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

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.

Preservation Link Roundup 3/21/10

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 3/14/10

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 3/10/10

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 3/5/10

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.

Preservation Supplement to LA Times Food Section 3/4/10

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 3/2/10

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.

Preservation Link Roundup 2/25/10

Well Preserved is on a yogurt kick. Last week they drained regular yogurt to make Greek-style yogurt and yesterday they discussed making yogurt in their dehydrator (Making Yogurt in the Dehydrator – the Night Time Stood Still).

I have the best yogurt maker in the world, the Salton YM9 - 1 Quart Yogurt Maker. Unfortunately, it is no longer manufactured - sorry. It is great for making 1 quart of yogurt at a time, usually enough for 3-5 days for me. But when I need to make more yogurt all at once, I turn to my dehydrator.

Well Preserved doesn't mention what sort of dehydrator they have, but almost certainly it is a box type, such as an Excalibur. The Ronco-style round tray dehydrators can be used to make yogurt, but in small tubs, not in large quart mason jars. In a box dehydrator, you just remove enough trays to fit the jars you want and then place them on the bottom. I like pint and quart jars for yogurt, but you could make a whole passel of 8-oz or 4-oz jars if you like pre-divided individual servings. Set to about 115 degrees F, the dehydrator will keep the yogurt at the right temperature for growth.

Ah, dehydrators. So useful. Bonus, after making yogurt with your dehydrator, you can make yogurt leather. Mix 2 parts yogurt to 1 part of your favorite jam, spread 1/4-inch thick on a leather drying sheet (offset spatula, thank you), 130 degrees until leather consistency, pliable, but not sticky. Cut into bite size pieces, my nieces call it "candy" - heh, heh.

Two Frog Home has been doing a great series on stocking your pantry (Pantry Stocking :: Buying in Bulk and Pantry Stocking :: Finding Space). Good tips.

Of course, while taking care of your pantry don't forget the refrigerator (the mainstay of food preservation). The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on how appliance manufacturers are redesigning their refrigerators so that they are easier to clean and keep organized (Why Won't Anyone Clean Me?). The most important issue, actually, is education - teaching people how to properly store goods in their refrigerator.

People often don't store things properly anyway. Four years ago, in an effort to understand how people organize their fridges, Sub-Zero bought a week's worth of groceries and asked a group of 12 customers to put away the items in refrigerators at the company's research facilities in Madison, Wis.

What ensued was chaos. People put meat and soda cans in the crisper drawers, which have a temperature and humidity meant for veggies. They put their milk in shelves on the door. While the door shelves seem to be a perfect fit for a carton of milk, Sub-Zero says the area is the worst place to store dairy products because it's the warmest part of the fridge.

Read the whole thing. I like this tip:

Ms. Johnson [training manager at Merry Maids] recommends that people explore the depths of their fridges once a week for food that needs to be tossed. She suggests cleaning one shelf at a time so that the task is less overwhelming.

Flying Tomato Farms does something interesting when making homemade bouillon - they roast their vegetables first (Eureka! Homemade Bouillon). Sounds like a real good idea to me. Freeze in a jar or as cubes.

The Foodinista makes a variation on an old-school classic (Baked Brie with Apricot-Rosemary Chutney). If you already have some canned chutney handy, this is ridiculously quick and easy to make. You just need some puff pastry or phyllo, a wheel of brie, 10 mintues of prep, a little oven time and you've got something spectacular when entertaining.

Eleanor Barkhorn of The Atlantic's Food Section cooks from her pantry, where she finds a can of Tuscan white beans and garbanzo beans (After Snowpocalypse, Bean Soup). The bean soup she created was simple and easy and sounds decidedly satisfying. Convenience food from the pantry made with canned beans ... hm, sounds familiar. The only thing is that the soup contains cream and she froze it. Soups with cream that are frozen have a tendency to separate. Better to freeze the soup without cream and add the cream when reheating.

Delilah Snell loves the look of Weck canning jars (Must...Have...These...Jars). If you buy her a case, she promises to give you one back filled with something delicious. Rufus and Clementine also like the jars and have put together a little guide to getting some (In Pursuit of | A Weck Resource Guide). Be sure to use new rubber gaskets when canning, do no reuse gaskets.

The Herald Journal News of Utah publishes an article celebrating eating home canned food in the middle of winter (Home Canner Glory).

Home-canners, this is your moment of glory.

Now is the payback for the weeks of hard labor - hours spent up to your elbows in tomato pulp and peach skins. The foolhardy folks who scoffed at your industry can only dream of the rich fruit of the summer. They’ll ingest the counterfeit meat product and fried starch at fast food restaurants while you dine on colorful bottled treasures from your cellar, one luscious quart at a time.

Heh. There are a few recipes for using home canned goods as well.

Nurse Elizabeth also celebrates her canned bounty (Canned Poached Pears).

