What Are You Preserving, and How Are You Doing It? (2006 - 2016)

[heidih]

I have steamed and canned 3 gallons of concord grape juice and guess I will continue because I can not think of another damn thing to do with them now ..I can use the juice later if I want to make jelly and the little grandkids like to drink it so I guess that is it ..unless anyone has any good ideas for concord grapes..the juice is magnificent this year the drought did them good. One more harvest next week and I am done with them but if anyone has suggestions aside from freezing them (no room this year) I am open ..I made grape leather and juice and am eating them ..what else? I can make ketchup I guess? 

 

 

The method I described here  http://forums.egullet.org/topic/134994-flavorful-but-seedy-grapes/#entry1764315  uses a ton of grapes, reduces to minimal space and is delicious - saba

Edited September 5, 2015 by heidih (log)

[hummingbirdkiss]

The method I described here  http://forums.egullet.org/topic/134994-flavorful-but-seedy-grapes/#entry1764315  uses a ton of grapes, reduces to minimal space and is delicious - saba

This is going to happen..i saw a bottle of grape concentrate at the market for a stupid high price ..then forgot about it completely!

Thanks so much ..i will be trying these ideas and for sure making the concentrate! I pickled the baby grapes ( salt brine only) are just about ready to eat now

[ElsieD]

I have done it and this was my method. I cut off and discarded dark green tops because I was ignorant of their value in stocks and also because I had limited freezer room. The white parts I sliced lengthwise in 4 and then crosswise in quarter-inch slices. I tossed these into a very large bowl of water and gave them a thorough washing changing the water a couple of times. I then spread these out on a clean kitchen towel to dry and once they were dry I popped them into zipper bags and froze them. Very handy when you want to make a soup or something else that calls for them to be cooked. I did no blanching. Leeks can be very expensive so it is not a bad idea to stock up when they are cheap and freeze some. Next time I would do the same with the green tops discarding only those that are really in rough shape. I would still freeze them separately though.

Thanks, Anna. I followed your suggestion and my leeks are now on the freezer. In addition to the white parts, I also cut up the salvageble green parts and froze them separately to use for stock.

[Anna N]

Thanks, Anna. I followed your suggestion and my leeks are now on the freezer. In addition to the white parts, I also cut up the salvageble green parts and froze them separately to use for stock.

I think you'll find they work out just fine. I do something similar with sweet peppers. Just wash them, remove their cores, slice into rings (or thick matchsticks) spread on sheet pans to freeze then bag them. Again they are only useful in cooked dishes but very handy.

[Shelby]

The pickles that I started during my blog were done yesterday.  Here they are in the sink after being rinsed off.

 

 

I put these guys in jars and then started another batch.  I think this will be the last one of the summer.  Makes me feel a little sad

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I have steamed and canned 3 gallons of concord grape juice and guess I will continue because I can not think of another damn thing to do with them now ..I can use the juice later if I want to make jelly and the little grandkids like to drink it so I guess that is it ..unless anyone has any good ideas for concord grapes..the juice is magnificent this year the drought did them good. One more harvest next week and I am done with them but if anyone has suggestions aside from freezing them (no room this year) I am open ..I made grape leather and juice and am eating them ..what else? I can make ketchup I guess? 

 

Here's a recipe from the 1968 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for Concord grape pie. I just love Concords, and even the Scuppernong grapes we can somtimes get down here.  Like rotuts, I have a "tart tooth" rather than a sweet tooth. Both varieties of grapes are very tart, and especially the Scuppernongs will make your teeth ache from the acid if you eat too many raw.

 

Concord Grape Pie

 

1-1-2 pounds (4cups) Concord grapes

1 cup sugar?

1/3 c flour

1/4 t salt

1 Tbsp Lemon juice?

2 Tbsp butter, melted

9" unbaked? pie shell

 

Topping:

 

1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

1/3 c butter

 

Take the skins off your grapes, set skins aside. Bring grape pulp to boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Sieve (foodmill) to remove seeds. Add skins.

 

Mix 1 c sugar, 1/3 c flour, and 1/4 t salt. Add 1 T lemon juice, and grape mixture.

 

Pour into unbaked? pie shell (they italicize this, but I question it, based on experience).

 

Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 min.

 

Meanwhile, mix 1/2 c flour with 1/2 c sugar and cut in 1/4 c butter til crumbly. Sprinkle atop pie and bake for 15 more minutes.

 

My take on the recipe is that Concord grapes are already quite tart, and if one reduced the amount of sugar added to the filling, no lemon juice would be necessary to balance flavors. I would prebake the crust a bit before pouring a moist filling into it, because I like a dry, flaky bottom crust, and I would use a pie shield on the rim during all baking. I have never made this recipe, so take my advice with a ton of salt. 

