PreserveNation

Master Food Preserver Program Returns to LA - Upcoming Classes - Weekly Email

2011-03-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

It has been awhile, too long, since I've sent out one of my preserving emails. I hope that everyone is well, and I do intend to send emails more frequently.

However, I do have a fairly good excuse: I've been doing a lot of food preservation and (although many of you have already heard) ...

Brenda Roche (UC Cooperative Extension Nutrition Family & Consumer Sciences Advisor), Dr. Rachel Surls (Director, UC Cooperative Extension Los Angeles) and I are re-launching the Master Food Preserver program in Los Angeles County.

Yep, after more than a 10-year absence, the Master Food Preserver program is returning to Los Angeles.

We were very excited to have received so many applications. Unfortunately, we could not take everyone who applied. We could have easily filled three or four classes with highly qualified individuals.

We have accepted 18 fantastic and enthusiastic volunteers for our first class. I look forward to introducing them to you down the road. And, perhaps, some of them will help with these newsletters.

I will be teaching the majority of the classes, but will also get some assistance from Master Food Preservers Delilah Snell and Kevin West.

Soon, there will be many more people qualified to provide information on food preservation in Los Angeles. And, hopefully, some of you on this list will also join the ranks of the Master Food Preservers through a future class.

For those of you not familiar with the Master Food Preserver program, it is similar to the Master Gardener program, in which volunteers are trained by the UC Extension to teach and train others in proper and safe food preservation techniques.

Here are a couple of posts on the relaunch of the program:
http://efnep.ucdavis.edu/?blogpost=4388&blogasset=17351
http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/01/master_food_preserver_program.php

Additionally, I've been doing a lot of preserving as chef for the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood. I encourage everyone to stop by my restaurant, where you can see dozens and dozens of different preserved foods, both sweet and savory. Every week we are making new and interesting canned goods using farmers' market produce. For example, I'm doing a pickled carrot series using Weiser Farms carrots. Red heirloom carrots in a spicy brine, yellow heirloom carrots in a dill brine, and, next week, "Purple Haze" heirloom carrots in a fennel brine. Or, you can check my series of herbal jellies, such as mint, dill, and apple/sage (more to follow). If we're not too busy, I'm also happy to discuss food preservation and answer questions.

You can keep up with what I'm doing at the Farmer's Kitchen via our twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HollywoodFK

I'm particularly enthused by the response of our customers to preserved foods on the menu. Our fried egg reuben (with house made sauerkraut) is our most popular sandwich, while our "pickled egg" egg salad sandwich is also getting very good reviews and our Sunday fried sauerkraut and eggs is our second most popular egg dish.

We're also lining up classes on food preservation. A week from Saturday on March 26th, I'll be teaching a class on fermentation: how to make yogurt, sauerkraut and vinegar. Participants will taste a variety of preparations and take mother cultures home with them.

You can sign up here: www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/events/

You'll also see some of the other classes we're doing, such as a class on mushrooms.

The next preservation class isn't posted yet, but in April I will be doing classes on pressure canning and a separate class on basic knife skills. I'm also scheduled to do a couple of demos in April, including on Earth Day in South LA and traditional food preservation for Ranchero Days at the Workman-Temple Homestead in the City of Industry. More information on these events in a future email.

That's it for this email - I look forward to seeing some of you at my classes and at the Farmer's Kitchen.

As usual, if you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller @ gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which hasn't been updated in awhile, but I plan to do some updating (probably):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie

Happy New Year - Classes, Classes and Lots of Sauerkraut - Weekly Email

2011-01-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year!

Did you notice that food preservation was actually represented on one of the Rose Parade floats this year?

Discover's float, "A State Fair to Remember," represented many of the activities of a state fair; rides, pie-eating contests, and livestock judging. They also had some award-winning pies and preserves made from flowers. On the right side of the float, just behind the pies, is a blue-ribbon jar of preserves, which is mostly blocking a view of some canned pickles:
http://discoveratroseparade.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/img_7181x10.jpg

I was pretty excited about that. But then, I get excited about food preservation fairly easily.

Speaking of state and county fairs, it is never too early to start canning and making preserves for the LA County Fair ... don't wait until the last minute ... start making some of those marmalades, pickles and jellies now from in-season fruit. This year's forms aren't up yet, but they probably won't change all that much from last year's. Check out the rules for all their culinary contests here:
http://www.lacountyfair.com/2011/entertainment/Competition_CulinaryStyles.asp

I'm hoping to be involved in the judging this year.

Of course, maybe you want to learn a little more about canning before entering a contest. In that case, I've got several classes coming up.

This Saturday, the 15th, I will be teaching a class on pickling basics at the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood from 9am-1pm:

Sour, crunchy, spicy, tart, sweet, and aromatic, pickles bring exciting seasoning, piquancy, nutrition and interest to our meals. They are a flavor counterpoint; harmonically interdependent with the aroma and taste of the main elements of a dish. Eating would be much less interesting without pickles, chutneys, relishes, salsas and other such condiments. Of course, pickling is not only a means of creating flavor, but also of preserving food.

Learn food safety and pickle basics in this small, hands-on class featuring recipes using fresh food from the farmer's market.

Space is limited. Participants will take home one or more jars of what we preserve.

Cost: $75.00 (pay when you arrive)

Registration deadline is 1/14/2011 8:00 p.m..

You can register here:
http://www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/events/event-info?event_id=4094

The Saturday after next, on the 22nd from 11am-2pm, I will be teaching a class on citrus and marmalades at Delilah Snell's Road Less Traveled Store in Santa Ana.

Learn about some of the more obscure citrus available to us in California (yuzu, calamansi, and buddha's hand, among others) and a couple of techniques for turning them into delicious marmalade.

Cost: $50.00

You can register here:
http://roadlesstraveledstore.com/shop/product.php?productid=16399&cat=263&page=1

On February 5th, I will be teaching a class on fermentation (yogurt, vinegar and kombucha) at the Road Less Traveled Store and on February 12th, I'll be doing another hands-on workshop at the Farmer's Kitchen in Hollywood in anticipation of Valentine's Day "Food Preservation for Your Sweetheart." More information on those classes in a future newsletter.

I've been keeping my food preservation externs busy at the Farmer's Kitchen. We've been making lots of sauerkraut as Tutti Frutti Farms keeps providing us with plenty of cabbage. We made 36 pounds of what I consider a spectacular red cabbage kraut that kept its' beautiful color with fantastic flavor. We canned 25 pints and served the rest as fried sauerkraut and eggs on our breakfast menu. I like the dish, a lot. The saltiness and tartness of the kraut pair wonderfully with the richness of the egg yolk. Even though I like the dish a lot, I was surprised when it sold out within a few hours. Don't worry if you
missed it, though, we've got a lot more sauerkraut on the way for future breakfasts, and we'll probably be making an egg Reuben with our kraut for the lunch menu.

One of the reasons I put the sauerkraut with eggs on the menu was to get people to think of kraut in new and different ways. It is culinarily versatile and darn healthy. Like many fermented foods, we should probably be eating more. Those visiting the Farmer's Kitchen should expect to see a number of different and interesting recipes using kraut for the near future.

I'm very happy with the flavor of the kraut we made, so I'm keeping the left over brine as a starter. One of our guests this Sunday liked our sauerkraut so much that they purchased some of our brine to use as a starter to make their own kraut.

You can, of course, purchase starters online, but I'm not that big a fan of those for this type of fermentation. The reason is that, though the starters will work well initially, over time natural bacterial flora will tend to take over anyway. That is why you can't make San Francisco sourdough outside of San Francisco. Boudin, for example, has bakeries in Southern California, but they ship in new mother culture to their bakeries every month to keep the bacteria strain pure and not taken over by local Southern California flora. So, rather, than purchase a starter for sauerkraut online, I prefer to make my own. When I do find a local, natural culture that works well, then I will keep that strain as a starter.

We've also been making lots of grape jelly from MB Farms grapes. The regular jelly is fantastic, but we've also been making flavor variations, such as Cinnamon-Grape, Ginger-Grape, and a favorite of mine, Rosemary-Grape. More on flavor variations in a future email.

That's it for this week - I look forward to seeing some of you at my classes and at the Farmer's Kitchen.

As usual, if you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at
ernest.miller @ gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which hasn't been updated in awhile, but I plan to do some updating (probably):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie

Canning Journal and a Class - Canning for the Holidays! - Weekly Email

2010-12-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

Happy holidays to all ... I hope that Thanksgiving was enjoyed by everyone. I had a very nice holiday with my family and I am looking forward to more celebration as the holiday season continues.

Of course, I've remain busy at the Farmer's Kitchen. We're now selling baked goods for holiday - if you are having an office party or family feast, what is better than some baked goods featuring local farmers' market produce?
http://www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/baked-goods

And speaking of holidays, Happy Hanukkah! This Sunday we will be serving latkes with sour cream and applesauce we canned a couple of months ago.

Someday I'm going to have to do a newsletter devoted to that pantry must-have, applesauce. Seriously, applesauce is something everyone should keep in their pantry - it is extremely versatile - but enough about applesauce (for now).

I'll finally be getting around to making my turkey stock tonight from the two turkey carcasses taking up room in my refrigerator. I think that I'll be freezing the stock, rather than pressure can it, because I'll probably be using it sooner rather than later, and I won't have too much.

Of course, I've been doing a lot of canning at the Farmer's Kitchen (over 60 pints of lemon squash concentrate the last two weeks)! This has really re-emphasized to me the need to keep a journal of my canning. When your shelves start to fill up with canned goods, it is not only important to label the jars, but to keep a good record of what you did so you can repeat successes and avoid less-than-perfect results.

What information should you keep? Name, date and ingredients are the most important. I like to write where I got the key ingredients as well (i.e., Scattaglia Farms' Arkansas Black Apples for my apple butter). The recipe is crucial. I'll either write out the entire recipe or a reference to the recipe in a book with any modifications I've made. Processing method and time come in handy. Finally, notes are very important.

For example, last spring I made a raspberry-based jam. One batch I strained the seeds out, the other I left the seeds in. Needless to say, the seedless jam required more berries than the one with seeds. Because I kept notes, next year I'll know how many berries I need to make either version. When you do a lot of preserving, this is the sort of detail that you forget the next year.

A journal can save you from making the same mistakes and remind you of your past triumphs. Canning journals - start one if you haven't already.

As for me, I'm ready to make the leap from a simple spreadsheet to a database for my canning journal. Is there anyone on this list interested in helping me develop a canning journal/database? It would be an open source project we could share on the internet for all the canners out there. If you have some database experience and are interested in helping, email me.

It has been awhile, but I would also like to announce that I'll be holding two "Canning for the Holidays" classes at the Farmer's Kitchen. Both classes are the same, so you only need to go to one. They are both on Saturday, Dec. 4th (in 2 days!) and Dec. 11th, from 9am - 1pm (4 hours). Snacks and beverages will be available, and you'll take home some of the items we can. From the class description:

"Learn the basics of jam and jelly making just in time for you to create homemade gifts for the holidays. This small, hands-on class covers food safety, elementary canning techniques, and simple, but delicious recipes for preserves using fresh produce from the farmers market. Other gift ideas using canning jars and preserved foods will also be covered. Space is limited."

The cost is a bargain at $75, paid when you come, so please don't sign up unless you are certain to attend.

You can sign up here:
http://hollywoodfarmerskitchen.org/events/

That's it for this week - I look forward to seeing some of you at my class.

As usual, if you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at: ernest.miller @ gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which hasn't been updated in awhile, but I plan to do some updating (probably):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie

Proposed LAUSD Menu for 2011-2012

2010-10-17T21:35:00.001-07:00

I've been talking about the new proposed 2011-2012 menu for the LAUSD and how it is a significant step forward from previous years, but unless you've been to the meetings, you haven't seen it. So, I'm posting my version of the document (since LAUSD hasn't provided an electronic copy yet). [The original wasn't much better formatted.]

Obviously, this is merely a rough first draft so we need to focus on fixing some of its deficiencies but keep the advances.

The proposed 2011-2012 menu: Here [PDF]

LAUSD Seeks Assistance with the 2011-12 Menu

2010-10-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, October 15th, several members of the community met with representatives of the Los Angeles Unified School District to discuss the, dare I say, revolutionary changes to the 2011-12 school menu.

Present at the meeting was Jennie Cook of Food for Lunch, Nicole Feenstra of YourCommunityGarden.org and Walter Smith and I represented SEE-LA and the Farmer's Kitchen. LAUSD was represented by David Binkle, Deputy Director for Menu Compliance and Florence Simpson, Senior Food Service Supervisor.

Read on for my notes on the meeting.

David Binkle led the discussion, outlining the need for community input on the menu planning process. LAUSD is planning on making the most radical changes to their menu in decades and there isn't much time to develop and test the many new items they are planning on adding to the menu. Due to budgetary constraints, there are many fewer employees to do more work. Thus, they are seeking the public's assistance in improving the health and well-being of the students of LAUSD.

More than the menu is on the table. Binkle noted that this week he had spoken with an organic farmer about the feasibility of LAUSD putting out bids for produce to farmers as opposed to contracting with a middleman produce company.

Furthermore, because of the major changes to menu, LAUSD will be seeking a great deal of assistance in explaining the many changes to the students, administrators and community at large. This is obviously where community members can be of great assistance. I am especially concerned that many school administrators are not supporting improvements to student access to good food. Binkle provided an anecdote about a principal he met with recently who suggested cutting school breakfast in order to save a good deal of salary from the teachers and physical plant employees who have to come earlier for the breakfast crowd.

Jennie Cook commented that the menu was moving in the right direction, but that more radical change was needed – more whole fruits and rice and beans for lunch. She acknowledged that she had no institutional stake in the matter, and sought only to represent the children's best interest in healthy meals. She also brought up the USDA school lunch standards will be expiring soon and that perhaps LAUSD should seek a waiver, perhaps for a pilot program that would implement her more radical suggestions.

Following the USDA school lunch standards comment, Binkle noted that suggestions on school nutrition policy would also be accepted. For example, banning the use of high fructose corn syrup in school meals. (I believe this is actually already the policy).

One major issue with regard to a school nutrition policy is student access to “competitive” foods. Snacks from vending machines, meals from fast food outlets located near schools, food trucks, etc. are considered competitive foods, since students eat the junk food in preference to the healthier options available in the cafeteria. This problem will never be eliminated, but I'm not sure why a comprehensive school nutrition policy can't address these. And although the school board may not have much authority outside the boundaries of the school, I'm not sure why we shouldn't be able to get support from the city council. After all, there was a moratorium on the construction of new fast food restaurants in certain areas of the city. Why not a moratorium on selling junk food to students near schools during school hours?

Nicole Feenstra commented on the communications issue, noting that a 360-degree policy was necessary, incorporating as many parties as possible, particularly school gardens.

In response, Jennie Cook talked about incorporating eco-literacy as an aspect of the communications strategy. David Binkle noted that will be working with Alice Waters and Zenobia Barlow on an eco-literacy program that includes developing more school kitchens in Oakland as part of it. We all hope that he'll bring the lessons he learns up north back to LA.

With the discussion turning towards kitchens, Walter Smith noted that there are many underutilized kitchens in the LA area. He suggested that we take advantage of these kitchens by moving towards a more distributed model of making lunches for students by having schools partner with local kitchens to supply some of their meals. Although switching to such a system would be difficult and require significant logistical coordination, it would tie schools closer to their communities and create more jobs in the communities associated with the schools.

Both I and David Binkle noted the logistical difficulties, but there could be some tremendous advantages as well. Unfortunately, this is a long-term concept, but a pilot program would not be out of order.

Florence Simpson reminded everybody that any such programs need to take into account the diversity of the LAUSD and be applicable to schools in both the poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods.

Back to the menu and the communication problem. I suggested that we engage the chef community of LA to take responsibility and develop signature recipes for the school menu. Not every dish, of course but why not? Imagine you would have Mark Peel's Beef Goulash or one of Neil Fraser's contemporary American fare dishes on a school menu? It's win-win-win. Kids and parents would be more excited about the menu, the chefs get free advertising and help develop the palates of future foodies, and the school administration gets a lot of help.

Nicole suggested that, in addition to chefs, we should develop some sort of recipe contest to develop recipes that come from the school communities. So, for example, Mark Peel's Goulash might be next to Mrs. Nguyễn's Pho on the school lunch menu. Although there isn't enough time for such a program this year, it was suggested that there might be enough time to organize something for the Spring. Definitely a good way of getting the community involved and informing people about the change to the menu.

Both David Binkle and Florence Simpson than noted that LAUSD has problems with some of their suppliers. LAUSD has put a lot of companies out of business. Companies are thrilled to get a contract with LAUSD, build out their capacity, only to find that they're unable to keep up with demand, they're quality is inconsistent, whatever, and end up being dropped. I have no expertise in these sort of bid/contract/manufacturing issues, but perhaps other interested members of the community can make suggestions to the LAUSD so that this is less likely to occur. It would be a tragedy to have a great menu that couldn't be implemented because LAUSD can't contract with manufacturers.

Walter suggested contingency planning, especially as increased weather variability will make reliance on contracts for fresh fruits and variables somewhat more uncertain.

Focusing on the present issue of the 2011-12 menu, there is a December 17th deadline to finalize it. That doesn't leave much time, especially as many recipes must be developed and tested with students. LAUSD is soliciting assistance for both tasks. Walter and I volunteered the Farmer's Kitchen to do some of the testing.

Obviously it is important that the students accept the food being provided. Healthy food does no good if the students aren't eating it. So, strategies and ideas of how to get students to eat these new recipes are also necessary. This is particularly a concern for the cafeteria managers, who are meeting about the new menu (among other things) on Oct. 26, 27, and 28.

Jennie brought up the concept of “meatless Mondays” for the menu. Florence noted that there is a vegetarian selection everyday. I suggested that the idea had merit, but needed to be framed in a more positive way – perhaps by celebrating a dish based on “Harvest of the Month” or something.

In any case, the meeting ended with an emphasis on getting as much feedback on the new menu as possible, as well as assistance in developing and testing recipes. December 17th is the deadline.

I'll be posting the proposed menu shortly.

So, who has some ideas?

Observations and Suggestions on LAUSD School Menu

2010-10-13T19:08:00.001-07:00

Below is the memo I sent to the LAUSD based on my analysis of the existing school menu.

To: David Binkle
From: Ernest Miller
CC: Mark Baida
Date: Oct 13, 2010
Subject: Observations and Suggestions on LAUSD School Menu

First I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the nutrition and health of our schoolchildren. This issue is very important to me and I am excited to be part of the process.

Second, I am aware of the extreme constraints you struggle with to feed such a large population of students with such meager resources and limited physical plant. Thus, some of my suggestions may be more aspirational than anything.

In a related note, my experience and knowledge base concerning your operation is rather limited, so my suggestions and observations may be faulty on a number of levels. Hopefully, a discussion of these issues will assist in improving the quality of future suggestions and observations.

Herewith my suggestions and observations:

1. Seasonality
I believe that seasonality is a critical aspect in menu planning and healthy eating for a number of reasons. Among other things, it ties us to the land and the production of food that seasonless industrial food production does not. In teaching good eating habits, seasonal produce is better tasting and less expensive. Quality seasonal ingredients need less cooking to produce a quality output. It forces us to think more about our food, where it comes from and how we consume it. I could go on, but you get the idea.

In addition, seasonality can be used to tie school gardens into the cafeteria. Although school gardens will never produce enough food to be anything more than a small supplement to the school meal programs (if they get in at all), it is possible to add seasonal recipes that mimic what is being grown in the school gardens, thus reinforcing what the school gardens are doing. For example, if carrots are being harvested in the school garden, we should ensure that some variation on fresh carrots are being served in the school cafeteria. This will require coordination between school gardens and FSD, but it will be possible.

Seasonality can also be used to coordinate with other programs, such Farm-to-School and Harvest of the Month.

2. Localism
There is no acknowledgment of local sourcing for any of the menu items. Though it won't be possible for the entire menu, it would be good to highlight when local sourcing is used.

3. Cultural/Historical
There doesn't seem to be much social studies built into the menu, especially considering the rich cultural history of Southern California and our diverse cultures.

4. Salads
The only salads I see on the menu are daily spinach side salads. I believe there is opportunity for more variety and seasonality in side salads. Perhaps it might also be possible to occasionally have a salad as an entree option? I'm not talking salad bar, but potentially a composed salad. There are limitless possibilities for savory fruit salads, grain salads of all sorts, bean salads and pasta salads.

5. Soup
Soup is nutritious, inexpensive and often a healthier option but is not on the menu. The possibilities for stews, chilis, gumbos, paellas, jambalayas and curries is also rather large, but not utilized.

6. Fish
Fish seem underutilized on the menu. Additionally, are the fish nuggets sustainably farm-raised or …?

7. Pork.
Outside the sausage, perhaps, pork is not part of the menu.

8. Breakfast
Hot cereal is not an option – but there is a lot of potential for hot cereals and healthy toppings.
Yogurt is not noted as a breakfast option.
Though it is undoubtedly popular, Frosted Flakes doesn't seem like a good selection for cold cereal.

9. Whole fruit?
Is whole fruit available, particularly for secondary school?

10. Beans and grains
With the exception of the bean and cheese burrito, there doesn't seem much in the way of legumes and other grains on the menu. Such items as black beans, black-eyed peas, and red beans are all excellent sources of nutrition and are inexpensive.

11. Whole Grain Pastas
The menu doesn't indicate that the pastas are whole-grain. If not, I'm sure you've considered the switch.

These are some of my more general comments, I have a number of more specific questions and observations about particular menu items, but will reserve those for our discussion if appropriate.

I apologize for the poor formatting and organization, but I wanted to get these notes to you before our conversation this afternoon.

Respectfully,
Ernest

LAUSD - Cafeteria Improvement Committee Meeting Notes - 2010-10-11

2010-10-13T19:06:00.001-07:00

The monthly Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Cafeteria Improvement Committee meeting took place this past Monday, October 11th. This committee has been meeting for several years, but recently there has been an increase in interest in the issue of school nutrition, and the committee has become more popular. It is open to the public, so parents and other concerned citizens can provide their input as well.

Now is actually quite an exciting time to participate on the committee because not only is there increased interest in the topic, but the LAUSD is preparing to make some of the biggest changes in its school menus in its history.

The committee is chaired by Dennis Barrett, director of LAUSD's Food Service Division. David Binkle (Food Service/Menu Compliance) also represented LAUSD FSD.

Unfortunately, other (should be) interested parties from LAUSD were not represented. Facilities Service Division, which is responsible for the construction of new schools and modernizing existing schools was not present. There was some discussion about getting them involved, but it seems that Facilities hasn't been much interested in hearing the committee's suggestions on providing adequate kitchens, food distribution designs and eating accommodations.

Did you know that in many of LAUSD's secondary schools there is no indoor seating for students to eat? There might be a few covered, but unwalled areas, but no seating area free from weather (yeah, it doesn't rain much in Southern California but, sheesh) and competition from pigeons. Yes, school plans take years to come to fruition, but the childhood obesity epidemic isn't going to be solved in a couple of years. We need long term planning. We need Facilities Service Division to make adequate access to good food for students one of their priorities.

Also conspicuous by their absence was anyone representing principals and other school administrators. One of the biggest problems for students having adequate access to good food is that they don't have time to eat it. Principals are notorious for limiting meal hours in order to maximize classroom hours. Instead of several lunch periods, administrations will schedule a single lunch period, forcing thousands of students to overrun the cafeteria at once and leaving many hungry at the end of the thirty-minute period. On the other extreme, some schools are scheduling lunch as early as 10am, well before students are hungry for lunch. Frankly, the way some of these schools schedule lunch, if the students were employees the schools would be in violation of state labor standards for adequate breaks.

There were many representatives of community organizations. Matt Sharp of California Food Policy Advocates was there, of course, along with several of his co-workers. Elizabeth Medrano of Occidental College's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) and head of the Healthy School Coalition was also there along with other members of her coalition. I could go on, but lack of time prevents me from continuing.

There were a number of students of Professor William McCarthy, Adjunct Professor of Public Health at UCLA, present as observers (for class credit). Hopefully, many of them will choose to move from observation into action.

The beginning of the meeting was an overview of the lunch program and the financial status of the Food Services Division (dire) for those who were new to the committee. Just a couple of years ago, the School Board determined that part-time employees of the FSD, who usually worked 15 hours a week would work a minimum of 20 hours a week and be entitled to full medical/dental/vision benefits for them and their families at no cost. While this might have benefited the employees, it meant that the money available for student meals dropped from 86 cents a meal to 57 cents. It has since climbed back to 77 cents due to contracting reforms and other efficiencies implemented by FSD, but that is still less than adequate for healthy meals for children.

The most important item on the agenda was the unveiling of a proposed 2011-2012 menu for the schools. It is amazing. Not perfect, by any means, but a revolutionary move forward. Seriously, revolutionary. No longer will pizza, chicken wings and bean/cheese burritos be the mainstay of the diet, but increased fruits and vegetables in a wide variety of culturally relevant preparations. Jambalaya, quinoa salad, black bean soup, black-eyed pea salad, and vegetable manicotti are just a few of the healthy dishes proposed for this new menu. Of course, this is just a proposal, and it will be the mission of the menu planning committee to see to it that the menu is implemented as much as feasibly possible.

The menu planning committee is meeting this coming Friday, Oct. 13th. I'll report more on the new menu then.

See my next post for the recommendations that I made based on the old menu.

Grape Jelly - You Really Ought to Try Making Some - Weekly Email

2010-10-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

It has been a busy week at the Farmer's Kitchen as I settle into my new job. I'm really having a good time.

This past Wednesday the Farmer's Kitchen and SEE-LA were participants in “Good Food for All,” a fundraiser for a dollar matching program for farmer's markets. EBT (aka “food stamp”) holders will soon be able to come to a farmer's market and get a matching dollar for every dollar they spend in the market. Not only do those in need get access to more fresh produce, but the farmers also benefit from the increase in spending. It is a win-win-win program (those who donate win because their donations do double duty).

The benefit was also the public unveiling of the report from the LA Food Policy Task Force: “Good Food for All” and the launch of the Food Policy Council, which is tasked with implementing the recommendations of the task force. The report is a must for anyone interested in creating a viable, local and sustainable foodshed here in Los Angeles. Read the whole report here: http://goodfoodla.org/.

