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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Just to double-check -- are you saying I should purposely use fewer cukes, or that it's not harmful to have a few sticking above the juice? I mean, if it's safe, I'd rather fit more into the jar. It's totally safe. I'm saying if it really bothers you, then just use less cukes in the jar (the brine still needs to go up to the correct head space measurement). But yes, that would be kind of weird, because then you have to make more jars and it's more work. With the cukes shifting or moving during processing, pickles that are in small pieces and not packed tightly will always end up floating in my experience. Only cuke spears and whole cukes are usually able to pack tight enough to avoid floating and sticking out of the brine. Anything in smaller bits I just dump in the jars and pack down a bit to fit as much as possible, knowing it will always be floating after anyway. If your cukes are still packed tight and not moving, and the brine is lower than it started, then some of the brine seeped out in processing, and that's also normal and OK.
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Jul 10, 2018 21:52
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How do you make those pickles like at the county fairs that are juicy and salty and just plain delicious?
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Jul 11, 2018 00:19
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Crusty Nutsack posted:It's totally safe. I'm saying if it really bothers you, then just use less cukes in the jar (the brine still needs to go up to the correct head space measurement). But yes, that would be kind of weird, because then you have to make more jars and it's more work. Cool, thanks! Good to know I'm not gonna die from badly-prepared pickles. ...that said, I may decide to ditch this batch. I made them with jalapenos instead of habaneros and it's really just not the same. 
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Jul 11, 2018 01:34
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Wasting food is baaaad, maaaaaaan. Anyone else pickled green peaches before?
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Jul 11, 2018 01:40
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I've got way too many cucumbers left over this year. I'm looking into pickling them as a way of preserving them, but I've never canned anything. Anyone got a good recipe for making sweet pickles?
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Jul 14, 2018 23:20
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LLSix posted:I've got way too many cucumbers left over this year. I'm looking into pickling them as a way of preserving them, but I've never canned anything. Here's what I generally do (making 6 pint jars of canned pickles, plus some overflow as fridge pickles): * 2 cups white vinegar (5% acidity) * 1 cup water * 1 cup sugar * 1/4 cup premixed pickling spice * 4 habanero chilis, roughly chopped * 1 head of garlic, peeled, roughly chopped * 5 pounds of cucumbers Combine water and an awful lot of iodine-free salt in a big bowl; stir to dissolve the salt. You're not aiming for a saturated salt solution here (where the water literally won't dissolve any more salt), but you'll still need a lot; I'd guess I use somewhere on the order of 3/4ths of a cup of salt? Slice cucumbers into the bowl, submerge (e.g. put a small plate on top), let sit for a few hours in the fridge. This makes the cucumbers pick up some of the salt and also divest themselves of some of their water content, which makes them more willing to absorb pickling juice. Or so I'm told. Bring all the other ingredients up to a boil on the stove, then reduce heat to a simmer. Run your stove's ventilation fan; boiling vinegar is no fun for your eyes and lungs. Rinse the cucumber slices thoroughly to get rid of any excess salt. Prepare hot water canning bath as usual. Sieve out the solid components of the pickling juice. Or leave them in if you like, but I find they get in the way when trying to eat the pickles, and most of the flavor transfers to the juice anyway. Pack sliced cucumbers into jars, pour pickling juice in. Gently tap/vibrate/bump the jars to get air bubbles out, fill jars to 1/2" of head space. Put on lids and bands, process 10 minutes plus adjustments for altitude. Taste the pickling juice while it's on the stove. It's going to taste strong! But you should be able to tell if it has the level of sweetness you want. And of course you can leave off the habaneros if you want; they just add some extra heat as a bit of an aftertaste.
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Jul 14, 2018 23:39
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Here's what I generally do (making 6 pint jars of canned pickles, plus some overflow as fridge pickles): I'm giving this a try and the pickling juice was strong but tasty. I might have let it simmer too long though - I only had enough liquid to fill in around 3 pints of pickles. I ended up with a bunch of leftover brined cucumber chips. They're delicious so I don't want to just throw them away but they're also too salty to eat more than a handful. Anything interesting I can do with them? I'm thinking about putting them with some summer sausage and cheese on crackers but I'll probably still have leftovers after that.
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Jul 23, 2018 02:01
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You could always make more pickling juice.  Sorry the proportions turned out wrong in your case. The only thing I can think of is that maybe I pack my jars more densely than you do?  Or maybe I misremembered the proportions. That post was the first time I wrote the recipe down, so I was operating from memory.
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Jul 23, 2018 03:36
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You could always make more pickling juice. No worries. The kitchen still smells amazing and I'm really looking forward to trying them. 
