"Freeze only prime vegetables that are garden fresh and tender-young-younger, usually, than for canning. Freeze them in small batches, refrigerating overnight if you can't freeze them promptly the day they are picked. Any vegetable that cans well freezes equally well at home, with only several exceptions. These, in their raw state, are whole tomatoes, greens for salads, white ("Irish") potatoes, and cabbage. Because they have a high water content, home-freezing allows large ice crystals to form and rupture their flesh; the result, defrosted, is flabby or shapeless.
Certain vegetable varieties are better for freezing than others, so read your seed catalogs to see which ones you'll have the most luck with. Or ask your County Agent for good performers in your area."
Quoted from the book " Putting Food By".
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We do a lot of freezing, got three freezers, but then again when the electricity is down that isn't much use either and when it's not down, it's bloody expensive!
ReplyDeletere canning: used to do that as well when I was young and quite naive. as I learned more about food chemistry and the way the human body works that didn't seem all to tempting to me anymore.
Ever heard about Botulium?!
well after 9/11 they were all getting pretty hysteric about possible terrorist threats - but the truth is it's most likely to come out of your own kitchen! Botulium is the most toxic poison around and stems from the same family as the tetanus bacteria. Both got in common that it's dirt bacteria which trigger the whole thing off and the process can only take place in an oxigeen-free environment. (That's why it is a pretty stupid idea to sew up any and all wounds by pricipal and just give antibiotics or a tetanus shot - since none of those seem to provide the protection needed/ actual immunity)
Anyway in canning you have to make sure that whatever you process is completely cooked through. Some say 60 degrees celsius for 10 minyutes will do the trick, others say you have to go way over 200 degrees plus apply enough pressure... over a long time... No idea what is right and the last scientist was pushing his own agenda, no doubt about that! and therefore I have my doubts about how reliable he may be...
But cook it through - very, very thorrowly and sterilize the jars/cans before you will them! Stor cool enough.
Same goes for drying fruit and veggies - it's ecological and very delicious, but make sure you get all the moisture out! otherwise you might end up poisoning yourself!
Hope, I haven't spoiled the good mood here...
Really loved your recipees, look all very delicious... and I think it'sa great idea that you guys want to inform the general public of how to be a little less helpless!
Mind you I knew a guy once who made his own cheese - and whiskey!
He used to be in the RAF - old WWII-vet with a very special attitude to life...! Anyway... one New Year's Eve he came to our house in the middle of the night with the little missus... bringing his homemade booze. I never had any of it because I just don't trust his brewing scills and giving in to covertly applied pressure in the name of polite guestures isn't my kinda thing either... but one of my friends (a natural health guru) did actually swallow that stuff saying: "Geez, that's onehundred percent alcohol!"
Hello Sarah :)
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm overdue in writing a new post here. My life has been busy of late.
Yes there are risks in canning, but mast daily activities have risks and horrifying consequences if things go wrong. The use of automobiles for instance, kills over 50,000 people a year in the USA.
Canning, if done properly is very safe. Consider how many canned products people buy from stores every year, without any though to botulism.
Most of the food we get in chain restaurants arrives canned. The restaurant simply reheats it and provides 'presentation'.
Brewed beverages actually tend to be the safest, because the alcohol kills the bacteria that produce the toxins. In ancient times, dilute wines were popular drinks, not because of their alcohol content, but because the alcohol sanitized the water. Same goes for vinegar as a sanitizing agent. Pickling with salts and vinegars is an ancient and very safe means of preserving food.
Different Sarah here :)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to throw out lacto-fermentation to you. I have been doing that for years, even when I didn't have a garden, because it is hands-down the easiest method of preserving produce, as well as the least energy-intensive. Salt is an ancient way of preserving, and is a method most people have forgotten. It also happens to be very very good for you (probiotics, etc.) and absolutely delicious.
Check out a book by the name of: Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic, Fermentation, by the Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante (France)