Preservation Link Roundup 8/20/10

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?

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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. Thermal-Guard Jar
   
   Thermal shock resistant jars that do not have to be preheated before being filled. Saves time in canning.
   
   
4. 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 3/30/10

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 3/6/10

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 3/3/10

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 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 2/18/10

Slashfood passes on the news that the European Food Safety Authority is concerned that one or more of the flavorings in artificial smoke flavor may be toxic to humans (Smoke-Flavoring in Some Foods May Be Toxic).

The European Food Safety Authority examined 11 smoke flavorings used in the European Union and found that several of the flavorings had chemicals in them that could cause cell damage in high quantities.

Time to go back to real smoke flavor.

One way to add real smoke flavor, without actually smoking something, is to use actually smoked salt. Coincidentally, smoked salt is the flavor of the week for Anarchy in a Jar (Flavor of the Week: Smoked Salt). Just be sure your salt is actually smoked. Also, note that there are various flavors of smoke. Alder and applewood are quite different.

Stick a Fork in It, the OC Weekly's food blog, promotes making preserved lemons (Cliché-Killing Preserved Lemons).

A tagine is a good trial dish for a first batch, to taste the lemons in what may be thought of as their natural environment, but if they become a standard flavor in your kitchen, you'll find yourself chopping them up to add into just about any dish.

Hmm, that sounds familiar.

The SF Gate reports on the seed trends for gardening this year (Seed Trends - Food Gardening, Pickling). What's hot? Food, particularly food that can be preserved.

Since last year, Josh Kirschenbaum, product development director for Oregon's Territorial Seed Co., has seen a jump in sales of vegetables for home preserving, including pickling cucumbers and saucing tomatoes.

In other trend news, Jarden Home Brands, owners of Ball and Kerr, report that they beat expectations and saw increased profits, according to Reuters (Jarden Profit Beats View, Sees Sales Growth).

With an average price of $30 for its products, Jarden has managed to appeal to consumers looking to entertain in their homes or cook their own food while saving money. Products geared to home canning and fishing, for example, had strong sales, [Chief Executive Martin] Franklin said.

If you do a lot of canning, Two Frog Home has a good tip to save money: buy canning lids by the case (Bulk Canning Lids). Other ways are to save money is to buy on sale (usually late fall), or special order through an ACE Hardware (but see if you can negotiate a discount on a full case). If you don't plan on using a full case, why not split a case with a canning friend?

Chef Talk has a nice primer on canning meat using the raw pack method (Hot to Can Meat AKA Jar Meat).

Carrot Can Jam update:

Breadexperience.com provides a great description of her pickling process for baby carrots (Pickled Baby Carrots: Tigress Can Jam #2).

Local Kitchen (local, that is, if you're from New York's Hudson Valley) struggled with the can jam because she didn't want to make more marmalade and doesn't like carrot pickles. So, after some searching, she modified (safely, I might add since she used more acidic ingredients than the original tested recipe) a recipe for carrot pepper salsa (Can Jam: Apple Carrot Chilé Chutney). Looks and sounds great!

Preservation Link Roundup 2/8/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preservation Link Roundup 2/7/10

On The Kitchn (no, that is not a typo), Dana Velden writes about rediscovering the writings of famous American food author MFK Fisher (Weekend Meditation: On Rediscovering MFK Fisher). MFK Fisher has always been a favorite of mine, not as accessible as the friendly writing of James Beard, her writing can often strike even deeper chords, as Velden notes. Moreover, I live just a few miles from where she grew up in Whittier, CA. Furthermore, she was a fan of food preservation.

Indeed, she published an annotated edition of Fine Preserving, Catherine Plagemann's 1960s ode to "jams and jellies, pickles and relishes, conserves and chutneys, and brandied fruits. Elegant and unusual recipes for city and country cooks." Fisher's annotations are sometimes wonderful examples of her style:

[On Nectarine Chutney] Nectarines: I don't think I've used them in anything Mrs. Plagemann recommends. Her "chutney" sounds good, except that I don't make chutneys much any more. I think most people believe (or hope) that if they miss somehow on jam or conserves or preserves, they can simply add a lot of spices and garlic and chopped onion, and believe (or hope, again!) they're making a decent chutney. They are mistaken.

I've always thought we should have an MFK Fisher dinner here somewhere in Southern California, preferably in Whittier. If such a dinner were to happen, shouldn't some sort of preserve be a mandatory part of the menu?

Btw, if you do come across a copy of Fine Preserving you must be very careful with the recipes, since the book was published long before the USDA updated their guidelines in the 1990s. Be wary of any book published before 1996.

Tea Works Cottage, an internet shop on Etsy, is selling a vintage canning funnel (Vintage Canning Funnel Complete and Original). It's an old-fashioned canning funnel that doubles as an egg separator, strainer (coarse and fine) and bottle funnel. Pretty cool looking ... and only $12.00 + shipping. I'm tempted, but I've got enough equipment on my shelves.

The Kitchn has a couple of recipes for one of my favorite snacks to go with a nice cold one: pickled eggs (wasabi eggs? why didn't I think of that?) (Two Recipes for Pickled Eggs). Although these are pickled in Mason jars, it is important to remember that there is no safe home canning recipes for pickled eggs. Make them, but keep them in the refrigerator.

Pickled eggs and beer are a great reason to go to one of the monthly meetings of the Long Beach Homebrewers. Not only will you get to taste a wide variety of homebrew, but someone usually brings some homemade pickled eggs as a snack.

Maangchi has an excellent post with photos and video on making a simple kimchi (Korean Recipes: Easy Kimchi).