Hounds In The Kitchen » preserving

Really, Rugelach? {Wordless Wednesday}

Rachel Tayse — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:40:41 +0000

Lil and I made Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s rugelach for a cookie exchange last week. Lil loved rolling peach, blueberry peach, and sour cherry preserves with almonds in the rich butter and cream cheese dough. She even made her own creation, chocolate with no nuts.

The recipe is time consuming and made me break up with my food processor but the results are outstanding. This is the perfect cookie for me – not at all sweet but full of flavor from homemade jams. Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s recipe also suggests a bacon jam version which a friend made and paired with scotch. Yum!

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Really, Rugelach? {Wordless Wednesday} is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Great Grandma's Apple Butter {Recipe}

Rachel Tayse — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:18:27 +0000

My Great Grandma Davis, mother of my father’s mother Joyce, was an old school home cook. She grew a large garden and Grandpa fished to feed themselves fresh and cheap food. Grandma later used her kitchen experience to serve as a school cook for many years in the decades where everything was prepared from scratch on site.

Because Grandma lived into her nineties, I grew up knowing her. I remember eating a breakfast of biscuits and jams at her house in Missouri as a very young child. Sadly, she died before I was interested in food and could learn from her depth of home cooking knowledge.

I do know that Grandma put up everything she could, including apple butter. For years, I hesitated to remake her recipe because I was afraid I could live up to her version. But for you, dear blog readers, I sifted through recipe cards at my parents’ house and pulled out Great Grandma’s Apple Butter.

Just reading Grandma’s handwriting stirs up sentimental feelings of opening birthday cards and Christmas gifts lovingly addressed by her hand. Click on the card image to see it larger. I love that she simply wrote ‘seal in jars’ as if every woman of her day would know exactly how to do that. I consulted the National Center for Home Food Preservation to find the proper canning time.

I suspect I will never alter this recipe because there is a certain nostalgia in making apple butter exactly as my great grandmother did. Not knowing Leona, however, you might want to substitute some brown sugar for the white and change the spices. Ground ginger would play nicely with the other flavors, as would nutmeg. I did reduce quantities and update the recipe to make it slow cooker friendly.

My father made this recipe a few years ago and noted that he would prefer less vinegar. I think the iteration I made with Liberty Pink applesauce and homemade cider vinegar had a perfect balance. We suspect that the variety of apple makes all the difference and you may wish to taste before adding all the vinegar.

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Great Grandma’s Apple Butter Recipe

makes 6 half pints

4 pints applesauce, or 8 cups stewed and pureed apples

3 cups granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup cider vinegar

1. Stir all ingredients in a slow cooker or oven safe pan.

2. Cook on high uncovered, or 200 degrees F, for 4-6 hours, or until reduced by half.

3. Fill jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. As the apple butter is very thick, jiggle the jars or stir with a chopstick to release any air pockets.

4. Wipe rims and place two part lids on jars. Place in water bath canner and process for 5 minutes.

5. Remove jars from water and allow to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Prepare and store for up to one year.

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More Davis/Tayse family recipes:

Rhubarb Crunch

Gingersnaps

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Great Grandma's Apple Butter {Recipe} is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Rapid Cannning Trick

Rachel Tayse — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:06:08 +0000

Step 1: Put out a call on Facebook that you are canning. Tell friends you will teach them.

Step 2: Offer to entertain their kids with paper mache when friends respond.

Step 3: Breathe deeply as chaos ensues when friends and kids come over.

Step 4: Enjoy the chatting as you work together to peel and slice ~30 pounds of peaches.

Step 5: Give your friends canning confidence as they help fill jars with peach pieces and make jam from the scraps.

Step 6: Relax as you realize that you just canned in a third of the time as normal. Think about sharing a jar or two with the friends who helped you.

Now, who would like to help mop the floor?

PS. Intrigued by the glass peaches pictured? They are part of the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Hungry Planet exhibit opening August 20.

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Rapid Cannning Trick is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Experimental Jamming

Rachel Tayse — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:14:18 +0000

Homemade jam is a perfect canvass for creativity. Fresh seasonal fruit packs plenty of flavor on its own but thanks to the high acid content, fruit jam can be safely canned with herb and spice additions.

Tired of the same old peach jam I usually make, I asked the family for new ideas. Lil wanted to combine our freshly picked peaches with farmer’s market blueberries. Alex suggested playing with fresh basil from our garden.

And so it was that on Tuesday night I had three pots of jam on the stove.

