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

[Smithy]

5 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

Prepared some of @ElainaA tomatoes. Roma tomatoes instead of cherries. 

Makes a very good pizza topping or to make a foccacia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is a wonderful recipe, isn't it? Where did you get romas at this time of year?? How ripe were they?

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

53 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

That is a wonderful recipe, isn't it? Where did you get romas at this time of year?? How ripe were they?

 

Yes it is. Lucked out with romas on sale, decided to take a chance, bought a little over a Kg. and they were nicely ripe and tasty after a few days out on the counter.

[haresfur]

Tomato sauce. No photo because it looks like tomato sauce. I tried two cheater methods. First set I quartered and cored then simmered and blitzed in the blender without removing the skins, then reduced down to sauce. Second set I didn't simmer first, just blitzed then reduced down. The second set maybe didn't liquify as well but I think it will be fine. Anyone else leaving the skin in your sauce rather than removing it?

[Shelby]

1 minute ago, haresfur said:

nyone else leaving the skin in your sauce rather than removing it?

NO

 

But you all know I'm a tomato skin-a-phobe  

[haresfur]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

NO

 

But you all know I'm a tomato skin-a-phobe  

 

The idea is that the skin is processed down so its presence isn't noticed but maybe that doesn't affect your phobia

[Shelby]

41 minutes ago, haresfur said:

 

The idea is that the skin is processed down so its presence isn't noticed but maybe that doesn't affect your phobia

Sorry yes, I'm sure your method is super great! 

[haresfur]

First try fermenting some peppers for hot sauce. Vacuum sealed with 3% by weight salt. You can see the bags are puffing up with carbon dioxide from the ferment. I left lots of extra bag so don't think it will need to be vented and I don't plan on finishing it until July. One bag is Hungarian hots and the other Hungarian hot plus jalapenos. 

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

1 hour ago, haresfur said:

First try fermenting some peppers for hot sauce. Vacuum sealed with 3% by weight salt. You can see the bags are puffing up with carbon dioxide from the ferment. I left lots of extra bag so don't think it will need to be vented and I don't plan on finishing it until July. One bag is Hungarian hots and the other Hungarian hot plus jalapenos. 

 

 

This intrigued me as I've always done fermentations where the CO2 is vented so I ran some rough numbers using conservative estimates for the sugar content of the peppers and the equilibrium point of the reaction.

Based on a 2% sugar content you should expect approximately 10 liters of CO2 from a Kg. of starting material.

Curious to see the how your fermentation progresses.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[haresfur]

3 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

This intrigued me as I've always done fermentations where the CO2 is vented so I ran some rough numbers using conservative estimates for the sugar content of the peppers and the equilibrium point of the reaction.

Based on a 2% sugar content you should expect approximately 10 liters of CO2 from a Kg. of starting material.

Curious to see the how your fermentation progresses.

 

 

 

interesting. It's been a few weeks and the ferment has slowed down to almost nothing. I can't remember the starting weights but it must have been less than a kg. I've seen photos of bags that looked ready to burst and that's why I made mine so big until I get the hang of it. I would definitely do this again for a long ferment without much liquid. 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

1 hour ago, haresfur said:

 

interesting. It's been a few weeks and the ferment has slowed down to almost nothing. I can't remember the starting weights but it must have been less than a kg. I've seen photos of bags that looked ready to burst and that's why I made mine so big until I get the hang of it. I would definitely do this again for a long ferment without much liquid. 

 

At that point of the ferment there's not any real reason to let it continue for another two months as the ferment has reached a static/equilibrium  point and it's at a preservation stage. 

Keep posting your results.

 

[TicTac]

Did something similar'ish to what @Senior Sea Kayaker did with the roasted tomatoes, recently.  I had a glut of cherry tomatoes that were starting to shrivel, so I sliced em up, cut up some green onions and tore a bunch of dried chili's up (various types) all that went into a pyrex with some olive oil and slow roasted at 300 for about 4-6h - caramelized goodness that absolutely shined on tacos. 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

36 minutes ago, TicTac said:

Did something similar'ish to what @Senior Sea Kayaker did with the roasted tomatoes, recently.  I had a glut of cherry tomatoes that were starting to shrivel, so I sliced em up, cut up some green onions and tore a bunch of dried chili's up (various types) all that went into a pyrex with some olive oil and slow roasted at 300 for about 4-6h - caramelized goodness that absolutely shined on tacos. 

 

Sounds good. The ingredients, beyond the tomatoes, can be varied. Sweet and hot peppers, garlic, herbs.....

The crucial elements are tomatoes, olive oil and long, low and slow.

 

[TicTac]

2 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

Sounds good. The ingredients, beyond the tomatoes, can be varied. Sweet and hot peppers, garlic, herbs.....

The crucial elements are tomatoes, olive oil and long, low and slow.

 

Absolutely.  But for my Mexican application, I wanted solely tomatoes, onion, chili's, oil and a bit of lime at the end.  My 10 year old could not get enough!