I was excited just to be at the event, meeting and interacting with some of the top chefs and farmers in the greater Los Angeles metropolis. And, heck, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ate some of the food I prepared.

Just to let you know, we prepared Baba Ganoush (using some of the last of the summer eggplant) and Muhammara (peak of the season red bell peppers and walnuts just coming into season) with farmer's market crudités (in order to really highlight the wonderful produce we get from local farmers). We also made goat cheese crostinis topped with roasted cherry tomatoes. The goat cheese (from Soledad Goats) had not been refrigerated, since it had been made just that morning. How cool is it to work with ingredients like that?

We brought some of our preserves to display, of course, but I was excited to see some other preservers at the event as well. Chef Akasha Richmond of Akasha Restaurant fame was sampling some of her preserves there. They were all excellent, but her McGrath Strawberry Jam was amazing!

Last word on the event … I just want to give a shout out to all the members of this email list I saw there! How wonderful that so many of you care so much about food policy here in Los Angeles. Thanks for coming!

Ok, so perhaps these emails will digress a bit from food preservation, I can't help but be excited about my new position. On to the food preservation.

Go into any supermarket and look at their preserves. Inevitably, even in the smallest store, you will see two items: strawberry jam and grape jelly (usually made from Concord grapes). Most preservers try their hand at a homemade strawberry jam and discover how much better homemade is compared to the commercial product. But how many of you have made grape jelly at home?

If you haven't, you really ought to give it a try. The stuff in the store is flavorless compared to the incredibly rich, deep flavors you can achieve at home.

First, if you want some amazing grape jelly, you need to start with good grapes. Supermarket Thompson Seedless isn't going to cut it. Go into your local farmers market to find grapes with real flavor (and don't worry about grapes with seeds, you're going to be juicing them anyway). Concord is the classic, of course, but there are many other grapes varietals that can blow your socks off when turned into jelly.

And don't forget to check with your gardening neighbors. I know someone who is growing Gewurztraminer grapes on a North-facing slope in the City Terrace neighborhood. Maybe next year I'll get a chance to harvest some for jelly making. Or, check Craigslist. I saw an ad a few weeks ago from someone with homegrown grapes they needed taken off their hands here in the LA area.

Of course, I have access to some amazing grapes thanks to the Hollywood Farmer's Market. This week I got to turn two cases of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes (yep, the ones they make wine from) into jelly. Thank you, Mill Road Orchard.

Probably the most intimidating thing about jellies is that you have to juice the fruit and then filter it. I'll admit, it does take more time and effort than mashing some berries for jam, but your efforts will be rewarded.

In the case of my wine grapes, I first ran them through a food mill to get the juice out. I diligently saved all the skins and seeds however. That is where most of the color and flavor are. Many people are surprised that the juice from red grapes is actually pretty pale, almost clear. The color in red wines comes from the grape skins. The same with jellies.

Next, I took all those grape skins and seeds added enough water to almost cover and then boiled them for about ten minutes so that they would release their color and flavor. And then I pressed and strained. And strained again. And again. And one more time.

You see, for a crystal clear jelly, you need to really strain the heck out of the juice. I use progressively finer strainers every time. I start with a large perforated strainer, then a smaller one, then a smaller one and so on, until I finally strain with a fine-mesh strainer or jelly bag (yep, that's what jelly bags are for).

The final step is to let the juice rest overnight in the refrigerator. Smaller particles left in the juice will settle out overnight. The next morning, carefully pour the beautifully clear juice into another container without disturbing the sediment. Now your juice is ready to make jelly.

Of course, you can skip however many steps you want in clarifying the juice if you don't mind a less-than-perfectly transparent jelly. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.

As for the rest … follow your recipe. Many juices require additional pectin to set as jellies, but a few do not. Grape juice can go either way, especially with the thicker skinned varieties.

That's it for this week – this email is probably already too long. Thanks for reading to the end!

If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller@gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week
(usually): http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,

Meet the New Chef at the Hollywood Farmer's Kitchen - Weekly Email

2010-10-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

I know it has been quite some time since this newsletter has gone out - the last one was about pickling Easter eggs, actually. I had to put this newsletter on hiatus when I changed jobs and my new work schedule prevented me from continuing this newsletter.

Today, however, I announce that I've taken a new job as the chef at the Hollywood Farmer's Kitchen: http://www.hollywoodfarmerskitchen.com/

The Hollywood Farmer's Kitchen is a project of Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA - http://www.see-la.org/), a
nonprofit community development corporation dedicated to providing local food sources and food security, nutrition education, microenterprise incubation and related services to our surrounding community. The Farmer's Kitchen is a community kitchen that will further those goals as a permanent addition to the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

This position is a much better match for my interests and talents. Indeed, it is my dream job. Not only will I be able to cook with fresh, seasonal produce direct from the market, but food preservation is a significant part of the plan. Finally, I will also be able to support the other missions of SEE-LA through teaching, among other things. For example, I am participating in the Cafeteria Improvement Committee for the LA Unified School District, trying to improve school lunches.

On the food preservation front, I just started this past Monday but we've already canned some Rancho Santa Cecilia Applesauce and some Peach-Amaretto Jam, made with heirloom Indian Red Peaches from Yingst Ranch in Littlerock (where you can pick your own). We're also cooking with our preserves. On Thursday we made a cake for a VIP birthday. We did a two-layer Italian Almond Cake and, rather than frosting, the filling and topping was the Peach-Amaretto jam, topped with toasted sliced almonds for crunch and appearance. Tomorrow, at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, we will be serving a zucchini-apple soup (summer squash meets fall fruit in this light, yet flavorful soup) garnished with diced dried apples.

I expect that future newsletters will often reflect what I'm working on in the Farmer's Kitchen.

In other news, I'd like to invite everyone on this list to attend "Good Food for All" this coming Wednesday evening, Oct. 6th. The Hollywood Farmer's Kitchen and SEE-LA are working in partnership with Hunger Action LA and Roots of Change on the "Veggie Voucher" program to increase the purchasing power of low-income consumers by matching their dollars in farmers' markets. This innovative new program directly benefits small family farmers, and consumers who lack the resources to buy the fresh fruits and vegetables that they and their families need. All funds raised at this event will support the "Veggie Voucher" program! The event will feature tastings from forty of LA's finest chefs, including SEE-LA's Farmer's Kitchen.

For more information and to purchase tickets, see here: http://rootsofchange.org/Goodfoodforall

I'll be in the Farmer's Kitchen this Sunday, but Master Food Preserver Delilah Snell will be at the market to answer your questions from 9:30-12:30, and be sure to drop by HFK to say "hi"!

That's it for this week. If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller_at_gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week
(usually): http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie Miller

canning and preserving classes-October 2010

2010-09-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

both Ernie and i have been really busy lately...me with my own shop, preserve sales and such while Ernie has been offered a new stellar job (which i am sure he will be posting about soon!!)

anyways, here are a few classes offered in a number of places, taught by either myself or Ernie...more to come!

lots and lots of classes all over the place for the holidays...this is the perfect time to learn how to preserve food while making some awesome gifts for the holidays! i have organized the classes by location, but check them all out because some of them are really unique and worth the drive.

*ANGELI CAFFE w/ Evan Kleiman*
-The Art of Fermentation 10/24, 11-2PM: Join Evan Kleiman & Master Preserver Delilah Snell on a trip through traditional fermented foods from all over the world.
Learn about the history, science and techniques that make traditional sauerkraut, Korean kimichi, New York-style Clausen pickles, fermented tea tonics and more.
In addition to recipes, hands-on preparation, take-home starters and snacks, Evan will demonstrate how fermented foods can be incorporated into savory meals like Choucroute Garni. Email delilah for info on this class. delilahsnell(at)yahoo(dot)com

*SANTA ANA @ The Road Less Traveled Store*
-Pickle party 10/3, 10-3PM: relish, chutney, fermented, quick, spicy...a little of each, plus small meal while we explore the tangy-side of preserves.
-A Season in Jars 10/9, 10-1PM: home food preservation basics.
-Fermentation 1, 10/23, 10-noon: kraut & kimchi making.
-Fermentation 2, 10/9, 10-noon: yogurt, vinegars and kombucha *taught by Chef Ernie Miller
-Foraged Foods: 10/30, 10-2: learn to make acorn bread and preserves from the wild!
to RSVP, CLICK HERE

*SANTA MONICA @ The Urban Craft Center*
-Autumn in a Jar 10/17, 10-1 *THIS CLASS IS SOLD OUT*

*HOLLYWOOD @ The Farmers' Market*
Note: I am in the center of the market available to answer questions, this will not be a class but rather discussion time/problem solving. You can come by and visit Ernie @ the Market Kitchen every Sunday (am i giving too much away??)
-all dates are 9AM-12:30PM : 10/3, 10/31 (maybe in costume!), 12/19

Preservation Link Roundup 8/20/10

2010-08-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

The Can Jam deadline is upon us and there is post after post of canned tomato recipes.

Ketchup seem particularly popular and people are using a variety of recipes and techniques to make it:

What Julia Ate - Tomato Ketchup: August Can Jam
Putting By - Ketchup
Hitchhiking to Heaven - Roasted Red Pepper Ketchup -- With Kudos
Yes, Another Cooking Blog - Ketchup for August Can Jam

There are other interesting posts as well.

Such as a tomato jam, which makes a refreshing change of pace in both savory and dessert applications Backyard Farms modifies one recipe with the addition of bay leaf and celery seed (CanJam # 8 Tomato Jam). I like the use of savory spices in jams. Bay leaf is almost always a good call and celery seed pairs very well with tomatoes, so why not?

Barbecue sauce is a great cannable item and Putting By has some good suggestions (Barbecue Sauce).

Local Kitchen makes a classic salsa but uses some time-saving techniques (Can Jam: Roasted Tomato & Chipotle Salsa). In addition to Ketchup, Yes, Another Cooking Blog also made salsa (Salsa-August Can Jam Tigress).

Tomatillos aren't green tomatoes, but they still make amazing salsa, as Put a Lid on It uses them instead of too expensive tomatoes (Roasted Salsa Verde).

I'll end the tomato posts with Well Preserved (Stewed (Canned) Tomatoes). A simple and classic recipe, to be sure, but check out the list of tips for canning. Some are tomato specific, but many are just general good ideas. Especially "Never do it if you don`t want to. It is supposed to be fun and it`s well worth it when you are in the moment." But read them all.

Ok, so maybe you are tomatoe'd out. August is also the best time of year for peaches. Stick a Fork in It, the OC Weekly's food blog, looks at peaches (At the Farmers' Market: Peaches), as does The Atlantic (The Annual Hunt for Perfectly Ripe Peaches):

These are my words of wisdom when it comes to peaches. Never squeeze a peach, as you basically ruin it. Select unbruised peaches with nice color, full shape, and nice weight for their size. Place the peach stem side down on a linen napkin or cotton tea towel—no substitutions. Make sure the fruits don't touch, and keep them in a cool place, not in the sun, then cover them with another linen napkin or cotton tea towel. It may take a few days. They are ripe when they smell like peach and the stem side is pressed down a bit from the weight and softening of the peach. The perfect peach should be quite perfumed, juicy, and soft.

Canning recipes almost always say to remove the peach skin before various types of processing take place. I say, not always. Check the peach first. Biting is the best method. Is the skin too thick, too chewy, too annoying? Then go ahead and skin those peaches. But if the skin is thin and not too chewy, why not leave it on? If you're going to chop finely or purée (as for a peach butter), then the skin is even less of a problem.

With all the August preserving emphasis on tomatoes and stone fruit, it might be easy to forget that pepper season is coming soon, if not already here. Squid Ink looks at a pepper variety now showing up in the farmers' markets (What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Sometimes Spicy Padrons) and The Kitchn provides a recipe for pickling and canning them (Savory Canning: Pickled Peppers).

The Paupered Chef makes homemade pineapple vinegar (How to Make Homemade Vinegar (It Couldn’t Be Easier)). I'm a huge fan of homemade vinegar in all its varieties. What is happening here, of course, is an alcoholic fermentation of the pineapple and brown sugar (the more traditional piloncillo is readily available - and cheap - in Mexican supermarkets), and then a secondary fermentation from an alcoholic beverage into vinegar. I'd probably distinguish the two fermentations myself, and innoculate the alcohol with my own mother, but his method couldn't be simpler.

Emergency Food Storage Pros sing the praises of "Lock & Lock" food storage containers (Food Storage Containers: Lock & Lock). They love them, but there might be a little bias:

One thing that I have not spoken enough about on this food storage website is food storage containers. I have no excuse, now that I have been in South Korea for the past six weeks, and my brother in law is Chief Production Officer of Lock & Lock here.

I've never actually used them myself; I'm more of a Cambro guy (Surf City rulz!), but I've been seeing more and more of them, so they're probably pretty good. They're available on Amazon and at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but if you are here in Southern California, you'll find the best selection and prices at Korean supermarkets or department stores, where they are readily available. When next I need some storage containers, I'll probably give these a try.

Last but not least, Little Homestead in the City does their weekly roundup of what is happening at their urban farm (Homestead Happenings). Their canning shelf is absolutely fantastic!

What is Jarden Home Brands Working On?

2010-08-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Once again I hope that, because I was out of touch for a few months, that this isn't too much old news.

Today I participated in a survey for Jarden Home Brands, the folks who bring us Ball, Kerr and other canning-related brands. Along with general questions about how frequently and what type of preserving I do, they wanted my opinion on specific new products that, I assume, they may be introducing soon.

Cool.

Here they are, in the order that I considered most important:

BPA Free Lids

About time, I say. Unfortunately, they might cost as much as $0.20 more a lid. Although I'm not terribly worried about the BPA in lids, I would really prefer not to have to worry at all.
UV Protected Jar

These jars provide 99% UV protection, reducing color change and extending the shelf life of canned goods. The coating wouldn't wash off and the jars are reusable. I really like the extended shelf life and that I could display my jars without reducing shelf life.
Thermal-Guard Jar

Thermal shock resistant jars that do not have to be preheated before being filled. Saves time in canning.
Non-slip Jar.

Jars with a coating that will make them easier to grip when wet. The coating will also cool down quicker so that you can handle the jars quicker after processing. Non-stick is nice, but not all that necessary in my experience. The coating will also likely mar the appearance of the jars and I don't really like moving my jars very much after processing anyway; I prefer to allow the jars to cool for several hours (at least) before moving them.

There was also some questions about combinations of the jar improvements, such as Thermal-Guard Jars with non-stick coating.

In any case, I'm glad that Jarden is working on improving the quality of the their products, especially the BPA-free lids.

Preservation Link Roundup 8/19/10

2010-08-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

The Kitchn features a beverage I thought was only homemade: sauerkraut juice (Kraut Juice: A Tasty Can Full Of Stink!). I've always been a fan of pickle juices and sauerkraut juice, I just didn't know it was sold on its own. Apparently it is fairly common in Europe and those places in the US where German immigrants settled. It is full of vitamins and, bonus if you make your own, you get the probiotic benefits as well. The Kitchn also has a recipe (Try This! A Tomato Tang With Kraut Juice). Try some in soups or salads as well, as a substitute for vinegar.

Patrick Costello is matching peaches with lavender both for preserves and syrup (More Canning and Whoa Lavender Peach Syrup!).

Sometimes when preparing stone fruit, you might have bits and pieces of fruit that you can't really use, such as the parts that cling to the stones in clingstone fruit (especially likely

Sake + Cheese fell in love with giardiniera and when the supply she bought ran out, decided to make her own (The Canning Continues: Hot Giardiniera). Good call. This is one of the most satisfying pickles to make. The flavor is rich, has plenty of depth and is texturally eclectic. Not too mention it looks spectacular.

Moo Said the Mama has an excellent photo essay on making and canning ketchup, well worth checking out if you're thinking of making some (Ketchup Canning Tutorial). MStM does note that the recipe they used ended up tasting more like cocktail sauce than ketchup. That is a problem with ketchup recipes, they do vary a lot in terms of flavor. As I've noted before, we're used to that commercial flavor. Don't be surprised if your ketchup tastes different. (Although I look for clove and celery seed in recipes ... they are definitely two flavor keys to ketchup, as far as I am concerned) Keep trying recipes until you find one you like. And know also that the sweetness of homemade ketchup can vary a great deal depending on the sweetness of your tomatoes. The golden cherry tomatoes from my garden are crazy sweet, while my Romas are sweet, but not like the cherry tomatoes.

The National Post also provides a recipe and description of making homemade ketchup (Field Trip: Canning Tomatoes).

If you're a canning beginner, this first time canning experiment by Frugal and Focused would be a useful experience to read about (Learning the Art of Home Canning: Experiment #1 - Blueberry Syrup). Yep, fruit syrups can boil over very easily. Use a big pot. Syrups might seem a bit thinner than you're used to. Don't thicken them before canning, but thicken just before use, if you choose to thicken them at all.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel interviews a local canner, Anna Cameron of Ladysmith Jams, who uses many foraged fruits in her preserves (The new can-do spirit: Santa Cruz jam maker savors the fruits of her foraging).

"It's something to see that little piece of heritage," she said. "But foraging goes back to an even deeper genetic history. Even before we were hunters, we were gatherers. Picking fruit calms me, it makes me feel human in this world of business and to-do lists and screen time. Go pick blueberries down an alley and you'll feel better!"

The article also has a brief history of canning.

Occasional Gardening Roundup 8/19/10

2010-08-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

While this blog will continue to focus primarily on food preservation, as a Master Gardener Intern, I will blog about gardening from time to time. And be more than happy to answer any questions you have (or pass them on to someone who can answer them).

Vertical gardens have become quite popular in Southern California recently, with a number of high profile installations. Although visually attractive, there has been a backlash focusing on their sustainability, especially in our dry climate Homegrown Evolution has been skeptical (Vertical Vegetables). And this past week the LA Times turned a jaundiced eye on the trend (The Dry Garden: A skeptic's view of vertical gardens):

Succulents such as sedum and senecio that are so hardy in the ground need constant irrigation to cope with heat and wind after being suspended in felt pockets against SmogShoppe’s hot walls. The concrete wall behind the bagged-and-hung garden is wet with runoff from an automated drip system. The sacks are calcified with irrigation scale. Even in an open-air setting, get close and there is a whiff of mold. It’s hard to imagine a less savory or more whimsically destructive system for a region in a water crisis.

The critics make some good points. Vertical gardens aren't always a good idea.

I do like that Homegrown Evolution makes some suggestions for old-school vertical gardening with trellises and training plants.

But growing vertically does not have to mean attaching roots to a wall. I can think of two simple vertical vegetable garden strategies where that $1,000 would go a lot further. How about simply favoring fruits and vegetables that either grow vertically naturally, say pole beans, grapes, peas or kiwi or that can be convinced with a bit of pruning to go vertical, such as tomatoes, melons and winter squash? Mel Bartholomew has some nice vertical gardening tips in his classic book Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!. Build some raised beds next to a wall or saw cut out the concrete, plant in the ground and you're in business.With some slings for the fruit, you can even grow watermelons vertically.

Fruit tree hedges might be a better idea for vertical gardening than some of the systems out there.

Nevertheless, though vertical gardening is probably being overdone at present, we shouldn't dismiss it entirely, even in dry Southern California. Moreover, it is still a young technique and better technical solutions for some of its drawbacks will probably be developed in time.

LA Eastside takes a tour of artist's gardens in East LA. First, local muralist Raul Baltazar's garden (How Does Your Garden Grow? Eastside Style!), open to the community. Then a garden from ceramicist Jose Ramirez which features homemade ceramic pots and art that harmonizes quite well with the environment. Next up Leslie Gutierrez Saiz's home in Eagle Rock is quite impressive. And Rigo Maldonado's garden in Santa Ana sports one of my favorite things, a pergola.

Very impressive stuff. Definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in Southwestern gardens.

The Daily Green lists the top ten US cities with the most urban gardens and Long Beach represents SoCal at #3! (Which 10 Cities Have the Most Urban Gardens?)

Props to my friends in Long Beach!

War Era Food Posters Exhibit

2010-08-18T10:54:00.001-07:00

Okay, so having been out of touch with blogosphere for a few months, I'm probably the last one to know about this, but I still think it is pretty darn cool. Apparently, the US Department of Agriculture's National Agriculture Library has an exhibit, When Beans Were Bullets, of war era food and agriculture posters. Many of the posters feature ideas that are very topical today, stuff I didn't realize was part of the culture back then.

Early Michael Pollan perhaps?

We all have heard of victory gardens, but what about the "School Garden Army"? Maybe we should bring that back.

And, of course, a nice selection of canning posters:

Be sure to check out the whole online exhibit, When Beans Were Bullets, or the Smithsonian Magazine's online gallery of highlights: American Food Posters from World War I and II.

Preservation Link Roundup 8/18/10

2010-08-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

I really appreciate that Well Preserved discusses in some depth the acidity problem in canning tomatoes (Well Preserved Tomato Sauce Recipe). Yes, the USDA is pretty conservative and you can get away with fudging their safety guidelines quite often. After all, your grandmother probably violated a number of their current rules and you're reading this, right? But,

The spoilage risk is very real. The family who taught ours lost an entire batch (around 200 jars) due to low acid and things began to ferment in bottle. They lost an entire weekend of work, a virtual crop of tomatoes and sauce for the year.

The Atlantic Food Channel has an excellent article on various ways to preserve venison, from curing to corning and, of course, making sausage (both fresh and fermented) (Venison Sausage: A Whole Different Animal). Bonus for Southern California readers, the deer was shot on Catalina Island.

Another cured meat (and a favorite of mine) is pâté. The Kitchn provides a few links on the subject (Do You Have a Good Recipe for Homemade Pâté?). Be sure to check out the comment section for additional links. If you've never made pâté or a rillette or similar, I highly suggest giving it a try. They can be surprisingly easy to make and are a wonderful side dish or appetizer. And you can play with flavors quite a bit. I make my own teriyaki-flavored "spam" for use in homemade musubi.

Food in Jars has a good post on substituting other salts for pickling salt (if you can't easily find it) (Canning 101: On Substituting Salt in Pickling). At the end of the day, there are only a few things you need to know:

Substitute by weight. 3/4 of an ounce per tablespoon for pickling salt. Simply weigh out the other salt.
Make sure the salt is pure. No iodine or free flow agents. The only ingredient listed should be salt.
Take into account that other salts won't dissolve as quickly as pickling salt.

If you can't find pickling salt, popcorn salt makes an excellent substitution. You can also process kosher salt into something resembling pickling salt by pulsing it in a food processor a few times.

The Blueberry Files goes through the steps of pressure canning beets (Pressure Canning Beats). Beets are an excellent candidate for pressure canning, since they generally survive the process quite well. Of course, if you don't have a pressure canner you can pickle beets and can them with a boiling water bath. There are plenty of recipes out there.

A Nutritionist Eats is getting into canning and has a Ball Canning Discovery Kit to giveaway (Canning with Lucia). Visit her blog for information on winning the kit.

I can't emphasize enough how canning works best as a social event. Feast After Famine learns canning from some neighbors at a canning party, "replete with wine and cheese and good cheer... "(Canning Party). Why not invite some neighbors over to learn canning from you?

Tigress in a Jam takes advantage of the fantastic stone fruit out there to make a lovely preserve using summer savory (an inspired choice) and white pepper (Nectarine Preserves with Summer Savory & White Pepper).

I've got mixed feelings about white pepper. It is generally used in dishes as a substitute for black pepper when you don't want little black flecks in your dish, such as in white sauces, lightly colored soups or mashed potatoes. However, there are distinct flavor differences. To me, black pepper is fruitier and more well-rounded, while white pepper is a little more directly spicy with less depth of flavor. More importantly, however, I think that white pepper suffers more from being pre-ground than black pepper. Frankly, I hate pre-ground white pepper. I dislike pre-ground black pepper, but can't stand the white pepper version. So, please, use freshly ground white pepper when you do use it.

Canning seems to get all the press, but sometimes it is important to remember that freezing is an important aspect of food preservation. Putting By freezes their bell peppers (they don't can well by themselves) (Bell Peppers). I like everything they did, except place the pepper strips into gallon ziploc bags. You should usually freeze in quantities that you would use. That way you don't have defrost/refreeze what you haven't used. So, instead of gallon ziplocs, why not quart or pint bags? And I can't emphasize this enough when freezing: label, label, label! When you freeze a lot of stuff, it will save many headaches months later.

Freezing is great, but they seem to fill up quite quickly, so back to canning it is. Putting By also has a post on canning pasta sauce (Pasta Sauce). They use those commercial square-ish pasta jars that I know many people have around the house. I know many people who use them for canning successfully, but I do have to point to the FAQ from the companies page:

Can I reuse the Classico® jar for home canning?
No. A coating is applied at the glass plant to reduce scratching and scuffing. If scratched, the jar becomes weaker at this point and can more easily break. This would increase the risk of the jar breaking when used for canning. Also, the lighter weight of our current jar could make it unsafe for home canning.

Do as you will, just passing on the information.

The LA Weekly's Squid Ink blog reviews yet another new canning book, Canning for a New Generation (Cookbook Review: Canning For A New Generation).

The book might as well be called Canning and Preserving For An Eager But Sometimes Lazy (Or Just Plain Busy) Generation. And that's exactly why we think it's pretty great.

Gotta Beef with Lunch?

2010-08-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

Food for Lunch is a new group looking to reform the school lunch program in the Los Angeles Unified School District:

FOOD FOR LUNCH is a group of concerned LAUSD parents, residents, grassroots and community organizations from across Los Angeles who have joined together to affect positive change in the LAUSD lunchroom.

In response to what even the USDA is calling “the single greatest threat to public health in this century,” the obesity epidemic, and to combat health trends in this epidemic which will put 1 in 2 of America’s children at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, we propose the following changes be made immediately for food served to children at breakfast and lunch:
More whole foods, fruits and vegetables served. We advocate for California-sourced, unprocessed foods served daily for breakfast and lunch.
Less processed foods: no chicken nuggets or other such highly processed animal protein foods.
Less sugar: Reduce sugar to no more than 20 grams per meal and remove foods made with high fructose corn syrup.
Water: We want filtered, non-bottled water as a beverage option school-wide.
Sustainability: We want food that is sustainably sourced and minimally packaged as well as a reduction of individually wrapped and packaged foods.
In addition, we want transparency from LAUSD Food Services in menu choices and food selection and a willingness from the School Board and Food Services to go through the challenge of transition as healthier changes are implemented in LAUSD breakfasts and lunches.