For the blueberry basil, I added 1 tablespoon washed and chopped fresh basil to 1 cup of blueberries. The peach basil included 1 tablespoon basil to two cups mashed fresh peaches. For the blueberry peach, I mixed 1 cup blueberries with two cups mashed fresh peaches. I added a bit of Pomona’s pectin and sugar to each pot, mostly relying on the natural pectin to set the jams.

With a few years of experimenting in the can, I offer these tips for creating your own flavors:

Use an existing recipe as a base. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has lots of them that have been tested for safety.
Can in small jars. Highly flavored jams tend to be used in specialty dishes and don’t get eaten as fast as standard jams around my house. I like cute quarter pints because there’s less to go through before the jam spoils.
The less sugar you use, the quicker it will spoil after opening. Finding homemade jam spoiled in the fridge is one of the worst feelings in the world so plan jar size and usage carefully for low sugar recipes. I’ve found over time that I prefer the taste, set, and preserving effect of using about 1 part sugar to 4 parts fruit.
Use Pomona’s Pectin if you use pectin at all. Pomona’s can be adjusted to any batch size and any amount of sugar, unlike most brands. I recommend starting with 1 teaspoon calcium water and 1 teaspoon pectin powder per cup of fruit.
Do a set test. If you are experimenting off recipe, you definitely want to test the set or gel-ness of the jam. I do this by putting a small spoonful in the freezer for one minute. If it sets then, I know it will set in the jars.
Flavors concentrate over time. What tastes like a hint of spice will become stronger as it ages in the jar. Err on the side of fewer flavor agents.
Use caution when mixing in fresh non-fruit ingredients. To safely can jams, the mixture must maintain acidity above 4.6 pH. Fresh herbs and most vegetables are low acid foods, so they must be used in moderation and/or corrected for acid balance by adding lemon juice.
If you are concerned about canning safely, freeze the jam or store in the fridge for short term use.

Have fun, canning friends!

Added to Simple Lives Thursday.

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Experimental Jamming is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Preserving at Wild Goose!

Rachel Tayse — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:00:58 +0000

In partnership with Wild Goose Creative, I am pleased to announce a new series of home preserving classes.

Join me on third Tuesdays from 6:30 – 8:30 to preserve local fresh foods by freezing, canning, drying and curing. Each workshop will include hands on experience, tastings, recipes, and a sample to take home.

Schedule

6/21: Jam Canning - We will use a seasonal fruit to make jam and freeze berries. The basic water bath methods in this class are the same as those to can jelly or fresh fruit.

7/19: Tomatoes – What to do with an excess of tomatoes? I will teach how to make and can sauce, demonstrate dehydrating, and share recipes for canning-ready barbecue sauce and ketchup.

8/16: Pickling – Using traditional vinegar and lacto-fermented methods, we will create pickled cucumbers and peppers.

9/20: Apples – I will share my favorite ways to enjoy apples year round including dehydrating, canning applesauce, and storing long term.

10/18: Home Charcuterie – Learn how to make pancetta and bacon at home with no special tools or equipment. Alex and I will also demonstrate how to make sausage and sample a variety of home cured meats.

Pricing

We are offering several pricing options, starting at $30 per class. Choose the whole series and save over 10%.

Visit the Wild Goose Creative Preserving Series page to register. Class size is limited, so sign up today to fill your jars and freezer this summer!

Wild Goose Creative

Wild Goose Creative is about a lot of things. It’s about sustainable partnerships and artistic collaborations. It’s about giving artists resources and facilitating their work. It’s about creating a space for people to experience art and engage each other. Mostly, Wild Goose Creative is about building a vibrant community of people who care about art and who want to change the world.

The Wild Goose gallery and class space is located at 2491 Summit Street in Columbus, OH 43202, just north of Ohio State University campus.

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Preserving at Wild Goose! is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

First Cache of 2011: Firewood

Rachel Tayse — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:08:18 +0000

Where's your flannel, lumberjack Alex?

Our family spends countless hours harvesting and preserving foodstuffs for times when they are unavailable fresh. We preserve tomatoes, cook up jam, press cider, can applesauce, and dry herbs summer through fall.

Our winter stores for 2011-2012 began Sunday, just as the winter of 2010-2011 violently passed on. Alex chopped and I hauled ash wood from generous friends who had to remove the dying tree. We went back today and will make one more trip to fill our wood pile. We believe with this week of hard work we will have enough fuel for our wood stove to last the whole winter next year.

What are you planning to ‘put up’ in 2011?

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First Cache of 2011: Firewood is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Friday Five: What's Preservin'

Rachel Tayse — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:37:17 +0000

My friend Jill (and her friend Maya) are writing Friday Five posts on their blog Itinerant Foodies. It’s a great idea for a quick post before the weekend and starting today I’m going to steal it!