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Jul 23, 2018 05:06
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Hit the farmers market yesterday and picked up my usual ~40lbs of tomatoes. Sauce for the whole year and then some 
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Jul 23, 2018 14:16
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My farmer's market quest today was a success. There were peaches, but they're kinda puny. Bought some cherries to go with them and a few slicing tomatoes because mine aren't quite ready yet. Scored some beautiful kale too. Made sourdough bread yesterday and offered mom a loaf this morning. She turned it down, so I gave it to the guy who runs the farmer's market instead. I'll be buying bushels of tomatoes from him in September and he always gives me a good price for them. The guy I buy cabbage from to make sauerkraut was there today. I'll be in touch with him in a couple of weeks to buy 25 lbs and start my autumn sauerkraut.
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Jul 28, 2018 16:54
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Just wanna mention that the green pickled peaches I made in a five percent brine turned out pretty good. They're very firm and crisp, have a sour pickle taste, and since they were picked so young, you can straight up eat the whole thing including the pits.
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Jul 29, 2018 12:53
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Hey, I'm trying to make the Ball blueberry-lemon jam recipe but have had a surprisingly difficult time finding pectin. The best I could find in my area was this stuff which is "Classic Pectin"; what the recipe calls for is 3 2-oz packages of Liquid Pectin. Do you guys have any idea how I would go about converting the quantity or substituting? I'm worried if I keep waiting until I find liquid pectin, the berries will be no good.
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Aug 2, 2018 20:53
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Ignoranus posted:Hey, I'm trying to make the Ball blueberry-lemon jam recipe but have had a surprisingly difficult time finding pectin. The best I could find in my area was this stuff which is "Classic Pectin"; what the recipe calls for is 3 2-oz packages of Liquid Pectin. Do you guys have any idea how I would go about converting the quantity or substituting? I'm worried if I keep waiting until I find liquid pectin, the berries will be no good. You can make bluberry jam with powdered pectin. I think the conversion is 2 tablespoons classic pectin for each box of liquid, but you'd want to double check that. You'll also have to follow the cooking rules of powdered, which are different than liquid. Here is a Ball pectin calculator which I've found super helpful when substituting pectins or modifying recipes: https://www.freshpreserving.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-BALL-Site/en_US/Page-Pectin Also note: if you recipe calls for Pomona's pectin, that's a completely different thing and if you can't find Pomona's, then use a recipe that calls for powdered.
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Aug 2, 2018 21:13
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Crusty Nutsack posted:You can make bluberry jam with powdered pectin. I think the conversion is 2 tablespoons classic pectin for each box of liquid, but you'd want to double check that. You'll also have to follow the cooking rules of powdered, which are different than liquid. Ah, this is pretty helpful, thanks! The recipe is actually from the Ball book so it specifically calls for Ball's liquid pectin. I saw the Pomona's at a local grocery store but figured it was not the same thing. Proportionally speaking, the original recipe has 4.5c of blueberries, 6.5c sugar and 3 packets to make 8 half-pints. On the calculator, 8 half-pints would be 5 1/3c berries, 6tbsp pectin, and 5 3/4c sugar. Does it make sense to keep the original sugar/berry quantities and just drop in 6 tbsp of pectin? The calculator doesn't account for the additional LEMON ZEST but also I know the sugar quantity is important in getting the pectin to set properly. Side note: the book also includes a "Blueberry Lime Jam" recipe that calls for the classic pectin instead, but I was excited for the (probably pretty mild overall) lemon. 
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Aug 2, 2018 21:26
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Ignoranus posted:Ah, this is pretty helpful, thanks! You can just replace lemon for the lime (in both zest and bottled juice) in that other recipe, if that's easiest for you to do. Or if it's just lemon zest that makes it lemony, add it to the blueberry recipe on the calculator. Or just convert the liquid in the original recipe to powder. You have a lot of options! Do whatever you feel most comfortable with. When you're cooking it, just be sure to cook it until it gels nicely. (Check that with the back of a cold spoon or a little plate you keep in the freezer.)
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Aug 2, 2018 22:01
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Anyone got any hot tips for sour pickles? I only recently discovered my love for them and I’m super pumped at how seemingly easy they are. I’m basically planning to just go with this recipe and hope I don’t die: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014867-sour-pickles
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Aug 19, 2018 02:41
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Somehow it's always surprising how much apples cook down when you make applesauce. I turned something like 10 pounds of apples into 4 quarts of sauce. Gravensteins are basically the perfect apple, except for the bit where they're only in season for about a week, and they don't keep well as apples. Canning to the rescue!