They're meeting on Wednesday, August 18th and Tuesday August 31st. I plan on being at both meetings and helping as much as I can.

On Wednesday, August 18 at 6:30 PM at Manual Arts High School located at 4131 Vermont Avenue next to USC, all interested parties are invited to make their opinions known about LAUSD school food. Mud Baron, school garden guru and LAUSD’s Green Policy Director, will be co-facilitating with Laura Benevidez of LAUSD Food Services. This is the official listening session of the School Food Parent/Student/Teacher/Community Taskforce before the first LAUSD Board meeting of 2010-11 school year. Speakers will have the opportunity to hear & discuss options.

Then, on Tuesday, August 31 at 1:30 PM is the LAUSD school board meeting where school lunch and this halted Tyson contract will be discussed again. WE NEED A BIG SHOW of people to come and let the School Board meeting to let board members know we want them to start making healthier food a reality NOW! The meeting is held at the LAUSD School Board offices, located at 333 South Beaudry Ave in downtown Los Angeles, just north of the 110 freeway. Park in the Visconti parking lot on Miramar St. and get free parking for 2 hours!

If you're in LA and care about school food policy, you're invited. If you can't make it, I encourage you to sign the petition and join their mailing list: contact Jennie Cook at jennie@jenniecooks.com or Rebecca Crane at r.h.crane@gmail. And check them out on Facebook.

Preservation Link Roundup 8/17/10

2010-08-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, Another Cooking Blog cans tomato halves for the Can Jam (Tomato halves for Can Jam-August). Why halves? Much less floating. Floating doesn't affect flavor, but isn't an aesthetically pleasing.

But that's not all - how about a basic tomato sauce? Basic Tomato Sauce for August Can Jam

Bread Experience makes a non-basic tomato sauce (Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce: Tigress Can Jam).

Plate to Plate goes through some tomato canning basics (Canning Tomatoes). For more advanced tomato canning you can check out this post from Well Preserved (A Guide to our best Tomato Preserving (Canning) Posts).

If you need more hands on information, how about a class from my fellow Master Food Preserver Delilah Snell and the famous Evan Kleinman? The class is $100 and takes place September 11th (Tomato Canning Class: Mucho Mas with Evan Kleinman). I'll be doing a demo on the 29th.

I talked about pesto and basil yesterday, and today Road to the Farm has a lovely photo of some pesto she has put in canning jars for freezing (Oh, Pesto!).

Simply Daily Recipes reviews one of the newer canning books, Put 'Em Up (Put 'Em Up Book Review). As a beginning canner, she liked it. I've got a copy myself and will provide my opinion when I have time to play with it a bit.

Speaking of new preserving books, Doris and Jilly Cook are doing a giveaway of another new one (Giveaway: The Fresh Girl's Guide to Easy Canning and Preserving).

And, speaking of giveaways, Food in Jars is giving away vanilla beans to three lucky winners, but everyone gets her recipe for peach sauce with vanilla - or follow the alternative directions to make peach butter (better than apple butter in my book) (White Peach Sauce with Vanilla (+ giveaway!)). There are some really great notes on acidification of white peaches, since they have borderline acidity.

Of course, vanilla is good, but why not some rum in that peach sauce? Local Kitchen makes a peach sauce with Kraken Rum (Pirate Peaches). Love the labels too. Wish she'd post the file.

Simply Recipes is on a frozen yogurt kick (Blackberry Frozen Yogurt). And why not? If you make yogurt on a regular basis (which you should) why not toss some of that yogurt (along with some flavorings and some sweetener) into an ice cream churn? It's a lot easier than making a French-style ice cream and the sweet/tart flavor is fantastic. Doesn't have to be dessert either, why not frozen yogurt as an intermezzo?

For more information on frozen yogurt, The Kitchn collects a number of recipes in an attempt at answering a question about making creamy frozen yogurt (How Do I Make Creamy, Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt at Home?).

Since I make my own kombucha at home I didn't realize that they've stopped carrying it many stores. The Kitchn asks whether you're getting your fix of kombucha now (The Great Kombucha Freakout: Are You Getting Your Fix?). My answer is yes, of course. Couldn't afford that store bought stuff in the first place. Even if I could, I'm not sure I'd want to pay so much for something that is simply tea and sugar and culture and some time.

Preservation Link Roundup 8/16/10

2010-08-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm so jealous of Georgia. Seems like nearly every high school there boasts a community canning center. How come we don't have any in Los Angeles? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that there will be tours of these canning centers (Georgia Organics Plans Special Tour on Canning).

The canneries, Croom said, are a unique public resource.

"We really want people to use them," said Croom, Georgia Organics' Farm to School program coordinator. "What can take eight hours in your kitchen can take two-and-a-half hours there; you can do huge amounts at once."

We need one of these centers in LA.

Doris and Jilly Cook answer a question about non-sealing jars of stock when pressure canning (Ask the Goats: Bad Seals in the Pressure Canner). There is some good advice on getting a firm seal, such as removing as much of the fat from the stock as possible. I like to chill my stock overnight in the refrigerator and remove the fat that has solidified on the top. It is easy to remove the fat in this way and I also get a better idea how fortified my stock is - does it seem just like a thick liquid or have I gotten a jelly-like flavor bomb?

And don't forget to save the fat. The fat from beef stock makes a nice frying medium, especially for potatoes. Or use it (instead of butter) to caramelize onions. Chicken fat is even better, I think, because what you now have is a flavorful schmaltz. I wouldn't make Matzah balls without it.

In any case, the main recommendation was to let the pressure canner cool down for at least an hour after turning off the heat. This is good advice for any pressure canning. Just be careful that with some models of canners, excessive cooling may create a vacuum seal making opening more difficult.

Speaking of pressure canning, Frugal Canning did what everyone with a pressure gauge canner should do every year: get that gauge checked (Pressure Canning Gauge Check). Unfortunately, we don't have a testing setup in LA County, but will see if we can't get that changed in the next couple of months. Of course, even if you don't need to get the gauge checked, don't forget to replace any rubber gaskets on an annual basis as well.

The Jam and Jelly Lady provides a little background on how she left office worker and became tJ&JL (My Journey to Becoming a Canning Mom).

Well Preserved is getting ready for some major tomato canning (The Tomatoes are Here – One of My Favourite Weeks of the Year). Sounds like a good time with family!

We`ve got our system down pretty good and the four of us can run through 6-8 bushels with a solid day of work. Even after 5+ years of doing this as a team we find there`s a few kinks that we can work out (last year we had 200 liters of sauce but no large pots left for the hot water bath) and will continue to learn from the process. One of the great joys has been learning to work as a team and having fun together with it. We now complete the entire task in less than half the time than what we took 5 years ago (with most of the same equipment).

The Kitchn laments that they haven't done enough preserving this summer (something I can relate to), but there is still plenty of time for tomatoes (Weekend Meditation: That Time of the Year ... or counting the jars in my pantry). Of course, while you are canning those tomatoes with friends or family, you might want to take a break for a refreshing beverage. Luckily, the Kitchn also provides a simple recipe for Ginger Ale, with bread yeast providing the fermentation for the bubbly (Try This! Easy Homemade Ginger Ale).

There is more to canning tomatoes than sauce and whole tomatoes, however. Mother's Kitchen makes a tomato salsa for the August Can Jam (Can Jam August: Salsa #5). This recipe features tomato paste and tomato sauce for a thicker consistency (Mother makes her own from scratch). Looks really good to me.

The Washington Post looks at whether you can make a good homemade ketchup with those excess tomatoes (Could Homemade Ketchup Beat Heinz?). It might seem that is an obvious win for homemade, but we expect certain things from out ketchups, and some homemade versions (including some I've made) just don't seem what we're used to. Good, yes, but not quite the ketchup you've grown up with. On the other hand, maybe we shouldn't expect so much consistency in our flavors. We're not five year olds afraid of everything different. So, let one thousand ketchups bloom. More later, but I will demoing homemade ketchup Aug. 29 at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

Know Whey makes "spiced peaches," which I call "pickled peaches" (Spiced Peaches). This year I've made both pickled peaches and plums. Love 'em. So sweet and tart. Although it is wonderful to have these pickles in the winter or for Thanksgiving as Know Whey does, I really enjoy them in the summer as well. They go great with barbecue and taste like summer to me; they are very refreshing on a hot day.

Tartelette does something a little more traditional with her peaches, she makes several jams (French Word a Week - Confiture de Peche). What I particularly liked is that she varies the flavor with different spices and a bit of alcohol. Why not try the same with pickled peaches as well?

Putting By makes a favorite preserve of mine: Razzleberry Jam). Sometimes you don't have enough berries for a single berry jam, or you just like to add layers of flavor. Razzleberry jam it is then.

In My Kitchen provides some excellent lessons learned on storing fresh basil (Garden Journal 8/15/10: How to and, More Importantly, How Not to Store Fresh Basil). Of course, sometimes you have more fresh basil than you can use over a few days. Freezing is the best method of preserving basil, though you can dry it as well. You can chiffonade the basil and freeze it in ice cubes, freeze it on sheet trays and then bag it, chop it and mix with oil to freeze as a preliminary pesto, or freeze as an actual pesto (my favorite).

And feel free to play around with the pesto. Cold Cereal and Toast not only makes a nice mention of a recent report on food policy (Planting the Seeds for Public Health: How the Farm Bill Can Help Farmers to Produce and Distribute Healthy Foods) but describes making pesto from a CSA excess of basil - but without the traditional pinenuts, substituted peanuts (The Thing About Surplus: Easy Peanut Pesto).

I'm Back

2010-08-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

I'm back.

It is a beautiful Sunday at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. There is so much to be excited about in the markets right now. I'll be here most Sundays for the near future to answer questions about food preservation.

And gardening - I am now a Master Gardener intern as well as a Master Food Preserver. So, as I resume this blog and my newsletter, you can expect to see a little bit more information about growing your own, or about the plants themselves.

For example, I just finished eating a beautiful fig, which are returning to the market after a brief absence from the Spring season. Figs have two seasons each year, the first season on last year's growth and the second season on the new growth branches. Something you find out when learning to prune fig trees.

As for preserving figs ... I haven't done any yet this year, but a nice thick fig spread and some fig cheese are something I'm planning on.

Looking forward to blogging again! Thanks!

Preservation Link Roundup - Catching Up - 4/9/10

2010-04-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

Since last week I discussed pickling leftover Easter Eggs, I decided to share a "before" shot of some of the four dozen eggs I pickled this week. In a couple of weeks, I'll share a photo of the finished eggs and even a dissection (to see the color gradation inside). I tried the pineapple pickled eggs and a soy sauce/pineapple brine.

Master Food Preserver (and co-author of this blog), Delilah Snell, has finalized her food preservation classes for the near future - check them out! I'll be doing one, wish I could do more, but my new job means my schedule is uncertain right now: Food Preservation Classes, Workshops and More - FINAL

She also is on the lookout for free fruit to preserve, especially loquats (Adventure in Loquats and Other Backyard Fruit - and a Special Request for Readers of this Blog!):

if you have any fruit trees that you want me to pick or you can pick and hand over-i will give you a few jars of whatever i make....viva Spring!

I was a participant in "loquat-a-palooza" last year, they are a great preserving fruit (though a little labor intensive).

Food in Jars takes a look at Ashley English's new book: Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys & More (A Good Book for the Can Jam or Anytime). She discovers that it is perfect for providing some ideas for April's Can Jam.

Not everybody has the room for a backyard smoker, or even a backyard. The Chicago Tribune runs a nice story on stovetop smoking (Smoke Signals). If you haven't tried smoking food at home yet, the stovetop method is a great place to start. You'll be surprised by the flavors you can achieve. I love smoked foods, and what you can do easily at home beats the heck out of what is available commercially. Smoke is another one of those techniques that can be used to transform routine dishes and take them to a new level. Mmmmm ... smoked roasted chicken salad.

Leda Meredith of her eponymous Urban Homestead did a radio interview on the Heritage Radio Network's Hot Grease in which she discusses lacto-fermentation as a preservation method among other topics (Hot Grease Interview).

If you are lucky enough to have access to ramps (foraged or in farmers' markets), then you might want to read a bit about using and preserving them. Local Kitchen provides some excellent ideas and information (Ramps):

The Spring ramp season is short; to preserve your bounty for the coming months, blanche & freeze the leaves as you would chard or kale, or make pesto or infused oil or vinegar as you would with fresh herbs. Dry chopped bulbs and leaves in a dehydrator or low oven, or use in pickles, chutneys, or confit. For a host of allium preserving recipe ideas, check out the March Can Jam round-up. I have a big pile o’ ramps to cook with, and I hope to score some more to preserve, so I’ll update this post as I experiment. Stay tuned!

The Canning Doctor roasts a chicken and then makes and cans stock from the carcass (Pressure Canning Again). This is an excellent practice whenever you roast a chicken (one of the greatest, most versatile meals there is). If you don't have time to make the stock that day or the next, freeze the carcass and make the stock when you do have the time.

The Practical Preserver provides instructions for properly freezing strawberries (Strawberry Season). Though I'm a huge fan of canning, in my book, it is always a good idea to have some frozen berries available in the pantry - then you are ready for all sorts of quick desserts and sweet/savory dishes.

One Perfect Bite makes a versatile pesto (aren't most pestos versatile?) from homemade sundried cherry tomatoes (Red Pesto Sauce + Home-Style Sun-Dried Tomatoes). It'll be awhile before tomato season is back, but I'm lucky enough to have a stock of homemade sundried (actually, dehydrator'd) cherry tomatoes from last August to give this pesto a try.

What Julia Ate is clearing out her freezer by canning the contents, in this case combining summer stone fruit with her homemade pectin (Apricot Plum Jam with Orange Pectin). Once again, she shares her valuable experience in working with homemade pectin.

After learning how easy it is to make buttermilk, What Julia Ate also learns how easy it is to make crème fraîche (Crème Fraîche). Crème fraîche is basically buttermilk made from cream, so it is richer and thicker. It is an excellent substitute for sour cream in most recipes, and is incredibly useful in its own right. It doesn't curdle and it is a great addition to hot dishes, such as soups and sauces. Or use it to make your own "ranch" dressing.

Preservation Link Roundup - Catching Up - 4/8/10

2010-04-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

So, last week was spring break for many as well as Easter and I had to work six days. I work the afternoons/evenings and in the mornings I was driving an hour each way to interview for my new job. So far this week I've had to drive to my new job twice in order to sign all the paperwork that goes with starting in a new place. Unfortunately for me, I forgot that when you get a new job you need to show proof that you can be employed (passport or SSN card and Drivers License, etc.) so, I had to make that second trip to take care of that little detail. In any case, that is what has kept me from my updates. It'll take me a some time to get caught up, so please be patient. I've also got a few special posts planned (such as a book review), but those will have to wait as well. Oh, yeah, and I've got to get some studying in for my Master Gardener class (I dropped my studies for Advanced Sommelier for now, but will have to pick that back up in the summer).

The New York Times Magazine has a review of the Little House Cookbook, based on the cooking found in Laura Ingall Wilder's Little House books (Little House in the Hood). Preservation, of course, was an important part of life in the big woods and on the prairie, and it isn't clear how much preservation makes it into the book, though the review touches on it, but it would be interesting to learn more about preservation in frontier America.

The Jam and Jelly Lady provides a "semi-homemade" recipe for a trifle, layers of pound cake, cream (in this case, a tarter cream cheese mixture), fruit and jam (Strawberry Amaretto Trifle). The actual recipe is here: Jammin' Good Food. Trifles are simple, fresh and delicious. Garnish with some fresh mint and served chilled as they are wonderful warm spring evening or summer desserts. They can be prepared well ahead of time and don't require any cooking, unless you insist on making your own pound cake (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). They are wonderful for playing with flavors as well. Add your favorite liqueur, herb or even spice.

Well Preserved has just been going crazy with some wonderful spring preserving posts:

Dandelion Wine, Jelly and Coffee - A fine introduction to the possibilities of preserving dandelions.
Lamb Jerky - Something delicious that you are unlikely to find in your local megalomart or even gourmet food store.
Rhubarb Two Ways - Simple jams and a chutney. I can't recommend playing with rhubarb enough - it is another of those secret ingredients that can punch up so many different dishes without anyone knowing for sure what you've done.
Beech Tree Noyau (Infused Gin) - I'm not really sure if there are beech trees in Southern California, but if I find any, I'm going to give this a try.
Asparagus - Pickled and Pressure Canned - I'm a fan of pickling asparagus, of course, but haven't tried pressure canning them yet. I'll have to give it a try.
Pickled Fiddleheads - I used to forage these in New England, but haven't found many in Southern California (though last week on one of my walks I did find some Alpine Strawberries). They're delicious freshly steamed or sautéed, but pickling sounds delicious as well.
Wild Leeks (or Ramps) - There is very useful advice on foraging - making sure to leave enough after harvesting for the wild crop to flourish.

Serious Eats alerted me to the fact that I missed Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, which is held each April 2nd (Happy Peanut Butter and Jelly Day). What an opportunity to make something special to celebrate the holiday. It is going on my calendar for next year.

Tired of traditional scones? Looking for something a tad bit healthier? Why not try some oatcake bannocks? Serious Eats has a recipe for what may be the scone's wholegrain ancestor (Sunday Brunch: Bannocks). Delicious with clotted cream and your favorite jam or marmalade.

Food in Jars turns some whole preserved fruit into a delicious cake (Pear Cake). Sounds great, would probably work with a number of different fruits and FiJ recommends it with yogurt for breakfast ... sounds like my way to start the day.

Hot Water Bath comes home to a nearly empty pantry and improvises some Triscuit/chevre/pickled pepper snacks (Thank Goodness I Canned: Pickled Hot Peppers). They may not sound particularly fancy, but I bet they tasted pretty darn good. Hot pickled peppers are great to have around - and don't forget the brine:

The canning brine (I use a very standard 2 parts vinegar, 2 parts water, 1/2 part kosher salt) can likewise be used in marinades, drinks (yes! Really!), as a stir-in for plain rice or potatoes, or to punch up the flavor in all kinds of otherwise insipid dishes.

Leda Meredith's Urban Homestead makes a pizza chock full 'o local preserving goodness: tomato puree leftover from some home canned tomatoes, lacto-fermented garlic, in state cheese and foraged wild greens (Wild Pizza Improv).

Miia Monthly's sauerkraut is ready for eating (Sauerkraut is Done). She uses an interesting technique before putting the sauerkraut in the refrigerator, however - she removes the brine, boils it, chills it and puts the kraut back into the brine and refrigerates it.

Tigress in a Jam provides a little more guidance on April's Can Jam: Herbs (Preserving Herbs in Jars). Tigress points to some of her favorite herb books, some links, and provides these comments:

the rules state that the food in focus must be integral to the canned product. in the first few months when canning citrus, carrots and alliums it was easy to consider the chosen produce to be the main ingredient. this month's herbs are a little different and i would interpret integral as being essential to the flavor of the preserve but not necessarily the main ingredient.

this will open up a world of possibilities and i hope will allow those in zones where things are beginning to burst from the ground and jump off the trees to take advantage of what's springing in tandem with the essential herb. and for those of us who are still anticipating spring's abundance it may offer an opportunity to use up the last of the root-cellared produce.

finally, herbs are generally considered the leafy green parts of a plant (i would include flowers in here too) while spices are derived from other parts of the plant, particularly the seeds, berries, bark and roots. so while spices are certainly welcome in this month's entry they are not considered the food in focus and must be in addition to the integral herb.

Finally, for today, Two Frog Home shares a homemade pattern for knitting a cover for mason jars - perfects for gifts (Knitted Jar Pouch). Darn cool.

Martha Stewart joins the canning party

2010-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

("Now remember to color coordinate your preserves!")

Sometimes i partake in a little Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I like the Good Things section and i love how she takes something i have collected (from yard sales and thrift stores) 10x's more expensive because she did an article about them :)
In last month's magazine, i noticed that there was a section about canning/preserves. i would have posted about it earlier, but i was trying to find links/images to post as well-couldn't find any, and got busy-hence a little late.
But late is better than never-and the Martha article has a beautifully photographed spread on making your own canned goods. While pressure-canning, diagrams of actually preparing/processing goods and tidbits that one would get from a Ball Canning Book are not really covered (heck, it's only a few pages!)...i liked the article for 2 reasons:
-new recipes like lemons with artichokes-have to try it!
-creative applications of the recipes beyond the cheese and bread.

below is one of the recipes from the article-if you end up making it, let us know!

OLD BACHELOR'S JAM (from Martha Stewart Living)

2 lbs blackberries (7c)
3 1/2 c sugar
2 lemons halved
2 lbs raspberries (7c)
4 oz kirsh or other cheery-flavored liquor (1/2c)

bring blackberries, 1 3/4c sugar and the juice of 1 lemon in a large pot over medium heat. Cook until sugar dissolves and berries are soft. Press parchment on the jam and put in the fridge overnight. Do the same with the raspberries and same amount of sugar.
remove parchment, bring each pot to a boil-thicken (about 12-17 min). do jell-test to make sure it will set.
fill each jar, half with one jam, half with the other and top with 1/2 oz kirsch. Process in a water bath for 10 min.

NOTE: if you are interested in preserving classes, both Ernie and i have a few classes coming up in the next few months-again, let us know if there is something that you would like to see.
happy preserving!

Happy Easter and Pickled Eggs - Weekly Email

2010-04-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

Happy Easter! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday, spring break or just a beautiful Southern California weekend.

A couple of announcements.

First, I have accepted a new position as sous-chef at the Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club, effective in a couple of weeks. This will have a significant impact on my schedule, so my presence at the farmers' markets will certainly change. I will continue to be available to answer questions via email, but it may be awhile before I have a regular schedule of time at various farmers' markets again.

It will also likely take me some time and effort to get up to speed in my new position, so if these emails are shorter, or non-existent, please be patient.

Second, I have a class and a demo coming up. I will be teaching a class on fermentation (yogurt, vinegar, and kombucha) on Sunday, April 18th at Delilah Snell's Road Less Traveled Store in Santa Ana. Sign up for my class or one of the many other food preservation classes (sauerkraut and kimchi, working with chilis, foraging) here:
http://www.roadlesstraveledstore.com/shop/home.php?cat=263

The demo will be on Sunday, May 16th at the Hollywood Farmers' Market to celebrate the 19th Anniversary of the market. Delilah and I will be demonstrating some food preservation techniques as well as giving out samples. I look forward to seeing many of you at the demo!

Today is Easter and for those of you who celebrate it, you will probably be left with a significant number of hard boiled eggs at the end of the day. There are many things you can do with fresh hard boiled eggs, but after several days, you might start getting a bit tired of them. You don't want the eggs to go to waste, though, so what do you do?

Pickle them, of course.

Pickled hard boiled eggs can be preserved in the refrigerator for months, to be eaten at your leisure. However, after you taste one, they probably won't last all that long.

Making pickled eggs is very simple. Hard boil some eggs and peel off the shells. Then make a flavored brine, bring it to a boil, and pour it over the eggs. Refrigerate for several days to a couple of weeks to allow the brine to penetrate and flavor the eggs. Enjoy.

Pickled eggs aren't canned, but refrigerated. Submerged in the brine they will be good for three to four months in the refrigerator. Although they aren't canned, a quart canning jar will usually hold a dozen large or medium eggs. Just make sure the brine completely covers the eggs.

There are dozens of recipes for pickled eggs, ranging from traditional beet pickled eggs to spicy to obscure (curried pickled eggs, anyone?). Also, feel free to play with the recipes, varying the vinegar, the sweeteners and spices. For example, use rice wine vinegar and substitute soy sauce and mirin for the water in a traditional recipe to make an Asian-influenced pickled egg.

There are a couple of tricks to making pickled eggs. Older eggs, because they've lost some of their moisture content, are easier to peel after they've been boiled. Fresh eggs are much more difficult to peel.

For snacking whole, I prefer medium-sized eggs. A large egg often seems like a bit much to eat on its own. A medium-sized egg is a much more convenient snacking size. They also pickle more quickly. A large egg can take 2-4 weeks for pickling all the way through, a medium egg 1-3 weeks. Of course, you don't have to wait until they are pickled all the way through, but they sure taste good.

Any egg can be pickled. Quail eggs, which are readily available in many markets nowadays, make a wonderful garnish, or cute amuse bouche. Heck, instead of an olive or pickled onion in your Martini, why not a pickled quail egg for something different and unique from your bar? They'd go well with a Bloody Mary as well. Duck eggs can also be pickled and if you know someone who raises pigeons, they'll probably have a surplus of squab eggs available for pickling.

Not only can you be infinitely creative with the flavoring of pickled eggs, but there are many options when using them in recipes.

Like any pickle, their tartness is a good counterpoint to fried foods. Pickled eggs are traditionally served in the UK with fish and chips, but they can match with many different fried foods. Beer, especially your heartier ales, is also a traditional pairing.

In addition to eating out of hand, consider substituting pickled eggs into any hard boiled egg recipe. Just remember that not only the flavor is changed but that the texture of pickled eggs is slightly different, a little more rubbery than a standard hard boiled egg.

For example, why not turn pickled eggs into deviled pickled eggs? They're served as an appetizer at the Tar Pit. Consider also, for example, a rice vinegar/soy sauce pickled egg, and then deviling the yolk with wasabi mayonnaise. Let your imagination be your guide.

Egg salad sandwiches made with pickled egg are delicious. The pickled eggs straight up may be a bit too tart, so consider balancing with some regular hard boiled egg. Chopped, they also go well in potato salad, taking the place both of the egg and the pickle. Use an egg slicer on the hard boiled eggs to make a beautiful garnish for a salad, especially if you have a highly-colored egg with a good color gradation. How about beet-pickled eggs with a beet salad? Sliced eggs also look quite nice on top of a soup, try one with chicken noodle.

Feel free to chop the pickled egg white and yolk separately, perhaps for a variation on a Cobb salad, or to serve with some cured salmon or an inexpensive caviar.

For a summertime treat, why not a pickled Scotch Egg? Or use them as part of a Ploughman's Lunch.

With all the flavor variation for the pickling brine and all the different recipes you can use hard boiled eggs in, pickled eggs are a wonderful thing to have in your refrigerator.

