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

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@Shelby

 

Big WoW and a few Kudos for the Corn and the Freezing

 

Ive thought about that for several years

 

on the 4th July and Memorial day , corn dans le Huske if uch cheaper in NE

 

I have had visions of getting a few , and doing what you've done

 

and enjoying the Results in Jan or Feb after a Massive SnowStorm

 

after Ive Frozen to Death

 

after Snow-blowing

 

good for you

 

maybe some day.

 

not to make your day longer

 

re : Deep Run Roots

 

have you ever made CornCobStock ?

 

Id never heard of it before

 

just and idea .....................

 

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

If you like corn chowder, I'd suggest making corn stock.

You guys are both on the same wave length.  I just pulled out my Deep RR cookbook.  Cobs are staring at me from the sink.  Might as well do something with them  

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

I am so well informed 

 

but Soooooo

 

backward in my Results

 

 

just to be clear :

 

have your heard Corn Grow ?

 

its a very real thing

 

does not help you

 

for any results

 

dans le plate.

 

its sounds like  lower frequency "  squeaky "

 

and Ive heard it

 

way before IU developed  M.R.

 

  I have not heard the corn grow...but now I'm very intrigued.  I have an inkling to go out and plant another row......

[Shelby]

Did some more corn today and finished the corn broth from Deep Run Roots

 

 

 

[kayb]

Two experiments and an old standby, dehydrated tomatoes. Wound up with a cup of Romas and red grape tomatoes, and a cup of Sungolds.

 

Experiment No. 1.

Dried sage and basil. Certainly smells stro.ger and fresher than the commercial variety. Think I will store it in the freezer. Any advice?

 

Experiment No. 2.

 

Sauercorn. Had six ears in the fridge that needed to be used. Regular 3 per cent brine. We'll see in a week.

 

 

[HungryChris]

I happened to spot these pork tongues in the market today. I picked them up three times and only put them back twice, so here they are. I have put them in the same Morton Tender Quick cure that I do with beef tongue and have 2 to 3 weeks to figure out what I will do next.

HC

[Shelby]

9 minutes ago, HungryChris said:

I happened to spot these pork tongues in the market today. I picked them up three times and only put them back twice, so here they are. I have put them in the same Morton Tender Quick cure that I do with beef tongue and have 2 to 3 weeks to figure out what I will do next.

HC

NICE!

 

I just put the beef tongue that I had brining in the smoker.

[Okanagancook]

Yum, beef tongue sandwich with lots of hot mustard!

[HungryChris]

5 minutes ago, Shelby said:

NICE!

 

I just put the beef tongue that I had brining in the smoker.

Something tells me that a door is about to open, @Shelby, that you will not be able, nor want to, close.

HC

Edited July 11, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, HungryChris said:

Something tells me that a door is about to open, @Shelby, that you will not be able, nor want to, close.

HC

 

  I hope so!

 

I'll post about it in the beef tongue thread a bit later.

[TicTac]

Corn cobs have tons of flavour!

 

Simmer in a mixture of milk, water, 1 fresh garlic clove and you will have the base for an amazing soup, risotto, sauce for scallops, etc.

 

 

[Shelby]

Annnnnnnnd, more corn went into the freezer yesterday

 

[HungryChris]

I found some nice looking Atlantic salmon for $6.99 pp  a few days ago. Brined overnight in the fridge, then air dried, uncovered on a rack the following night in the fridge and hickory smoked for 3 hours yesterday. This is a favorite snack food for me.

HC

[Shelby]

I am having a really good okra and cucumber year.  3 crocks of pickles are going right now.  Yesterday I did a lot of pickling and canning.  

 

I bought a couple of new Ball canning books.  So this was a new recipe I tried--they have to sit for at least 3 weeks so no taste testing yet.

 

Spicy Pickled Okra With Cherry Tomatoes and Pearl Onions

 

I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I only put one onion and three tomatoes in.  Gives it a nice visual presentation.  Excuse Newman's backside on the left.

 

 

More  pickled okra--this is my tried and true recipe from The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

 

 

And finally a new relish recipe from the new Ball book.  It is a basic dill relish that will be great on hotdogs and burgers and in tater salad etc.