 

 

[OlyveOyl]

Chive blossom white wine vinegar, remove the vinegar to a microwaveable measuring cup.  Bring the vinegar almost to the boil.  Add the chive blossoms  and some stem to the vinegar bottle, pour over the hot vinegar and reseal. The blossoms turn the vinegar a lovely shade of violet, which eventually will fade and the flowers will turn white.  This is fragrant immediately but needs a month or so to develop flavor. I found a bottle recently that was two years old and it’s delicious.  It makes an attractive gift, I usually cut the stems to about 3-4 inches, but as the stems are very pungent, I decided to cut  them longer to see how the vinegar develops. I made these yesterday, the color will develop a little more.

[kayb]

5 hours ago, OlyveOyl said:

Chive blossom white wine vinegar, remove the vinegar to a microwaveable measuring cup.  Bring the vinegar almost to the boil.  Add the chive blossoms  and some stem to the vinegar bottle, pour over the hot vinegar and reseal. The blossoms turn the vinegar a lovely shade of violet, which eventually will fade and the flowers will turn white.  This is fragrant immediately but needs a month or so to develop flavor. I found a bottle recently that was two years old and it’s delicious.  It makes an attractive gift, I usually cut the stems to about 3-4 inches, but as the stems are very pungent, I decided to cut  them longer to see how the vinegar develops. I made these yesterday, the color will develop a little more.

I believe I may have to try this. Just plain white distilled vinegar?

 

Never mind. I see you said white wine vinegar.

[OlyveOyl]

Those two bottles were the last of TJ’s white wine vinegar.  They have discontinued it 😩

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Some uses for harvested scapes:

Pretty standard quick pickled red onions with added scapes, mustard seed and black peppercorns.

Started a lacto-ferment  7 days ago of scapes in a 5% w/v brine. Well on its way.

The standard wisdom for scape removal is when it curls around however I harvest them earlier when they are still very tender. I'll use them as a scape to just above the undeveloped flower and freeze the upper section which I will use in lieu of garlic chives in dumplings..etc..

There is evidence, out of a U. of Guelph study, that early scape removal will significantly increase bulb yield.

 

 

[RWood]

Getting my first Hatch chiles ready to freeze. Really surprised I’ve been able to get some here. 

[haresfur]

Finished up the vacuum seal hot sauce I started in March. This involved cutting up pepper, removing most of the seeds and pith and sealing in oversize bags with 3% salt by weight. The bags puffed up but not so much I had to vent them. I processed each bag separately. After experimenting on the first bag I decided that the consistency was right with all the solid and supernatant blitzed together in a blender as-is. The first bag used only hungarian hot peppers and the second was a mix of hots and jalapenos. Ended up with a bit more than a quart of each The first was a bit one dimensional so I mixed some of each for the working sauce and keeping everything in the fridge unprocessed for the probiotic voodoo.

 

I'm calling this a success - easy-as to make and no funny growth detected.

 

 

[RWood]

Second round of Hatch chiles and 60lbs of Roma’s into marinara. 

[Shelby]

Grocery store had gigantic bins of Hatch Chiles the other day.  I sent Ronnie back to get a few pounds.  I want more lol.

 

 

 

 

Did a batch of pickled okra.  I'll probably do one or two  more batches.  Our hunter friend loves this stuff.

 

[ElsieD]

I want to make some hot red pepper jelly.  Ingredients are red bell peppers, Scotch bonnets, sugar, vinegar and pectin.  Is there any reason why I can't freeze this in canning jars instead of canning them in a boiling water  bath?  Thanks!

[MaryIsobel]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I want to make some hot red pepper jelly.  Ingredients are red bell peppers, Scotch bonnets, sugar, vinegar and pectin.  Is there any reason why I can't freeze this in canning jars instead of canning them in a boiling water  bath?  Thanks!

Certainly not an authority but I have done that and am here to tell the tale. I find by the time I have all the lids and rings on, the first ones have "pinged" and the rest continue to do so. We all have to judge just how "by the book" we want to go. So big disclaimer: Just sharing my personal experience.

Edited August 11, 2023 by MaryIsobel (log)

[lindag]

11 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I want to make some hot red pepper jelly.  Ingredients are red bell peppers, Scotch bonnets, sugar, vinegar and pectin.  Is there any reason why I can't freeze this in canning jars instead of canning them in a boiling water  bath?  Thanks!

I never4 make my own HRPJ but buy it instead from our local Amish grocery.  I love spreading a layer on my turkey sandwiches.

 

[blue_dolphin]

11 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I want to make some hot red pepper jelly.  Ingredients are red bell peppers, Scotch bonnets, sugar, vinegar and pectin.  Is there any reason why I can't freeze this in canning jars instead of canning them in a boiling water  bath?  Thanks!

 

Yes, freezing is almost always a safe alternative. No risk there.