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

[heidih]

13 minutes ago, Toliver said:

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."

 

Right but when I had this as a regular (daikon) in my fridge every opening was a nasal event - not just first one.  Kimchi is a different sensory experience - pleasant to me. With daikon my kid from next room "mom that smells like a$$"

[Katie Meadow]

6 hours ago, Toliver said:

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."

 

I've made Andrea's pickled daikon and carrots many times and not found the smell very intense. The watermelon radishes were far worse for some reason.

[shain]

Recent stuff.

 

Kimchi.

 

Candied orange. Might deep them in chocolate if I'll have the patience.

Also made orange marmalade. No picture.

 

Celery and fennel in vinegar with carious flavorings.

 

Ginger jam. To be eaten with the orange marmalade.

 

Carambola (star fruit) in thick syrup, since it doesn't have much pectin so not really a jam.

[heidih]

@shain All lovely. That lid! - "We Adore Veggies" is great. I've never done ginger marmalade - maybe when we can get out again I'll try with the young stuff that has that pink blush. Totally on board with ginger + orange.

[chromedome]

My local independent butcher/greengrocer had asparagus on for 97 cents/lb this week, so I've got 7 lbs blanched and frozen (and two more in my fridge for immediate consumption).

Thinking about maybe getting another couple of pounds to pickle. I find pickled asparagus a nice addition to potato salads in summertime.

[Shelby]

32 minutes ago, chromedome said:

My local independent butcher/greengrocer had asparagus on for 97 cents/lb this week, so I've got 7 lbs blanched and frozen (and two more in my fridge for immediate consumption).

Thinking about maybe getting another couple of pounds to pickle. I find pickled asparagus a nice addition to potato salads in summertime.

WOW that is an excellent price.  It seems VERY early for up there????  Ours down here is far from coming up and in stores is likely at least 3-4 dollars a pound.

[haresfur]

33 minutes ago, chromedome said:

My local independent butcher/greengrocer had asparagus on for 97 cents/lb this week, so I've got 7 lbs blanched and frozen (and two more in my fridge for immediate consumption).

Thinking about maybe getting another couple of pounds to pickle. I find pickled asparagus a nice addition to potato salads in summertime.

 

When I lived in asparagus country, my coworkers were quite competitive about pickling asparagus. Someone in the lunch room would casually drop, "Yeah I pickled 30 lbs of asparagus this weekend."

 

[heidih]

15 minutes ago, Shelby said:

WOW that is an excellent price.  It seems VERY early for up there????  Ours down here is far from coming up and in stores is likely at least 3-4 dollars a pound.

At least here it is always around - the skinny stuff - from Latin America.

[chromedome]

40 minutes ago, Shelby said:

WOW that is an excellent price.  It seems VERY early for up there????  Ours down here is far from coming up and in stores is likely at least 3-4 dollars a pound.

Oh, we won't get local asparagus until June or thereabouts, and there's very little of it. This is just commercial stuff from wherever.

 

The greengrocer has these ridiculous door-crasher prices on produce pretty regularly. I think he's at the point with the distributor where he can take entire truckloads if the price is right, and this is the end result.

[Shelby]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:19 AM, heidih said:

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

 

On 2/17/2021 at 11:53 AM, 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.

 

On 2/17/2021 at 5:26 PM, Toliver said:

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."

 

Opened these up to put some on Banh Mi sandwiches the other night.  Ehem.  Yes.  Quite the smell.  I caught Ronnie staring at me very skeptically.  

 

They are very good once the smell goes away lol.

[SLB]

On 2/28/2021 at 10:13 AM, Shelby said:

I caught Ronnie staring at me very skeptically.  

How did Chum handle it???

[BeeZee]

Pickled red onion...juice, zest, a little salt and sugar. So pink! Made for enchilada bowls, but looking forward to having it on tuna salad also.

[heidih]

9 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

Pickled red onion...juice, zest, a little salt and sugar. So pink! Made for enchilada bowls, but looking forward to having it on tuna salad also.

