Preservation Link Roundup 2/8/10

Tres cool. Tres tres cool. The Kitchn has discovered a versatile set of lids for mason jars that can turn them into even more useful containers (Jar Tops: Universal Lids for Mason Jars):

These jar caps can be screwed on to nearly any standard-sized jar to create a pitcher, an oil or vinegar cruet, a creamer, and a sugar or cocoa shaker. Each set includes:

• 1 long-handled cap
• 1 oil & vinegar cap
• 1 cocoa shaker cap
• 1 creamer cap
• 1 sugar shaker cap

Go take a look at the lids ... available in charcoal and green - $25 a set from Unica Home.

Local Food Cleveland hosts a working group (Community Kitchen and Incubator Project) dedicated to planning and funding community kitchens, particularly in order to:

a.) enable local community gardeners to have a space where they can work on food preservation
b.) provide educational opportunities -- food safety, sanitation, canning, preserving

Why doesn't LA have at least a working group planning a community canning center?

Ideas in Food, a brilliant blog about experimentation with new and/or unusual cooking techniques, has been playing with their pressure cooker again - this time to make a blonde roux (Roux in a Jar). This isn't for long term storage, but simply another use for cans and a pressure canner. Making a consistent roux can be difficult, especially if you've got a lot of other cooking going on at the same time. I usually make my roux in a dutch oven in a regular oven ... but since I've only got one oven, that can be a pain. I'm definitely going to give this new method a try.

Ideas in Food has also "toasted" milk solids in a jar (Toasted in a Jar). Again, this is not a canning recipe, but rather, a technique utilizing Mason jars and a pressure canner. Their article also suggests some other potential uses for this technique. I'll have to give some a try.

Prairie Daisy Handspun, a ranch wife, among other things, has a short posting on making homemade baking mixes in canning jars for convenience purposes (Baking Mixes).

"A pickle on every plate," I've been known to say. Kevin West apparently agrees, at least when it comes to BBQ (BBQ Pickles). As a Southerner, Kevin knows what he is talking about:

Down in Texas cow-country, they slather slabs of beef in a complex sweet-sour tomato sauce and cook it in a smoker until the exterior is charred and sticky It's a good way to eat, but to my mind such barbeque calls for something tangy to cut through the sweety-fat flavors.

And that, of course, is where the pickles come in ... Kevin had both pickled peppers and turnips.

One more note on BBQ. As Kevin alludes, South Carolina BBQ sauces tend towards the vinegary. I suppose you could use plain vinegar for such a sauce, but why not base the sauce on left over pickling brine ... I'd use some from those pickled peppers. Call this use #48 for left over pickling brine.