Tonite, in the dead of winter, I ate a perfect October pear, frozen in time. YUM. You can’t even get that at Whole Foods right now!

And to me, Canned Poached Pears is, to date, the most awesome thing I have ever made in my kitchen. Not because of the taste, though. Don’t get me wrong, it is a delicious, savory dessert. But the idea that I am preserving fruit when it is just perfect, then poaching it while it is already sealed in the jars (preserving the alcohol content-YES!), then cracking a jar open for an elaborate, special occasion dessert 6 months to 2 years after I made it is, to me, nothing short of awesome.

They have citrus up in Canada? Who knew? The Toronto Sun has three recipes for marmalade, plus good tips for making and canning it (Making Marmalade).

Preservation Link Roundup 2/23/10

Wow, is canning growing in popularity. The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting statistic in an article on gardening trends (Garden Trends: What's In and Out for 2010).

Domesticity is back. People are returning to a simpler life of cooking, gardening, and even raising chickens! According to LOHAS – Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability – seed sales are up 30 to 50 percent and canning sales saw a whopping 45 percent increase.

Produce sharing with community-supported agricultural farms and produce exchanges are springing up throughout urban and suburban and rural communities. The take-home message is: urban farming is cool; urban wastelands are not. [emphasis added]

Yesterday I linked to Well Preserved's post on making tzatziki and thickening their homemade yogurt (Tzatziki, Thickening Yogurt and Other Favourites…). I forgot to mention ... save the leftover whey. It is protein-rich and full of probiotic bacteria. I drink it straight, mix it into smoothies, use it as a substitute for buttermilk (think low fat ranch-style dressing - or in baked goods), or in anything that calls for water and you want to add flavor and tartness. It freezes well if you can't use it all at once. Finally, it is useful for lacto-fermentations.

Department of "Hey, that was my idea":

Serious Eats is all excited about a food truck in D.C. selling oatmeal with a brûléed top (Oatmeal Brûlée from the Sweetgreen Truck in Washington, D.C.). Darn. I did that years ago.

I'm a huge fan of porridges (basically any grain or legume boiled and served as a mush). Porridges are one of the earliest cooked foods and a staple item for most of human history. Not only are there many different styles of oats, but so many different grains to make porridge from. Try some groats or quinoa for something different.

So what is the food preservation angle? How about another idea that some hip new food truck can steal? Jam or canned pie filling can be put on top of the oatmeal, but rather than simply stir it in, top that with a crumble topping (including more oats), place in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown and crispy and ... oatmeal fruit crumble.

The Burlington Free Press has some suggestions on using chutneys (Tips for Using What You Have on Hand: Chutney). Once you find some that you like, you'll be coming up with all sorts of things they can be used for. Hmmmm ... maybe with some drained yogurt for a spread or a dip?

All Types of Cooking, And a Whole Lot of Canning Here! enthusiastically recommends pressure canning home made stock (Canning Chicken Stock). I couldn't agree more. Never let bones go to waste. Freeze them, if necessary, until you have enough for a batch of stock. I always buy pork shoulder bone-in, so I can save the bones - and, it is usually less expensive that way. My shrimp are always purchased uncooked, shell-on so that I can freeze the shells for stock later (used my entire stock of shrimp shells to make a lobster bisque a few weeks ago). You get the picture.

Apparently, yesterday was National Margarita Day. Now there is nothing like freshly made sour mix. However, when you want to mix a drink, a fresh sour mix isn't always conveniently available. And forget that store bought stuff. Seriously. That stuff is horrible. I'd rather go parched then drink something with that stuff in it. However, making your own canned sour mix is a possibility. It won't be as good as the fresh stuff, but it is better than the store-bought junk. Equal parts (by volume) water, fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice and sugar. Some of the zest from the fruit is also nice. Bring all ingredients to a boil, let infuse for 10 minutes and strain out zest. Can as you would a syrup.

I've been remiss in linking to several good posts from jelly fan What Julia Ate. Most recently she discovered a chutney she really liked (The Heavy Heavy Carrot Apple Chutney Sound).

I am on the chutney train, people. I really didn't think this was going to be good while I was cooking it. I thought, damn, I put too much in. Made it too complicated. But lordy, is this good. I don't often eat chutney out of the jar but I am now a convert

For the February Can Jam she made the popular (with a few small twists) Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickle.

Jelly doesn't always get the respect it should, I think, but Julia aims to change that. Just one example, using jelly in cocktails (Jelly Toddy). Yes! Heck yes. Now I have to go make some coffee liqueur.

Jellies and marmalades are also great in tea, or just hot water, of course. Koreans make something very similar to a citron or yuzu marmalade, stir it into hot water and call it citron or yuzu tea or yujacha. It is considered a winter sore throat/cold remedy. A little brandy added is a bonus.