This week, I want to share five things that are aging in the house. Sometimes I feel like I have no space and this is why: tucked into every corner and counter are jars of foodstuffs fermenting, drying, and infusing. In the end, the customized all-local flavors are totally worth the sacrifice of space.

1. Limoncello – We have had a bumper crop of meyer lemons from our potted tree this year. It’s the first significant harvest we’ve ever had in seven years of keeping the tree and I am committed to preserving the flavor so that we can enjoy it for some time to come. I’m using a version of the Restaurant Widow recipe for home brewed limoncello.

2. Candied Meyer Lemon Peels – For my sister and father in law’s birthdays (Happy Birthday Heather and Tom!) I was tasked with making a dairy free dessert. I juiced some of our homegrown lemons and made meyer lemon sorbet ala Simply Recipes. I could never discard the peels of a fruit so long in the making, so I candied them. They are drying over the pot rack.

3. Hard Apple Cider – Four gallons of home pressed cider from Ohio apples is still bubbling away in the carboy. It’s been stewing for about a month now and we hope to bottle soon.

4. Apple Cider Vinegar – Last weekend we pressed the last of the apples. I made some into cider syrup and we kept a bit fresh. I put 1 1/2 quarts in a half gallon jar topped with cheese cloth to make vinegar. According to the Ohio State Univeristy Extension, raw cider will naturally ferment into alcohol and then natural cultures change the alcohol to acetic acid. Right now there is quite a bit of ‘funk’ on top and I’m not sure what exactly is happening…

5. Pancetta hanging – Alex cured some pork belly in the refrigerator this week. It is now hanging in the basement to dry as pancetta.

Yay for yeast and salt and sugar and dehydration! Yay for home preservation! Yay for Friday!

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Friday Five: What's Preservin' is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

How to Make Fruit Liqueur

Rachel Tayse — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:33:31 +0000

Homemade flavored liqueur is one of the simplest ways to preserve the flavor of fresh fruit. I posted a recipe for cranberry liqueur last year, but one can make liqueur with any fruit with the following simple method.

Local, in season fruits make the best liqueurs because they have the strongest fresh flavor. Choose clean washed fruit. Smash berries, chop stone fruits, or juice citrus and place in a clean large glass container, like a half gallon ball jar. This series of photos uses some local concord grades from our fruit CSA.

Add an equal volume of cooled sugar syrup or honey. (Make sugar syrup by boiling an equal amount of sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved.)

Top that off with an equal amount of full strength (80 proof) or higher vodka.

Add the lid and give the mix a swirl. Find a spot for the jar to rest at room temperature. Swirl once a day, tasting each day. At first the taste will be very alcohol forward, but the flavors mellow the alcohol over time.

When the taste is to your liking, usually in five to seven days, strain out the fruit. Strain through cheesecloth for the most clear result.

Bottle in a jar with a tight fitting lid. You can reuse jars or buy new Swing Top or Flask Bottles online. Add a personalized label, perhaps with a suggested cocktail recipe, for a special gift.

The color may mute over time but the flavor will remain fresh for years. Serve in a cordial glass or mix into a cocktail.

Homemade Fruit Liqueur

1 part crushed fresh fruit

1 part sugar syrup or honey

1 part 80+ proof neutral tasting vodka

1. Mix all ingredients in a clean glass container.

2. Keep at room temperature, swirling and tasting once a day.

3. When the flavor develops as you like, strain out the fruit through cheesecloth.

4. Adjust alcohol content or sweetness by adding vodka (to strengthen), water (to weaken), or sugar syrup.

5. Store in a closed bottle in a cool dark location for best results.

Post added to Hearth and Soul.

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How to Make Fruit Liqueur is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

Canning Vegetables

Rachel Tayse — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:48:47 +0000

In Canning Week 2010 day 3, I share a bit about canning vegetables. View a lesson on pectin and recipe for peach jam from earlier in the week. Tomorrow I’ll discuss pickles.

The massive harvests are starting, and they aren’t limited to sweet fruits. Something has to be done with mountains of tomatoes, corn, green beans, and more.

Canning is one useful option to preserve the harvest. Vegetables are a bit more tricky to can than fruits because they often contain less acid, so one has to rely on recipes.

Low acid vegetables must be canned in a pressure canning system. As I’m a bit afraid of my pressure cooker and I don’t like the texture of most canned vegetables, I don’t have experience pressure canning. There are recipes on Fresh Preserving to can fresh low acid vegetables including green beans, carrots, corn, and onions.

