Preservation Link Roundup 2/28/10

Chickens in the Road has a nice little tutorial on making your own lard from excess fat (Make Your Own Lard). I'm not so sure about canning the lard, that isn't recommended by the USDA as far as I know, but freezing is a good way to store it.

Cooking in lard itself can be a food preservation method. The root of the cooking term "confit", for example, actually comes from the French word meaning "to preserve". By cooking and storing duck or goose in its own rendered fat, the meat could be preserved for months without refrigeration. That isn't recommended now, but you can still make confit today and store it in the refrigerator for a month if it isn't salt cured, and several months if it is first salt cured and then confited. The same principle works for such items as rillettes, which were made and then preserved with a layer of fat on top.

Slow cookers (aka Crock Pots) are a great and easy way to make confit.

Well Preserved is getting started in making sauerkraut (Fermenting Sauerkraut - Day 1). Excellent! When you want to get started in experimenting with fermented food, sauerkraut is the one I recommend to start with. It is quick and easy to prepare ... and they virtually always work. And, once you've got the basics down, it is easy to modify with various spices and other vegetables to make an almost infinite variety of different flavors and textures.

Laughing Duck Farm is giving away a retro-canning book (retro in look, updated in safety - The Farmer's Wife Canning & Preserving Cookbook), all you have to do to enter is post a comment on their blog (!!!! Giveaway !!!!).

Speaking of retro, 40sZen on Etsy is selling some vintage canning labels (Vintage Canning Jar Labels Rust Craft, in Box). They're cool just to look at.

Tigress in a Pickle goes over this month's Can Jam - alliums (Alliums). Kitchen Jam has some quick ideas, but intends to do more research (Tigress CanJam March: Exploring Alliums This Month).