[cakewalk]

... and even the Scuppernong grapes we can somtimes get down here.  ...

A few years ago I was visiting people in Atlanta. We went out for breakfast, and the restaurant placed a jam pot on the table. The jam was delicious, but I couldn't identify the flavor. A little grapey, but not really grape. So I asked what it was and the waiter said, "scuppernong," and I said, "excuse me?" I had never heard of this before. When I got back to Yankee territory I looked it up on-line and ordered Scuppernong jam and "wine" (non-alcoholic). I forget where I ordered it from, but it was quite awful. The jam was unpleasantly musky without much actual flavor, and the wine was way too sweet, almost total sugar. But I still remember the jam in that restaurant. Good stuff, this scuppernong.

[curls]

Six jars of tomato jam. Recipe from http://foodinjars.com/2010/09/tomato-jam/... I added 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper but other than that I followed the recipe and really like it.

[Wayne]

That is an excellent recipe. I've already made up two batches to enjoy over the winter.

I've modified the recipe by halving the sugar, using 50:50 brown and white sugar and adding 3-4 Scotch Bonnet peppers to make it more of a savoury chutney than a sweet jam. It complements pork and poultry quite nicely.

[kayb]

A few years ago I was visiting people in Atlanta. We went out for breakfast, and the restaurant placed a jam pot on the table. The jam was delicious, but I couldn't identify the flavor. A little grapey, but not really grape. So I asked what it was and the waiter said, "scuppernong," and I said, "excuse me?" I had never heard of this before. When I got back to Yankee territory I looked it up on-line and ordered Scuppernong jam and "wine" (non-alcoholic). I forget where I ordered it from, but it was quite awful. The jam was unpleasantly musky without much actual flavor, and the wine was way too sweet, almost total sugar. But I still remember the jam in that restaurant. Good stuff, this scuppernong.

 

Ah, scuppernongs. Brings back a fond memory. When I was a little kid, my mother used to take me swimming at the lake. One day, she was on the bank watching me swim, and discovered some wild scuppernong vines that were loaded down with ripe scuppernongs. She looked all through the car for a bucket or container of some sort in which to pick them. Finding nothing, but not to be denied, she tied knots in the legs of her capri pants she'd worn over her bathing suit, and picked them full! We enjoyed scuppernong jelly all winter.

[Kerry Beal]

Made some peach and red pepper chutney the other day - will need to figure out what to do with it.

[hummingbirdkiss]

radish kimchi  now i have jars of Korean cucumber and radish along with the tops kimchi… I love the smell!!! no one else in my house does! I think this is the last thing

I have buckets of tomatillos and plan to give those away

 

I am freaking done (I keep saying that ..I have not harvested the pumpkins popcorn and some kind of supposedly rare Italian bean I have never heard of of known of but it looks like a great big white lima to me ..those things will be dried including the pumpkin I dry it in strips in the dehydrator nothing amazing but it great in curry and soup 

 

This is my first year growing popcorn. I have a lot of ears that look like they have corns in them? I opened one and it was pink and white ..the rest should look as good I would think  ..I hope I hope! 

I can post photos now apparently I will try to insert something in the next post 

 

can you believe it is time to prep the beds to plant garlic next month? I am late actually and doing it today after I finish making the kimchi… 

 

holy shit where does time go ???? planting garlic and fava beans means the summer harvest is over …wow

 

I am definitely planning this kitchen with the thought of food preservation ..I spend 2/3rds of my year doing it in some form or another that is for sure. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[ElsieD]

Made some peach and red pepper chutney the other day - will need to figure out what to do with it.

I know what I would do with it. It sounds like it would be great with a pan seared fish such as halibut.

[Kerry Beal]

I know what I would do with it. It sounds like it would be great with a pan seared fish such as halibut.

I like it with veal schnitzel.

[Kerry Beal]

Picked up a 7 quart basket of tomatoes at the farmer's market in Dunnville yesterday morning before my shift started. The lovely woman trusted me with the basket - given the assurance that I'd bring the basket back before my shift next week. Of course then I'll probably come home with another of her baskets!

 

 

One of the tomatoes seemed to be suffering from some congenital anomolies.  

 

 

Tomato juice made in the thermomix from half a dozen of the lovely canners. 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Doing a little reorganizing of the upstairs freezer this morning - found some frozen red peppers slated for red pepper jelly. Did the grinding up in the thermomix and decided to make the jelly in there too.

 

Mise en place has never been my strong suit - so about half way through I realized there was no certo in the house. Fortunately there was some apple pectin that had been a complete failure in Pate de Fruit because it was made for jam so I was able to recover. It's a little loose - but actually that's the texture I like for this particular jelly.

