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

[FauxPas]

 

Fermented hot sauces coming along. The cayenne-based one in the measuring cup is WAY hot, might add some mango or something to it. I strained these sauces and am dehydrating the mash to make a chile pepper powder. I'm a newbie to this but it's fun trying things.  🙂

 

 

 

[FauxPas]

On 9/14/2024 at 4:33 AM, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

So when the weather gives you green tomatoes you ferment them. 5% w/v brine with garlic, tarragon and black peppercorns.

 

After picking my green cherry tomatoes, I looked at your lovely photo again and thought I should maybe do something similar. But then I got pulled by a recipe for green tomato chutney. I'm sure it's fine but I'm regretting my choice. The chutney tastes just ok to me and the ginger comes through way too strong for some reason. It's not what I had hoped for, anyway. And it's not very appealing as a photo. 

 

 

Does anyone else do a green tomato chutney version that they would recommend? 

 

Here's the pepper mash, mostly dehydrated. Will try grinding a bit and see how it goes. 

 

[haresfur]

30 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

After picking my green cherry tomatoes, I looked at your lovely photo again and thought I should maybe do something similar. But then I got pulled by a recipe for green tomato chutney. I'm sure it's fine but I'm regretting my choice. The chutney tastes just ok to me and the ginger comes through way too strong for some reason. It's not what I had hoped for, anyway. And it's not very appealing as a photo. 

 

 

Does anyone else do a green tomato chutney version that they would recommend? 

 

Here's the pepper mash, mostly dehydrated. Will try grinding a bit and see how it goes. 

 

 

I have done green tomato chutney, but I too, was underwhelmed so no good recipe. 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

9 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

After picking my green cherry tomatoes, I looked at your lovely photo again and thought I should maybe do something similar. But then I got pulled by a recipe for green tomato chutney. I'm sure it's fine but I'm regretting my choice. The chutney tastes just ok to me and the ginger comes through way too strong for some reason. It's not what I had hoped for, anyway. And it's not very appealing as a photo. 

Does anyone else do a green tomato chutney version that they would recommend? 

 

 

I've never made a green tomato chutney and haven't had Maritime style green tomato chow chow in over 50 years. What I have done in the past is substitute green tomatoes for tomatillos to make salsa verde which came pretty close.

My sister has stated she will make chow chow with my excess green tomatoes however most of the recipes I've seen are heavy on the sugar and very light on the heat.

Your hot sauces look good.

 

 

Edited October 4 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

On 10/3/2024 at 9:01 PM, FauxPas said:

 

Fermented hot sauces coming along. The cayenne-based one in the measuring cup is WAY hot, might add some mango or something to it. I strained these sauces and am dehydrating the mash to make a chile pepper powder. I'm a newbie to this but it's fun trying things.  🙂

 

 

I'll just add a little advice (if you're new to making fermented hot sauces) and that is if you are adding any fruit to a post ferment hot sauce make sure you thoroughly pasteurize it before adding the fruit. Otherwise you'll be adding a load of sugar that will restart fermentation (even stored in the fridge) and, if the sauce is sealed, will result in the CO2 remaining dissolved in the sauce. Given enough time opening that bottle may result in  a clean up.

 

 

[FauxPas]

11 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

I'll just add a little advice (if you're new to making fermented hot sauces) and that is if you are adding any fruit to a post ferment hot sauce make sure you thoroughly pasteurize it before adding the fruit. Otherwise you'll be adding a load of sugar that will restart fermentation (even stored in the fridge) and, if the sauce is sealed, will result in the CO2 remaining dissolved in the sauce. Given enough time opening that bottle may result in  a clean up.

 

 

 

I am quite new to fermenting so advice is welcome and this sounds like very good advice!  🙂

Thanks! 

[Jacksoup]

Friend has a key lime tree, she brought over all these limes and made we made lime curd.  Water bath canned it, so it’s supposed to last about 4 months in the fridge

[Smithy]

My neighbor down the road, an organic farmer, has finished up her season and had a bunch of these wonderful tomatoes available. I've forgotten the variety. They're savory, with a bit of tomato tartness and sweetness.