 

Dill Relish

 

 

I had the hardest time getting the relish to seal.  I used regular mouth jars, which was my first mistake.  I always do a lot better using wide mouth.  No reason, I'm sure it's all in my head, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I filled them all the same etc. etc.  and put 6 pints in the water bath for the 15 mins that the recipe said.  Four sealed, two did not.  ARRRGH.  It was around 5 yesterday evening and I had been canning all day and I was TIRED.  Anyway, I turned the water bath back on.  Redid the two that didn't seal--new lids, same jars.  One sealed, one still did not.  ARRRRRGH.  The non-sealer went into the fridge.  It will be fine, but SO frustrating.  

 

 

 

 

[Fernwood]

4 hours ago, Shelby said:

I had the hardest time getting the relish to seal.  I used regular mouth jars, which was my first mistake.  I always do a lot better using wide mouth.  No reason, I'm sure it's all in my head, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I filled them all the same etc. etc.  and put 6 pints in the water bath for the 15 mins that the recipe said.  Four sealed, two did not.  ARRRGH.  It was around 5 yesterday evening and I had been canning all day and I was TIRED.  Anyway, I turned the water bath back on.  Redid the two that didn't seal--new lids, same jars.  One sealed, one still did not.  ARRRRRGH.  The non-sealer went into the fridge.  It will be fine, but SO frustrating.  

 

Shelby,  You have much more canning experience than I do, so feel free to consider the following as relatively ignorant speculation.

I wonder if the difference between regular mouth and wide mouth jars has to do with the difference in headspace volume?  Canning recipes usually specify headspace in inches, but the same depth represents a larger volume in a wide mouth jar than in a regular one.  The most specific discussion I could find about that is here  The Natural Canning Resource Book p.54 (via Google books) in the box headed "Determining headspace in odd-sized jars".  I don't know if that provides any information that is helpful to you.

Canning looks like it is subject to rules of science but in my experience it sometimes feels like it owes more to black magic!

[Shelby]

17 hours ago, Fernwood said:

 

Shelby,  You have much more canning experience than I do, so feel free to consider the following as relatively ignorant speculation.

I wonder if the difference between regular mouth and wide mouth jars has to do with the difference in headspace volume?  Canning recipes usually specify headspace in inches, but the same depth represents a larger volume in a wide mouth jar than in a regular one.  The most specific discussion I could find about that is here  The Natural Canning Resource Book p.54 (via Google books) in the box headed "Determining headspace in odd-sized jars".  I don't know if that provides any information that is helpful to you.

Canning looks like it is subject to rules of science but in my experience it sometimes feels like it owes more to black magic!

You are very much correct about the head space.  

 

When I use the regular mouth jars I'm very mindful of the space because the "shoulders" of the jar are different than the wide mouth.  In fact, on the two that didn't seal, I scooped even more out to give a bit more room.  Then one sealed and the other still didn't.

 

I just like the wide mouths better.

 

And, yeah, it just all seems to come down to good juju 

[ninagluck]

@Shelby would you mind telling me more abt the dill relish? and what are Ball books? Sorry for the stupid question.......

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, ninagluck said:

@Shelby would you mind telling me more abt the dill relish? and what are Ball books? Sorry for the stupid question.......

No, no not a stupid question at all!  I should have been more clear.  Ball is a major brand of canning jars over here.  Their books on canning are pretty much the "bible" for canners here--they lay down all of the rules to follow to safely can in the water bath and in the pressure canner.

 

The dill relish recipe uses pickling cucumbers, pickling salt, turmeric, onions, a bit of sugar, dill seeds and white wine vinegar (I didn't have that so I just used white vinegar).   I used my food processor to dice the onions and cucumbers very finely.  First you chop the cucumbers in a food processor in batches transferring the batches into a bowl.  then you add the pickling salt and the turmeric and let it sit for 2 hours.  Then rinse and drain and, using your hands, squeeze out all of the liquid you can and put into a large pot.  Then you combine the cukes with the onion in the pot (use the food processor to do the onion too) and sugar, dill seeds and vinegar.  Bring to a boil until it gets a little thick--about 10 mins.  Keep warm, ladle into your hot jars and process in your water bath for 15 mins.

 

I can't find an online link to the recipe for the dill relish, but I'd be very happy to PM it to you if you're interested

[ninagluck]

@Shelby yes pls, though I never had it, just by reading the recipe I know that I would love it! And my basement has still some room for jars 😉

[Shelby]

13 minutes ago, ninagluck said:

@Shelby yes pls, though I never had it, just by reading the recipe I know that I would love it! And my basement has still some room for jars 😉

Ok

 

I'm in the middle of making dinner but I'll get it to you either later tonight or first thing in the morning   

 

 

[ninagluck]

7 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Ok

 

I'm in the middle of making dinner but I'll get it to you either later tonight or first thing in the morning   

 

 

no rush take your time, I can wait!