Here are some recipes to get you started:

"Yooper"-style pickled eggs from the Upper Pennisula of Michigan
http://motherskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/04/pickled-eggs.html

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has five different recipes, including Pineapple Pickled Eggs:
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb1104/eb1104.pdf [PDF]

The Kitchn has a couple of recipes for unique pickled eggs:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/ingredients-pantry/two-recipes-for-pickled-eggs-107562

That's it for this week. If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller@gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week (usually):
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie Miller

Preservation Link Roundup 4/1/10

2010-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

All sorts of preservation news from Master Food Preserver Delilah Snell. First, she has a list of food preservation classes for the next couple of months. Most are at her shop, the Road Less Traveled Store, but a few are in other places (Food Preservation Classes, Workshops & Events April and May 2010). I'm doing one at her store on April 18th (fermentation: yogurt, kombucha and vinegar) and we'll be doing another demo together at the Hollywood Farmers' Market on May 16th. There are many classes, so check them out.

Delilah is also making some progress on her root cellar (Root Cellar Upodate). Root cellars are great preservation spaces. Many types of food (often root vegetables, natch) store very well in cool dry spaces and don't need refrigeration. They are also good spaces for many types of fermenation; Delilah will be using her for vinegar.

I haven't talked about cheese much on this blog, but making cheese is a food preservation technique, of course. It is actually appropriate to discuss cheese-making in the spring because we seldom realize nowadays that milk was (and still is, in some cases) a seasonal good. For example, due to seasonal breeding seasons, both goats and sheep produce milk a maximum of ten months a year and usually (much) less.

Slashfood provides some background on a traditional fresh cheese from Italy that is often a featured part of the Easter holiday feast (What is Easter 'Basket' Cheese?). Make your own basket cheese following instructions provided on eHow (How to Make Basket Cheese). It's simple, give it a try.

Not too different from basket cheese is fromage blanc. Know Whey shares a recipe for the cheese and also a wonderful use for it (Fromage Blanc Tart).

What Julia Ate tries another method of milk preservation (Buttermilk). Hers is a good story of how one can have a consistent supply of buttermilk without paying the outrageous prices at the supermarket every time you want to make biscuits, pancakes, fried chicken or any one of thousands of dishes improved by tart, fermented milk.

So, apparently, there is no refrigeration in space. Which means that NASA is big into food preservation for space travel. Slashfood has an interview with NASA's leading food manager for the International Space Station, Vickie Kloeris (NASA Chef Talks About Food in Space).

"All our food has to be processed because there is no dedicated refrigeration," Kloeris explained to Slashfood. "We use freeze drying and thermo-stabilizing, which is like canning but we use pouches. We also use natural form products like cookies and dried fruit."

Read the whole thing.

Oh, Briggsy... enjoys some salami from Mario Batali's dad and is intrigued and entranced by pickled sunchokes (Tuesday Night Pickling Club: Pickled Sunchokes).

Congratulations to Well Preserved on their first published article in Edible Toronto (Our First Published Article – Spring Preserves). It is beautifully layed out, a pleasure to look at. They will be doing an entire series - highly recommended.

I would love to see the various Edible Communities magazines featuring a quarterly preserving feature, preferably written by local preservers.

Backyard Farms publishes a photo of her father's humble preserving shelves and reflects on why she preserves (Where I'm From - Part One).

When I find myself getting too caught up in trying to make something exotic, or longing over designer jars, I think of this shelf with its plain jars and handwritten labels. I think of the long hot summers of work that go into making these, and how good they taste when we eat them in the dead of winter, and I remember why I do this.

Amelia Saltsman, author of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook, provides a market update for Eat LA: there are seedlings perfect for gardeners and also some beautiful purple baby artichokes - perfect for pickling (Spring "Starts" at the Farmers' Markets).

Preservation Link Roundup 3/30/10

2010-03-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

The Emergency Food Storage Pros explain why a food storage book is a great asset in properly storing enough food for your family in event of emergency (Using a Food Storage Book to Make a Food Storage List). While you may not be interested in storing enough food for your family for a year, the information you can gain from these sorts of books on how to stock and cook out of your pantry is very useful for nearly everyone.

Hot Water Bath takes a more improvisational approach to pantry-filling (Maintaining My Amateur Status).

It wouldn't do at all to set your heart on the peaches only to find out that, this year, you're more gifted in the hot pepper area. Better instead to focus on ideas - maybe you could use more jam or sandwich enhancers or fruits suitable for side dishes. Focusing on concepts allows you to bop and weave with your canning - you'll get your jam, but maybe it'll be blackberry instead of strawberry. Pickles might end up as green cherry tomatoes rather than hamburger dills. See what I mean? Bop and weave right around whatever the garden, the weather or your mood throws at the affair. For my part, I'm focusing on finished items rather than ingredients - salsas over plain tomatoes, brandied fruits over plain berries, for example, things I can use more or less as-is without further massaging after the jar is open.

I couldn't agree more in being flexible and open to possibility when canning.

Speaking of possibility, my friend and fellow Master Food Preserver Delilah Snell made a cameo appearance on an upcoming segment of Good Food, as part of a report on local foraging (New Friends, Old Friends and KCRW's Good Food??). The radio segment came about thanks to a foraging class and cooking demo held at Delilah's shop, the Road Less Traveled Store. There is another class coming on April 25th. Wouldn't some jam or jelly flavored with foraged herbs be perfect for this month's Can Jam? I'll let everyone know when I find out when the show will be broadcast.

Ithaca's Food Web reports on a very interesting sounding widget that allows food preservers to bulk order straight from farmers (New Web Widget Developed in Ithaca will Connect Local Farmers and Home Food Processors).

Harvestation will create an opportunity for farmers to link up with the growing home food processors market using web tools designed specifically for this task. Home food processors require bulk quantities of farm products in order to can, freeze, ferment, dehydrate, and root-cellar food. The harvestation widget will match produce growers and meat producers with food preservers and vice versa.

Sounds pretty darn interesting. This is a tool I'll be following closely.

Finally, some photos of the abundance at last week's Hollywood Farmers' Market:

Preservation Link Roundup 3/29/10

2010-03-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

Mere hours after I posted my weekly email on making homemade vinegar using "Two Buck Chuck," ~~a cheap~~ an inexpensive, but decent wine, I got the news that some people are suggesting a ~$5 tax per bottle of wine here in California, according to LAist (Initiative to Tax Alcohol Could Bring California Billions — That's Because Your Vodka Will Cost $17 More).

A new initiative that would increase the tax on alcohol was cleared for signature gathering today by the Secretary of State's Office. And it's not a modest tax increase, it's huge. Tax on a six-pack of beer would increase from 6-cents to $6.08. And say goodbye to two-buck chuck--a tax on a 750 ml bottle of wine would go from 4-cents to $5.11

Hopefully they won't get enough signatures to get on the ballot and, if they do, I hope Californians realize what a bad idea this would be, not just for homemade vinegar but for cooking and eating in general.

Know Whey is celebrating sugar making time in the Northeast with a breakfast cake that features two preserved foods: homemade applesauce and yogurt (Sugaring Time: Maple Sugar Applesauce Breakfast Cake). It looks delicious.

I'm wondering if you alter the recipe and substitute in any fruit butter (with a little liquid) in order to alter the flavor and look.

Speaking of breakfast cake, Kevin West reports on the breakfast he makes as a preserver (A Preserver's Breakfast). Here's hoping he feels better soon.

They always say the toughest step is admitting you have a problem, and it appears as if Hitchhiking to Heaven has taken that step (I Need a Canning Intervention).

This will be my first time entering anything in the [Marin County] fair and I'm kind of spazzed out about it. I'm pretty well set in most of the categories I want to enter: I have three marmalades, three jams, and a conserve, which are the things I do best -- and you'd think that would be plenty. Except I got it in my head that I want a jelly. One really nice jelly.

H2H is having a few problems with the jelling point. This isn't an uncommon problem, especially when you are working with new recipes. Experience really helps, so just keep at it!

And a reminder for my local readers - don't forget to get ready to enter preserving judging at the LA County Fair (Time to Prepare for the Oscars of Food Preservation - Weekly Email).

The Waterbury, CT Republican American profiles Tom Wallace, a local gardener/canner (A Year-Round Gardener Cans It in Seymour).

Last year, the Wallaces canned 237 quarts, 220 pints and 57 half-pints. Since 2000, they have canned 4,336 jars. He stores them in his basement, except the peppers, which he keeps in the freezer.

I'm such a slacker.

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat reports on a "Spring Gleaning" (Spring Gleaning: An Evening of Hope and Bounty).

Spring Gleaning was an inspiring event held Sun., Mar. 21, 2010. Hosted by Slow Food, Slow Harvest, Farm to Pantry and Susan and Lou Preston, it was a celebration and collaboration of sustainable farming, gleaning, canning, caring and community

Sounds like a cool idea.

Finally, Nelson's Home Canning Tips makes some loquat jam (Loquat Jam). Loquats are coming into season in Southern California. They are rarely seen in the markets, because they go bad so quickly and don't travel well. They are sometimes seen in the farmers markets, but not often.

Of course, if you live in LA, you've probably seen an incredibly fecund tree or two in the neighborhood. Enjoy the fruit fresh, but preserving them is the only way to enjoy them outside that two or three week window. More on the loquat in a later post.

Sour Wine - Vinegar - Weekly Email

2010-03-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

As of last Sunday, spring is officially here. And although we are dealing with our usual morning overcast, it is neither too hot, nor too cold - great for a nice walk (fantastic wildflowers right now) or working outside. And it is a good thing too, since it it time to plant those tomatoes! Don't forget to plant some extra for canning next August.

I was so busy planting last week (among other things) that I couldn't get to the weekly email. Sorry.

A quick announcement:

We do have some local food preservation classes scheduled in April. Not by yours truly, but local chefs and artisans.

Certified Master Food Preserver trainee Kevin West and Valerie Gordon of Valerie's Confections will be holding a class on sweet and piquant preserving (jams and pickling):
http://www.savingtheseason.com/journal/sign-up-for-private-preserving-lessons.html

The sustainable supperclub Chicks with Knives will also be holding a pickling class:
http://www.chickswithknives.com/cookingclassespickling.html

Now, when I think spring, I think fresh spring greens. When I think fresh spring greens, I think salad. The thought of salad leads to thoughts of vinaigrette. Vinaigrette --> vinegar. Time to refresh my vinegar stocks!

Making your own vinegar couldn't be easier or result in higher quality than you can get in the average store.

Most store bought vinegar is made using a device similar to a "Frings Acetator." Through precise control of temperature, oxygenation, and agitation, these stainless steel tower-like devices convert alchohol to vinegar (acetic acid) in about 36 to 48 hours. That's fast ... too fast for any flavor (other than acetic acid) to be developed.

Of course, lack of flavor can be solved. Next time you're in a one of the big chain supermarkets, look at the apple cider vinegar. Look closely. Chances are most, or at least half, of the "Apple Cider" vinegar on the shelves is actually "Apple Cider FLAVORED Distilled" vinegar. You have to look close, though.

Real vinegar doesn't suit our industrialized food culture because it takes a couple of months to make or more. During those weeks, flavor has an opportunity to develop, which probably doesn't suit our industrialized food culture either. Okay, so that's probably a bit harsh, but only a bit.

Traditional vinegar is usually made using the "Orleans" method, after the city in France. It is a biological process in which bacteria (acetobacter) convert carbohydrates, in the form of alcohol, into acetic acid (and a number of byproducts that add flavor). The vinegar is aged for months in wooden casks, is racked, and etc. Although it is difficult to follow all the nuances of the Orleans method at home, very good results can be acheived if all one has is a food safe, non-reactive container with a wide, open mouth. A large glass jar is ideal.

Other than the container, all you need is a flavorful alcoholic beverage and a starting culture, or "vinegar mother".

The alcohol is usually red wine, white wine or hard apple cider. Beer can be used to make malt vinegar, but hops are a preservative, which can interfered with acetobacter. Malt vinegar is usually made from a beer that lacks hops. A local home brewer is usually a good source for such brew. Any alcohol could be used, even vodka, but spirits (especially when diluted to the appropriate alcohol level) lack enough flavor to make a distinctive vinegar (but, feel free to experiment). There are any number of unique and distinct vinegars made from all sorts of alcoholic beverages: pineapple vinegar, pear vinegar, date vinegar, palm vinegar, etc. So, there is really no limit on the sorts of vinegar that you can make at home.

As for me, I rely on the classics. My personal favorite base beverages for vinegar come from Trader Joe's: Two-Buck Chuck. This is so economical that my homemade vinegar is cheaper than the stuff you can buy in the store and better quality. Bonus.

As for the vinegar mother, it is a cellulosic disc that usually floats on top of developing vinegar, is sort of funky looking, and is bacteria rich. However, even if mother isn't visible, non-pasteurized and non-filtered vinegars contain enough bacteria in the liquid to act as a starting culture.

You can get mothers from friends who already make vinegar, on the internet, or from a natural vinegar product on the market. Bragg's is a very popular brand in health food stores that contains vinegar mother (check the label).

To make the vinegar you simply combine the alcoholic beverage with the mother. The alcohol level is important but doesn't have to be precise. Ten percent alcohol by volume is a good target to shoot for, which usually means diluting wine a bit (two or three parts wine per part water, depending on the abv of the wine) or using ciders straight. Also, because you may not be sure of the vigor of your starter, I usually use only twice the amount of alcoholic beverage as starter. So, if I have 8oz of starter, I add only 16oz of diluted wine. This means your bacteria will have a favorable environment while excluding other bacterial competition.

All this liquid gets placed in the glass jar. Leave the jar open, but cover with a paper or cloth towel with a rubber band. This will keep the vinegar flies out, but you need oxygen for the bacteria to thrive. This is why the wider the jar's mouth, the better. If the jar's mouth is a little narrow, be sure to only fill it below the shoulder of the jar.

Now place the jar in a warm room temperature (70-80 degrees F), dark space (such as a cabinet). Wait at least a month. By this time you should see a mother, or parts of a mother forming. If not, something has probably gone wrong (too cold, starter was dead) etc. If the mother is in process, wait another month and your red wine or cider vinegar is probably ready. Taste it to see whether it needs more time (or test with a pH meter), filter and use. White wine vinegar often takes longer to make (usually twice as long) because of the precise nutrient mix in white wine slows the bacteria down a bit.

Once ready, the vinegar should be moved to a container with very little oxygen, such as an empty wine bottle filled to the top and sealed, in some way. Eventually, in the presence of too much oxygen, the bacteria will convert the acidic acid into carbon dioxide and water, though the process takes many months.

When my vinegar is ready, I usually pour half of it off for use, and return the rest to the jar to use as a starter for the next batch. That way, I've been making vinegar continuously for years.

Not only is this vinegar great for personal use, it also makes a good gift. Though be sure to warn the recipients that because it is a living product, there may be some continued cellulose development ...
wouldn't want them to think you gave them vinegar that went bad.

Whew.

If you've read this far, then you most likely have the patience to make vinegar yourself. I can't recommend it highly enough. It is inexpensive, easy and the quality is a huge improvement over most store bought. After you make some yourself, do a comparison test. You'll be impressed.

That's it for this week. If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation (like making vinegar), dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller@gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

This week, I once again take on an article from Slate that sort of misses the point:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/2010/03/slate-on-fresh-food-doesnt-quite-get.html

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie Miller

Preservation Link Roundup 3/27/10

2010-03-27T05:15:00.000-07:00

Food in Jars announces the Can Jam for April: Herbs (April Can Jam: Herbs!). With a few exceptions (herb jellies are the only one I can think of off hand), herbs are supporting flavors in pickles and preserves. The possibilities are infinite. I look forward to seeing some awesome flavor combinations I would never have thought of.

What Julia Ate has been saving the pith of her citrus peels for some time ... enough time to gather 2 1/2 pounds of pith. What does she do with it? Turn it into pectin for a jelly (it is the jelly-rific WJA, after all) (Strawberry and Orange Pectin Jelly). Most excellent, with some good lessons learned on making your own pectin.

There's a definite orange taste to the jelly, and a slight but noticeable bitter bite. But it's not overpowering at all. The set is firm and jammy, and it's not crystal clear even though I strained the pectin twice. The puree was dark and opaque, admittedly. I wonder if I stuck to pith only, or left out the pits, or peels, what the outcome would be.

The LA Times' Market Watch report by fruit detective David Karp spends some time at the Corona del Mar Farmers' Market (Market Watch: Corona del Mar Farmers Market is Small but Mighty). I haven't been to that market, but I'm intrigued by this description of a citrus:

Low acidity is not a defect in the fruit that Eli's Farm of De Luz is marketing, rather inventively, as "strawberry oranges." These are naturally acidless sweet oranges that have an odd mild flavor reminiscent of orange Creamsicle. Other farms also give this variety made-up names such as "mango orange," perhaps because its proper name, Vaniglia Sanguigno ("Vanilla Blood" in Italian), is a bit of a mouthful. It's not really a blood orange, anyway, since instead of being pigmented red with anthocyanins, like Moros and Taroccos, it derives its pink from lycopene, which colors pink grapefruit and tomatoes.

The Kitchn has a seasonal preparation for sauerkraut, the traditional Polish Easter dish Hunter's Stew or bigos, "a hearty stew filled with smoky sausage, tangy sauerkraut, and plenty of garlic" (Easter Diner: Make Bigos!).

Anarchy in a Jar is getting inspiration from cocktails nowadays - riffing off their flavor profiles. One experiment in the works is a pear-based version of an Aviation (Aviation Pickled Pears). Makes me want to run out and buy a bottle of crème de violette myself.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has an article on eating sustainably through the winter. Two of the recommendations incorporate two types of food preservation: Freezing and Canning (Eating Sustainably All Winter).

Go frozen – Yes, a freezer does use energy, but likely, you have a freezer already pulling power as part of your fridge. If you are ambitious in the summer and fall, freeze fruits and veggies from the Farmers Market when they are fresh. Or buy U.S. grown or better yet, locally-grown organic frozen produce to get you through the winter. Frozen goods are nutritious because they are picked and frozen at their seasonal best.

Have a canning party – Proper storage can ensure that fruits and vegetables will last through the winter months allowing you to take advantage of local goods when they are in season and inexpensive. Canning with family, friend or neighbors is a fun activity and many hands make it possible to can a winter’s worth in a weekend.

Healthy Green Kitchen made some lovely three-citrus marmalade, but is afraid to can it (Marmalade and My Fear of Canning). Does anyone have any suggestions for her to get over her fear of canning?

Finally, Prepared, Not Scared has a recipe for canning shepherd's pie (Preserve It ... Canning Corner: A Jar of Shepherd's Pie). You don't actually can the whole pie; the mashed potatoes and cheese are made just before the pie is baked. It is the ground meat filling that is canned. Sounds like some wonderfully convenient comfort food to me.

Slate on Fresh Food - Doesn't Quite Get the Point, Again

2010-03-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Once again, Slate has an article that touches on food preservation (Not So Fresh). In this case, the point of the article is to defend preserved foods from the recent emphasis on fresh and local food.

Take a close look at the policy approaches listed above—farm-to-school programs, foodstamp discounts at green markets, and tax credits for grocery produce sections—each one is designed in large part to improve access to fresh produce. Not just any old produce, but fresh produce—unprocessed, uncooked, and untarnished by industrial machinery. School cafeterias already have frozen carrots and canned peaches. Our kids need fresh, fresh, fresh!

This strategy may seem unobjectionable. Why challenge this devotion to plants just tugged from the warm soil? A single-minded focus on fresh produce distracts us from the bigger problem: Our children are suffering from a lack of any fruits or vegetables whatsoever. Canned, frozen, dried, juiced—anything would help

Well, I agree that preserved foods shouldn't be dissed and should be an important part of our diet. Nevertheless, I understand the emphasis on fresh food.

Nutritionally, preserved foods can be as good as (in most cases) fresh foods and, occasionally, better. So, yeah, we don't need things to be fresh in order for them to be nutritious. Heck, I'm a promoter of (home) preserved foods.

But that isn't really the point of fresh and local. First, fresh usually means unprocessed, which means that real cooking must take place. Cooking is a real key to eating better and more healthy. Learning to cook is a key benefit of fresh. Sure, you can learn to cook with frozen and canned foods, but you learn more by starting from scratch. Once you've learned to cook from fresh, then you are much better equipped to incorporate some processed foods in your meal.

Second, wherever they sell even minimally processed foods, they also sell ultra-processed foods. One of the advantages of encouraging people to shop in farmers' markets is that it keeps them out of the supermarkets where the temptations of industrially processed foods are too great. You can't buy a frozen pizza in any of the farmers markets I've ever been to.

Even within a supermarket, more time and money spent in the produce section means less time and money spent on processed foods. Sure, some of minimally processed foods are a good deal, but too often they are also right next to the ultra-processed foods that, while inexpensive, are not so good from a nutrition point of view.

Third, while processed foods are more convenient, you can take that argument too far, and we have. After all, fast food is the ultimate in convenience and we've seen how well that has worked out. The emphasis on "food deserts" is an attempt to somewhat level the convenience playing field a bit. Fast food and heavily processed foods are conveniently available even in the poorest neighborhoods. Food that you actually have to cook - not so much. So not only does home cooking have an inherent inconvenience factor (you actually have to cook), but access is inconvenient as well.

Fourth, although preserved foods may lead to less wastage, sitting on a shelf for years isn't that great an improvement over the status quo. What is important is knowing how to stock a pantry (fresh and preserved) and how to cook out of one. If you know how to cook, then much less goes to waste. Most of my cooking is actually figuring out how to put what I've already got to use - bits and pieces of this and that, combined into soups, hashes, frittatas and other leftover classics. I am efficient at this because I know how to cook. So, it comes down to cooking again.

Fifth, fresh connects us closer to where our food comes from. Community gardens and farmers markets are excellent examples, but even simple, fresh produce ties us closer to the origins of our food than a can or a waxed frozen carton (not to mention ultra-processed foods). Although the author of the Slate article complains that we are confusing nutrition and culture, that is sort of the point. Preparing and eating food is, inevitably, a social act. Food is a huge part of our, of every, culture.

The more we rely on industrially processed foods, the more we undermine our connection to the social and cultural elements that kept human beings on a healthy diet for thousands of years. Frozen and canned food is less than 150 years old. Our social and cultural relations to food were built on fresh, not processed. Although processed foods have become part of our culture, we've gone a little bit overboard and an emphasis on fresh is a welcome corrective.

Sixth, and finally, as a promoter of home food preservation, you need to start with fresh in order to preserve in the home. So, let's bring preserved foods into the pantry, but let's also learn how to make them ourselves. I use plenty of commercially preserved foods in my cooking. But it is my cooking, and I know how to preserve many of the foods myself. Knowing how to preserve fresh, makes me more efficient at using the fresh as well as the preserved results.

So, yeah, I think that Michelle Obama should invite me (or any food preserver) into the White House Garden to demonstrate some old-school food preservation techniques. But that doesn't mean I think the emphasis on fresh is wrong.

You can go overboard with the emphasis on fresh, true, but the pendulum is a long way away from going to far in the other direction.

What the emphasis on fresh needs is an equal emphasis on cooking. I think it is sort of assumed sometimes, but it needs to be more explicit.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/26/10

2010-03-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sharon Astyk, author of Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Preservation and Storage, will be hosting an online course in food preservation starting April 15th (Food Storage and Preservation Class!). The cost is $150 (there are some scholarships) and you can pay with barter.

The New York Times Fashion & Style section provides yet another article on the growing popularity of kombucha (A Strange Brew May Be a Good Thing). Although you can buy kombucha more readily, making it is so inexpensive, costing nothing more than brewing tea with a little sugar and having some patience.

Food Forward, a group that gleans or harvests otherwise unused fruit in Los Angeles, reports that they're "Can It" initiative has its first product - preserved meyer lemons (CAN IT’s! First Vintage is here).

If you recall, about a week ago Put a Lid On It pickled some beets - but not simply for the beets, but so that the beet brine could subsequently used to make pickled eggs. Well, now the pickled eggs are ready (Pennsylvania Pickled Easter Eggs). Looks like a great recipe. I'll be writing more on pickled eggs next week.

The Pickle Blog from Rick's Picks (an artisan pickle maker in NYC) has an interesting book to read, Pickled Potted and Canned, a history of food preservation (Pickled, Potted and Canned). I look forward to Rick's forthcoming review, but it is definitely going on my wish list right away.

This is cool. The LAist reports that urban farming has taken a big step towards legality in Los Angeles (Fruit & Flowers Go Legit: Ordinance on Urban Farming Approved). What this means is that (hopefully) soon small-scale urban farmers will be able to legally sell their produce and flowers in Los Angeles. This can only be good for food preservation.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/25/10

2010-03-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

The New York Times is starting a new series on certain "power" ingredients (Making a Foreign Staple Work Back Home).

This is only one of the many potent flavor boosters that can be appropriated from relatively unfamiliar cuisines. Over the next few months, we’ll check out a number of them, exploring how they are used traditionally and how they can be slipped into your daily cooking. The more you use them, the more uses you’ll find for them.

In other words, we’re going to exercise a little benign culinary imperialism, appropriating ingredients and adding them to our larder. No one gets hurt, and dinner becomes more interesting.

The first ingredient they note is pomegranate molasses, a thick syrup of pomegranates with some sugar and lemon. This versatile stuff you can make and can at home, if you access to a pomegranate tree. Last year I made and canned grenadine, which is basically a less-reduced version of pomegranate molasses.

As a matter of fact, I broke out a pint of my grenadine to make "pink" lemonade (lemons from my backyard tree) last night.

Know Whey has had a number of good food preservation posts over the past week or so.

Last fall, KW purchased a beautiful hand-thrown pickling crock. I have one of the same design, but from Germany. They're relatively expensive, but well-designed for their job. To justify the expense, though, they've been making a lot of sauerkraut (Sauerkraut and Vermont Choucroute Garni).

When you have sauerkraut a classic preparation from Alsace is choucroute garni. "Choucroute" is a Francophile version of the German word "sauerkraut." The dish is usually a braised sauerkraut served with various sausages and/or cured meats. WK recommends a good Riesling with the dish, but look for a dry one, which is more typical of the style of Alsace.

Bonus: they provide a homemade sausage recipe for the dish.

KW also has a recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade that is very similar to Kevin West's (Marmalade). There are some excellent photos of the process.