 

 

I haven't been up for canning, so decided to cut them into chunks (without peeling -- sorry, @Shelby), toss with olive oil and a bit of salt, and roast down into a sauce or topping. I sliced one baking pan's worth also, with something like lasagna or eggplant parmegiana in mind.

 

So far, so good....

 

 

Then, as so often happens these days, I got sidetracked. Oops.

 

 

The uncharred bits are good, and now currently residing in a container in the refrigerator. The very crispy bits, along with the oil-soaked parchment paper, went into the evening fire.

 

I'm glad I didn't do this with the entire batch! I'll try again when I have more time to give it my undivided attention. I'm not sure when that will be. Maybe cooking the remainder down into a sauce atop the stove will be a better option after all.

[lemniscate]

Came home to about 50lbs of pomegranates on my doorstep from a neighbor.  My shrub didn't produce this year.  Neighbor always just tosses the fruit away, but I think they remembered I do use mine when I get fruit.  Unexpected, and needed to get on it to process them.  About 10 lbs weren't usable for my purposes and I cut them open for the birds to  eat.

 

About 10 lbs were seeded for the pips and dehydrated.   That's literally about a quart of dried pips at the end of the process.  I eat these out of hand or toss them in salads/slaw/cereal for sweet crunch.

 

The rest were juiced.  The juice was super tannic.  Not pleasant.  I found a trick using gelatin to pull the tannins out of the juice and it worked.   Juice is now drinkable, but tart.  May sweeten it, but haven't decided.  I got almost 3 qts of usable juice.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 03:45 PM by lemniscate (log)

[Smithy]

19 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

The rest were juiced.  The juice was super tannic.  Not pleasant.  I found a trick using gelatin to pull the tannins out of the juice and it worked.   Juice is now drinkable, but tart.

 

I haven't heard of that trick. Please describe it?

[lemniscate]

10 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

I haven't heard of that trick. Please describe it?

 

I asked an AI (Grok) to research for me and that's where I got my process I used.  Here's the description from Grok.

 

Here are generalized instructions for some of the methods to reduce tannic flavor in juice:

 

1. Clarification with Gelatin

Materials:

Freshly pressed juice

Gelatin (food-grade, unflavored)

Thermometer

Stirring spoon

Filtering equipment (fine mesh or cheesecloth)

 

Steps:

Prepare Gelatin: Dissolve gelatin in a small amount of warm water (1 tablespoon of gelatin to 1 cup of water). Let it bloom for about 5 minutes, then gently heat to dissolve completely.

Mix with Juice: Once cooled, mix the gelatin solution into the juice at a rate of about 1-2 grams of gelatin per liter of juice. Stir thoroughly.

Allow to Settle: Let the mixture sit for several hours or overnight in a refrigerator to allow tannins to bind with the gelatin.

Filter: Use a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth to filter out the gelatin-tannin complex. You might need to do this multiple times for clarity.

Edited Sunday at 04:15 PM by lemniscate (log)

[Smithy]

2 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

 

I asked an AI (Grok) to research for me and that's where I got my process I used.  Here's the description from Grok.

 

Here are generalized instructions for some of the methods to reduce tannic flavor in juice:

 

1. Clarification with Gelatin

Materials:

Freshly pressed juice

Gelatin (food-grade, unflavored)

Thermometer

Stirring spoon

Filtering equipment (fine mesh or cheesecloth)

 

Steps:

Prepare Gelatin: Dissolve gelatin in a small amount of warm water (1 tablespoon of gelatin to 1 cup of water). Let it bloom for about 5 minutes, then gently heat to dissolve completely.

Mix with Juice: Once cooled, mix the gelatin solution into the juice at a rate of about 1-2 grams of gelatin per liter of juice. Stir thoroughly.

Allow to Settle: Let the mixture sit for several hours or overnight in a refrigerator to allow tannins to bind with the gelatin.

Filter: Use a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth to filter out the gelatin-tannin complex. You might need to do this multiple times for clarity.

 

Interesting trick; thanks. I've only ever used gelatin to gel juices (I used to encase fruit salad in gelatinized citrus juice, like this and this) and didn't know about its role in tannin removal. I wonder whether it would have worked with the oh-so-tannic pulps from unripe persimmons I just threw away? Too late to find out now.