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Aug 19, 2018 20:45
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Yesterday's score at the farmer's market. 25 lbs of cabbage that will soon be in the crock and a bushel of tomatoes. I plan on making salsa, but will need a tasty recipe or two to use with the tomatoes I will still have after that. The farmer I buy the cabbage from knows me by name and when he sees me lets me know when the cabbage is ready. The man I bought the tomatoes from I hadn't even spoken to yet, but he saw me and said he knows this is the time of year I usually order tomatoes and had a bushel ready for me.
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Sep 2, 2018 14:07
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It's a magical time of year for pickling. I bought some carrots, runner beans, and zucchini from the farmer's market last week, chopped them up, added brine and herbs, and threw them in a crock for 7 days. They came out today and they taste loving delicious and I have no idea how they're the right consistency but the zucchini chunks taste like amazing crunchy sour pickles and the beans are tender and crunchy and tasty as hell. One of these days I will find some proper pickling salt so I can get uncloudy brine and present my ugly babies to the world.
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Sep 2, 2018 14:42
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Today was dilly beans and cauliflower day! One of these days I want to do another huge batch of tomatoes and turn them into pizza sauce instead of just regular puree. I did a little 4lb batch and only ended up with one cannable pint (since I needed some for a pizza at the time) which was kind of a bummer. Edit to add: not gonna double post but this weekend's project was jalapenos: 
overdesigned fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Sep 9, 2018 |
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Sep 2, 2018 17:46
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Does anyone happen to have a recipe for Portuguese pickled carrots? I went to Lisbon last year, and the ones they had were awesome and crisp. Digging through recipes online, it seems they call for cooking them? I wish I had asked, but my memory makes me doubt the ones I had with olives and cheese were cooked... Edit: should note, looking to shelf stable can them, and I have a pressure canner if needed. Arkhamina fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Sep 9, 2018 |
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Sep 9, 2018 20:25
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Arkhamina posted:Does anyone happen to have a recipe for Portuguese pickled carrots? I went to Lisbon last year, and the ones they had were awesome and crisp. Digging through recipes online, it seems they call for cooking them? I wish I had asked, but my memory makes me doubt the ones I had with olives and cheese were cooked... If you want pickles that are shelf stable, you must process them. In the case of carrots, the standard 10-minute water bath method tends to cook them pretty thoroughly. You can add calcium chloride (pickle crisp) to help with that if you want. But if the pickles you at were more like a fresh carrot, then just make refrigerator pickles.
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Sep 9, 2018 21:23
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I suppose that makes sense. I guess restaurants were doing quick pickles... This weekend I marathoned canning, made 11 pints of spiced pickled beets, 5 1/2 pints of Concord grape jam, and about 3 quarts of apple sauce. Doing more next weekend, making up for having my kitchen out of commission for 2.5 months. Going to try a banana orange jam, and maybe some chutney!
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Sep 10, 2018 21:47
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25 lbs of cabbage now farting away in the crock.
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Sep 12, 2018 00:51
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Can anyone recommend a crock or DIY that works? I’ve used a big food safe bucket a few times and can never keep enough weight on to keep everything submerged, even with putting very large (and clean) weight plates on top of the ceramic plate or whatever is distributing the weight. I’d love to have a higher yield for kraut
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Sep 12, 2018 11:12
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Pressure canning question: Since food safety is all math it would follow, if we know the variables it should be safe: I live at 350ft elev, and therefore I need 11 PSI to pressure can beans per the USDA: The Instant Pot uses a pressure sensor and holds the pot at 11.6psi. Since the instant pot uses pressure and not temperature as it's feedback, the USDA hasn't cert'd for canning as the differing altitude changes the requirements to get the safe temps. As we know the variables, this sounds like I could *safely* can some beans with an insta pot.
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Sep 12, 2018 15:34
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toplitzin posted:Pressure canning question: Heat needs to be part of your processing equation. Traditional stove top canners use heat to build pressure. Without the heat you risk creating a thriving environment for bacteria that will put you and your family in the hospital. I imagine the Blue Book will have to provide guidelines for processing food with an instant pot in the future.
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Sep 12, 2018 15:44
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Heat needs to be part of your processing equation. Traditional stove top canners use heat to build pressure. Without the heat you risk creating a thriving environment for bacteria that will put you and your family in the hospital. I imagine the Blue Book will have to provide guidelines for processing food with an instant pot in the future. The IP doesn't get to 15psi, so it'll never be "safe" at elevations higher than 2k. Im just debating a way to make a batch of beans last the weekend thru a hurricane/no power situation. These aren't for long term storage.