Technically, apparently, if you make a clafoutis with anything other than cherries, it is called a flaugnarde. KW passes along that tidbit of information, as well as a recipe for using frozen blackberries and her home canned peaches in a flaugnarde (Almost Spring: Peach and Blackberry Clafouti). What a great idea for using all sorts of home canned fruit.

The Kitchn uses Weck canning jars for dry storage. What is really interesting is that they use a white indelible ink marker to label the jars which, if you have good penmanship, looks like a pretty cool way to label jars in general (Pantry Style: Weck Canning Jars and a White Pen). The only problem?

The ink can easily be removed, but only by using solvent based removers (like nail polish remover) or by carefully scraping with a razor blade, both which require extra caution.

Food in Jars is inspired by the Passover Seder to make a jam based on the traditional dish, charoset (Charoses Inspired Jam for Passover). Brilliant! Sounds delicious!

There is some discussion as to whether this is a jam or conserve but, since charoset can contain various dried fruits, add some and you're definitely in conserve world.

The LA Weekly's food blog Squid Ink keeps you up-to-date on what is in season in Southern California in their Farmers Market Report. This week, the focus is on sorrel (What's in Season at the Farmers' Markets: Sorrel). Although the article focuses on sorrel's use as a leafy green, it is also frequently used as a flavoring herb. Sorrel jelly, anyone? It will lose some of its flavor when heated, but it has an affinity for grapes and mustard, and would certainly be good as a flavoring for vinegar. Taste some and consider some of the other flavors it would pair well with or enhance.

Speaking of flavored vinegars, the EpiLog fears canning, but will happily preserve the flavor of tarragon in vinegar (Flavored Vinegar: Saving Tarragon In A Bottle).

Need a t-shirt to show off pride in your canning? How about this one from JP Harris' shop on Etsy (YES WE CAN - Just Food - Green Print on Natural Organic Tee)? via The Kitchn

The Penny Pantry - "Recapturing the Old Fashion Art of Pantry Building While Drastically Reducing Your Grocery Bill!" - discusses growing and canning your own greenbeans (Canning Greenbeans in the Garden). Greenbeans alone must be pressure canned, but pickled dilly beans are always popular and can be waterbath canned.

Local Kitchen continues her exploration into canning pumpkin preserves (not recommended by the USDA) by trying a recipe from the lauded Mes Confitures (Christine Ferber’s Pumpkin Jam with Vanilla Bean). Not only is she disappointed in the tooth-achingly sweet results, the error in the recipe translation (700g ≠ 2.25lbs), and the recommended non-processing, and the fact that the acidity level is questionable (read her analysis). The USDA recommendations are conservative, of course, but do you really want non-conservative rules where potential botulism is involved?

Anarchy in a Jar is experimenting with apple jelly flavored by juniper berries (Apple Jelly with Juniper Berries). We'll have to wait to hear the results.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/24/10

2010-03-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tigress in a Pickle provides the full roundup for the March Can Jam (Can Jam March Round-Up: Allium). A must read, but that pun "can i officially change the name to all-yums?", ouch. ;-)

Keep an eye on Food in Jars for the secret ingredient for April's Can Jam.

All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here! explains how easy it is to pressure can chicken (Chicken Breast). Yep! Jane chooses chicken breast because they prefer it. I prefer legs and thighs myself (dark meat is more flavorful, IMHO), but when I can chicken I use breast. White meat seems to can better: less fat and looks better in the jar. Probably that is why you usually see "white meat" in commercially canned chicken.

Big Black Dogs makes a classic flavor combination for a spicy pepper jelly (Savory Cheddar and Pepper Jelly Cookies). There are other ways to go as well. Instead of just flour, use a cornmeal based cheddar cookie. I've made spicy jelly tarts, with a cheesy tart crust - you get a higher jelly-to-crust ratio. Or match the cheese and jelly inside a mini-turnover. There are many, many options for this flavor pairing.

What about a cornmeal cake with pepper jelly filling? It would be an interesting alternative take on a Victoria Sponge (aka Victoria Sandwich), which is a two-layer sponge cake separated by jam. The Atlantic Food Channel provides history, background and recipe for this classic tea cake (Victorian England: Age of War, Politics, and Cake).

In another post related to using home preserved foods Cold Cereal and Toast makes another classic: applesauce cookies (Baking Gems: Applesauce Cookies). Apple sauce is one of those things that should really be a pantry staple as it can be used in numerous sweet and/or savory recipes as well as in baking. And compared to things like marmalades, it is very, very easy to make and can.

Farm to Table has an excellent post on the great health benefits of nettles (Stinging Nettles are Good for You). One thing I didn't know before reading this article was that nettles could be dehydrated.

You can also dry the nettle for tea or tinctures either by hanging bunches of it upside down in a cool, dry place, or by using your dehydrator. Either way, wash the leaves right after harvesting.

If dehydrating, remove the leaves from the stem. Allow the leaves to air dry for about 30 minutes or pat dry with paper towel. Place the leaves in a dehydrator, spreading them out on the rack in single rows, making sure to not pile the leaves on top of each other. Keep enough space between each leaf so there is good air circulation.

Dehydrate for 8 to 10 hours or until the leaves are completely dry (to avoid mold). If necessary, rotate the tray a few times through out dehydrating. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Hmmm, nettle tea. Sounds good to me.

Two great posts yesterday on making labels for your jars.

Wendolonia made some Lemon Ginger Marmalade and some very impressive labels to go with it. Now she has generously shared the template for download - and in three color combinations - excellent for orange, lime or lemon-based preserves (Printable Marmalade Canning Labels).

Hitchiking to Heaven gives step-by-step instructions for how she makes some simply beautiful labels (Easy DIY Canning Labels). I'd never thought of using stamps on labels before. What a brilliant idea. She also uses a color wash to add more interest. Again, gorgeous.

Thanks to both for providing their labeling info.

The Kitchn links to a Princeton study that High Fructose Corn Syrup is more likely to cause obesity than regular sugar (Scientists Finally Prove High Fructose Corn Syrup Risks). All the more reason to cook at home and preserve your own foods. Although jams and jellies shouldn't be a major part of one's diet, many commercial versions contain HFCS, while home preserved ones generally don't. The same goes for such things as bread-and-butter pickles and similar. Every little bit helps.

Molecular gastronomy might not be for everyone, but I find the concept of perfect, relatively labor-free citrus supremes quite intriguing. The mad cooking scientists of Cooking Issues use enzymes to remove the pith from citrus, leaving perfect supremes behind, as well as pith-free skin (Enzymatic Peeling? Hell Yes!).

And, finally, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal picks a canner as their cook of the week (Tupelo, Mississippi, Cook of the Week: Mantachie Mother Makes Time in Busy Day to Preserve).

"Canning and putting up vegetables is my passion," said Moore, who works in the central billing office for North Mississippi Medical Clinics. "I just love looking at them."

Last year, the 45-year-old put up pepper jelly, hotdog slaw, muscadine jelly, raspberry fig preserves, blueberry syrup, canned tomatoes, canned green beans, tomato relish, pear preserves, banana peppers, apple butter and canned okra.

Wow. I'm such a slacker.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/23/10

2010-03-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Regrettably, marmalade canning season is past its peak. Though there is still great citrus in the markets, many of my favorite citruses are on the wane. The LA Times' Market Watch report by fruit detective David Karp can help you figure out which fruit is still good and which is not quite what it was just a couple of weeks ago (Market Watch: When Citrus is Past its Prime).

Of course, just because a fruit is a bit overmature doesn't mean it won't still make a great preserve. In fact, such fruit may be better in a preserve than for eating out of hand. Ideally, you want perfectly ripe fruit for preserving, but if the choice is whether an overmature fruit should be eaten out of hand or preserved, preserving might be the answer.

Be assured though, that while some citrus is making its exit from the farmers markets, some citrus is just hitting its own peak. The Kitchn notes the wonderful (grapefruit or pomelo)/tangerine hybrid tangelos that are in markets right now (Farmers' Market Report: Tangelos).

Master Food Preserver candidate Kevin West and artisan preserve maker Valerie Gordon of Valerie Confections will be doing a series of preserving classes starting in April (Sign Up for Private Preserving Lessons!). Space is limited, so sign up now.

Can't get to the class? Try some self-instruction as Kevin also shares his favorite recipe for Seville Orange Marmalade (Recipe: Seville Orange Marmalade).

If you're looking for a more difficult marmalade recipe Leite's Culinaria has a recipe for blood orange marmalade from Mes Confitures (Blood Orange Marmalade). Blood oranges are reaching their peak of color about now, so they are a good choice for a spectacularly colored marmalade.

My friend Rachael Narins of the sustainable, private supper club Chicks with Knives is also holding some classes, one on pickling and the other on basic knife skills on April 17th (Cooking Classes).

If you have ever attended a CWK dinner, you know we love anything pickled. Join us for this event and learn to make your own! We will start with a brief lecture on the different types of preserving methods, equipment and safety. We will learn to make quick, brined and fermented pickles using seasonal, farmers market ingredients to create several treats for you to try. At the end of the class you will have samples to take home, along with some basic tools, ingredients and equipment.

Yummy Supper makes dandelion jelly (Dandelion Jelly). If a flower is edible, you can make jelly from it and capture that floral essence in a jar. Just be careful, however, since even if a flower is edible, the rest of the plant may not be.

Chickens in the Road is giving away a copy of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (Ball Blue Book Giveaway). Post a comment for the chance to win.

Rurally Screwed was having some difficulty getting good flavor from pickled eggplant (What is Up with Pickling Eggplant???).

The other day I made eight different versions of pickled eggplant, trying to find one worthy of the canning cookbook I’m writing with Brooklyn chef Kelly Geary. And the consensus was that all eight versions more or less sucked. That’s right, I’m touting myself as a canning pro and my pickled eggplant was no good. You won’t find any of these recipes in the cookbook, that’s for sure.

But pickle and all-around preserving guru Linda Ziedrich stepped in to comment on the difficulties of pickling eggplant. The result? A delicious garnish or addition to salads (Pickled Eggplant Postscript).

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has only one recommendation for canning pumpkin: cubed in a pressure canner (Resources for Home Preserving Pumpkins). Local Kitchen set out to prove to herself that at least some canning recipes featuring pumpkins are safe (Pumpkin Cascabel Marmalade).

Obviously, I can't say that this recipe is safe, but I do think that LK's analysis is interesting, informative and well worth reading. There are some tests that can be done with the resulting marmalade, for example, puréeing the canned marmalade in a couple of weeks and checking the pH level. Of course, I would be interested in seeing what data the NCHFP based their analysis on as well; to see if LK is missing anything in her analysis.

Smoking cheese isn't really about food preservation. But, if you already have a smoker for preservation, smoking cheese is a great way to add flavor to all sorts of things. Savory TV demonstrates this with a recipe for (Smoked Cheddar Grits). I smoke a lot of cheese: pepper jack, cheddar, gouda, mozzarella, etc. Anywhere you would normally use cheese, substitute in some smoked cheese and you've got some amazing flavor.

Nearing the last of the March Can Jam:

Rufus and Clementine uses tarragon (a great idea) to flavor pickled pearl onions (Tigress’ Can Jam (March) | Pretty Pickled Pearls).
Small Measure, who picked alliums for the can jam, makes an interesting seasonal relish, though she subs out tarragon in favor of thyme (Onion, Orange and Thyme Relish).
The Cosmic Cowgirl makes cocktail onions, though not for their beverage prowess - she plans to use them when grilling season is in full swing (Pickled Pearls of Wisdom).
Backyard Farms makes a red onion jelly - imagine how good that would be in all sorts of savory applications (It Must Be Jelly Because Alliums Don't Shake Like That! CanJam Episode 3).

Preservation Link Roundup 3/22/10

2010-03-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah! We will soon have another Master Food Preserver in Los Angeles County! Kevin West of Saving the Season is making the long commute to San Bernardino every week in order to complete the Master Food Preserver certification course, which is only offered in three California Counties, two up North and one in SB (MFP). Yet another step closer to reviving the program here in Los Angeles.

Serious Eats highlights a video from Food Curated (highly recommended web series) about an artisan maker of "bacon marmalade" (Bacon Marmalade, from 'Food Curated'). The idea is very interesting and I know people who are making bacon jams. However, I am uncertain of the safety of canning such recipes, as opposed to merely refrigerating them. I was surprised that, near the end of the video (5:56), the artisan was shown merely screwing on the 1-piece lid for the jar with no processing at all. Perhaps there was processing that was not shown, but it is certainly not clear whether they were processed or not.

Wow, hasn't What Julia Ate been busy? She has a new flock of chickens, and still had time to stuff a trout with some tangelo lemongrass jelly which was accompanied by homemade ricotta cheese (a wonderful way to preserve milk) (Trout with Vegetable Hash and Fresh Ricotta Cheese). Wonderful choice. Lemon-y jellies of all sorts (I made a lemon/lemongrass jelly last year) go wonderfully with fish (and chicken). Stuff, as Julia did, use as a glaze, or an accompaniment.

Wendolonia is very happy with the results of her "easy" lemon ginger marmalade - easy because it uses powdered pectin (Actually Easy Lemon Ginger Marmalade). That is one of my very favorite flavor combinations (try it in lemonade). There are a lot of fish dishes this would pair well with.

As you may recall, last week Well Preserved dehydrated some beets, onions and celery root. This week, they used the dried onion and some other homemade spices as a rub for ribs (Homemade Ribs – Preserved Dry Rub Included…). Quite a bit more satisfying (and flavorful) than buying one of those stale rubs at the store.

Ground spices, because they have so much surface area, lose their flavor much faster than whole spices. Since a rub is usually mostly ground spices, depending on how long they've stayed in a distribution center or store, commercial dry rubs are often much less flavorful than a freshly ground one made at home. Try it yourself and see the difference.

Just last week I was noting the beautiful rhubarb in the local farmers markets. Hitchhiking to Heaven makes the first rhubarb preserve of the season that I'm aware of (Rhubarb, Pear, and Vanilla Jam). She also explains a little bit about substituting Pomona's Pectin into the recipe.

If you haven't tried rhubarb yet, the simplest thing in the world is to grab a stalk (only! the leaves contain dangerous oxalic acid), dip the end into some sugar and bite. The original sweet and tart. Brown sugar is also an option, or get fancy and dip it into vanilla sugar - makes an elegant, yet simple and fun dessert at your next dinner party.

A few days ago Eugenia Bone shared her recipe for pickled fennel. Now she shares two recipes for using it (Two Recipes that use Pickled Fennel). Use these recipes as inspiration for some of the things you can do with any sort of pickle.

I've been pretty harsh on Slate recently, but they published a good article on a story I've posted about a couple of times here, in this case the ongoing canned tomato scandal (Rotten Tomatoes: Scandal Strikes the Tomato-Paste Industry). The article is the best I've seen yet on the structure of the tomato industry, a brief history and how the scandal fits into all of it. Read the whole thing.

Here is a somewhat lengthy response (for a blog post) to that Slate article I disliked so much from the Ethicurian (Yes We Can ... and We Relish It!). Wow, two puns in a single title. The article is a great description of Preserving Traditions:

Preserving Traditions was begun in February, 2009 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a way to keep alive (and re-teach) "traditional" foodways, including preserving and cooking food from scratch.

Very cool.

What is it with knitting and canning? Detroit Knitter made Jalapeño Apple Spread on St. Patrick's Day. - which is what most would call jelly (Jalapeño Apple Spread).

More March Can Jam:

Putting By makes pickled garlic (Pickled Garlic).
Cafe Libby isn't so sure how her onion relish will come out (pickles can take a couple of weeks to develop flavor) and cutting all those onions made her cry. (Can Jam: This One Made Me Cry). My favorite anti-crying trick? A sharp knife. Seriously.
Plot 22 hates onions and is not a big fan of fennel, so let's hope that this pickle changes her mind somewhat (Tigress’ Can Jam March: Sweet Onion & Fennel Relish).

Preservation Link Roundup 3/21/10

2010-03-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

The March Can Jam entries came fast and furious as the deadline loomed.

Nina Corbett, of Puts Up, was looking for ramps with no success when she was inspired by a wide variety of farmers' market produce (Rhubarb Fennel Chutney).

I actually spoke with an award-winning home canner (Los Angeles County Fair, natch) today who was looking unsuccessfully for some ramps to pickle. I suggested he try some green garlic instead.

Inspired by pickling guru Linda Ziedrich, Food in Jars makes a "bread and butter"-like onion pickle (Can Jam: Sweet and Sour Pickled Red Onions).

Oh, Briggsy... makes a Salsa Criolla, a traditional Peruvian condiment (March Can Jam: Salsa Criolla). Read the whole post for the meandering path she took to the recipe she choose. She also makes the following point:

It’s kind of like a simple red onion in vinegar, which I almost made but thought would be anticlimactic, but the ante is really upped by the lime and cilantro, which makes these pickled onions different and what I was going for. There’s only so much veggies sitting in vinegar that one can eat, am I right?

Pickles anticlimactic? Perhaps, for some, but really there are so many options for vinegars, spices and base that pickles need never be anticlimactic.

Doris and Jilly Cook make classic pickled cocktail onions - and discover the secret to easily peeling the little buggers (Pickled Onions for Cocktails).

Yes! I was hoping someone would make cocktail onions for this Can Jam. I'm a huge fan of what I call "cocktail canning"; syrups, pickles and mixes can all be canned at home for some wonderful drinking options.

For example, Food GPS reviews a restaurant owned by the first family of caviar (Petrossian -- West Hollywood). The first item reviewed? A champagne cocktail featuring candied hibiscus flowers in rhubarb syrup. If you want rhubarb syrup this summer (wouldn't that be nice on a warm Sunday morning in August) ... you're going to have to can it.

And what about flavored vinegars in cocktails? Sounds strange, but the Paupered Chef would disagree (The Strange Appeal of Vinegar in a Cocktail). You can make flavored vinegars and can them ... break out that peach vinegar for a winter party. Why not?

Preservation Link Roundup 3/19/10

2010-03-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Big Black Dogs makes carrot cake jam and pairs it with carrot bread (Carrot Bread with Carrot Cake Jam). That sounds great ... it also makes me think of other things it would go well with. How about carrot cake pancakes with a smear of cream cheese and carrot cake jam? Or simply use it as a glaze for caramelized carrots? I like doubling (or even tripling) down on flavors sometimes.

Well Preserved is canning multiple alliums, onions and leeks (Pickled Onions – Coming to a Sandwich Near You and I’ve Sprung a Leek ... a Pickled Leek). There are some very interesting things going on here. I think the use of malt vinegar in the pickled onions is an excellent idea. Malt vinegar isn't used much in pickling, because of its intense flavor and color, but with the right ingredients it can be genius. This sounds like one of those cases.

Malt vinegar is basically made from beer (sans hops), so it has an affinity for ales and things that go with ale. I'm thinking sharp cheddar, sausages, that sort of thing. How about as a garnish for a cheddar/ale soup?

The other thing that is interesting is that WP pickled not only the white/light green parts of the leeks, but the leaves as well. I've never actually used the leaves of the leek for anything other than a flavoring agent in soups and stock. I didn't really think they were edible due to their fibrousness. I would love to find out whether pickling changes the texture enough to make them readily edible.

What Julia Ate is also working with alliums. Coincidence? I don't think so. A great flavor combination is the result (Roasted Garlic and Candied Ginger Jelly). Originally, though, it wasn't a jelly ... it was a syrup. Julia explains why her original didn't set and why. You always learn more from your mistakes than your successes. And then, she reprocesses, and success! I usually don't recommend reprocessing, but this was definitely a good call.

Tea for Joy hosts a craft evening for her church group and they make some beautiful jars of lemon curd (A Lemon Curd Craft Evening). Once again, we see that canning is a great social activity. However, I must note that the recipe for the lemon curd they use calls for sealing with wax and no processing. This is not recommended. The National Center for Home Food Preservation does have a tested recipe for Canned Lemon Curd.

Guava paste, like dulce de membrillo, is a fruit cheese that has a number of culinary uses. The Kitchn lists ten ways to use it (Fun to Say, Fun to Eat: 10 Ways to Use Guava Paste). Of course, you can buy your guava paste, or membrillo, but when the fruit is in season, it is easy to make your own. You can also make fruit cheese from stone fruits (mmmm .... plum cheese), apples, pears and probably some others I can't think of off hand. So, consider the list as a stepping off point for using other fruit cheeses as well.

The OC Weekly's food blog, Stick a Fork in It, notices the local sugarcane showing up in farmers' markets (At the Farmers' Market: Sugarcane). Juice, strain and use as a syrup for canning local fruit for a locavore delight. Sugarcane isn't that difficult to grow either. Thirty years ago when I was growing up, my grandmother grew it as a treat for us grandkids.

The female half of Those Mathiases and Their Adventures in Kansas did a lot of canning with mom when young, but didn't take it up as an adult. Until now, that is, sort of (On Canning).

I. Do. Not. CAN.

And then I realized something.

We don't have moms or grandmas that live closeby to gift us with such delicacies. Fail.
We don't live under the old landlords that brought down the best raspberry jam ever made. Fail again.
And, the result? We don't have freezer jam. And it's not coming anytime soon. Epic fail.

So I did what any girl would do. I made my husband do it.

If my blogging is a little shorter, slow or otherwise not up to my usual standards, I have an excuse. I have been building some raised bed planters so that I can more easily grow and harvest more food, some of which will definitely end up in cans.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/18/10

2010-03-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well Preserved learns some lessons from something that will happen to every canner, eventually (I Coulda Been a Contenda…Broken Mason Jars…). There is only one common jar breakage scenario I would add ... processing in a boiling water bath without a rack to keep the jars off of direct heat. WP also has some great tips on what to do after you have a jar shatter.

Rufus and Clementine provide another lesson for cannners - label those jars (CurseWorthy Cooking | That Mystery Marmalade).

I made a peanut butter and spiced citrus marm sandwich. I got so excited and angry to the point of letting the expletives fly mid-bite. It was ecstasy in my mouth and I still don’t know how to get it back again.

The minimum you should put on a label is the name of the preserve and the date. I make a habit of putting the ingredients (in order of weight) and the processing time. Recently, I've also taken to add the source of the produce ... such as "Mud Creek Ranch Citrumelo Marmalade." Keeping a preserving journal (paper or electronic) is also a very good idea, especially if you are experimenting with recipes.

Rhubarb is sometimes called "pie plant." I think it should be called "preserving plant."

The LA Weekly's food blog, Squid Ink, notes that some beautiful rhubarb is showing up at the local markets in their weekly Farmers Market Report (What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Rhubarb). I saw some amazing looking rhubarb at the Santa Monica market yesterday. By itself, with a variety of fruits (not simply strawberry) in a jam, or in a compote (sublime), rhubarb is an excellent addition to your preserving repertoire. Its tartness is a great match for the high sugar content of many preserves.

The New York Times' Minimalist Cook explains, simply, how to thicken yogurt into any consistency from Greek to cheese (A Recipe Secret Wrapped in a Towel). Save that whey! Use it for fermentation or drink it (high in protein and probiotics).

Food in Jars has opened an Open Sky store (Find Food in Jars at Open Sky). Her store is here: OpenSky: Food in Jars.

Tigress in a Jam is excited to soon receive Ashley English's new preserving book Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys & More. Tigress also lists a bookshelf worth of new preserving books coming soon (A Lot O' New Preserving Books!). Which ones are worth getting? Who knows at this point.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/17/10

2010-03-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another great March Can Jam update:

Local Kitchen adds alliums to a classic sweet jam and finds that it has "a depth of flavor that must be tasted to be believed" (Strawberry Rhubarb & Caramelized Onion Jam). If onions were as rare as truffles, onions would be more expensive. They are savory, yet work surprisingly well with sweet. Perhaps it is all their inherent sugars that only come out through long, slow cooking.

I just noticed citrumelos for the first time at last Sunday's Hollywood Farmers' Market and, apparently, so did The Kitchn (Citrus Spotlight: Citrumelos). Check out the nice photos and description (and find out why they're also called "marmalade fruit").

Delightful Country Cookin' has a photo-rich description of making a berry-citrus jam, excellent for those just getting started in canning (Blueberry-Lime Jam). And, hey, plenty of blueberries and limes in our farmers' markets right now.

Put a Lid On It is in the process of making classic pickled eggs, pickled in beet brine. Of course, that means first you have to pickle some beets. To keep her husband happy, she also pickles some okra (Pickled Okra and Pickled Beets). Here in Los Angeles, if you want some classic pickled eggs and don't want to have to pickle beets first ... you can find the purplish delicacies at Philippes; they go great with the French Dips.

On her blog for the Denver Post, Well Preserved, preserving guru Eugenia Bone pickles that underutilized aromatic, fennel (Pickled Fennel). I use fennel whenever I have the option. There is hardly a dish that uses mirepoix that I don't think can be improved with fennel. Pickling provides even more options for me to use fennel.

Cooking in Someone Else's Kitchen makes a chile jam from chiles they froze last fall (A Little Summer Heat). The recipe they used was a British recipe and called for "jam sugar," which is sugar combined with pectin. They made the recipe with regular granulated sugar and, of course, it failed to set. They reprocessed with pectin and it worked.

The conversations started by Sara Dickerson's Slate article continue.

The Art of the Rural agrees with the Dickerson (Putting Up).

I often make pâté and have cured different meats (duck prosciutto, bresaola, etc.) and I like having a cabinet full of pickled onions, green beans or bread and butter pickles to have on hand for the occasions when I can slice open a new celebration of pork fat. But last fall I went to Whole Foods to buy 5 lbs of cucumbers for my pickles only to discover that conventional cucumbers were $2.50 each! There was nothing frugal or practical in pickling these and, in fact, it was an expensive little project.

Ummmm ... duh? What did you think would happen if you buy all your produce at Whole Paycheck? Try this for an experiment ... buy some all-beef patties, special sauce (mayo and thousand island), lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions and a sesame seed bun at Whole Foods and you'll (surprise, surprise) discover that Big Macs are less expensive.

Well, I guess that it's it for the food revolution. Back to fast food it is.

Amazon blog Al Dente is a little less gullible when it comes frugal canning (The Inevitable Canning Backlash).