If your four year old picks an underripe tomato, place it on the window sill for a day or two.

Tomatoes, high in acid, are commonly canned in a water bath. You can can them whole or in pieces. I prefer to can much of our harvest this way because it is most adaptable.

If you follow a recipe to maintain the correct acidity, you can also make and can pasta sauce, pizza sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salsa or paste. We usually make a large batch of spaghetti sauce and several smaller batches of other tomato products throughout the late summer. I wrote about some of these options for the tomato tonnage last year.

I will be making a basic tomato sauce and canning it next Wednesday, August 11, from 6:30 – 8:30 at the North Market Dispatch Kitchen. For $12.99 ($8.99 for Slow Food Columbus members), participants will go home with a jar of sauce and confidence to preserve their own at home. Buy a ticket today and join me!

Basic Water Bath Canning Method

Use for tomato pieces, whole, or tomato-only sauce.

1. Blanche tomatoes by dipping whole tomatoes in boiling water for 1 minute and then immediately transferring to an ice water bath.

2. Remove skins from tomatoes. (Skip the blanching and removing skins if you don’t mind them.)

3. Chop into desired pieces or use a food mill to make sauce.

4. Pack into sterilized jars.

5. Fill jars to exactly 1/2 inch of the top of the jar.

6. Use a thin knife or chopstick to gently release any air bubbles. Add a bit of extra tomato juice to top off the jar if necessary.

7. Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice per pint to adjust acidity and preserve color.

8. Top with sterilized lids and rings.

9. Place in boiling water bath for 40 minutes for pints, 45 minutes for quarts.

10. Remove from the water bath and allow to cool thoroughly before storing in a cool dark place.

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Canning Vegetables is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!

What is Pectin? Why Use It?

Rachel Tayse — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:21:04 +0000

It’s canning week! I have five days of recipes, tips, and theory ready to share. Whether you are a beginning canner or looking to advance your skills, stay tuned this week. First up, pectin!

As a self-proclaimed homesteader, I am asked all sorts of questions that I would never think of myself. My friend Susan queried me about pectin the other day. I had some information to share but realized that I knew precious little about this jam staple.

What is pectin?

My cookbooks and the trusty Internet inform me that pectin is a naturally occurring heteropolysaccharide found in the cell walls of plants. Apples and citrus peels contain high amounts of pectin; other fruits contain less.

Commercial pectin is made by extracting pectin from apples or citrus peels (by-products of juice production) with a hot dilute acid. The resulting extract is precipitated, washed and dried.

Pectin was first described by Henri Braconnot in 1825. Before his discovery, jams and jellies were set by including some apple peel or citrus peel in the jam or boiling the fruit and sugar mixture for extended periods of time.

Why pectin is used in jam making

Pectin sets or gels a fruit and/or juice mixture, giving it a spreadable texture. The gel forms as molecular chains of pectin change shape and trap water when in contact with fruit acids. This process does not aid in the preservation of jam or jelly; room temperature shelf stability is achieved by acid content and pressure and temperature changes.

I prefer a fruit-forward jam with minimal sugar. Using pectin allows me to achieve a spreadable texture within these constraints. Pectin also allows a short cooking time (1 minute at a full boil) which may preserve some nutritive value over no-pectin recipes which call for upwards of 30 minutes of boiling.

Some continue to favor no-pectin recipes. Jams and jellies made without pectin can still have a jelled consistency if a) the recipe contains the right amount of pectin-containing fruits or b) large amounts of sugar are used and the mixture is allowed to boil until thick. Also, some do not mind if the jam turns out a bit runny.

Types of pectin

Ball, Sure-Jel, and Octo all make dry high-ester pectin for full or low sugar. Packets can be found in grocery stores, hardware stores (in season), and online. Most have an expiration date beyond which the pectin will less reliably set.

Pomona’s Universal Pectin, my favorite brand, is a low-ester pectin that requires the use of calcium water to form the gel. This brand is found online or at natural food stores. Locally I pick it up at the Clintonville Community Market.

Making your own pectin is another alternative. You simply boil under ripe apples or crab apples with lemon juice and water, strain the mixture, and seal it in jars. Mother Earth News has a complete recipe.

Tomorrow I’ll share why I love Pomona’s with a peach jam recipe.

What else do you want to know about pectin?

This post was entered in the Fight Back Friday August 6, 2010. Click through to read more local sustainable food acts.

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What is Pectin? Why Use It? is a post from Hounds In The Kitchen.
If you like what you read, please consider supporting us with a donation or visit the Hounds in the Kitchen shop for ebooks and favorite tools. Thanks!