90 min. Opened while it was hot. UNBELIEVABLE.   

All of this was spurred on because I happened upon some very fresh, mini-French bread loaves at my local bakery and simply could not resist. I used the grass-fed beef from the last cow we had butchered. Amazing. 

OMG you are brilliant.  I am so doing this only maybe with venison.  Come on deer season.  

[HungryChris]

This time of year, when asparagus starts showing up cheap (this batch was $1.69 pp), I like to bang out some asparagus pickles for summer salads and snacks. I hope to get some on the table from my patch, but I could never pickle those. I will have to eat them fresh.
HC

 

[kayb]

Tell me, please, how you pickle them?

[HungryChris]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Tell me, please, how you pickle them?

I prepare a 1 quart jar with I TBS kosher salt, about 3/4 TBS of dried dill weed, 3 big cloves of crushed garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. I steam the asparagus until they turn bright green, sample one to be sure they are still crispy, but not too tough, and ice them down in an ice bath. Then I tip the jar on it's side and add the asparagus with a few bay leaves, fill with white vinegar to the 3/4 point, top off with tap water and refrigerate for a week or so. These are a great snack or a great substitute for celery in a Bloody Mary or bloody  Caesar (Thanks to @Anna N  for opening my eyes to that one). They will keep for months.

HC

[Anna N]

6 hours ago, HungryChris said:

I prepare a 1 quart jar with I TBS kosher salt, about 3/4 TBS of dried dill weed, 3 big cloves of crushed garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. I steam the asparagus until they turn bright green, sample one to be sure they are still crispy, but not too tough, and ice them down in an ice bath. Then I tip the jar on it's side and add the asparagus with a few bay leaves, fill with white vinegar to the 3/4 point, top off with tap water and refrigerate for a week or so. These are a great snack or a great substitute for celery in a Bloody Mary or bloody  Caesar (Thanks to @Anna N  for opening my eyes to that one). They will keep for months.

HC

 I think I might be getting some undeserved credit here.  Never been bright enough to think of anything but celery in a Caesar.

[HungryChris]

3 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 I think I might be getting some undeserved credit here.  Never been bright enough to think of anything but celery in a Caesar.

Here is the thing, I have never been bright enough to think of anything but  tomato juice in a bloody. You threw in the clamato juice, and I loved it, no matter what we call it!

HC

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, HungryChris said:

Here is the thing, I have never been bright enough to think of anything but  tomato juice in a bloody. You threw in the clamato juice, and I loved it, no matter what we call it!

HC

Ah so.  Thought you were referring to something other than celery.

[kayb]

13 hours ago, HungryChris said:

I prepare a 1 quart jar with I TBS kosher salt, about 3/4 TBS of dried dill weed, 3 big cloves of crushed garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to taste. I steam the asparagus until they turn bright green, sample one to be sure they are still crispy, but not too tough, and ice them down in an ice bath. Then I tip the jar on it's side and add the asparagus with a few bay leaves, fill with white vinegar to the 3/4 point, top off with tap water and refrigerate for a week or so. These are a great snack or a great substitute for celery in a Bloody Mary or bloody  Caesar (Thanks to @Anna N  for opening my eyes to that one). They will keep for months.

HC

Thanks! I have a great local purveyor of asparagus, and I'll be doing some of these. (I have an extra fridge, too, so...)

[blue_dolphin]

The Food In Jars Challenge for Feb was salting.  I started these salt cured egg yolks last month but just got around to trying one today.  I used this recipe from "Bon Appétit".  I'm considering trying to smoke a couple per this recipe but haven't decide if I want to bother.

In the salt/sugar cure.  The pan got wrapped in plastic wrap and went into the fridge.  Recipe said 4 days.   Reality was a week.

 

Out of the salt.  The two eggs on the right are from the grocery, the others are my usual farmers market specimens.

 

Rinsed to remove the excess salt

 

Dried in the oven set to 140F (60C) on the convection dehydrator setting.

 

Served - microplaned over a bowl of spaghetti carbonara

Not suggesting that particular dish needs more eggs !

 

[HungryChris]

On 3/6/2017 at 1:07 PM, kayb said:

Thanks! I have a great local purveyor of asparagus, and I'll be doing some of these. (I have an extra fridge, too, so...)

I should have added that you must be sure to shake it up until you see the salt has dissolved.

HC