Now, the author here is a generally fabulous food writer. I normally nod my head at her sharp and astute articles, but this one had me shaking it the other way. I can't argue with the assertion that buying a slew of new canning equipment and jamming up a ribbon-wrapped collection of $5/lb heirloom tomatoes isn't particularly frugal. The process does pencil out nicely, though, if you re-use those cans year after year, and choose tomatoes from the cheapie seconds bins, or grab 20 pounds of inexpensive fruit from the U-Pick, or if you do belong to that not-particularly-endangered category of zealous gardeners with too many cucumbers.

On the other hand, Dining@Large, the Baltimore Sun's dining blog, joins Dickerson's canning backlash trend (Top Ten Retro Foods We Wish Would Stay in the Past).

2. Home-canned anything

I love the whole locavore logic behind canning and, honestly, I'd like to try it. But Sara Dickerman in Slate nails what's wrong with this homespun hobby's becoming "ridiculously trendy." She calls it "showy industriousness." "These culinary trophies are emblematic of a project-based food relationship that we urban food junkies are prone to indulge these days: athletic all-weekend bouts of cheesemaking or bacon curing or jam and pickle making are so much more bloggable and boastworthy than making a decent brown-bag lunch five days in a row." And then there's the botulism thing.

I'm beginning to think that pampered food writers only know "showy industriousness" and are unaware that many people are actually industrious. Being writers, the concept of industriousness is probably foreign to them. For example, instead of writing lame and lazy top ten lists (really, how bereft of ideas do you have to be in order to resort to a 1990s-style top ten list?), perhaps salaried food writers could share what brown bag lunch they're bringing to work five days in a row, since they seem to be so hot on the concept.

Oh, and speaking of retro things that should stay in the past, perhaps you could get rid of the "@" in your blog name? Those were cool back when modems were.

Plate to Plate lets one of the commentators on the Slate piece do the speaking for them (Much Ado About Canning).

Dickerson thinks canning $5/lb tomatoes is not very frugal. I agree, but finding inexpensive canning tomatoes is not that difficult. For example, one CSA has a good bargain for those who join by the ides of April: free canning tomatoes (Join our CSA by April 15. Receive Free Canning Tomatoes).

No matter how efficient we get as a farm, there will always be "extra" tomatoes at the end of the day between mid-August and the end of October. Some are too ripe. Some are seconds that got bruised or damaged in the picking process. Some have a bug bite or two. Some are just not quite right for selling. Our breeding rows are also the source of tomatoes that don't fit into our markets.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/16/10

2010-03-16T05:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been hit with another, thankfully mild, earthquake this morning (Preliminary Earthquake Report: 4:04AM PDT: Pico Rivera, CA). Looks like the Whittier Narrows Fault is active again, which gave us so much trouble back in 1987. Lucky me, I live only a few miles away - on the Montebello side in 1987 and the Whittier side today.

I'm not going to go too much into earthquake preparedness. But food preservation is an important part of it. Not only do you have to worry about losing electricity (and, therefore, your freezer), but natural gas may also be unavailable (no cooking). Having precooked food you can eat out of the jar (beans, meat, soups) would be a good thing.

Chickens in the Road is giving away a copy of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and all you have to do is leave a comment on her post (read the whole thing for details) (Ball Blue Book Giveaway).

Putting By has a beautiful photo of their canning pantry as well as an inventory of what they have (or should have) in their stocks (Inventory :: March 1, 2010). Is there a specific word, perhaps German, for organization envy?

Another organization tool is the preserving journal. Susan Busler, an extension agent for Douglas County in Oregon, writes about pantry organization and how a preserving journal can help in the Douglas County News-Review (Extension Spotlight: Spring Cleaning Applies to Edibles as Well).

Churches are a good place to share information on food preservation. In Hurley, Mississippi a church is hosting a public class on food preservation (Can You Can? Homemaker's Lost Art Finds a New Audience in Hurley Church).

Debra Dickson, women's ministry director at Full Life Assembly of God in Hurley, decided to arrange educational courses for members of her church.

When she polled church members to see what subjects interested them, canning was a popular choice.

As a result, Full Life has partnered with the George County Cooperative Extension Service to offer a class called "Getting Ready to Can."

What church or other organization do you belong to? Perhaps you can get your local county extension to have a Master Food Preserver do a food preservation demo or class.

They probably don't need extension agents in Sweden:

The peoples of Scandinavia are masters of food preservation – techniques won through difficult and hard winters in which many bellies went hungry. From necessity and practicality, a heritage of cultured, naturally fermented foods was born. They bring us gravlax, pickled herring, cheeses and sourdough breads, inlagda rödbetor (a type of pickled beet) and, of course, a wide variety of yogurts such as viili, piimä, filmjölk and skyr.

Ah, Swedish cultured milks. Nourished Kitchen breaks down the universe of Swedish fermented dairy products, keeping you from confusing your viili with your skyr (Sour Milk: Lessons from Scandinavia). If you're ready to jump into the world of Swedish cultured milks, there is a culture giveaway as well (Giveaway: Win a Scandinavian Yogurt Starter (and How to Make Raw Milk Yogurt)).

Food in Jars disdained jelly for some time, but is rediscovering how wonderful they can be (Orange Jelly Recipe). That's wonderful because, for me, jellies are elegant in the way they can express color and flavor. There is a purity to their shimmering texture that is both old-fashioned in its composition and fresh and new in its flavor. A great thing is that you can pretty much make a jelly out of anything that can be used for an infusion. Herbal jellies (tarragon or basil definitely bring something special to the plate), tea jellies can be incredibly varied, and wine jellies can be amazing; your imagination is the only limit. This past weekend, I served thumbprint cookies with a hibiscus (jamaica) jelly.

And, as FiJ notes, fruit juices combined with other flavors creates an exponential number of options.

Speaking of jelly, The Kitchn wants to know what to do with mint jelly, other than serving it with lamb (What Can I Do With Leftover Mint Jelly?). There are some good suggestions in the comments, but it really is just about using your imagination. One very simple option: stir it into your hot tea. Similarly, you might consider adding it to a soup or curry. Or, when watermelon comes into season, cube the melon, melt some of the jelly, toss, chill and serve for dessert.

In other jelly related news, Scrumper is planning to make more scrumped Cornelian Cherry Jelly this summer (Scrumped Cornelian Cherry Jelly).

March Can Jam update:

Big Black Dogs uses onion in her pepper jelly - sounds good to me (Basil Banana Pepper Jelly *** The Hot Stuff!). And her onion jelly sounds pretty good too. I guess this is just jelly day on PreserveNation.

Bread Experience found a recipe for an onion relish that the recipe author suggested would be good on pizza. So, not only did she make the relish, she made the pizza too (Caramelized Red Onion Relish and Pizza: Tigress Can Jam).

Preservation Link Roundup 3/15/10

2010-03-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

The March Can Jam entries continue to roll in.

Mother's Kitchen modifies a tested barbecue sauce recipe to more closely match a favorite of hers (Can Jam: Alliums Barbeque Sauce). Read this post for some great tips on modifying a tested recipe safely.

What Julia Ate makes one of those really involved canning recipes that Slate hates so much (Shallot Confiture). But you know why you go through so much effort for this recipe? This is why:

How can you be so good? To be honest, I haven't really thought of how I'm going to eat this. This is no work horse chutney or every day jelly. This is something that deserves the spotlight. The suggestion is warm or cold, with meats. I'm thinking with a pork roast, or a salad even? On top of ice cream? I don't know, help me out. I'm a little star struck at the moment.

Thinking Out Loud thought she had all the ingredients for her marmalade when she discovered other members of her household sneaking into the dried cranberries and apple juice (Red Onion Marmalade). Luckily, she was able to get resupply and finished her entry in this month's Can Jam.

Serious Eats picks chamomile as a secret ingredient (The Secret Ingredient (Chamomile): Seared Sea Scallops with Chamomile Beurre Blanc). It can be the secret ingredient for jams and jellies too. Lemons, honey, ginger and apricot are some flavors that go well with chamomile.

Leda's Urban Homestead explains how she participated in a food-swapping tea party tweet-up (Food-Swapping Tweet-Up).

The way the gals set up the swap was that we each filled out tags with the name of what we had brought plus our name. Then several other people each wrote one of their items on the bottom of our tag, offering it in exchange for our item. Each of us got to decide which of the items offered we wanted to accept in trade. Kind of like a silent auction for edibles.

Sounds very cool.

Well Preserved has a two-part post on dehydrating beets, onions and celery root (Dehydrating Beets, Onions and Celery Root and What to do with Dehydrated Beets and Celery Root). SPOILER ALERT: They make powders with beets and celery root. Beet powder is one of those ingredients you usually find only in fancy restaurants. And it is so easy to make at home. You an be creative as you want to be with powders. Use them for garnish, or make unique and interesting combinations ... why not try some celery root powder on fresh homemade french fries or potato chips?

The Seattle Times profiles gardener and country living author Lorene Edwards Forkner (Growing Your Own Veggies Fills the Larder and the Soul). She has revised two of Carla Emery's books, Growing Your Own Vegetables: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide and Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide.

The Local Beet has a good overview article on all the various means of food preservation, freezing, cold storage, dehydrating, canning and fermenting (Making the Most of the Seasonal Bounty).

Purposefully Mom has some suggestions for using Mason jars for purposes other than canning (Endless Uses for Glass Canning Jars.....).

Finally, a photo for Sara Dickerson: 18 pints of chicken I canned yesterday.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/14/10

2010-03-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

March Can Jam Update:

All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here! wanted to work with a more unusual allium and ramps weren't available, so she searched and found cipollines to pickle (Allium......Yum!). Cipollines are an Italian pearl onion with a saucer-like shape. They're small and sweet and add a distinctive look to any plate. I usually use them whole in braises and stews or roasted as part of mixed roasted vegetables, but they are very versatile - just keep them whole (or mostly whole) for their unique appearance. Pickling them is a great idea.

Kitchen Jam riffs on a red onion marmalade by adding blood orange juice and rhubarb (March CanJam: Red Onion & Rhubarb Jam).

Miss Can Jam herself, Tigress in Pickle, silences some red onions with extreme prejudice (Onionz Limone Chutney).

this little chutney packs a powerful punch, and definitely has an eastern flair. i would say skip the ubiquitous chutney & sharp cheese pairing with this one and go right for the curries, stir-frys and one dish indian and southeast asian inspired meals. or simply use it stirred into a rice or grain as the exotic flavoring agent.

Not every preserve is a success. Case in point: Hitchhiking to Heaven had to leave the room while cooking her entry in the Can Jam (Garlic and Green Chile: Never-Again Jelly).

Yielded only 3 half-pints of jelly and one slightly nauseated cook.

Yeah, I guess you'd have to be a garlic lover for that one.

Although the result wasn't exactly what they wanted, at least Three Clever Sisters wasn't nauseated by their onion-fennel-red pepper pickle (Can Jam March Challenge: Alliums). If they didn't like red pepper, they could have simply left it out.

As a Disneyland Resort cook, I was happy to hear that Put a Lid on It (a chef herself) was impressed with the food served at our sister park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, and decided to recreate a pickle (actually, more like a chutney, I think) that came with the bread service (Sweet Onion and Lime Pickle).

A couple of quick notes. Although this pickle is most likely safe for canning it hasn't been tested. Also, the processing time seems a bit short. And, if you are processing for only five minutes, the jars must be sterilized prior to use. Jars do not have to be sterilized (only clean and hot) if the processing time is ten minutes or longer.

Other notes. If you are ever at a Disney park and like the food, you don't have to reverse engineer the dish, unless you want to. Please feel free to ask for the recipe. You will get it. They might have to email or mail it to you later, but they'll get it to you.

Also, Disney's California Food & Wine Festival will be taking place April 16 - May 31. Not a bad way to spend the day. And I'm not just saying that because I work there.

The Atlantic's Food Channel publishes an ode to homemade fruit wines (In a Fruit Wine, Comfort and Validation).

I swear to God, if you blindfolded me I would not be able to tell it apart from a decent Amontillado. Smooth, a little caramel, but with a bright acidity I did not expect in a wine that looked like maple syrup. It is, for all intents and purposes, a fine sherry. Made from Costco raisins. In a plastic bucket.

Fruit wines may sound sort of weird, but you can actually make some darn fine stuff. Even from Costco raisins.

Rufus and Clementine really wasn't bothered too much by Slate's condescending take on the revival of canning (Market.Watch | 12Mar10 & The Slam Reax).

The Slate article got under my skin, primarily, because it hurt the feelings of people I’ve come to respect, who felt attacked for practicing the traditions they hold dear. I had less of a problem because I kind of knew who she was talking to and about. It didn’t bother me, personally, because I’ve come to really enjoy doing it. Period. Whatever.

Mahlzeit (a German salutation, often preceding a meal, especially lunch) isn't so sure that food preservation is part of the solution (Apostate).

Food preservation, also, struck me as naive in its economy of scale. Is it really better for a million local households to each have a dehydrator ($80) and a couple of freezers ($200 to $350 each), and a pressure canner ($200 to $600), and a vacuum sealer ($150)?

Investing in these devices doesn't make sense unless you're going to use them, sometimes for several years. So, yeah, if everyone used them and account for the cost over several years, I think it does make sense.

Last week I pickled and canned local asparagus for a demo at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. Now, fruit detective David Karp reports in the LA Times that California's asparagus growers are shrinking in the face of Mexican and Peruvian competition since asparagus is a labor-intensive crop (Market Watch: Hard Times for California Asparagus).

The New York Times Magazine runs an interesting article with a feminist take on locavorism, what one author calls Radical Homemakers (aka a manifesto for "tomato-canning feminists") (The Femivore’s Dilemma).

Local artisanal canner Valerie Confections gets some press from NBC Los Angeles Feast - not only are they making farmers' market sourced preserves, but they will be doing some classes in the near future (Canning with Valerie Confections). Very cool.

Finally, with Easter right around the corner, Within My Means makes a kumquat chutney that she has fond memories of serving for the holiday (Easter-y Kumquat Chutney). Although it isn't a canning recipe and should be refrigerated, it sounds good to me.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/13/10

2010-03-13T00:50:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post's All We Can Eat blog revisits a recipe that is questionable from a food safety point of view because it includes partially dried tomatoes stored in olive oil (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?). This is an excellent food safety article because it goes into some depth about the food safety issues involved.

Come tomato season, I've gotten a lot of questions about whether you can make your own sun-dried tomatoes (enthusiastic yes) and store them in olive oil (regrettably, no). This article explains why. The options for freezing in oil given in the article is one good option. What I like to do is to simply rehydrate my sun dried tomatoes in olive oil overnight. This is safe because botulism at normal levels needs 5-6 days to reach toxic levels. Another option is to bring the olive oil and tomatoes to a simmer and then allow them to cool and infuse for use later that day. Finally, if you really want sun-dried tomato flavor in your oil, blast the warmed olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes with an immersion blender (or use a regular blender) until completely smooth.

WRBL in Alabama has a story on the resurgence of canning (Having a “Can Do” Attitude Towards Canning Food).

About eight years ago, Mary A. Keith advertised a class on home canning and preserving methods.
The food and nutrition specialist at Hillsborough County’s Extension Service got zero takers.
Last fall, she tried again. She filled seven classes of 30 students each, from teen girls completing a home-schooling project to guys who wanted to preserve the venison they bring back from hunting.
“I have five more classes on the books that are maxed out, too,“ Keith says “I don’t have the time to add any more. They won’t fit in my calendar.“

Props to Marisa McClellan and her blog, Food in Jars, for a lengthy mention in the article.

Local Kitchen loves alliums and had a hard time deciding what to make, but finally decided on a mustard for the March Can Jam (Can Jam: Roasted Garlic & Lemon Mustard).

Mustards are wonderful things. I'm planning to discuss them in one of my future weekly emails, but a quick tip. Mustard seeds are crazy, ridiculously expensive if you buy them in the grocery store. Sometimes you can find them at a reasonable price in ethnic grocery stores (Middle East and Latin), but for the best price and volume I go to a wholesaler for mine. I prefer Torn & Glasser near the wholesale produce market downtown.

Moo Said the Mama has a two-part series on making and canning beef stock (Making Beef Stock - Part I - Cooking the Stock and Making Beef Stock - Part II - The Canning Instructions). Although her herbs and spices are a little unconventional (and I would pincé the veg with tomato paste and deglaze with red wine), overall this is a very clear description of making and canning stock (which is usually a multi-day process, though much of that is unmonitored).

Making stock is the key to flavor in the kitchen. Make your own stock if you can. Of course, you can freeze it, but freezers can quickly fill with stock. Having a shelf-stable stock not only saves room in the freezer, but is more convenient, since you don't have to defrost the stock.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/12/10

2010-03-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

In addition to my response, there have been a number of other responses to Slate's dismissal of the canvolution:

Chimpanzee Tea Party: Surprise! Slate Thinks Canning Overrated
Anyone who's been around the internet a few times knows that Slate has a tendency to be contrarian to point of self-parody... in fact, it's such a well known meme that it has become tedious to point it out. However, since I think the idea of pickling is pretty neat... and have done it once and twice... and hope to try canning/pickling some of the bounty of the Maine garden with Anna and her Mom this summer... I felt a somewhat silly need to respond. A need that's all the more silly, since a read of the critique reveals there is no there there:
The Baltimore DIY Squad: Is Canning Too Trendy?
There are some truthful points to the article. Ball jars sure are photogenic. Canning is often a weekend activity that gets blogged about. Organic and heirloom crops can cost more than grocery store food. We foodmakers can sometimes sound self-satisfied when talking about our projects.

But to say "let's be honest: It's not about producing serious food for the future, and it's not about shaking a fist at industrial food" is not just negative, it's downright wrong.
Molly's Local Food Blog: Home Canning Question
The article ends with the assertion that the products of home-canning, while not thrifty, etc., are tasty and fun to make. That they are, in the words of Eugenia Bone, an act of optimism. On that I think we can all agree.
Serious Eats: 'Slate' Forgets That Urban Hipsters Aren't the Only Ones Canning Food
Be sure to check the comments.

Mimi Holt pointed me to a jam-making excerpt from the new book Forgotten Skills of Cooking in the Guardian (How to Make Jam). Among some other good information, the excerpt includes the traditionally British practice of heating the sugar for jams in the oven in order to shorten cooking times (and make the jams taste fresher).

It isn't tomato season, but Granny Miller (no relation) notes that she didn't can enough tomato juice last year and plans on canning more. She also posts a nice slideshow of tomato canning, including a jar that didn't seal and the contents sent to the freezer (Canning Tomatoes & Making Tomato Juice).

The OC Weekly's food blog, Stick a Fork in It, highlights ripe cherimoya in the farmers markets right now (At the Farmer's Market: Cherimoyas). If you haven't had one yet, give it a try. As for preserving them, they aren't well suited to canning as they can turn brown and bitter. Rather, freeze them with a little bit of lime or lemon to hold the color and add a little flavor. Since the texture is going to be pretty soft anyway, might as well freeze as a purée.

Serious Eats posts a video of a Korean Great-Grandmother making kimchi (Video: How a Korean Great-Grandmother Makes Kimchi). She estimates that she has made kimchi 10,000 times. If you make or are interested in making kimchi, it is a good video to watch. It isn't really a recipe, but gives you a better idea of how it is made.

Destination Eats gets some free, promotional jerky in the mail ("I Want to Send You More Jerky!"). Two packages of sweet & spicy jerky arrive, one flavored with orange, the other with mango. Helpfully, DE lists the other ingredients (which are many of the usual suspects - and you probably already have in your pantry). So why not make your own?

Pi(e) Filling - Weekly Email

2010-03-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

First, I just wanted to thank everyone who came to Delilah and my canning demo this past Sunday. Beautiful weather, fantastic market and great people. It doesn't get much better than that. We plan to do at least a couple more demos at the market as canning season really gets underway later in the Spring and Summer.

Second, St. Patrick's day is six days away on the 17th. There is still time to start that beef brisket brining for corned beef. For more information, see this past weekly email:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/2010/02/taking-cure-weekly-email.html

Third, if you don't read the blog, Slate magazine published an article yesterday dismissing the revival of canning as "cute" and a "cultish hobby". Naturally, I took issue with the article and wrote my response here:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/2010/03/slate-magazine-on-canning-uninformed.html

Fourth, I just want to encourage those who've joined the Facebook group to add photos and let people know what you are preserving. Let's see what everyone is preserving in Southern California!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

With those notes out of the way, I observe that March 14th is just a few days away. Why does this matter? Why, March 14th (aka 3/14 aka 3.14) is Pi Day (3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 etc. etc. etc.). Coincidentally, it is also the anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein.

So, let us discuss the canning of pi(e) filling.

Fruit pie fillings are a wonderful thing to have around and they can be used in many more things than just pies. Turnovers, crostadas, tarts, danishes and similar pastries are quicker to make when you have some canned pie filling in the pantry.

The most important thing to note about canning fruit pie fillings is that the USDA recommends only one starch for thickening pie fillings to be canned. That starch goes under the brand name "ClearJel", which is not to be confused with the brand name pectin known as "Sure-Jel". Also, don't use "Instant ClearJel," just the regular stuff.

What is ClearJel? ClearJel is a modified corn starch made from waxy corn. One of the differences between regular corn starch and ClearJel is that it is pre-cooked and consists entirely of Amioca starch. Amioca starch differs from common corn starch in that it is entirely amylopectin, whereas common corn starch contains both amylopectin and amylose.

Sorry about that.

What you need to know is that ClearJel will not break down when canned and subsequently baked. Other common starches for regular pie fillings, such as flour, tapioca, and regular corn starch, can break down under all the heat and acid of canning and baking, resulting in runny pie fillings. They can even separate in the jar. More importantly, from a safety point of view, other starches are much more prone to having over-thick patches, which can protect molds, yeasts or bacteria during the canning phase, meaning your canned pie filling might go bad.

It has some other advantages as well. As its name implies, it creates a very clear and transparent set. It is flavorless; you don't have to worry about that chalkiness of other thickeners. It is smooth, with no lumps or grittiness. Also, because ClearJel is a starch and not pectin, you can modify the amount of sugar in pie filling recipes, reducing the sugar, if desired - it won't fail to set. I use the stuff in regular cooking as a substitute for corn starch.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of anyplace in LA that sells the stuff (let me know if you know a place). It is available by mail order, and if you want to use it, go ahead and order it now before berry and cherry season is here. One pound of ClearJel will make about 8-9 quarts of pie filling.

Of course, you don't have to use it. Any recipe for canned pie filling can be made without the ClearJel. You simply can the filling without any thickener and add the thickener when you open the can to make pie. You might even find that this makes your cans a little more versatile and useful for things like sauces.

And don't forget to play with spices and infusions when it comes to pie fillings. Like pickles, however, I prefer to use whole or broken spices that can be removed and leave a clear filling, not a cloudy one.

Frozen fruit, preferably unsweetened, can be used in canned pie filling. When defrosted, save any of the juice for use as a substitute for any water in the canning recipe.

You can find some pie filling recipes here:
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_02/canpie.html

And how about pizza pie? You can preserve pizza topping, of course, but wait until peak tomato season.

That's it for this week. If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller@gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie Miller

Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 3/11/10

2010-03-11T13:31:00.000-08:00

Last week's LA Times Food Section had tons of food preservation related content (Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 3/4/11).

This week, not so much.

There was one significant article (didn't make the front of the section for some reason) that dealt with sustainability in restaurants. I actually blogged about it yesterday, so I'll just copy what I wrote then:

The LA Times has a nice article on how local restaurants are trying to be more green and sustainable (Serving Up Sustainability). There are a lot of good ideas that I hope other restaurants will take up, but one that isn't mentioned is food preservation. Fresh is great, but processed isn't always bad, especially when you are the one doing the processing. Food preservation has been an important (and sustainable!) aspect of human meals since the dawn of humanity.

Of course, many types of food preservation are labor intensive. Most restaurants will have a difficult time making enough preserved food for their customers, especially if they are doing stove-top processing. What might come in handy is, one guess, a community canning center, which would have the commercial retorts, steam kettles, filling equipment and other tools that would allow efficient and effective processing of significant amounts of food. In other words, a community canning center could be a great resource for sustainable restaurants.

For the professional cooks and chefs out there ... any comments and ideas on how you might use such a resource would be appreciated.

Amy Scattergood does have an article on delicious, mild and seasonal green garlic (Kinder, Gentler Green Garlic Mellows out the Menu). Give them a try! And, why not try pickling some for the March Can Jam?

Preservation Link Roundup 3/11/10

2010-03-11T08:41:00.000-08:00

Creative Canning makes what she considers an overly sweet bacon jam (Bacon Jam). Because of the presence of meat, this has to be pressure canned. Would love to play with this for a new take on a traditional breakfast.

I like to keep home canned garbanzos in the pantry so I'm never more than 10 minutes away from some hummus. This recipe for hummus using roasted beets sounds good and looks even better. Thanks to Farm to Table for mis-reading a recipe and coming out with something that sounds even better than the original (Roasted Beet Hummus).

Kitchen Jam shares a bit of their recipe development process as they work towards a submission for the March Can Jam (Patient Jam: Working on a Recipe). Rhubarb and red onion ... sounds like a good combination.

What Julia Ate uses marmalade in a quick bread (Marmalade Quick Bread). I love using marmalades in baked goods, because they bring those bits of chewy rind to the party, adding texture and flavor bursts to whatever you add them to. I love also that Julia is using some marmalade that set a little too hard. Sometimes a jam won't come out exactly the way you'd like. I don't usually adjust and reprocess mine ... I simply try to figure out ways to use it as is.

Hmmm ... now I'm thinking of adding some orange marmalade to brownies.

The Kitchn wonders what to do with pickled peaches (What Can I Do With Pickled Peaches?). They point to a Chowhound topic for some answers (Uses for Pickled Peaches?). In addition to the uses found there I would suggest using them with game birds such as duck, goose or even quail. They would be a nice addition to wild rice. Why not use them in a pork, ham, or turkey sandwich? Definitely a different flavor for a burger. With some basil, mint, onion and garlic, you'll have a nice bruschetta. Or think cheesecake, 'nuff said.

The LA Weekly's Squid Ink blog provides their weekly market report with a look at all the wonderful chanterelles in the markets (What's in Season at the Farmers Market: El Niño Chanterelles). As the report notes, they pickle very well.

Silicon Valley's Mercury News profiles artisanal preserve maker June Taylor Jams (Lady Marmalade: Berkeley's June Taylor Turns Jam Making into an Art Form).

