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

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

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 3/15/10

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 3/10/10

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 2/27/10

Fruit Detective David Karp's Market Watch report this week in the LA Times is all about two wonderfully preservable items: Minneola tangelos and cauliflower (Market Watch: At Ventura Downtown Farmers Market, Minneola Tangelos and Cauliflower). The purple cauliflower is beautiful, but remember when pickling it, that the blue color will enter the water a bit.

Chile Chews makes potato-based CSA soup and discusses potato cultivation (Potatoes for Soup). What I found interesting is that she paired the soup with pickled onions and apples (hello, March Can Jam).

Trash to Treasure Decorating has some interesting ideas for decorating canning jars by filling the jars with something interesting and topping it with a votive candle holder, so it is both decorative and a candle (Ideas for Canning Jars & a Friday Blog Hop).

She was too late to join the Can Jam, but Sidewalk Shoes made some pickled carrots anyway (Pickled Rosemary Carrots). I'd be very interested in seeing how they come out. The rosemary would be very savory and there would be some heat from the chile peppers.

Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars guest blogs at The Kitchn with some ideas on making your own canning equipment (How To Make Your Own Canning Equipment). Since canning kits can easily be found for less than $15, the most useful aspect is on how to make a canning rack for your canning pot.

Preservation Link Roundup 2/20/10

February's Carrot Can Jam is coming to an end, with plenty of interesting results.

Doris and Jilly Cook try a chutney recipe, but aren't entirely happy with it (Apple Carrot Chutney). Chutney's are like that. Sometimes you find an amazing new flavor, other times ... the flavor is amazing in a different way. It also sounds as if D&J will be discussing one piece lid systems.

It isn't do chua, but Food in Jars makes a similar carrot and daikon pickle (February Can Jam: Pickled Carrots and Daikon). Most do chua is made with julienned vegetables, but FiJ cut their veg on a mandoline, making for a different appearance and texture. This is something you can often do to add a little variety to your pickles. For example, instead of pickle "chips," why not pickle "batons"?

Kitchen Jam uses a trick that I like to pull, adding chipotle to sweet jams (February Can Jam: Spicy Carrot-Apple Chipotle Butter). The smoky heat of the pickled, smoked jalapeños pairs very well with fruit flavors, particularly berries. One of these days I'm going to try to make a mostarda with chipotles.

Oh, Briggsy has a meandering (in a good way), link-filled post that eventually gets around to a Can Jam recipe (February Can Jam: Carrots! Pickled Mexican-Inspired Carrots with Onion and Jalapeño). These are a favorite of mine ... I add them to beans, rice, even guacamole (gives it some texture).

There are other things to can than carrots. For example, mushrooms.

Granny Miller (no relation), explains how to can mushrooms with a pressure canner - actually, a pressure cooker is used (which is definitely not recommended) - but everything else is kosher (Home Canning Mushrooms And A Modified Rant). The rant has quite a few interesting facts as well:

Pennsylvania has been growing and producing mushrooms since the 1890’s, and historically mushrooms have been the Commonwealth’s most valuable cash crop. Last I checked Pennsylvania produces over 35% of all fresh mushrooms sold in the United States; and that number is down from 50% just 3 years ago.

Pennsylvania mushroom farmers not only produce a valuable crop, but they also purchase and recycle large quantities of manure, straw, compost and other farm products. Not to mention that Pennsylvania mushroom farmers have found a good use for old coalmines.

Mushroom farming sounds like a good part of a green farming system. I should learn more about it.

If you don't have a pressure canner, no worries. Why not pickle those mushrooms? National Center for Home Food Preservation: Marinated Whole Mushrooms.

Living the Frugal Life has some good instructions on making seed vaults using mason jars (Being Thrifty - Or Doomerish - With Seeds: Creating Your Own Seed Vault). The labeling information is particularly good.

Diner's Journal from the New York Times reports on a movement to plant an edible garden outside of City Hall (Plans for Real Growth at City Hall). Not a bad idea, but I would love to do some preserving out of these public gardens.

I missed this locavore backlash article that came out last week in the New York Times (A Balance Between the Factory and the Local Farm). I love this quote:

Some of these so-called locavores may think they are part of a national movement that will replace corporate food factories with small family farms. But as much of the East Coast lies blanketed beneath a foot or more of snow, it’s as good a time as any to raise a few questions about the trend’s viability.

First sentence, strawman ... hello. Second sentence ... gee, I guess when the East Coast was buried under snow 200 years ago and locavore was the only choice, everyone just starved to death. Or, maybe, they had something called "food preservation". Hmmm...

Just another locavore backlash article that takes some cheap potshots without actually delving into the mess that our current agriculture system is in. How about more analysis and solutions and less snark?

Finally, a sad note. The last sardine canning factory in the U.S. is closing (Stinson Canning Facility is Closing). I'm a big fan of sardines and they have quite a history here in the U.S., especially in California (Cannery Row, anyone?). Part of the problem is that we've been stripping the oceans of too many fish:

Over the past 6 years, annual total allowable catch levels of herring have decreased by 50% - from 180,000 metric tons in 2004 to 91,200 metric tons for 2010.

We've really messed things up. And our fisheries continue to suffer.

Preservation Link Roundup 2/17/10

More carrots? Absolutely. Plan on seeing more carrots in this space for the rest of the month ... thanks to the Carrot Can Jam for the month of February.

All Types of Cooking, and a Whole Lot of Canning Here! makes carrot pickles (Carrot Pickles). She uses the cold pack method, in which you place the vegetables in the jar cold and pour boiling brine over them. It's easy, and allows you to make pretty jars, with the vegetables artfully arranged. One note: when cutting the vegetables to fit the jar, don't forget to take into account the headspace. I usually cut one stick to the proper length and use that as a measuring stick for the rest of my carrots (or asparagus, green beans, etc.).

Big Black Dogs solves the cutting the vegetable issue by using those "baby carrots" you buy in bags at the supermarket (Pickled Carrots). I say "baby carrots" in quotes because they are actually mature carrots industrially processed into the convenient "baby" shape. Still, they make a great pickle. From Big Black Dogs' photos, it looks like they fit the 4oz jars pretty darn well.

This isn't for the Can Jam, but Well Preserved dehydrated some orange taproots and was quite happy with the results (Dehydrated Onions and Carrots). You know, if it wasn't such an old method of preserving food, quite possible the oldest, dehydrated foods would probably be a fashionable example of molecular gastronomy. The textural changes can be a fantastic opportunity for using familiar ingredients in new ways. Why not try using those dried onions in a breading, for example?

Now for something non-carrot related.

It is lucky that I have access to as many kumquats as I can use because good kumquat recipes keep coming down the pike. Case in point, Tigress in a Pickle's Indian-style fermented kumquat pickle (Rajisthani Kumquat Pickle).

Barefoot Gypsy Blog is quite frugal. She buys partially used candles at yard sales and then melts them together into new candles. She was torn about using canning jars for her recycled candles, but decided they looked so good that it was okay to use them for candles instead of food (Recycled Candles in Canning Jars). The instructions are quite good.

Re-Nest has some handy advice for buying and storing bulk foods (How to Buy and Store Bulk Foods). I knew how to store bulk foods, but I definitely learned some things about buying them. Good, helpful tips.

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.