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


Anna N

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32 minutes ago, curls said:


Have you tried the Internet Wayback? They archive websites, you may be able to find your recipe using their site, https://archive.org/web/

 

Great idea! Using a link that @Shelby posted over in the Gardening forum a while back, https://3quarterstoday.com/2014/07/06/cowboy-candy-recipe/ I was able to find the recipe that way!  Saved and printed!

 

Edited to add that the archive version of that link above referenced this website as the source for the recipe so you can go directly to it here: https://www.sbcanning.com/2010/10/cowboy-candy-check-this-out.html 

Edited by blue_dolphin (log)
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Seconding the BRILLIANT. 

 

Thanks, guys.  It's the tail end of the pepper season here (per the farmer's markets), and a friend who I'm planning to covid-visit (pre-game quarantine, testing, etc.), needs Shelby's Cowboy Candy as an arrival gift.  So I am especially glad for this sleuthing.

 

Meanwhile, you know what I need.  I need one of those Master-Preserver types to update the recipes from the "Preserving" Volume of the Time-Life "Good Cook" series.  There are some really interesting-sounding concoctions in there.  But I think you're not really supposed to use outdated recipes, or whatever.  Sigh . . . .

 

Hang in there, everyone.  It seems like it's gonna be a long winter.  

 

 

Edited by SLB (log)
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Canned 3 pints of green-tomato "salsa verde" from my last garden harvest, and turned a kg of my beets into pickled beets. Tonight I'm taking advantage of ridiculous sale prices at a local indie grocer to pressure-can some roasted sweet peppers and some broccoli soup base.

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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The soup base amounted to three quarts and one pint (I'm running low on pint jars, at least until my next deep-dive into the storage unit); and the peppers gave me 7 pints.

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@HungryChris in 'da house:

 

IMG_0824.thumb.JPG.7ed02defc5ada47c2d38fa3dd6cda4c1.JPG

 

You may be curious about that insanity passing for a lid.  It turns out I don't have any regular-mouth lids.  I have a lot of one-piece storage lids in general, so it never even occurred to me that I didn't have two free, tonight.  It turns out they are all In Service, every last one.  

 

Also --  that strange color is due to the fact that these are the Ball blue jars.  My random uptown hardware store had them, in fact they were the only jars around.  I don't usually pay extra for stuff like blue glass, but I did since it was my only option.  I believe this is called a win-win in capitalism.   

 

I am making a pile of winter hiking snacks involving apples; beyond that, I guess I'm not doing anything else preserve-ish until spring.  

 

On Edit:  WAIT! Saurkraut.  I was waiting for some kind of frost.  There may have been some frost up the Hudson Valley, so maybe next weekend I can get some saurkaut going.  Yes, kraut. 

Edited by SLB (log)
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Oh I -played the "where the heck is the lid?!?"  game today. We adapt.  Those are his beloved mushrooms?  I found my old recipe card for marinated mushrooms - Madeira was my oft used secret ingredient back in the 80's. Need to revisit. Back when "pickle plate" was not a term. 

IMG_1494.JPG

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27 minutes ago, SLB said:

@HungryChris in 'da house:

 

IMG_0824.thumb.JPG.7ed02defc5ada47c2d38fa3dd6cda4c1.JPG

 

You may be curious about that insanity passing for a lid.  It turns out I don't have any regular-mouth lids.  I have a lot of one-piece storage lids in general, so it never even occurred to me that I didn't have two free, tonight.  It turns out they are all In Service, every last one.  

 

Also --  that strange color is due to the fact that these are the Ball blue jars.  My random uptown hardware store had them, in fact they were the only jars around.  I don't usually pay extra for stuff like blue glass, but I did since it was my only option.  I believe this is called a win-win in capitalism.   

 

I am making a pile of winter hiking snacks involving apples; beyond that, I guess I'm not doing anything else preserve-ish until spring.  

 

On Edit:  WAIT! Saurkraut.  I was waiting for some kind of frost.  There may have been some frost up the Hudson Valley, so maybe next weekend I can get some saurkaut going.  Yes, kraut. 

@HungryChris'mushrooms are just the best.  I have some in the fridge.....haven't delved into them for a while.  I hope they are still good.

 

I miss him.

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15 minutes ago, Shelby said:

@HungryChris'mushrooms are just the best.  I have some in the fridge.....haven't delved into them for a while.  I hope they are still good.

 

I miss him.

Did something happen to him?  I looked at his profile and his last post makes me wonder.....