Taylor's production facility and storefront on Berkeley's Fourth Street are named the Still-Room, a nod to the space in a traditional homestead or great house where women made preserves with plants from the garden. Taylor hopes that this Still-Room will become a gathering place and learning center to pass along the arts of handcrafted foods, canning, pickling, and preserving — a philosophy as irresistible as grapefruit-lavender marmalade. Yum.

Slate Magazine on Canning - Uninformed

2010-03-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Uniformed is a nice way of putting it.

The recent increase in the popularity of home food preservation has been hitting the press over the past few months and so, inevitably, there will be a spate of articles taking a skeptical look at the trend, so-called backlash articles. A prime example is this article on canning from Slate by Sara Dickerman (Can It: At-Home Preserving is Ridiculously Trendy).

Time to fisk. I'm a bit rusty, so bear with me.

Preserving food at home has become modish of late. The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the New York Times have all noted the intense popularity of canning: overflowing classes, new cookbooks, obsessive blogs, and Twitter-publicized can-ins. Another, more concrete indication of the trend: sales of the Jarden Corporation's Ball glass canning jars are booming despite the recession: Its 2010 sales are up nearly 10 percent, and that's after a 2009 increase of 30 percent over 2008.

So far, so good. Canning is increasing in popularity. Premise for backlash article established. Now, the backlash.

It's cute that a practice once associated with grandmothers, 4-H-ers, zealous gardeners with too many cucumbers, and the occasional survivalist, is now a litmus test for gourmandism. But there's a revivalist fervor bottled up in those jars—enthusiasts tout the thriftiness, healthfulness, and environmental virtues of marmalades and dilly beans—that seems overwrought.

Cute. Canning is "cute." Also seemingly dismissed for engaging in this "cute" endeavor are grandmothers, 4-H-ers, and zealous gardeners who are lumped into the same category as survivalists. Presume guilt by association much, Dickerson? I don't know what Dickerson has against grandmothers, but I still hold a good deal of respect for the lessons my grandmother teaches me. As for the 4-H-ers, perhaps Dickerson is still under the mis-impression that 4-H is only for rural children who raise animals to get blue ribbons at the county fair and be auctioned off for slaughter. That is part of 4-H and, heck, that's a good thing - we should all learn more about how the animals we eat are raised and slaughtered. But 4-H is much more than that. It is for rural and urban children, and teaches them many, many things (canning and animal raising among them). In an era when atheists and homosexuals are banned by the Boy Scouts, a much more inclusive organization for children that teaches life skills is something to be encouraged, not dismissed as "cute," or lumped in with survivalists.

As for "zealous" gardeners with too many cucumbers ... is there something "zealous" about growing more than you can eat fresh? Isn't that a traditional part of gardening? Traditional gardeners grow more than they can eat immediately and preserve the surplus for eating when there isn't as much growing, or for some seasonal variety. I didn't think that this sort of gardening was "zealous". But, apparently, Dickerson's gardening friends are more in the dilettante mode, growing only enough to put the occasional vegetable on the table and not growing enough to preserve for the future.

As for there being a canning litmus test for gourmandism, I wish. Although home canning is increasingly popular, I haven't really seen that it has taken off that much in the restaurant world, only along the edges. Fresh, local and seasonal remain the biggest trends in the food world and food preservation is being dragged along behind as people finally realize that "fresh-and-local" aren't actually one word. Local can mean preserved as well. By the way, how many canning recipes did Gourmet and Bon Appétit publish last year? I don't know off hand, but I don't recall seeing any.

Finally, the focus of the backlash. She can't really attack the flavor of home preserved food, so she goes after the thriftiness, healthfulness and environmental benefits. We'll get back to this point in a moment.

As with many food trends, today's cultish hobby was yesterday's necessity.

I'll skip the rest of the paragraph, as it is mostly just a little historical background. Now we've moved from the dismissive "cute" to the scary "cultish" and the still dismissive "hobby".

Why talk of canning? Why not simply talk about cooking? Yesterday, cooking was a necessity, now it is just a "cultish hobby," or is it? Perhaps, it is an actual lifestyle change, as we learn that eating out or eating ready-to-eat heavily processed foods on a regular basis is not necessarily such a good thing, for our health or the environment. Perhaps we've decided to eat local and seasonal, and have come to the realization that food preservation has to be a part of that to work. Or, perhaps, Dickerson intends to smear all movement towards local and sustainable eating as a "cultish hobby."

It was in the 1970s that home preserving first took on an oppositional message—it was part of that era's homespun chic. If back-to-the-landers tried to exit the commercial food economy altogether by canning their homegrown crops, dabblers could at least put up a few jars of homemade chutney to serve as a tasty, handcrafted no-thank-you to Smuckers. But this fondness for handmade preserves didn't stick around. The anti-corporate-food revolution softened its edge and quickly became indistinguishable from the specialty food industry. Au courant pantries featured jars of preserved food from faraway lands (Italian cherries, say), not one's own backyard.

This paragraph makes my point above. The fresh, seasonal and local movement also had its origins in the 1970s homespun chic. That movement too, softened its edge and nearly disappeared. Now it is back with a vengeance. Canning is just a few years later to the party.

Dickerson seemingly actually agrees with this, and her next paragraph pretty much makes this same point. Unfortunately, she continues:

But don't be fooled: Along with independence there is plenty of self-congratulation. These culinary trophies are emblematic of a project-based food relationship that we urban food junkies are prone to indulge these days: athletic all-weekend bouts of cheesemaking, or bacon curing, or jam and pickle making are so much more bloggable and boastworthy than making a decent brown-bag lunch five days in a row (I should know—I'm occasionally susceptible to such fits of showy industriousness, most often guided by Christine Ferber's gem, Mes Confitures.)

Well, I suppose someone could start a blog dedicated to their daily brown-bag lunches, but who would read it? Sure, I blog about some of my more interesting canning, but who wants to read "pressure canned 18 pints of pinto beans today. Sale on chicken, will can about 20 pounds tomorrow," on a regular basis? It's called "writing for an audience." Frankly, I think it would be more self-indulgent simply to record every mundane thing you do (hello, Twitter).

After all, who would read Dickerson if she wrote about the more mundane aspects of her life, rather than backlash articles on popular trends? But, by writing about their interesting experiences and not their mundane ones, canning bloggers have brought down the wrath of Dickerson.

And let's not kid ourselves that home-canning is particularly frugal. It's not impossible to save money by home preserving your food, but it takes a little investment to get set up for it, and you certainly won't cut costs by canning $5-a-pound heirloom tomatoes. Without a source of truly inexpensive produce (like vegetables you grow yourself), you'll find cheaper products in grocery stores. (The more convincing money-saving argument is that canning keeps down entertainment costs: An evening of making and packing picallilly is a cheerful way to pass time with friends, and it might substitute for the cost of a dinner out.)

Imagine, you have to invest a little upfront to save money in the long term. Someone call an economist, stat!

Buying farmers' market produce isn't the best way to save money either. Some canning is expensive and some is cheap. The showy jams are often quite expensive, berries aren't cheap. But I walk around my neighborhood and see tons, literally, tons of citrus going to waste. And, isn't it strange that food preservers are frequently gardeners as well? Hmmm ... what a strange coincidence.

Beyond money, canning demands an investment of labor and organization. In any volume, it can be serious drudgery. My mother, whose family substantially augmented their diet with food grown in their Maryland garden, does not fondly remember her days of putting up vast volumes of green beans, peaches, and tomatoes with my grandmother—though she does admit that the results were very tasty. Furthermore, only select foods are easy to can. Botulism thrives in low-acid environments, so if you're looking to safely process beans and soups and other low-acid foods—on which you could actually base your diet—you get into the tricky business of pressure canning or the less nostalgic, less photogenic, but much simpler, alternative: freezing. If you're not a die-hard, you'll likely only can high-sugar, high-acid foods like jellies, jams, chutneys, or pickles—in other words, condiments.

I'm sorry that canning isn't labor-free. Life is like that sometimes. You want easy, you're not a fan of being organized, go to McDonald's.

It's funny to harsh on canning for requiring organization. The first lesson I learned in cooking school, which is beat into me on a daily basis in the restaurant I work in, is "mise en place," being organized in the kitchen. Might as well dismiss cooking itself for requiring labor and organization.

So pressure canning is only for die-hards? It is slightly more complicated than water bath canning and requires a bit more investment up front, but if you are into canning for diet and frugality it is a necessity. Canning meat on sale and canning beans and soups for convenience requires pressure canning. This is where you can really save money and make better use of your labor. Yes, you might spend a Saturday canning soup or beans, but then, months later, you don't have to expend too much labor using them. So, canning is sort of like a labor-timeshifting practice. Of course, it isn't as easy as just going to the local Megalomart, but hey, do you know what relying so much on those Megalomarts is doing to our health and environment?

As for freezing. It's great. I'm a big supporter ... even have a chest freezer in addition to my refrigerator/freezer. But freezing isn't always the best option. Freezers get full, you know. And, they aren't always easy to use efficiently. Do you regularly rotate your food stocks in the freezer, Dickerson?

As for dismissing water bath canning as only for condiments. Thank you, Dickerson, for your support of the Western diet. Dickerson may dismiss them as mere "condiments," but pickles are a critical part of many diets around the world (just not so much in the U.S.). Is sauerkraut just a condiment? Is kimchi just a condiment? Do the Japanese have pickles with every element of a meal, simply because they are crazy about condiments? I could go on and on about pickles, but to put it simply, I'm a huge fan of increasing pickles' prevalence and using them to add flavor and interest to our plate, without a lot of calories and fat.

As for jellies and jams, yes, they are to be used in moderation. But using home made preserves, which usually have better flavor naturally, as well as being suitable for other flavor options you'll never get in any store, can bring flavor to a meal and satisfaction that outweighs the calories they bring. Would you rather eat more flavorless commercial dreck, or would you be more satisfied with a smaller amount of delicious homemade preserves? Your call.

And that's OK. There's nothing blameworthy about the pickling and preserving fervor, but let's be honest: It's not about producing serious food for the future, and it's not about shaking a fist at industrial food. (After all, it's not Claussen and Heinz that eco-conscious consumers worry about so much as suppliers of meat, milk, and produce.) Rather, it's about making and sharing delicious, idiosyncratic things that are also, not insignificantly, very pretty. There are few more photogenic scenes than a row of home-canned goods lined up in a sunny window (for proof check the sunlit cover of every recent preserving cookbook). And months later, that gleaming jar of blackberry preserves functions as a postcard from summertime sent into the dark grey winter. While Eugenia Bone advances political motives for putting food up, she is more convincing on the emotional tug: "Preserving is not about immediate satisfaction (for that, eat the cherries fresh). It's about anticipation. And in that sense it's an act of optimism."

Really, it isn't about producing serious food for the future? Really? I'm very serious about this. I sent in a grant letter of intent a few days ago in order to do a feasibility study for a community canning and food preservation center in Los Angeles. Maybe I won't be invited to submit a grant request, but I think I made a compelling case for such a center, not because this is trendy, but because it can be an important element of our local foodshed. Such a center would support local community gardens, which would be encouraged to grow lots and lots of tomatoes (for example), because they knew there was a facility that could assist them to efficiently and effectively can those tomatoes. Farmers could take advantage of the facility, as would the food banks, who sometimes find themselves with an excess of fresh produce that would go to waste without proper preservation. I could go on, but I believe that food preservation is a serious element of any future food policy.

As for the emotional pull, there is much to be said for it. I could wax poetic on the beauty, flavor and emotions that preserving creates., but if you are reading this, you probably already know the emotional draw of preserves. But a sound case can be made that food preservation is more than just a "cultish hobby," it is an art, craft and science that needs to become a more important part of our relationship to food.

Any points I missed? Please comment below.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/10/10

2010-03-10T01:00:00.000-08:00

Bakers are all about the precision of a recipe - they take their measurements seriously. Chocolate and Zucchini shows this trait in her formula for converting commercial yeast recipes to a sourdough starter (Converting Yeast-Based Recipes To Use A Sourdough Starter). I'll have to give this a try.

Local Kitchen brings the first post I've seen on March's Can Jam (It's Alliums!) with some pickled shallots, even though she is not a fan of pickles - though maybe she is learning to appreciate them a bit (Pink Pickled Shallots).

Pickled shallots are absolutely delicious. If you can them, let the flavor develop at least a week. Most quick pickles that are canned will improve in flavor over a week or two. Most importantly, don't forget to save the brine! That shallot-flavored vinegar can be the base for delicious vinaigrettes or a gastrique. Or use it to dress a soup or beans.

Speaking of flavored vinegars, Small Measure, who picked "Alliums!" for this month's Can Jam, shows how easy it is to make beautiful and delicious infused vinegars for home and gifts (Bottled Bliss). More ideas for flavored vinegars: marinades, salsas, tartar and ceviche.

Paper Dolly Girl canned an awful lot in 2009, and reflects on what she has left, what she needs, and what she learned (Planning for 2010 Canning).

The LA Times has a nice article on how local restaurants are trying to be more green and sustainable (Serving Up Sustainability). There are a lot of good ideas that I hope other restaurants will take up, but one that isn't mentioned is food preservation. Fresh is great, but processed isn't always bad, especially when you are the one doing the processing. Food preservation has been an important (and sustainable!) aspect of human meals since the dawn of humanity.

Of course, many types of food preservation are labor intensive. Most restaurants will have a difficult time making enough preserved food for their customers, especially if they are doing stove-top processing. What might come in handy is, one guess, a community canning center, which would have the commercial retorts, steam kettles, filling equipment and other tools that would allow efficient and effective processing of significant amounts of food. In other words, a community canning center could be a great resource for sustainable restaurants.

For the professional cooks and chefs out there ... any comments and ideas on how you might use such a resource would be appreciated.

Food & Think from the Smithsonian, has discovered pickling (In a Pickle).

Salty and crunchy cucumber pickles have been a mainstay in American refrigerators for decades. But The Daily Beast recently listed pickling as one of its top trends for 2010. And the trend isn’t just for cucumbers—you can pickle just about anything. At the restaurant where I work, we serve pickled red onion on our burgers and pickled beets in our salads.

Although F&T visited the website of a PreserveNation favorite, Food in Jars, they didn't really discuss canning pickles.

Although I didn’t end up choosing a recipe from [Food in Jars], mostly because I wanted an in-season quick pickle, I learned a great deal about the basics. For instance, when pickling vegetables, it’s important to use a vinegar that has at least 5 percent acidity. In the brine, this can be diluted to one part vinegar, one part water.

This is actually only important if you are going to be canning the pickles. If you're only making refrigerator pickles, you have much more flexibility ... use that rice wine vinegar (at 4.3% acidity) if you want.

The Kitchn provides a recipe for preserved lemons and a recipe for using them (How to Make Preserved Lemons and Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon). Tagines are great, but don't think that preserved citrus is only for Moroccan food. Be creative; they can punch up just about any dish.

Serious Eats provides an inexpensive recipe for a Salvadoran staple: pupusas with curtido (Eat for Eight Bucks: Papusa con Curtido Recipe). Their recipe for curtido uses vinegar, but traditionally, curtido is basically a mixed vegetable and latin-spiced sauerkraut. You can use vinegar for a quick version, but you'll get better flavor with a 3-5 day fermentation. Try the pupusas with some black beans that you've pressure canned.

Ideas in Food has a good discussion of the differing varieties of juicers, and a few ideas of their use (Juicers).

I'll end with one more entrant in this month's Can Jam. Hitchhiking to Heaven decides to give chutney a chance (Carmelized Onion and Apple Chutney). She has a good tip on determining the right consistency for chutney.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/9/10

2010-03-09T02:32:00.000-08:00

Doris and Jilly Cook decide to go a little tropical in the middle of winter; they couldn't resist buying a beautiful 3lb papaya and drying it (Dried Papaya). The flavor was a little cardboardy.

There are several potential reasons for this. One is that it simply wasn't a sweet fruit. Peak papaya season in the Northern Hemisphere is from early Summer to early Fall. The papayas obviously have to travel a long distance to make it to Philadelphia, and there is a good chance they came from the Southern hemisphere. Consequently, it is a fair probability that the papayas were picked unripe and firm. Although they will eventually turn yellow, the flavor and sugars will simply never develop properly. Also, in general, the larger the fruit, the more subtle the flavor.

When ripe, the fruit is soft to the touch, like an avocado. This is the perfect time for drying. Overripe, not so good. Underripe, also not good. A good sweet fruit, properly ripe, is very nice dried all by itself. It is common to soak them in a sugar syrup as well, or to even candy them. What Julia Ate suggested some lime juice, and that is an excellent suggestion, as is a little salt. Add some chile powder to the salt and lime and you have papaya pico de gallo. Delicious, absolutely delicious - fresh or dried.

Papayas work well in fruit leathers in combination with other fruits such as orange, kiwi, passion fruit, mango and pineapple.

And don't throw away the black seeds. Clean them and dry them and they make a slightly bitter substitute for black pepper. Frequently they are used in salad dressings and soups.

Ithacan held a food preservation workshop and over sixty people showed up to learn canning, pressure canning, drying, fermenting and cellaring, reports Ithaca's Food Web (Home Food Preserving Workshop Attracts Interest). Props to the organizers in Ithaca! Keep up the good work!

Wouldn't a community canning center be a great place to host such workshops in Los Angeles?

The Cosmic Cowgirl is surprised that she likes carrot cake jam (Carrot Cake Jam, Wha?).

Do you like dollhouses and canning? Then perhaps you'll like this miniature canning set for dollhouses from Reutter Porcelain (Reutter Miniatures CANNING SET Kitchen Cookware, Dishes). You could probably craft a nice little gift or ornament for your favorite canner from this.

Joe Pastry has put together a great primer on the the science of and making of yogurt. If you are at all interested in making your own yogurt, get thee hence:

Culture Maven
The Fresh-Fermented Dairy Tradition
Yogurt Recipe
So Where Does Yogurt Come From Then?
Making Yogurt Step One: Choosing the Milk (best yogurt I ever had was from sheep's milk)
Making Yogurt Step Two: Heating the Milk
Making Yogurt Step Three: The Starter
Making Yogurt Step Four: Fermenation
Dude, Where's My Lactose? I and Dude, Where's My Lactose? II
Garden on the Inside

We end today's post on a bittersweet note from Food in Jars, who savors the memories of a Southern California childhood as she finishes off some plum jam (Mourning the End of a Jar).

What memories is your food preservation building for your family (and children, if you have them)? One aspect of eating locally and seasonally that may not get enough attention is that we are building memories of place and time by doing so. How often do we associate holidays with particular foods? If you eat locally and seasonally, then different times of year will be associated with different foods and places in your memory.

Food preservation can let us access those memories through taste and smell, two of the most powerful memory senses as they tie directly into our hippocampus memory center.

I remember when I picked those tomatoes from the backyard. I remember when the orange tree was weighed down by bushels of fruit. I remember ...

Ernest and Delilah do a canning demo in Hollywood

2010-03-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

Ernest and I just had our first Hollywood canning demo yesterday and let me just say that i was VERY thankful that it didnt rain (driving our VW bus is not the easiest, but in the rain??). The Farmers' market really hooked us up with a killer booth for the event, a tent with screens, tables and an awesome grill-that and produce for the event-so sweet of them!

(ohhs and ahhs from Ernest's knowledge of canning-paging Alex Trebeck!)

Despite it being Oscar Day, there was a pretty good crowd (from 5 to 25!)...so refreshing and happy to see that people are interested in food preservation-gives us hope that perhaps the Master Food Preserver Program will come back to LA!
Ernest did a gorgeous pickled asparagus recipe. They looked beautiful with their slightly pink/red tops and bits of garlic and dill floating in the crystal weave glass...hard to believe that with a little work you can make something that costs you $8 in the store.
I opted for a curried carrot pickle. i am a big fan of the hot-sour combo. recipe below.

(tag team: cannin' at ya!)

(cooling the curry carrots)

CURRIED PICKLED CARROTS

3-4# carrots, peeled (if not organic), cut into sticks
5 cloves garlic
3 c. cider vinegar/white vinegar
1 c. water
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp cumin
1-2 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)

prep the carrots. in a stainless steel pan, combine water, vinegar, spices
and heat to boil. stuff the jars with the carrot slices and a garlic clove. pour brine over carrots, wipe lids and secure with lids and rings. process for 15 minutes.

(a few lucky audience members received goodies!)

we will let you know when we do this again!

Preservation Link Roundup 3/8/10

2010-03-08T01:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about an LA Times article on the food aspects of Purim (Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 2/25/10). I suggested using homemade preserves when making Hamantaschen and, although Purim is over, Food in Jars had the same idea (Jam-Filled Hamantaschen). As FiJ says, although Purim "has already come and gone for this year ... there’s no need to wait for next year before making these cookies."

If you're not familiar with "Little Homestead in the City," it is worth checking out. In their own words, they are "Eco-pioneers living a homegrown revolution on a sustainable, real-life original urban homestead in Pasadena, California." Their progress is nothing less than very, very impressive.

They grow most of their own food. Every week (mostly) they provide a complete report of their meals, noting the few foods that didn't come from their homestead. Their latest report covers the past two weeks (Urban Homestead's Weekly Meal Wrap x2). What is interesting to me is the amount of preserved foods that make it into their meals. Fruit preserves, pickled squash, dried tomatoes, pickled garlic, tomato sauce (I'm assuming it is canned from summer), and beans (I assume were dried), were just some of the preserved foods that made into their meals over the past couple of weeks. It's inspirational.

SippitySup goes to the Hollywood Farmers' Market weekly (though, to my knowledge, he's never stopped by my table), and creates some of the most interesting and delicious dishes from what he finds at the market. This week he came across a different variety of kumquat, the mandarinquat (a cross between mandarins and kumquats, of course) and decided to turn it into marmalade (Market Matters- Mandarinquat Marmalade My Newest Quat to Quaff). I'll have to track some down myself, just to taste.

The New York Times has a weekly series called Recipes for Health. Every week they "present recipes around a particular type of produce or a pantry item. This is food that is vibrant and light, full of nutrients but by no means ascetic, fun to cook and a pleasure to eat." This week they make a frittata that features canned tuna (Baked Tunisian Carrot, Potato and Tuna Frittata). I couldn't help but think of All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here!'s homemade pressure canned tuna.

I have a passion for preserved citrus and so does Tigress in a Pickle, who shares two differently spiced versions (Persian and Maghreb) of the eminently versatile flavor enhancer (Preserved Lemons Spiced 2 Ways).

What Julia Ate is playing with marmalade before she gets too busy with her garden and raising chickens (Marm: Orange Fig and Orange Earl Grey). One marmalade she added figs to, and the other an infusion of Earl Grey tea (which is one way to get bergamot into your marmalade).

We often thing of adding herbs and spices to change the flavor of jams or jellies, but it is easy to forget that non-traditional infusions are another way of creating new and interesting flavors. Other teas, of course. Green, black and chai are all good ideas. It may sound sort of cheesy, but "Chinese Restaurant Tea" works as a flavor for me, since it brings fond memories whenever I smell it. Coffee and espresso can also make surprisingly good additions to certain flavors. And don't be afraid to go off the beaten path. Consider, for example, kombu. You might get a little sea flavor, but you'll also be getting a lot of glutamic acid, which is a major flavor enhancer you might know as umami.

To make a kombu infusion, also known as kombu dashi, wipe the kombu leaves (easily found in Japanese and Korean groceries) with a dry cloth (do not wash them), place in a pot of room temperature water and bring the pot to a simmer. When it reaches a simmer, turn off the heat and allow the kombu to infuse for ten minutes. Remove the kombu (it can be used in other dishes) and you're done.

The Frugal Fraulein is looking for someone to help her pretty up her blog (now that you mention it ... this blog could use a makeover as well), and she is willing to barter for services (sounds like someone could get some nice preserves if they have some free time and talent) (Blog).

Preservation Link Roundup 3/7/10

2010-03-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Fellow Master Food Preserver Delilah Snell will be giving a 1-hour lecture on food preservation at the Spring Garden Show at the South Coast Plaza (Ed Begley and....Delilah Snell ????). Set your calendars for Friday, April 23rd from 2:30pm-3:30pm.

Hungry Passport is a blog dedicated to travel and good food. It is written by a tour professional who, as you might imagine, gets around quite a bit. Recently, she was in ~~Alsace~~ Los Angeles enjoying a rustic French meal at Café des Artistes (Week 25 - Rustic French).

I noted throughout the evening that our meal looked like a study of food preservation methods. Since it was late wintertime, this meal reflected what we'd be eating when we're relying on our reserves of food and awaiting the return of springtime and a new growing season.

Pickles, marmalades, confits, rillettes, pâté and, of course, cheese. What would French cuisine be without food preservation?

Chiot's Run has a good post on using canning jars for freezing (Using Canning Jars in the Freezer). Plenty of good tips:

You may worry about freezing in glass because of the possibility of breakage, but there are a few things you can do to minimize this chance. Do not fill jars all the way, most wide-mouth canning jars have a “freeze fill line” marked on the side of the jar. Using smaller jars also helps, with less liquid you don’t have to worry as much about expansion and the possibility of breaking the jar. The larger the jar the more expansion room you’ll need to allow. I freeze in jars often and have only had a broken jar once, it was my fault for filling it too full and not allowing enough expansion room. (another note, make sure the stock or veggies are cold before putting into freezer)

The "freeze fill line" he is referring to is actually the 1-inch headspace line - good for freezing and most pressure canning.

Hitchhiking to Heaven makes a conserve with dried fruit, Clementine syrup and red wine (Red Wine and Clementine Stewed Apricots and Prunes). What a number of flavors going on; it sounds truly delicious. Conserves just don't get the respect they should.

What do I do with partial bottles of red wine? I pour them into my red wine vinegar jar. What does preservation guru Eugenia Bone do? As she explains on Well Preserved, the Blog, she makes a reduction sauce (Red Wine Reduction Sauce). This can be a sort of secret ingredient that you can take in many different directions and use with all sorts of different dishes. Bone uses it with duck breast, but add some sautéed mushrooms and you've got something that will go well with beef. Add some cherries and suddenly you've got a sauce for pork loin. Stir it into stews, or add it to a tomato sauce for pasta. Your imagination is the only limit.