[haresfur]

On 7/24/2018 at 12:20 AM, Shelby said:

I had the hardest time getting the relish to seal.  I used regular mouth jars, which was my first mistake.  I always do a lot better using wide mouth.  No reason, I'm sure it's all in my head, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I filled them all the same etc. etc.  and put 6 pints in the water bath for the 15 mins that the recipe said.  Four sealed, two did not.  ARRRGH.  It was around 5 yesterday evening and I had been canning all day and I was TIRED.  Anyway, I turned the water bath back on.  Redid the two that didn't seal--new lids, same jars.  One sealed, one still did not.  ARRRRRGH.  The non-sealer went into the fridge.  It will be fine, but SO frustrating.  

 

I prefer wide mouth jars, too. But I usually find the regular mouth ones seal better. I thought it was because the smaller circumference made the lid edges pull down tighter. The lids on the regular jars seem harder to pry off to me. I guess you have a different problem.

[haresfur]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

No, no not a stupid question at all!  I should have been more clear.  Ball is a major brand of canning jars over here.  Their books on canning are pretty much the "bible" for canners here--they lay down all of the rules to follow to safely can in the water bath and in the pressure canner.

 

 

It's infantile but the Ball Blue Book, still makes me giggle.

[chromedome]

In Canada the corresponding brand is Bernardin, perpetrators of one of my favorite tongue-in-cheek corporate slogans: "Because you can."

[HungryChris]

Yesterday, I cooked the corned pork tongues that have been curing in a solution of Morton Tender Quick for 2 weeks. I cooked them at high pressure for 50 minutes in the IPot with a slow release (that took 35 minutes).

Here they are:

Here is one sliced up:

They are almost impossible to peel because the skin is very tender, so I left it on and made a Reuben sandwich with kraut and baby Swiss.

My take is this: These are every bit as good as beef, in fact, if it were not for the size of the slices, I do not think I could tell one from the other. Very tender and full of flavor. I will be looking for these again. I hope to try smoking them as well. The price is right too!

HC

 

[ninagluck]

Before I start with Shelbys cucumber relish, I finished today my lacto fermented cucumbers. Fermenting time abt 2 weeks in the warm kitchen. Today I rinsed them, put the liquid through a fine sieve and the cucumbers in smaller jars. They now go into the fridge. 

[SLB]

So, having been so thoroughly inspired here, I'm getting ready to do some non-freezer preserving in earnest, as a middle-aged neophyte to the practice.  I'm very excited, not in small part because I'm expecting to be totally swamped through the winter with my day job, and like the idea of having a lot of canned components to work from.  So I've been reviewing this thread, and was reminded of something I'd meant to post. 

 

A year or two ago someone (Shelby?) posted about a pickled eggplant recipe that subsequent members raved about.  I like eggplant a lot, but I tire of it long before its season has faded here in New York, so was intrigued at the idea of canning it at peak for eating later in the winter. 

 

In that discussion, @ElainaA had expressed concern that the recipe called for canning in oil, which she indicated was disfavored by expert preservers as too risky for botulism.  I read something on point in "Putting Food By" (Greene, J.; Hertzberg, R;  Vaughan, B.; Schmidt, S, ed.), a respected treatise.  At p. 333 of the 5th edition of the paperback, a recipe for pickled mushrooms notes that products which are pickled in oil need to "first take up enough acid to become truly pickled before the oil is added to the mixture and the jar is capped.  If the oil were added too early, it would inhibit the mushrooms' ability to take up the acid that pickles them (this acquired acidity makes them safe to be canned")."

 

I the neophyte read this as speaking to ElainaA's concern -- if the item is truly pickled before it is greased-up, it is safe for canning.  

 

Just wanted to pass it along; I know you guys are expert canners, and don't necessarily need reports from the primers.  But if there were nagging concerns over that eggplant recipe . . .  anyway, I'm going to check out the state of eggplants at tomorrow's markets.  It's a touch early, but who knows.  The weather's been weird all year.

Edited July 28, 2018 by SLB (log)