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Sep 12, 2018 17:14
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If you're only worried about a 48-hour situation just own a cooler and keep some ice packs in your freezer, honestly.
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Sep 18, 2018 02:38
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Crossposting from other threads: can anyone recommend a good pH meter for $100 or less? I need to safely bottle shelf-stable hot sauce (which isn't processed in a water bath canner, but just hot filled), and I want to modify a recipe I like to be acidic enough to safely bottle.
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Sep 18, 2018 21:04
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Slanderer posted:Crossposting from other threads: can anyone recommend a good pH meter for $100 or less? I need to safely bottle shelf-stable hot sauce (which isn't processed in a water bath canner, but just hot filled), and I want to modify a recipe I like to be acidic enough to safely bottle. * I actually own a really cheap one that I bought a couple of years ago, but it uses a non-standard buffer solution so I've never used it for anything.
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Sep 18, 2018 22:08
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Slanderer posted:Crossposting from other threads: can anyone recommend a good pH meter for $100 or less? I need to safely bottle shelf-stable hot sauce (which isn't processed in a water bath canner, but just hot filled), and I want to modify a recipe I like to be acidic enough to safely bottle. If you're going for lowest price point, would litmus paper work?
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Sep 18, 2018 22:38
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The weed growing thread would give you good recommendations, just saying. Get calibration fluid as well.
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Sep 19, 2018 01:04
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nmfree posted:I have no personal experience with pH meters*, but Homebrew Finds frequently lists deals on them, including one that seems to be pretty well-regarded for $115 (which is a bit higher than your budget, but I think it'd be worth the extra money). Thanks, I'll take a look! poeticoddity posted:If you're going for lowest price point, would litmus paper work? I got a few different types, but I'm not confident with it in this case, since hot sauce made from ripe cayenne peppers is *very* red, which colors the paper
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Sep 19, 2018 01:13
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Sep 28, 2018 19:35
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If it's fuzzy, it's bad (I'm pretty sure that's usually true when it comes to mold). There IS a type of white growth that's OK called Kahm yeast but that looks more like congealed fat on a meat stock than fuzzy growths like you have. As was suggested in the responses to your post, it's compromised, throw it out I usually get at least some kahm yeast in the summer on pure pepper ferments when the room temp is higher. For my pepper ferments, I've been just quartering the peppers (for small peppers like thai, maybe just split in half if anything), so it's easier to keep everything under the brine. Also if you get an airlock that can help a lot too by keeping things anaerobic. Even one of those easy airlocks with the silicone nipple is enough. Get some glass fermentation weights for wide mouth mason jars and you won't have to mess around with a plastic bag.
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Sep 28, 2018 23:51
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whatevz fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Apr 25, 2022 |
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Sep 29, 2018 02:58
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I've had the same issue with the brine sinking to the bottom with most of the 12+ lbs of peppers I've fermented the past couple months. I kept all mine in airlocked jars, though, so the only issue with significant yeast growth I had was a green pepper mash I let ferment for too long (and had to keep opening every few days to taste). I didn't sterilize anything (not until I'm ready to cook + bottle the sauce), but I was pretty fastidious about wiping down the inside walls of the jars to remove any bits of pepper mash stuck there after filling / stirring. I tried glass fermentation weights, but they only worked on some jars. On others with more liquid / finer processed peppers / more gas production, the weights would quickly sink due to the air bubbles beneath it. I already opened the jars a couple times during fermentation to stir, but with a few jars I opened them one last time near the end of major activity to remove, clean and replace the glass weights. One thing I found that helped was mixing salt in with the mash and then adding a minimal amount of brine. Granted, I only tried this after adding salt alone failed to draw enough water from thin-walled peppers, but it seemed to work OK if you are sparing wrt how much brine you add. I'm honestly not too confident with using just brine alone, because it seems hard to guarantee the salinity (given how many factors there are in how much brine you add).
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Sep 29, 2018 03:41
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I'm still learning all this stuff of course but the benefit I've found of not making a mash and instead just rough chopping the peppers is I can just separate the brine when they're done, blend peppers to desired consistency, and then mix the amount of brine back in that I want for taste. Is there a big difference in the taste of the ferment if you mash vs brine + pepper chunks? I've been trying these lids out (http://a.co/d/2uo4qeb) which are nice because you get a little pump to suck out the air if you have to remove the lid late into the ferment when your veggies won't be producing so much CO2. I haven't done a whole lot of fermenting with it but they're a whole lot easier to get off than the lids + regular airlocks I had before. dedian fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 04:35
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