Earlier in the week I hosted a birthday dinner party for my girlfriend's sister. She had requested a Red Velvet Cake for dessert. Traditionally, Red Velvet Cake is served with cream cheese frosting. I have to be different, of course, so I used a standard buttercream frosting (with ganache between the two layers of cake) and put the cream cheese into the ice cream, instead. Tonight, I had some leftover cherry pie filling from a pastry I made in the morning. Just a little over the cream cheese ice cream was sort of like a frozen cheesecake with cherry topping. Go light on the cherry pie filling, though. Its flavor can overwhelm the ice cream, which has a more delicate cream cheese flavor than a real cheesecake.

When a recipe for a preserve says that it is good on ice cream ... it doesn't mean it has to be a common ice cream.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/6/10

2010-03-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

Stony Run Farm provides some very simple instructions for making a solar dehydrator from scraps (An Afternoon in the Garage). It requires a little woodshop skill, an old window and some wood scraps but not that much. If you check around the interwebs, you can find a number of different ways of making solar dehydrators. Just be careful that in our summer sun and heat your dehydrator isn't actually an oven.
via Two Frog Home

The Atlantic's Food Channel has some good suggestions for pantry staples that, when you need to cook out of your pantry, make life a good deal easier (A Southern Pantry for Stress-Free Meals).

The LA Weekly's Squid Ink keeps us up-to-date on seasonal produce, this week highlighting that most delicious of thistles, the artichoke (What's in Season at the Farmers Markets: Artichokes). There is some nice history and a brief discussion of the various varieties.

Artichokes can be pickled. The best artichokes for pickling are the small "baby" artichokes that you can eat whole, usually they are cut in half for pickling, pretty easy. You can pickle just the hearts, but trimming artichokes down to the heart is an awful lot of effort.

For more on what's fresh in the markets, check out Good Food every week (What's Fresh at the Farmers Market This Week). That rhubarb looks darn good.

Wisteria - Wisteria - Wisteria
It's that time of year again! Sierra Madre is hosting their annual wisteria festival Sunday, March 14th (2010 Sierra Madre Wisteria Festival). The Huntington Library also has some fine wisteria as well. The food preservation take? Wisteria makes a fine, delicately floral scented jelly. The violet color is lovely as well. CAUTION: Only the violet wisteria flowers are edible. Not the leaves, vines, roots, and ESPECIALLY not the seeds.

LampGoods' shop on Etsy has a cool looking hanging lamp made from a vintage Mason jar (Orono. Vintage BALL CANNING Jar PENDANT made NEW).

What is it with fermented cabbage and soups? Why do they work so well? Serious Eats publishes a Momfuku recipe for kimchi stew (The Momofuku Cookbook's Kimchi Stew with Rice Cakes).

All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here! always keeps a supply of home canned tuna on hand. She shares her technique and some good photos (Canning Tuna). I haven't canned tuna myself, but I definitely have it on my list of things I want to can.

I doubt canned tuna is the recipe Creative Canning is excited about canning when her new All American canner arrives soon (All American Canner). But she's right to be excited. The All American is, IMHO, the best pressure canner out there.

Nutrition Know How has a good list of things to do in order to get ready for canning season (Gear Up for Canning Season).

And, last but not least I take the time to go through my canned items. I check for any change in the canned items, and when the item was processed. I try to use all the items canned from the previous year before my next season starts. So if I have items that I have not used from the previous year, I know that I need to plan some menu’s that will include those canned goods before I start canning again.

Finally, it is a bit late in the season, but Slow Food USA has declared 2010 the year of the heirloom apple (Let 2010 be the Year of the Heirloom Apple). So, later this year, let's all can some heirloom varietal apple products. We might find that some of these heirlooms, which aren't great for out of hand eating, are very well-suited to particular canning recipes.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/5/10

2010-03-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Whatever its origins, the Ploughman's Lunch is a very satisfying repast, especially with a cold pint (ale or hard cider). The Kitchn provides one version with some alternatives (Treat Yourself To A Ploughman's Lunch!). To me, the pickled onion is the most important element after the bread and cheese. The "pickle" is actually a mixed vegetable relish, but could also be replaced with a chutney. One other item that I consider important to the plate is a good, hearty mustard.

If you haven't tried a Ploughman's lunch, I highly recommend it. It is excellent for picnics, or something to enjoy in the sun after a morning of garden work.

The Gainesville Times of Georgia reports that severe budget cuts will lead to the closing of many county extension offices and 4-H programs (Cuts to Extension, 4-H Would be ‘Devastating,’ Officials Say). Now is the time that such programs should be expanded, if anything. There is more interest than ever, and in times of recession, these programs help people help themselves.

The proposal to cut the programs comes at a time when state residents seem to be relying on the help of extension agents the most.

Billy Skaggs, Hall County’s agricultural extension agent, said the past 12 months were “extremely busy” for him as area residents had increased interest in locally grown food. UGA family and consumer sciences agents also were flooded with questions of financial literacy and food preservation, Sparks said.

“We’re needed right now,” she said.

American Home Canning had a jar break on them while pressure canning some chicken (Broken Jar). They provide a list of reasons why jars might break during the canning process, as well as some preventative measures you can take to minimize the chances of breakage.

Time to Prepare for the Oscars of Food Preservation - Weekly Email

2010-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings!

It's Oscar week here in LA and the award craziness is in full swing. Are you ready for that Oscar party yet?

Wolfgang Puck has preserved food on his retro menu for the Governor's Ball - smoked salmon (which is usually cured as well) on crackers in the shape of the Oscar statuette. Little know fact about me, I worked the Governor's Ball in 2005, and I made lots and lots of those Oscar-shaped crackers.

Speaking of the Oscars, traffic and parking may be affected at the Hollywood Farmers' Market this Sunday. This is important because Delilah Snell and I will be doing a demo of how to can pickled vegetables from 10am - 12pm. We will giving away some of the cans at the end of the demo, so you too might be a winner on Oscar Sunday.

Speaking of award ceremonies, it is time to prepare for the Oscars of food preservation - the 2010 Los Angeles County Fair!

Although the fair isn't until the end of August, and the entering deadline for the food preservation judging is near the end of June, if you want to win some blue ribbons, now is the time to get ready as the canning season begins to swing into full gear.

If you haven't considered entering your preserves in the fair competition, why not? It isn't that difficult, there are dozens of classes, and how cool would it be to have an actual blue ribbon you could show off?

So what is the first thing you need to do?

Read the official rules (only 4 pages):
http://www.lacountyfair.com/2010/AttractionsCompetitions/documents/Preservedrules2010.pdf [PDF]

Read the list of divisions and classes within divisions:
http://www.lacountyfair.com/2010/AttractionsCompetitions/documents/PreservedFoods2010.pdf [PDF]

There are 17 different divisions, such as butters, fruit & vegetable pickles, jams, jellies, conserves, marmalades, relishes, sauces, etc. Within each division is a number of classes. For example, the relishes division includes such classes as sweet pickle, chow-chow, piccalilli, corn, chutney, pepper/onion, zucchini and other.

Finally, you'll need to print out the entry form:
http://www.lacountyfair.com/2010/AttractionsCompetitions/documents/Preservedfoodentry2010.pdf [PDF]

The entry fee is only $5 for 1-5 entries and increases to only $25 for 21-30 entries!

Now you're ready to start preparing to enter. As you can through the season, keep the rules and classes in mind. If you are going to be making some marmalade anyway, why not put aside a couple of jars for the fair? You'll need to put the recipe aside as well, so a notebook will come in handy.

Here are a few hints on winning those ribbons:

Follow the rules! Why bother entering if your preserve will be disqualified because you didn't follow the rules?
Judges will be looking at the flavor (for tasted entries), texture, appearance, and color of the food.
The syrup or pickling brine should be clear, not cloudy.
Cut pieces of fruit or vegetables should be uniform in size and appearance.
The crisper the pickle, the better.
All entries should be free of air bubbles, but jellies, sauces and relishes especially.
Pay attention to detail. With a two jar entry, they should be identical, even as to how the sealing lid faces on the jar.
Proper headspace is important.
Jars should be clean and shiny (use vinegar in the water bath to prevent mineral deposits on the jar), and the lids and rings free of rust.
Don't turn over the jars; food under the lid will cause the preserve to be marked down.
Use high quality fruit for best taste and appearance.
Did I mention you should follow the rules?

Honestly, it isn't all the difficult and requires just a little more record-keeping when you're done canning. You're going to be canning anyway, so why not take a chance?

Enter as many classes as you can. It increases your chances to win, and the Sweepstakes goes to the person who won the most ribbons. Only one entry per class, though.

Good luck with the fair! I'm hoping to see some of your names with blue ribbons next to them come late August!

That's it for this week. If you have any questions about canning, pressure canning, fermentation, dehydration, freezing, pickling, curing, smoking or brewing, feel free to email me at ernest.miller@gmail.com.

Be sure to check out the blog, which is updated several times a week:
http://preservenation.blogspot.com/

And/or join the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=280846286958

Thanks,
Ernie Miller

Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 3/4/10

2010-03-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

This week's LA Times Food Section is a veritable food preservation special issue.

First off, the cover story is dedicated to smoking food indoors (Slow-Smoking Ribs in the Great Indoors). Smoking is a very old method of food preservation. Although smoking alone will not preserve food (you need to use another method of preservation for that, such as dehydration), it does assist in preservation. More importantly, however, it adds flavor and color.

A little smoke flavor goes a long way towards supercharging flavor and taking standard recipes into a whole new realm. Add some smoked meat to a chili or stew and ... wow. Other ingredients can be smoked ... instead of regular baked potatoes ... why not try smoke roasted potatoes? Or smoke roasted potatoes in a potato salad.

Anyway, if you haven't tried smoking, then read this article. It demystifies smoking and shows how you can do it with very little equipment right inside your kitchen. The article is focused on stove top smoking, but you can also use similar equipment and methods to smoke in your oven. As for me, I'm going to give the Maple-Bourbon Hot-Smoked Pork Belly a try. Mmmmm ... bacon. I've made maple-cured bacon before ... bourbon sounds like a great addition.

Hmmm ... makes me think that some smoky Scotch would be another way to add smoke flavor in different recipes...

Anyway, moving my mind off the island of Islay, Russ Parsons discusses the increasingly popular trend of nose-to-tail cooking and eating. In this case, learning how to butcher and cook whole pigs (In SoCal Restaurants, a New Passion for the Whole Pig).

Learning how to cook nose-to-tail will inevitably lead to food preservation techniques, which were traditional ways of using the whole animal. Curing, drying, smoking, and pickling are all methods commonly used on the less commonly eaten (nowadays) parts of the animal. What's great about this is that not only are we rediscovering flavors and textures that have fallen by the wayside, but reconnecting with where our food comes from and gaining new respect for those who raise the animals and the animals themselves.

This is why I am passionate about food preservation.

In any case, Parsons references that modern classic Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and provides a slightly modified version of Pork Belly Confited in Olive Oil. It must be confit week on this blog.

Aging beer gets some respect (Store Beer in a Wine-Like Cave? Southern California Gives it a Try). Although the article is focused on commercial bottles from smaller breweries, some of the most interesting aging that I know is taking place by home brewers who are aging their own brews. Heck, I've got a nice spiced stout (lots of clove and orange peel) I expect will be quite nice come the holidays nine or ten months from now (and almost a year-and-a-half after it was brewed).

"The Find" reviews a place I've been dying to try ever since I heard the words "kumquat chutney dogs" (The Slaw Dogs in Pasadena). I've got to go check them out ...

Preservation Link Roundup 3/4/10

2010-03-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

Serious Eats' Slice, reviews a pizzeria in Indianapolis (Indianapolis: Maria's Pizza Still Going Strong After 50 Years). The featured pie? A "Sauerkraut Special":

Bringing everything together was the named star of the pizza, the sauerkraut. This grossly underutilized pizza topping provided a zestiness that demanded I continue eating well after I was full.

Nina Corbett has an excess of lemons and was running out of energy for the more strenuous forms of preservation ... so, she put some lemon zest in a jar of vodka with a little sugar and rosemary (Lemon Rosemary Vodka). Frankly, making liqueurs is definitely a great way to preserve without a lot of effort. And experimentation with flavors is entirely up to you.

Steam Kitchen posts a crowd-pleasing and simple recipe for stuffed dessert wontons (Chocolate Wonton Recipe). As she notes, you don't have to fill the wontons with chocolate. Try your favorite jam, conserve, marmalade or pie filling. How about strawberry preserves as the filling and then drizzle a little ganache on top?

The OC Weekly's food blog, Stick a Fork in It, discusses the Murcott Tangerine, also known as a "honey" tangerine, noting that they are excellent for marmalades (Murcott Tangerines). Might I suggest that they're easily separated sections make them excellent for canned sections in syrup? They make a great local version of the canned mandarins that are popular in various salads.

The Kitchn provides a traditional recipe for pickled red cabbage (How to Make Easy Pickled Red Cabbage). These can be kept in the refrigerator, but no processing time is provided. Twenty minutes in a boiling water bath would make them shelf stable. I like to use red wine vinegar in mine however, with an occasional foray into apple cider vinegar (especially with green cabbage).

The Denver Post (via the Washington Post) falls in love with kimchi (Kimchi is Really Some Hot Stuff). Some good ideas for using kimchi in the article, I hadn't thought of using it in a dressing (such as for a turkey), but it makes sense.

Serious Eats reports on the slowly growing prevalence of kombucha (Kombucha: The Acquired Taste for Funky-Tasting Fermented Tea). Good stuff and easy to make at home. Ask me about it at the market.

Real Food Fans found the instructions for an old 70s-era water bath canner in one of his mother-in-law's old recipe books and harshes on it for, supposedly, encouraging people to water bath can low acid things like soups, vegetables and seafood (Somehow They Didn't Die).

Slipped into the book a few pages later ... [was the] instruction booklet, hand dated "July 75," for a WestBend water bath canner. "Ideal for Water Bath Canning...OR Soup * Stew * Spaghetti * Sea Food * Corn-on-the-cob." Uh...ideal if you're looking for a way to cull your family and reduce your food bills, I suppose.

Leafing through the instructions themselves, there is no mention of any of these "or" items, just the usual high-acid vegetables and fruits. And there is a disclaimer on the top of the inside front page, shown below. [image in original]

Phil is not certain his mom canned soup. Even if she didn't, I'm sure others did, either missing the disclaimer, or not knowing enough to figure out what constitutes high- or low-acid foods, or not understanding that failure to use the proper canning method could kill you.

Actually, I'm not so sure about that. Just because in the year 2010 not too many people know about proper canning techniques, doesn't mean that canning knowledge was in short supply in 1975. Many more people likely had experience with canning and access to people who were experienced canners. They probably knew better than to can soup and seafood without a pressure canner. Clearly, the pamphlet meant to say that the canning pot was good not only for canning, but you could make soup in it as well. Actually, that is why I don't recommend specialized canning pots, but rather a good stock pot for a boiling water bath.

Still Blonde After All These Years is giving away two copies of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Preserving Food ($330 Complete Idiot's Guide Giveaway March 3- March 13). You just have to comment on the blog ... but read the post for full instructions.

Sustainable Food from Change.org provides a short introduction to canning (Yes, We Can! A Brief Guide to Home Canning). Cool, but can we stop with the "Yes, We Can" stuff already?

Preservation Link Roundup 3/3/10

2010-03-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

Doris and Jilly Cook experiment with and discuss using commercial-style jars with 1-piece lids (Jars and Lids). There are pros and cons, but you may consider using them if you plan on selling your jars or give them as gifts.

The LA Times' Daily Dish points out a couple of local tomato growing classes starting up this weekend (Tomato Time: As Tomato Season Approaches, a Variety of Growing Classes are on Offer). Growing your own is an excellent skill to learn and a great way to ensure a plentiful amount of tomatoes for canning.

Speaking of tomatoes, the Horticulture Department of Fullerton College is holding its annual tomato and pepper plant sale this weekend (Friday - Sunday) (2010 Tomato and Pepper Sale). Learn how to grow them and then buy them this weekend.

Residents of Richmond and Wayne counties in Indiana are enjoying a series of 100-mile potluck dinners, in which all the dishes are prepared with local ingredients gathered within a 100-mile radius, according to the Palladium-Item (Interest Grows in Locally Produced Food). Given that "it's been months since the last farmer's market", preserved food plays a big role in the local ingredient list.

Much of the food at the February 100-mile radius potluck came from the Baxters' CSA, The Clear Creek Food Co-op or home gardens. Families froze or canned produce during the summer so they could have some in the winter.

At the potluck, Earlham professor Carol Hunter informally demonstrated how she cans her own fruits and vegetables. Hunter learned the skill from her mother, who was a home economics teacher, but noted that the skill is largely being forgotten.

Angela Fraser, an Associate Professor/Food Safety Education Specialist in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Clemson University has written a brief 20-page introduction to home food preservation (Introduction to Home Food Preservation). It is a great quick overview of the topic.

The cover story for the New York Times Dining section this week is on raising and harvesting rabbits (Don't Tell the Kids). Raising rabbits is not too difficult and can be quite economical, since they breed, like, well, you know. By coincidence (?), Food Curated (an excellent short documentary series on various producers of food on the East Coast) just posted an episode on rabbit breeding (Farming and Breeding Fresh Local Rabbits for New York City Restaurants).

Why all the rabbit love on a food preservation blog? Rabbits are excellent for pressure canning (Selecting, Preparing and Canning Meat: Rabbit or Chicken). It was one of the specialties of my great-grandmother.

Anarchy in a Jar uses their jam to make a free-form tart, or crostata (How to Jam #3: Jam Crostata). I find that these are really great for individual sized servings, i.e., making a whole bunch of mini-crostatas. For larger tarts, I prefer a traditional shell made in a tart pan. Still, a large crostata is a beautiful thing. Both pie fillings and conserves are also an excellent filling for a crostata. And for real decadence, why not have a bottom layer of ricotta cheese topped with jam in the crostata?

Might I also suggest brushing the top of the crostata with an egg wash to make it all nice and shiny when it comes out of the oven? Powdered sugar is a nice topping, but a crystallized sugar, like turbinado, sprinkled on top before baking also makes a lovely topping and adds texture.

Big Black Dogs is giving away an Nesco/American Harvest dehydrator (Nesco/American Harvest Dehydrator Giveaway). All you have to do is comment on the blog post. There are also a number of ways to get more entries, such as tweeting a link, following the RSS, etc., etc., etc.

Whether you win the dehydrator or not, you may want to consider reading this brief primer on dehydration from Positively Prepared (Why Dehydrate Food?). Probably the earliest food preservation method, dehydration is not used nearly as much as it can be.

Two Frog Home continues their pantry series with a few hints on using the food in your pantry (Pantry Stocking :: Using It).

Paris-based pastry and ice cream expert David Lebovitz makes an unusual marmalade (Bergamot Marmalade Recipe). Kevin West had some trouble using bergamots as a small part of a more traditional marmalade. I wonder what he would think of this recipe? Will he give it a try?

Preservation Link Roundup 3/2/10

2010-03-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

The Frugal Fraulein points to a new article of hers about Bisphenol A in canning jar lids (BPA and Canning Jar Lids).

After doing some research I am still going to use metal lids. I will be very cautious though and will never store jars upside down. At this point the alternative is glass jar lids and they are still too expensive for The Frugal Fraulein. Also a while back I purchase two cases of jar lids at a reduced rate. I keep them in my cool garage where they will never get really hot. Remember storing unused canning jar lids in a hot place can melt them together. Unsticking them can make them unable to adequately seal.

Read her full article: How Safe Are Canning Jar Lids?.

I agree with her on using the metal lids and this bit of advice:

I suggest that all canners write to Jarden Home Brands maker of Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest, and Bernardin canning jars and lids with an appeal to research and find another solution. As consumers we can alter their business by refusing to make purchases from them and turning our business to other companies. Jarden's mailing address is Jarden Home Brands, 14611 W. Commerce Road, Daleville, IN 47334 and their [contact page is http://www.freshpreserving.com/pages/contact_us/10.php].

Kevin West defines marmalade as bitter and jam as sweet - there's a story there, read it - and so what he is calling tangerine "jam", most would call tangerine "marmalade" (Tangerine Jam). Here is a sample of the distinction, from one of Kevin's correspondents:

My own personal taste buds prefer marmalade to be a little bit rude. I like marmalade to ever so slightly slap me around the face. It's a good way to wake up in the morning. Short and sharp. I would describe this preserve as nearer to 'sweet and long', which is how I like my summers and affairs, just not so much my marmalades.

Gives you a whole new perspective on preserves.

Food author/activist Michael Pollan gives an interview to Earth Eats about his most recent book Food Rules (Michael Pollan: Food Rules, Practical Advice For Local Eating). Last month, I wrote about the intersection of food preservation and Food Rules (Food (Preservation) Rules). Pollan clearly recognizes the importance of food preservation for eating locally and sustainably:

Well, I think there are challenges to eating that way [locally and sustainably]. One is eating that way through the winter in a place like Indiana. There are a lot of people who are giving a lot of thought to food preservation, how do you do that well, finding people who are growing well under glass. So, extending the season for local food I think is an area where there’s a lot of work that can be done and it’s worth doing. [emphasis added]

If you haven't read Food Rules yet, I highly recommend it ... and it is less than $10 on Amazon. Pollan's other books are classics as well.

Sharon Astyk, author of Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation, has declared the "Independence Day Challenge III" (Independence Days Year III). The challenge is basically about taking small steps towards a more sustainable way of living and eating. It isn't about stunts, like eating only within 100 miles for six months, but about doing small tasks that lead toward food independence. The small steps ultimately add up. Here are a few of the steps Sharon suggests:

Plant something.
Harvest something (neighborhood fruit trees count).
Preserve something.
Waste not.
Want not.
Build community food systems.
Eat the food.

This is something that everyone can participate in. And, even if you don't participate actively, just considering the challenge is worthwhile.

Serious Eats has a food preservation quiz (Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Food Preservation?). Let's get that average score up, people!

This past Sunday I talked about using fat as a preservative in confits and rillettes (Preservation Link Roundup 2/28/10). Yesterday, Serious Eats published a recipe for pork rillettes (Cook the Book: Pork Shoulder Rillettes). If you've never made rillettes, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Congratulations to Food in Jars for being nominated by the 1st annual Saveur Best Food Blog Awards (Nominated in the Saveur Best Food Blog Awards!). Vote (registration required) here: Cast Your Vote for ... Best Special Interest Blog.

Epicurious waxes metaphorically about a preserved lemon condiment, chermoula (Preserved Lemons Redux: Charmoula the Wise and Thoughtful).

We see that Mayo and Ketcho were simple happy girls; very popular and easygoing, they had a lot of friends. But the youngest daughter had a deep internal life and spent her time searching for perfection.

What a coincidence, I was planning on serving chermoula with some pistachio-crusted halibut on Wednesday evening.

Food Forward is a Los Angeles-based group that seeks to harvest backyard fruit and fruit from non-maintained orchards with volunteer labor. The harvest is then (100%) donated to local food banks. They are hosting the Juicy Fruit express this Saturday, March 6th (Fresh Juice March Edition).

Come join Food Forward on our first field trip to Bakersfield, CA! The Juicy Fruit Express is a vegetable oil run bus that will take 40 of us to an amazing citrus orchard in Bakersfield for a huge orange pick and BBQ on Saturday, March 6th. Tickets are only $20.00 per person – this includes your seat on the bus and all food, drinks and refreshments for the day

I've got other commitments, but it sounds great. Be sure to check their website out for other opportunities, such as a tangerine pick on Sunday.

via Good Food

Last but not least Small Measure is holding her monthly can giveaway (Small Measure Can-Do Contest, Round 9). In order to win, there isn't much more to do than comment on her post - read full details and fine print on her blog. It's worth it for a chance to get some Rhubarb Amaretto Chutney.

more kumquat recipes: kumquats in vodka

2010-03-01T07:56:00.000-08:00

basket inventory: lots of kale and carrots, lettuces, cilantro, rosemary, tangerines, blood oranges, mandarins, limes, lemons, kumquats, broccoli, avos, mac nuts, sprouts

booze is a great way to preserve items..not only is it incredibly easy, but you are going to have some pretty delicious cocktails!
NOTE: if you want to make this for a party, you need to start a few weeks in advanced so that you have a well developed flavor.

KUMQUAT VODKA

1 liter/5-6 c. good vodka
2 c sugar
1 pound well washed kumquats

pierce the quats a few times do that they can soak up the booze. dump them into a sterilized glass jar/pickling container and add sugar. add the vodka and close the container well. let it sit for about 2 weeks or until the sugar is dissolved...
i should be doing a follow-up to this recipe in a few weeks!

Preservation Link Roundup 3/1/10

2010-03-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

According to the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association, March is National Frozen Food Month.

Tigress in a Jam is quite proud of the plum jelly she put up last October (Jam on It: Plum Hot Jelly & Almond Butter). I always say that canning provides you with two senses of accomplishment. The first you enjoy immediately as the canning lids ping during cooling. It feels good seeing the finished jars filled with all sorts of goodies. You get to revisit that feeling when, months later, you open those cans.

Well Preserved learns that they don't have to compost all of their vegetable scraps, but can save them to make vegetable stock (A Butcher Opened My Eyes to Vegetables with an Option Better than Composting). This is absolutely a great way to use vegetable scraps. If you don't have enough vegetable scraps for immediate use, you can freeze them to use later. Carrots, onions and celery are particularly useful as you can use them for vegetable stock and protein stocks.

You might even choose to keep mushrooms separate so that you can make a mushroom stock (great for mushroom risotto, other rice dishes and soups).

Of course, vegetable stocks can be pressure canned for shelf stable storage.

If you want to advertise your canning prowess via a t-shirt or reusable bag, Cafe Press has a nice selection (Food Preservation).

Food in Jars has some excellent suggestions for playing with spices in canning (Season to Taste).

But I do want you to know that it’s okay to gently tweak the spices. If you know that you can’t handle a great deal of heat in your food, please, please reduce the amount of chili or cayenne that the recipe calls for. If you’re a cinnamon fiend, feel free to increase the amount you include in your blueberry jam. Also, keep in mind that a small amount of spice can increase in flavor over time, so if you’re making something in July that you don’t plan on eating until February or March, adjust accordingly. Most of all, remember that you’re making those pickles or that chutney for you, and so the way it tastes should always, always please you.

Might I also add that you should use mostly whole, cracked or broken spices, not ground (as they make brines, jellies and jams cloudy). But, definitely! And don't forget those fresh herbs!