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11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Did something happen to him?  I looked at his profile and his last post makes me wonder.....

 

We do not know but those dang tasty mushrooms - what a legacy. Life is not a straight path.

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Un-pretty apple leathers, which look fine once you cut them into candy-sized snacks:

 

IMG_0830.thumb.JPG.7eed082dafd5b4b1146a50cfc3387e98.JPGIMG_0831.thumb.JPG.0d08cbf6184392084ee308200b8d015f.JPG

 

Apple-walnut-coconut; apple-pumpkin; apple-plain.  I could've chopped those walnuts into something sensible, but it was really late and I was about to lose my mind I wanted to go to bed so bad.  

 

Anyway. 

 

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Oh I think the walnuts add interest (and challenge). I like the coconut different note.  Was the pumpkin just canned puree or did you roast and smoosh? I bought those over priced fruit roll ups for the kids for years - what was I thinking?! 

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The pumpkin was in the dark corners of my freezer from TWO YEARS AGO.  It had been roasted and pureed and, I thought, well-drained. 

 

Did I mention how old it was?  

 

I don't actually like pumpkin all that much, except in pumpkin ravioli. Which, as you may have deduced, I never actually got around to actually making.

 

I need to get this freezer kinda clear for the New Meat.  Which is how I found those two cups of roasted pumpkin.   

 

Embedded in applesauce, dehydrated -- it tastes, honestly, excellent.  I might improve things with sweet potatoes, but I am fine with this here pumpkin function.

Edited by SLB (log)
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In seriousness -- the pumpkin did make the drying time a lot longer.  So, be warned.  This thread isn't super-into dehydrating, but FYI . . . .

 

Also -- I actually think sweetened coconut would be good here, too.  I had some sweetened coconut in my refrigerator for several years which I threw out about a month ago, and I am mad.    

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  • 2 weeks later...

I slaughtered one of our hogs Friday afternoon and this morning salted around 40# of noix de jambon, which I first became aware of here on eGullet through @DiggingDogFarm several years ago. I have modified the process as some in my family did not care for the light cure and smoke, and soft texture of the traditional method. No Gascon would recognize these as noix de jambon, so we simply call them ham nuts. These are cured longer and get a heavier smoke, and are like a less intense country ham.

NoixdeJambon.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

It does not smell like Christmas in my apartment, and has not for several days.  

 

Finally, I investigated.  Some people get kahm yeast in their kraut, others get a whole blanket:

 

IMG_1046.thumb.JPG.4057418c761a092aaaa3c8aa1ddc7306.JPGIMG_1048.thumb.JPG.0a15562d9debbf07f56add0c75d24f42.JPG

 

I guess I was supposed to watch the water level in that moat . . . .

Edited by SLB (log)
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  • 2 weeks later...

This year’s olive crop 😕. Half of last year. These were big this time and I got 2 cups, last year I had a quart, but they were smaller.  I think we traumatized the tree when we cut some branches off.
These came out mighty tasty though. They took about two months in the salt solution, then for a week in vinegar and herbs.

BDF9EC95-A359-417F-8BB6-124551313600.jpeg

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I am always fearful of preserving, having not had the chance to watch my Grandmothers do it. They had given it up by the time I was in kitchens with them and my mother never did any canning. With that history of trepidation, I was highly amused by this receipt  from The Medieval Cookbook, by Maggie Black. The first word spoke to me  😝

 

 

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"There are no mistakes in bread baking, only more bread crumbs"

*Bernard Clayton, Jr.

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, Shelby said:

Got HUGE watermelon radishes from Misfits.  New to me.  Had no idea they were that big.  Anyway, I decided to pickle them.  Should be ready in a couple more days.

 

thumbnail_IMG_0559.jpg.7c491caeffa8091e5b2c88f48d81e51b.jpg

What a color! You'll have to let us know if they have that extremely distinctive odor that daikon does when pickled :)

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1 hour ago, heidih said:

What a color! You'll have to let us know if they have that extremely distinctive odor that daikon does when pickled :)

The one time I pickled watermelon radishes that odor was strong when the jar was first opened, but it dissipated and was a non-issue.

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5 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

The one time I pickled watermelon radishes that odor was strong when the jar was first opened, but it dissipated and was a non-issue.

Cookbook author and food writer Andrea Nguyen has said sort of the same thing when it comes to opening a jar of pickled veggies/kimchi (that you would open to add as an ingredient in a banh mi). "Open the jar and leave the room. When you come back in, the strong odor will be less offensive."

 

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“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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