Of what citrus? I like it with a sorta sour orange and skip the sugar.  Never used the zest with the onions before - hhmmm

Edited March 19, 2021 by heidih (log)

[BeeZee]

3 hours ago, heidih said:

Of what citrus? I like it with a sorta sour orange and skip the sugar.  Never used the zest with the onions before - hhmmm

Lime - microplaned zest. Only used about 1/4 tsp sugar.

[haresfur]

Not too exciting. Sauce from 10 kg roma tomatoes. They were probably a touch under-ripe. I really should get a food mill or chinois. Made a real mess getting rid of the skin and left the seeds in. Last time I just blitzed skins and everything in the blender, which was a lot easier. The texture of this was better, though.

[gfweb]

55 minutes ago, haresfur said:

Not too exciting. Sauce from 10 kg roma tomatoes. They were probably a touch under-ripe. I really should get a food mill or chinois. Made a real mess getting rid of the skin and left the seeds in. Last time I just blitzed skins and everything in the blender, which was a lot easier. The texture of this was better, though.

A steam oven is magic for peeling tomatoes. Still have seeds to deal with though

[JoNorvelleWalker]

22 minutes ago, gfweb said:

A steam oven is magic for peeling tomatoes. Still have seeds to deal with though

 

I'd still go with a food mill, either my Mouli or my Ankarsrum, depending on whether I felt up to turning a crank.

 

[Shelby]

Had a ton of radishes to use up so I pickled them.  Not as pretty as the watermelon ones, but hopefully they will be just as good.

 

[heidih]

I had no marmalade so I grabbed some citrus and made a super small batch  -mixed citrus marmalade The erratic weather impacted the trees so I did a test. Everything is ok though some quite scarred. Kumquats, tangelos, juice oranges. Mopped out the saucepan with newly baked bread. 

[SLB]

[Dumb] question about candied citrus. 

 

I am dealing with all of the collected citrus peel in my freezer, finally.  There is too much of it.  People, I don't even eat all that much fruit, so I don't know what is happening here.  

 

But anyway, where was I.  So -- the OLD-timey recipes have you candying the prepped peel in heavy syrup for several hours, followed by the final sugar-roll and whatever you're gonna do.  

 

The NEWfangled recipes have you candying the prepped peel for, like, 10 minutes.  

 

I assume that the former is a true preserve with a durable shelf-life, while the latter might . . .  mold or something, after awhile; is this correct?  

[lemniscate]

46 minutes ago, SLB said:

[Dumb] question about candied citrus. 

 

I am dealing with all of the collected citrus peel in my freezer, finally.  There is too much of it.  People, I don't even eat all that much fruit, so I don't know what is happening here.  

 

But anyway, where was I.  So -- the OLD-timey recipes have you candying the prepped peel in heavy syrup for several hours, followed by the final sugar-roll and whatever you're gonna do.  

 

The NEWfangled recipes have you candying the prepped peel for, like, 10 minutes.  

 

I assume that the former is a true preserve with a durable shelf-life, while the latter might . . .  mold or something, after awhile; is this correct?  

 

I've done candied peel microwave method and Instant Pot method, never the old several hours way.  Once you roll it in the sugar and let it dry, it just gets drier and harder as it ages.  I have never seen mold or anything growing on the peels I have processed.

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by lemniscate (log)

[SLB]

Thank you!

[SLB]

Plain-sugar, upper right; Chili-sugar, upper-left; Sugar-sour, bottom.   

[Shelby]

Well, I'm bummed and mystified.  A week or so ago I started another jar of sauerkraut using Vivian Howard's recipe from This Will Make It Taste Good. I've made it once before and it turned out wonderfully.  Looked at it today and it's beginning to mold  .  I can't think of anything that I did differently.  I sterilized the jar in the dishwasher but maybe a bad guy was still lurking.......

[heidih]

Maybe culprit in cabbage. I look at preserving sometimes like alchemy rather than perfect science. You’re not in a clean room in the science way. What I love about doing bread yeast from what is in your environment