[Anna N]

This

[curls]

Last of the peaches I brought home with me became Peach & Earl Grey tea jam. I think this is my last bit of canning for the season. Weather is getting cooler; soon it will be time to make chocolates!

[blue_dolphin]

I am not the accomplished preserver that many of you are.  I've gotten a lot of inspiration from this thread but haven't put anything into practice.   Making some preserves to serve with cheeses was on my list of things to do this summer.  Peaches were 68 cents/lb last week and I had some red jalapeños from my CSA box so  I finally got around to making some peach and red jalapeño jam.  

 

Served some to friends last night with goat cheese and crispy toasts.  It was a hit.  Hopefully I can refine my methods and try some more varieties.

[Shelby]

Looks lovely, BD!  What a great color.

[blue_dolphin]

Oh thank you, Shelby!   I think I cooked it longer than necessary and could have added another jalapeño.  And my attempts to mush up some larger peach chunks at the end introduced a lot of little bubbles but it's tasty.  I learned a lot and will keep at it. 

[slkinsey]

I recently canned 50 pounds of outstanding plum tomatoes from Stokes Farm, which IMO has the best tomatoes at the NYC Greenmarkets.  Every last one of them was fully ripe and deep red throughout, which hasn't been the case when I've bought tomatoes by the case from other area farms.  

 

I have kind of a weird procedure.  Since I don't like seeds in my tomato sauce, after I peel and core the tomatoes I cut them in half and pull out all the seeds and seed goo.  These go into a large corningware that I chuck into the microwave to bring to a quick and momentary boil, and then I pour it into a fine sieve that holds back the seeds but lets all the liquid through.  I then put this liquid together with the tomato halves into the chamber machine and pull a hard vacuum to get all the air out of the tomato pieces.  With this done, I bring everything up to a quick simmer, pack it into pint jars, top up as needed with the tomato juice and process in a pressure canner.  I don't like the flavor of added acid, so I use an extremely conservative processing protocol instead of adding lemon juice.  Because of my weird procedure, I can get about as many tomatoes in a pint jar as the standard procedure gets into a quart jar.

[Smithy]

Thanks for that information, Sam. I'm curious about the seeds. In my experience they turn bitter when cooked - at least, when the goo is cooked down heavily. Do you avoid that bitterness by straining the seeds out, or does your "quick and momentary boil" not go long enough to change their flavor? Or (the 3rd door) have I just been misled by embittered tomatoes?

[slkinsey]

Smithy, I microwave the seeds and gelatinous membrane just long enough to get the gelatinous membrane to break down so it can be strained off the seeds.  This has the added effect of stopping any enzymatic activity that may be going on.  Really all I do is jam it in the microwave and hit the "reheat" button, so it's likely that it doesn't even come to a boil.  I agree that tomato seeds can impart bitterness, and I also just don't like them aesthetically.  My procedure is designed to remove the seeds from the canned tomato product while retaining as much tomato flavor as possible from the gelatinous membrane material (plus any trimmings).  I suppose I could just as easily pass the raw tomatoes through a fine sieve that would hold back the seeds and skins and give me a fine puree.  That would certainly be a lot faster and easier, and many of my Italian friends do exactly this.  But I like the ability to decide what texture the tomato product will have depending on what I'm making.

Edited September 21, 2015 by slkinsey (log)

[cakewalk]

I recently canned 50 pounds of outstanding plum tomatoes from Stokes Farm, which IMO has the best tomatoes at the NYC Greenmarkets.  Every last one of them was fully ripe and deep red throughout, which hasn't been the case when I've bought tomatoes by the case from other area farms.  

 

I have kind of a weird procedure.  Since I don't like seeds in my tomato sauce, after I peel and core the tomatoes I cut them in half and pull out all the seeds and seed goo.  These go into a large corningware that I chuck into the microwave to bring to a quick and momentary boil, and then I pour it into a fine sieve that holds back the seeds but lets all the liquid through.  I then put this liquid together with the tomato halves into the chamber machine and pull a hard vacuum to get all the air out of the tomato pieces.  With this done, I bring everything up to a quick simmer, pack it into pint jars, top up as needed with the tomato juice and process in a pressure canner.  I don't like the flavor of added acid, so I use an extremely conservative processing protocol instead of adding lemon juice.  Because of my weird procedure, I can get about as many tomatoes in a pint jar as the standard procedure gets into a quart jar.

If I go to the Union Square Greenmarket, I always get my stuff at Stokes Farm. I've found that just about all their stuff tends to be very good, their tomatoes are delicious, and I especially love their herbs. After having been burned many times at other vendors at Union Square, I finally discovered that Stokes Farms is consistently good. I wish they were there more than just Saturdays, but I'll take what I can get. (I haven't canned any of their tomatoes because I just eat them.)